Alphabet Soup Week 13: Artists Filed Under G

From a cold, wet and windy mid-Wales comes another handpicked selection of tasty tunes!

Happy Wednesday and welcome to week 13 of Alphabet Soup! To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I’d get this week’s edition out on time as my wife and I are currently five days into a twelve day hike in Wales. But with a bit of effort a few evenings this week, I’ve managed to pull together some verbiage for the tracks I selected and sequenced earlier this month before heading out for the business trip that preceded this vacation.

For those that are new to this playlist series, a quick reminder of the criteria, which has helped provide a manageable (if at times, for some letters, somewhat constrained) universe of music from which to select. All of the tracks in this series are drawn from albums that were in my physical CD collection prior to the mammoth task of digitizing in the early 2010s. The collection primarily comprised albums released between the 1990s and the 2000s along with a smattering of earlier albums.

Let’s jump straight into this week’s tracks!

---

ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 13: Artists Filed Under G

This week’s selections:

---

ARTIST: Geggy Tah

TRACK: “Whoever You Are” from Sacred Cow (1996)

I think I’d always assumed that Geggy Tah was a Canadian band, primarily because their second album, Sacred Cow came out in 1996 when I was in my second stint of university in Canada, a point at which I was primarily listening to Canadian artists. I found out when researching this week’s installment that the band hails from California. (hey at least it’s another location that starts with C and ends with A! Close enough, right?!?)

Whoever You Are was the Geggy Tah’s most successful single, reaching #16 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band would produce one more album, 2001’s Into The Oh, before folding.

---

ARTIST: The Gandharvas

TRACK: “The First Day of Spring” from A Soup Bubble and Inertia (1994)

We’re going from a “previously assumed” to an “actually are” Canadian band with The Gandharvas, a relatively short-lived band from London, Ontario who released a fine trio of albums between 1994 and 1997. The First Day of Spring, the lead single from their debut album A Soap Bubble and Inertia, was named Song Of The Year by Toronto’s Edge 102.1 and nominated for MuchMusic’s video of the year. I loved the follow-up, 1995’s Kicking In The Water and particularly enjoyed the single The Masochistic Minstrel with its accompanying somewhat low tech claymation-style music video.

---

ARTIST: The Grapes of Wrath

TRACK: “All The Things I Wasn't” from Now And Again (1989)

The second of three Canadian artists in this week’s installment, The Grapes of Wrath were formed in Kelowna, British Columbia in 1983. Their third album Now and Again was huge and blowing up all over radio and MuchMusic when I reached Halifax in the fall of 1989 for my first year of university. The album would go on to be the 13th best selling album of the year and spawn three top 50 singles. All The Things I Wasn’t was the highest charting of the three, peaking at #19. Interesting tidbit: the opening act for the Now And Again tour in 1989 was none other than the up and coming singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan!

---

As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

---

ARTIST: Garbage

TRACK: “The Trick Is To Keep Breathing” from Version 2.0 (1998)

While I absolutely adored Garbage’s 1996 self-titled debut, their second album, 1998’s Version 2.0 remains my favorite, as much for the music as for the memories of a time and place that its tracks conjure. This album was released in May 1998, just over a week after I’d expressed my love for my then girlfriend (she reciprocated thankfully). That summer we were living together in her tiny one bedroom apartment. She’d get up early and head to one of the local high schools where she worked as a behavioral therapist. And I’d pull out my work clothes, put this CD in the stereo (if it wasn’t already in there), press play, and begin ironing my clothes for work. It’s unbelievable how tightly the memories from those days are tethered to the songs on this album. By October Tina and I would be engaged and in July 1999 we’d tie the knot. What I thought were the best days of my life were simply a prelude to a life beyond my wildest dreams. #blessed

---

ARTIST: God Lives Underwater

TRACK: “From Your Mouth” from Life In The So-Called Space Age (1998)

This is one of those albums I purchased based solely on aesthetics - the name of the band, the name of the album, and the album cover. Tina and I were in Houston in the summer of 1998 staying with friends of hers and this was the first time we ever visited a record store together (we’d been dating for about six months at this point). I’m pretty sure I left the store with a couple dozen CDs (warning sign?) including this one. Tina and I also left with doubles (i.e., two copies of the same album) because we weren’t quite sure yet whether this was a relationship where we only needed to buy one of everything. That would soon change as we’d be engaged a couple months later.

As it turned out, I loved the album and went out and found their debut EP and debut album (Life In The So-Called Space Age was their second full-length). This album isn’t on Spotify (a bummer as I’m sure I’d listen to it more frequently if it was) so I’ve linked to the simple yet quite compelling YouTube video.

---

ARTIST: Godsmack

TRACK: “Keep Away” from The Other Side (2004)

There was a period between the late 90s and early 2000s when I was listening to heavier music, an expansion of my musical palate that evolved out of the Nu Metal phase, which I recall being an exciting time for music. Godsmack was one of the bands I listened to, one of many from that era that don’t stand the test of time for me to be honest, mainly because of my changed tastes in music. I was kind of already over this style of music by 2004 when Godsmack released The Other Side, which included acoustic reimaginings of some of their earlier songs as well as a few new acoustic tracks. While the stripped back and somewhat mellower incarnations of their music pulled me back into their orbit, this was the last of their albums that I own and the only one that I go back to from time to time.

---

ARTIST: Green Day

TRACK: “She” from Dookie (1994)

As is likely the case for many others, I arrived as a Green Day fan with 1994’s Dookie, their third studio release, and the album that broke their career wide open (much to the chagrin of some of the fans of their earlier work who accused them of selling out). When I listen to this album I’m immediately transported back to an evening that brought excitement, disappointment, and satisfaction all within a two-hour stretch.

In September 1995 I returned to my university studies in Halifax with 15 months of sobriety under my belt and a desire to finish off my degree and begin building a real life for myself. When I look back now, my sobriety was on pretty thin ice. Although one of my closest friends in recovery had decided to come back to finish her degree and lived a few floors down in the same apartment building, I wasn’t really doing the things I needed to be doing to stay sober. I was hardly making any meetings and I wasn’t really engaged in any of the daily practices that had helped me get and stay sober.

A couple months into the fall semester I somehow managed to score tickets to see Green Day perform at the Halifax Metro Centre on Halloween and I was so excited! Insomniac had been released a few weeks earlier and I was psyched to see and hear some of their brand new music live. As I wandered down to the venue on foot that evening, passing through the old stomping grounds where some of my best and worst drinking escapades had taken place, I wondered whether it was prudent for me to be going to a concert so early into my sobriety. Last time I’d been at the Metro Centre for a show, Bryan Adams in January 1992, the night hadn’t ended well.

By the time I arrived to the venue I’d come to a decision: it just didn’t feel safe for me to go to the show. I couldn’t be sure that if the guy in the next seat turned to me and offered me a toke that I’d be able to say no. Looking back now, chances are high that the majority of  concertgoers that evening weren’t smoking dope, and the likelihood that I’d happen to be sitting next to some stranger who’d want to share their joint with me was slim to none. But in that very moment, I knew that I just couldn’t risk throwing away all the hard work, therapy, pain and anguish I’d  gone through to get and stay sober. So I sold my ticket at face value and got the hell outta there.

On the slow and lonely walk back to my apartment I was dejected, disappointed and angry. Angry that I couldn’t trust myself to go to a show and not be sure I could avoid the temptation of a drink or a drug. I arrived back at my place and headed down to my sober buddy’s apartment. Thankfully she was a soft place to land - she validated my decision, and after half an hour of chatting, she picked up the phone and called her boyfriend, who was also my sponsor. Long story short, the evening ended with the satisfaction of knowing I’d done the right thing.

I’m not sure what would’ve happened if I’d gone to the concert that night. But if I’d relapsed, chances are better than even that I wouldn’t be alive today. Perhaps that sounds melodramatic, but it truly was a life and death struggle for me back in those days and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that my decision that night saved my life.

---

ARTIST: Grateful Dead

TRACK: “Friend Of The Devil” from The Best Of Skeletons From The Closet (1974)

Whether you’ve been reading Joy in the Journey since the beginning, or if you’ve just read the blurb from the previous song, you’ve heard me share about being a recovering alcoholic and addict. I won’t get into the gory details here, but I started drinking and experimenting with a variety of substances at the age of 14, I was drinking regularly by 16, and I was a daily user of a variety of recreational drugs by the time I was 18.

