Friday, March 13, 2015

Spiritualized - Run

Is this sublime or what? Spiritualized's cover of J.J. Cale's "Run." This is the single version. There is also an equally great version on Spiritualized's first (and very brilliant) album Lazer Guided Melodies (1992). I was listening to this album nonstop back in the old Pittsburgh days. I remember regularly driving from Oakland (where I lived) to the Southside. You had to cross over the Birmingham Bridge, then take a right onto Carson, leading you towards Dee's -- that infamous bar where I stumbled out many a night a bit more intoxicated than necessary, having decided that writing a dissertation was not a life conducive to improving one's self-respect. Spiritualized's "Run" was a perfect soundtrack to those nights.

3 comments:

Meep said...

Hey look, more posts!

I've never quite listened to Spiritualized as much as I should have. So far I've only heard of a few songs from "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space". What do you make of that album? I'll give "Lazer Guided Melodies" a listen

Meep said...

I wanted to ask if you ever listened to anything by the Goo Goo Dolls after "Dizzying up the Girl" any of their other works ever reach the same height of success as Iris?

spaceman said...

Hey sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Been traveling, etc. Answers to your questions: About Spiritualized, my favorite album of theirs is actually "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" although I love "Lazer Guided Melodies" more. I think as an 'entry point' I would recommend the latter more. "Ladies and Gentelemen" often veers into odd noisy interludes that take getting used to.

As far as the Goo Goo Dolls, I honestly have not kept up with their stuff after the first few albums (I think late '80s up to early '90s). The similarity to the Replacements was a draw at the time. I remember they did a great cover of "Bitch" (by the Rolling Stones) for a compilation in the early '90s. But by the mid-90s and certainly after "Dizzy up the Girl" they kind of firmly veered off into the same kind of territory occupied by Maroon 5 these days.