all my sails were ablaze / i was chained to the helm

Late in the middle of last night, my friend Brian in San Francisco sent me this song, with the subject line “life changing jam.” I’d never heard it before, and of course I love a good hyperbolic recommendation. After a good ten times of playing this sweetly melancholic, symphonic song (reminiscent of some of my favorite moments of sexy-Bono-falsetto U2), I’ll buy that. Grant Lee Buffalo is a name from the past that I am only loosely acquainted with (mid-Nineties, pretty sure I saw them live with R.E.M). Brian is tied to some of the reasons I started writing Fuel/Friends in the first place, over six years ago, so as such he knows enough about my musical evolution to be acquainted with all my musical soft spots. This song hits about 17 of them.

Here it is, your forgotten Nineties gem of the day:

Mockingbirds – Grant Lee Buffalo

EDIT: Aww, man, I just realized I’d forgotten about this song of his, too, that I have been meaning to write about for a good year+. I’m in love with all of these lyrics, and claim ‘em like an anthem:

Strangest thing, days I feel like dirt
and then I see the diamond dust on everything
Strangest thing, something plucks my nerve
and then I hear a hundred chords a-shimmering

I don’t feel sad when Cash wears black, I hear the train comin
Good things down the railroad track, ya gotta believe in somethin…