Music

You Need to Hear this Song #11

Heavy Rotation — All I Know, Screaming Trees (Dust, 1996)

Heavy Rotation was a music industry term for songs that one way or another got a lot of airplay. It referred to the large amount of rotation that a particular record got on turntables at radio stations. Since, until the 1980s, this was the only way to get new music into the ears and brains of listeners, heavy rotation meant increased sales. These were good for record companies and artists alike.

Today, some of us still put records on at home and give them a spin. Most of us don’t. However, the term still applies, though in a different way. Streaming services like Spotify sell subscriptions to listeners and then pay artists based on listens. At least, that’s the way we think it works.

For me, heavy rotation means a song that is in my head for some reason. Maybe for a moment, maybe for a day, maybe for longer. It’s a song that you come back to from time to time and still feels just as good.

This series of articles is dedicated to these songs.

Here, I aim to highlight a particular song by a particular band or singer. We should know a bit about the band, a bit about where the song fits into its history and where the song fits into what was happening in music at that time. Then there’s the song itself. Who’s playing on it, what are the lyrics getting at and why is it so good? How does it still occupy sonic space in our lives?

I’ll (try to) keep it short. It shouldn’t take you any longer to read than the song itself. To that end, I’ll put a Youtube clip of the original recording at the top of the article so you can listen as you read. Or not. And because a song is often much different live than in the recording studio, I’ll stick a live clip on at the end.

What song is in your head right now? Here’s one that won’t leave mine today:

#11 — All I Know, Screaming Trees (Dust, 1996)

I had a different song buzzing around in my mind the last few days that I was going to write about, but when I awoke to news that Mark Lanegan had died at age 57, the Screaming Trees took over my day. The same way they often did in the early 90s.

For me, the seminal rock and roll voice of that decade wasn’t Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley or Scott Weiland. It was Mark Lanegan. The trademark melodic whiskey and cigarettes addled growl of the Trees frontman said more to me about that period of my life than the others ever could. The fact that his band never went stratospheric like those of the others did only made him that much better, to me anyway.

By the time I came to Screaming Trees with Sweet Oblivion in 1992, they were already 6 albums in. The main reason they entered my ears and brain at that point was because of the inclusion of arguably their biggest (only?) hit “Nearly Lost You” in the Singles soundtrack. But that album was all it took to dive into their back catalogue. All of it was power pop rock, with a touch of psychedelia straight out of Ellensburg, a small town in central Washington.

Not many bands lumped into the Seattle Grunge sound of the early 90s actually came from there. But Barrett Martin on drums, guitar by Gary Lee Conner, and Van Conner on bass came by the rainy, forested, plaid shirt wearing, tortured soul, jaded urban ennui sound honestly.

All I Know comes from their last album, Dust from 1996. Mark Lanegan’s voice drifted in and out of my life after that, mostly when I wanted a shot of early 90s nostalgia. I can’t say that I paid much attention to his solo work, though he made 12 albums on his own. If “Night Flight to Kabul” from Somebody’s Knocking (2019) is any indication, I might have to dive back in.

Musically, this song is a slow roller, slow burner. It is straight ahead rock and roll, but with less growl and more melody and harmony than earlier Trees music. The intro with its building drums and what I think sounds like a Wurlitzer organ leads us to the guitar entry and straight into the first vocal at 00:11.

I think lyrically, it’s a song about regret. About things that could have been, if other stuff didn’t get in the way. “Bite the thorn that pierce the skin / come back down to Earth again” could be trying to lead us to believe that the high of heroin is always followed by a cold crash that is not worth it.

“All that I know / Coulda been / Shoulda been mine”. If only those other decisions hadn’t been made. Haven’t we all been there? As a result, “I killed the last way out of this”

The bridge, starting at 1:30 until 1:55 is a swirling confusion of guitar solo, drum fills, psychedelic organ and vocal harmonies that could be a sonic parallel to the song writer’s own life. The vocals and harmonies that come back in from 1:55–2:15 slow things down to a more comfortable, calmer and soul satisfying level.

I don’t know if All I Know is the best song the Screaming Trees ever did. But It’s the one that immediately came into my head when I read of Lanegan’s death this morning. And that must be worth something.

Here is a live performance video from 1996. Yes, that is indeed a young Josh Homme on guitar.

This is the 11th instalment of this series. If you are enjoying them and want to read and listen to the previous, ones, they are linked below:

If you like what you are reading here and want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It’s $5 a month and if you use this link, then I get a piece of that. In turn, I will promise to crank Sweet Oblivion today.