Friday Night Music--Miscellaneous Edition

Just some videos I've been watching and music I've been listening to of late.

Let's start with arguably the best and most eclectic band around today--Tool. Maynard's vocals are so incredibly unique and the lyrics are like nothing we've seen in years. Guitarist Adam Jones has a style that cannot by put into any category, new and deep. Here's The Pot from a few years ago; the video is not the authorized one but is interesting just the same:



Next two Bruce tunes. The first is from 1982 and sums up what happened when the NJ legislature voted to allow gambling to rebuild Atlantic City. The Mafia got involved and made millions in the concrete business leading to a small-time mobster--Nicky Scarfo--taking over after the killing of Sal "Chicken man" Testa and igniting a brutal war that went on into the '90's.

Atlantic City still is infiltrated by the mob and the city is still run down in large sections despite the money gambling has brought in. Bruce wrote Atlantic City and it was one of his best ever. No embed so go here.

The other Bruce tune is The River from Paris in 1985 from the album of the same name. It was a song where Bruce put everything together and solidified himself as a premiere lyricist. he captures lifes remembrances, mistakes and regrets ("...and for my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat..."):



Next we have Blink-182 from San Diego. Stay Together For the Kids struck a cord with kids who heard their parents argue every day of their lives and never gave a thought to the kids feelings. Blink got a bad rap for their supposed lack of musical ability but they wrote simple songs with great feeling:



Finally from Alice in Chains' epic EP Jar of Flies; I Stay Away. This was the best the band ever sounded and singer Layne Staley would die, selfishly, of a heroin/cocaine overdose six years later. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell is the heart and soul but Staley was the voice. He achieved his greatest vocal accomplishment with this EP save, perhaps, The Rooster (acoustic).



See also NIB from Sabbath, which is as good today as it was 39-years ago. Listen to how raw it was with Tony Iommi's distortion and damn, Ozzie was a baby instead of regressing into one. It must have been absolutely mind-blowing at the time: