3.17.13 St. Patrick's Day!

I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by listening to everybody’s favorite Irish bands! Thin Lizzy, U2 and The Dropkick Murphys!

Nothing says “Erin go bragh” like firing up Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak!

I’m embarrassed to admit this is another classic album I only know two songs from. “Jailbreak” and “The Boys Are Back In Town” are it! I’m a dunce.

I mentioned early on during this Year Of Music blog that in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was hitting a breaking point with Classic Rock. It was just getting played out and I needed to give it a break. 

There was an early 90's beer commercial that used “The Boys Are Back In Town,” and it felt like it was on every hour for a year! That commercial made that song so God damn unhip in my eyes. I wanted nothing to do with it. Four or five years ago “The Boys Are Back In Town” snuck onto my MP3 player and has been a playlist staple for me since. Truly a great song, if you don’t listen to it for fifteen years or so.

Shame on Classic Rock radio for not going deeper on this album. I only knew “Jailbreak,” and “The Boys…” because that’s all I heard on the radio! “Running Back,” “Romeo And The Lonely Girl,” “Emerald,” and “The Cowboy Song,” all would have sounded great between the same Led Zeppelin and Van Halen songs you heard every day on the radio.  Even though I thought “The Cowboy Song” sounded kind of weird coming from Thin Lizzy, I still love it!

I wanted to hate Achtung Baby months before I heard it. U2 had been becoming too much for me. Little did I know what monsters they’d really become, building giant lemons, filling stadiums and trying to save the world with their influence. Typical Irishmen! 

It wasn't an overnight thing that had me turning on a band I was a fan of, but there was a prolonged period and a combination of things working my favor against U2. In the four years since The Joshua Tree came out, it got overplayed and crusty and I went from 16 to 20-years-old. I was full throttle in my Indie Rock douche phase and I wasn't about to be just another cog in the machine for the biggest band in the world, I had other mountains to climb! I absolutely hated Rattle & Hum and anytime I heard "When Love Comes To Town," I got agitated. I love B.B. King! I just couldn't take that fucking song! So, for all those reasons, I wanted this album to bomb and I wanted U2 to go away!

And then the record came out and it's just fucking gorgeous. 

Achtung Baby is a nearly flawless collection of Rock songs about God, misanthropes, brotherhood, and lost love. God damn you U2 for still speaking to me on such levels! I would find myself in my dorm room listening to this record constantly and publicly dismissing it as “too commercial.” I was such a little tool.

I cherished this listen. “Who’s Gonna Run Your Wild Horses,” “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World,” “So Cruel,” and “One” have been missing from my life for too long!

I like the fact that The Dropkick Murphys are still out there kicking around. I have always been a fan of “The Gauntlet” from their 2001 album Sing Loud, Sing Proud! That song always gets my adrenaline pumping!

I love that this one opens with the Thin Lizzy inspired “The Boys Are Back,” I’m assuming. It’s gotta be a nod to Thin Lizzy, right?

Last November a friend of mine at their record label played me “The Season’s Upon Us,” and I instantly thought, “Holy shit! They wrote their own ‘Fairytale Of New York.’” I loved it, but I feel like I didn't hear it enough over the holidays. It’s a little more crass than The Pogues ode to shitty Christmas, but I hope it grows as a holiday standard as the years go by.

I wanna spend more time with “Jimmy Collin’s Wake,” “Out Of Our Heads,” and “End Of The Night.”

Whiskey!

Here’s a video of Dropkicks' singer whomping some Nazi on stage.

Tomorrow is all about The Verve and Richard Ashcroft!

Here's March's Playlist!