Musings on Music

Nail in my hand
From my creator
You gave me life
Now show me how to live

Love those lyrics! For the past 15 years, I have been a fan of rock music, but its been predominantly classic rock. Then as I grew up, I added some of the legendary alt rock acts of our times like Blur, Oasis, REM, RHCP. But once Linkin Park took over the bandstand, I just decided to stick with what I love already! The rock-rap fusion was not really my thing, and I just switched off. Listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" was always a much more mind-blowing
experience for me.

But recently, over the last couple of months I decided to sample a little bit of the newer rock bands. Well, new for a wizened classic rock fan like me anyway. And I sampled some stuff from Velvet Revolver, Rage against the Machine, Audioslave and Foo Fighters. Also, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, and Marilyn Manson.


To be honest, I have heard a little bit of Manson before, and I like it! Its shock rock at perhaps its finest. Some of Manson's compositions are just downright brilliant. My favourite Manson song (from a very limited sampling though), is "Lunchbox". I know its almost incendiary in that it sounds like its promoting violence in schools! But honestly, its not like Manson looks like someone you would take advice from, right? Anyway, the song is about a kid in school who gets back at the bullies.

I wanna grow up
I wanna be a big rock and roll star
I wanna grow up I wanna be
So no one fucks with me

Interesting! And what makes it even better is the great guitar riff when he says "rock and rollllll starrrrr"! Another song that has a brilliant composition is "Astonishing Panorama of the End Times", along with a brilliant title! God is in your TV, indeed!


Out of all the other groups I sampled, Audioslave and Foo Fighters definitely made the most impact. I had really liked Soundgarden's Superunknown album. And Chris Cornell is a brilliant vocalist. I hadnt really heard much about Tom Morello, the ex-RATM guitarist, who is also part of Audioslave, but I have grown to love their self-titled album. The lyrics at the top of this post is from the song "Show me how to live", and its definitely one of the best songs in this album. There are a bunch of other great songs in there too, including "Cochise", "Shadow on the sun" and "Like a Stone". Not always the best of lyrics though, but excellent music along with brilliant vocals.


And Foo Fighters was probably a foregone conclusion, with ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl at the front. The album I sampled was "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace", beautifully titled, amazingly well composed, with lovely lyrics. These guys are brilliant at the slow buildup leading to an explosive climax! And songs which make the hairs on your arms and neck stand on end sometimes! "Let it Die", "Come Alive" and "Stranger things have happened before" are absolute stand-outs along with "The Pretender". "Stranger..." is one of the finest examples of a softened down, almost unplugged, rock song in a long time. I am a fan of Dave now, and looking forward to more of his music.

With RATM, the issue again was with the rap-rock fusion. But their music is something else, full of angst and delivered almost staccato at times. These guys were good, and there is a power in songs like "People of the Sun" and "Bulls on Parade" which completely mesmerizes.

So although I will never, ever, let go of those LedZep, Deep Purple, Rolling Stones etc songs, these "new" bands are definitely making an impact. I still havent figured out why Coldplay is the biggest band in the world. Maybe someday I will.