My favorite song by the violent femmes. I was so happy to see it reviewed. I was looking for the bass tablature to learn this one and found your channel. Very cool. I really like their song "please do not go" also.
This is my favorite track by Violent Femmes. Musically, it reminds me of some of the classic recordings of Alice Cooper circa 1971. The delivery of the lyrics and music are terrifying.
From Milwaukee! Gano went to my high school! The soundtrack of my college years! "Gone Daddy Gone"! Listen to that xylophone!! Brian Ritchie plays it on that song. He is the bassist. When I was young I didn't break down music like this of course, but I've grown to learn and appreciate how unique and amazing he is. Gano's vocals are also unique. Sounds punkish, angry, but not to the point of a real screaming punk band. I personally love it. I'm not familiar with this song. I'm not a musician, but I really think your take and analysis is well done. Listen to some of their most famous songs. See what you think.
I think one thing that gives them even more merit, is that they have always been kind of a street music outfit. So they might be more focused on catching the attention of the listener through storytelling and energy, and not so much on innovative production or composition . It however ends up being something unique. They are probably the best to do what they invented and keep doing, it's just them, and no one else is really similar.
Wow, this is such a great pick by the Violent Femmes. They have many albums of mostly simple, but great music. This one was always a standout as a much more complex track for them, with the Bass Lines and abrupt flow changes throughout. Also there's some very obscure and dark lyrics that are interesting. Oh and of course, his singing has incredible character Video responses: The band is very amateur with production value, they never used effects as far as I know, and played things as they would sound live. And there are only ever 3 members, even live, almost all of their songs are driven by the bass player, who uses unique melodies in every track. The drummer plays standing up with a 3 piece kit live. The singer is a pretty average to poor guitar player at this point in their career, and was always a singer primarily.
Gordon Gano, the main singer is the guitarist in the left (edit, oops) channel who also plays the solo that comes in mono later. There's no guitar in the right channel, that's all bass. Brian Ritchie starts throwing in power chords during his runs when you think there is a guitar being added. He's a total beast on bass. If you listen at 3.06 on the song itself, there is a person who goes "yeah!" in the background. The harmonies are provided by both Victor DeLorenzo and Brian Ritchie. The one sounds like Brian Ritchie to me, and maybe the second one that comes in when you identify one on the right might be Victor. Uncertain. They sound very similar, maybe Brian is doing both. But I can tell you that live the two others provide backing vocals. This interesting as one of the songs that uses a full drumset, although DeLorenzo didn't usually use one live. Here is a quote from Modern Drummer about his drum setups: "Throughout the history of band I made it a point to take a different kind of drum system out on the road every time we went. Inevitably there will be some kind of a standup drum system, sometimes with a regular bass drum that I’d play standing up, or a small snare drum connected to a foot pedal. The one that I used to use I called a “Varken” drum, which is the Dutch word for pig. It was a metal 5×14 snare that I bought at a flea market in Amsterdam. It had a ring that was affixed to the hoop, so you could use it as a marching drum. I could also affix a bass drum pedal to it and play it as a bass drum, which was absolutely absurd. It sounded ridiculous. I guess it was a joke on myself and on the audience that I would use that as a bass drum. But once we started playing bigger rooms, I would also take a sit-down drumset. I would set both of those systems up side-by-side so I could go between the two, even in the course of a song. I could start a fill on the standup drumset and then finish it on the sit-down drumset." Mainly, his live kit is anchored by: a snare, a cymbal or two, and a floor tom. Maybe a kick drum like he mentioned, and sometimes I've seen a rack mount tom, especially around the time of this tour. But there were certainly songs that required a full drum kit, but with the rack tom and 2 cymbals and the chintzy kick, he could make enough of a racket that you would imagine he was at a full kit. Oh, and then there is the "Tranceaphone". "I still use the tranceaphone, which is nothing more than a metal bushel basket put over the top of a floor tom." - he takes it on and off based on the individual song and if it uses it or not, lol. He used brushes for a good lot of the set, too. He basically developed a sound that anyone who drums in the band has to follow. This song also uses electric bass, and the band is known quite a bit for Brian Ritchie's use of an old Earthwood acoustic bass guitar, which was certainly not common in the 80s, pre-MTV Unplugged. But he could tear it up on either. Also, how could you say that there are no dynamic changes in the song, the intro is a quiet 19 seconds which then is hit with a dynamic pounce into the song. Then at 1.43 it drops out for sort of a pre-bridge build-up that culminates into a guitar solo around 2.13 that goes until we get a bass solo at 2.50, which leads into the whispering part that has the crazy bit from 3.42 to 3.45 that represents the line "cuts you up". then at 4.48 we get the vocals over sparse drums part of "Sink down, sink down" that builds back up into the song at 5.32 with "stand right up the heart of hell" and then the tempo continues to increase the rest of the song along with the instruments growing gradually more chaotic, which is certainly very dynamic compared to the rest of the parts. What is best is the songs in order on the album. This song goes into an old-time country-gospel number called "Jesus Walking on the Water". It is a mind bending album. I swear it is a concept album, too.
Wow! This was quite insightful. The drummer seems eclectic in their choices but it comes through the music in interesting ways that separates the band from their contemporaries -- and pretty much everyone in general. I gave the song another listen for the right channel "guitar" and you're right, there isn't one. That makes me love the band even more. Those awesome moody lines were just the bass using their higher strings and (possibly) a different tone. It's brighter than the sound of the instrument during the lower parts but maybe that's just how the higher strings sounds. Thanks so much for this detailed comment.
@@CriticalReactions I meant to say that Gordon was the guitarist in the left channel, of course, lol. But yeah, all of their songs pretty much feature the bass as a lead instrument as well as a rhythm instrument. They are fairly unique in that aspect, especially considering the normal usage of acoustic bass guitar.