I was 23 when I hit rock bottom and managed to get sober. To be clear, for most of the years between the ages of 18 and 23 I had a LOT of fun and life was grand. Until it wasn’t. Until I found I’d lost the power of choice and reached what they call “the jumping-off place”:

“He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.”

But well before the summer of 1994, back when I was in my late teens and early 20s, there was still that unbridled joy and a wild sense of adventure that knew no bounds. I was always up for a party, and while I was by no means a deadhead, the music of the Grateful Dead definitely played a part in that period of my life. Summer holiday weekends spent out camping on one of the islands in the sound, dropping acid and spending the late afternoon and the entirety of the evening tripping out, drinking, smoking dope, and dancing around a roaring bonfire to the sweet music of the Dead are treasured hallmarks of that time.

I only ever owned three Dead albums on CD and this, the first greatest hits collection Skeletons From The Closet, holds pride of place as my sentimental favorite with Friend of the Devil one of my favorite tracks.

---

ARTIST: Guns N' Roses

TRACK: “Patience” from Greatest Hits (2004)

Patience is the only single released from Guns N’ Roses second album, 1991’s G N' R Lies. While I was pretty big on Appetite For Destruction (the first four singles graced the jukebox of the Robin Hood Pub, our local watering hole of choice in the summer of ‘87) and enjoyed a handful of tracks from the Use Your Illusion albums, I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan of the band. Having said that, I did have the 2004 Greatest Hits collection which included just about every G N’ R track I liked, including this one.

---

ARTIST: Gordon Lightfoot

TRACK: “The Circle Is Small” from Complete Greatest Hits (2002)

I’ve only ever owned one Gordon Lightfoot album and that was The Complete Greatest Hits compilation released in 2002. Across twenty stunning tracks we’re graced with the genius of Lightfoot’s songwriting and singing prowess. His melodies, his lyrics, his playing, and his vocal delivery were so good for so long that, over time, it may have been easy to take him for granted. For those who might have forgotten/never discovered/overlooked this amazing artist, the 2019 documentary “If You Can Read My Mind” is a great (re)introduction and for a fan of his music it’s a must watch.

The Circle Is Small was the obvious choice here as it’s my favorite Lightfoot song and, indeed, one of my favorite songs of all time. [Spoiler Alert] In the documentary, Lightfoot reveals that the song is autobiographical, chronicling an unfaithful girlfriend at a time when he and a bunch of friends lived in the same apartment complex. That makes an already sad song that much sadder for me, bringing life to these painful observations:

“I can see it in your eyes and feel it in the way you kiss my lips

I can hear it in your voice whenever we are talking like this

I can see what you believe in when his name is mentioned and I die

I can watch the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you close your eyes”

Gut-wrenching…

---

Life in the key of G: Glyndwr’s Way

On Friday afternoon my wife and I left London by train, arriving four hours later in the town of Knighton in mid-Wales to begin hiking the Glyndwr’s Way, a 135-mile UK national trail through some of the most remote countryside in Wales.

Long-distance walking is a passion for Tina and me, a pastime we’ve been engaged in since 2011 when we took on our first long walk, the 85-mile Hadrian’s Wall national trail in northern England. As we’re past the point of “roughing it” (well, I am anyway) we walk from inn to inn every day and have our main luggage transported to our next accommodation. Each day we carry a day pack containing waterproofs, lunch, water, and a first aid kit. Being able to have a hot shower, a nice pub meal, and a comfortable bed at the end of each day is the reward for our 10-15 miles of walking.

From the UK National Trails website: “Glyndŵr’s Way is an 135 mile (217 Km) long National Trail meandering through the open moorland, rolling farmland, woodland and forest of mid-Wales. Starting in Knighton and ending in Welshpool, the Trail is named after Owain Glyndŵr’, Prince of Wales and Medieval Welsh nationalist leader who organised a rebellion against the English king, Henry IV in 1400.”

Below you can find a photo from each of our first five days on the trail.

Day one:

Day two:

Day three:

Day four:

Day five (today):

And here’s a fly through video of our longest day’s walk so far, yesterday’s 16-mile hike from Abbeycwmhir to Llanidloes:

---

If you like what you read here, please go ahead and subscribe to have this sort of content delivered directly to your inbox!

---

Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

• Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)

• Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)

• From Your Mouth by God Lives Underwater (Week 13)

---

Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.