Violent Femmes mixed rock, punk, country and folk like no artist before or after them. Their four albums from the 80's are all great, and the two albums they did in the 90's are pretty good too. This song is from the second album "Hallowed Ground" and its opener Country Death Song would fit well with this week's theme :)
This is an unusual choice of a song for your first time hearing the Femmes. Don’t give up on them though. “Blister in the Sun” is their most well known song.
Amazing review. I'm 49 years old I've been listening the song for more than 30 years of my life and it's a song that's very dear to me. I find it very interesting you just hearing about the song and the band because they're absolutely what you said, about the band being kind of unique or the song and how they use the baseline I might he's got all the facts on the table he'll get it but I think it was great how it was written for all those little things in it that make it the whole. I can't do this text thing but very cool man I'm very interested in seeing more of your videos, I wish you had a forum it's good to run into people like you! I love if you went on about the song a little more and this video I meant I would have still been watching it and like that's cool he's still do get it but he listened to it a couple more times he might get it or it may take 30 years?!? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ And pulled all that stuff out that I've been listening to for almost my entire life. 👍👍✌️
I don't have a forum but I do run a Discord server, which is more like IRC (if you remember that) but still serves that function of a central point of communication within a community. We have a lot of knowledgeable people there who love to talk about music (and all sorts of art). You can find that in the LinkTree link in the description or, if you need, I can drop a link to it right here in this comment thread.
I've heard of these guys. They were on my list of bands to check out when I was exploring post-punk, but I never got around to them. This is definitely an interesting track, though it definitely leans more into the "punk" roots of post-punk rather than the artier elements that I'm usually drawn to. What's most remarkable about this is how contemporary it sounds despite being almost 40(!) years old. If you gave me this without telling me who it was and told me it was from some new indie rock group I'd believe it, and I have to believe this band was a huge influence on bands like Modest Mouse. It's probably the lack of the typical 80s production techniques and sheen that was so common in that era. This is extremely dry and "live" sounding by comparison.
You'll notice I never once mentioned the age of this in the video. It's only in the thumbnail because I found out about it while gather images for it. I was shocked to find it was so old.
To really understand the lyrics you have to listen to the entire album. It is really a concept record. If you lay out the song lyrics track by track from start to finish it tells a story. But each song by itself, I could see where the lyrics would be a bit nonsensical.
I really don't. I can understand it as a tool and can appreciate it from a thematic perspective but casually it's almost a guarantee to bore me. But as usual I try to find the positives even in music that doesn't quite work for me and I still walked away enjoying a lot that this band had to offer.
@@CriticalReactions I like the fact that you can appreciate it. To me that says a lot right there. Really, i think you are sooooo interesting. I appreciate your videos. My favorite one, would have to be Pink Floyd's "Dogs". The way you described the guitar playing, I wont ever forget. You absolutely ROCK!!!!!
@@CriticalReactions all popular music has repetition, how can you possibly react to and dissect stuff like this if you find simple song writing structure boring?
@@CriticalReactions Being a musician, I also tend to be a music nerd, despite not having the training that you have. I've got my own corner where I specialize, haha, and I appreciate your insights and how they can elevate my existing enjoyment of songs. Sometimes I do get grumpy, lol, and I can get defensive about things I love. Know that I still love your insights, my man.
Early-ish 80s art/college rock, contemporary with early REM and peak Talking Heads. I first heard their song, Add it up, around ‘87 from a summer camp counsellor, and was honestly a bit scandalised at age 11 or so by the swearing. That album remained basic equipment for kids who were hitting adolescence before grunge into the mid 90s, though I don’t think I ever listened to another of their albums. Lot of my friends still had their T-shirts when they finished college. Weirdly influential but probably not terribly musically consequential. I think they were often funnier, pithier or at least snarkier than they almost ever were musical.
@@nudnick - really? Maybe an acoustic bass? It just never sounded like an electric bass to me. if it is, maybe there is some effects he is adding to it. I know Brian used an acoustic bass alot.
@@dathorndike4908 You're correct, but it's probably just an acoustic bass plugged directly in. In some live versions he's using an electric bass, for sure, but I've never seen him play a stand up bass, ever.
The fact that this guy is old enough to have facial hair and has never heard of the violent femmes until now immediately sends up red flags enough that I do not value his opinion on music period.
So I spend 20 minutes breaking down why this song is awesome and you disregard that because I never met anyone who had introduced me to them before today? That somehow you're better than me because you discovered them before I did? Weird flex but ok
Also, RE: the lyrics, this song follows a song in which he kills his daughter by throwing his daughter down a well (Country Death Song), and in the next song he sings about hearing the rain (I Hear The Rain), and in that song he mentions the "sewer water washing his daughter down to the sea", and then this song talks about telling someone a secret, which, to me, is that the protagonist tells someone about killing his daughter. These three songs back to back to back, along with some of the other songs make a journey for the protagonist from his killing his daughter to finding redemption in Jesus. Very much a weird album, but also compelling to listen to it with that thought in mind.
Dude- I went down the Hallowed Ground rabbit hole last weekend, It is not just the three songs- it is the entire album that tells the whole story. Go ahead and print out the lyrics to each song of the album, then put them in order of their album sequence. Then read the lyrics from start to finish and you will see that the entire album tells one cohesive tale of a man's horrible act, his anguish, his guilt, his descent into madness, his spiritual awakening, his redemption, and ultimately his acceptance and peace. It is really one concept album from start to finish. An amazing piece of art from Gordon who wrote this as a teenager in high school.
Here's a live version of the song so you can see the bass being the instrument the whole time and how he is all over the place. With the guitarist being the less musically inclined member of the band, the bassist is all over the place on many songs. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_tk4LUX7ufY.html
