More on Ordinary Days
Oh, Smithereens!
Oh, Especially For You! Oh, Beauty and Sadness EP (especially Beauty and Sadness EP)! Oh, Green Thoughts, even! Such brilliant, brilliant stuff.
The Smithereens released their best work in the mid-80s; by the time 11
came out in 1989, they were getting the likes of Belinda Carlisle to
guest on vocals and being real asses on stage (I saw them in early 1990
after this record came out - it was a terrible day, with lots of
drunkenness and lighting the wrong ends of cigarettes at a venue we
couldn't leave; even Soul Asylum, who were opening, were lackluster) -
essentially, the more commercial their music got, the less I liked them.
But when I heard this song it caught me; a little unexpected chord
change here, a sweet harmony there. It's eminently coverable, with lots
of potential for other, unexplored harmonies. It's short and sad and
doesn't try too hard.
In my movie, this song is playing my senior year of college, in the
fall, just before - well, everything that happened that year, which
was, well, everything. The record store job. The radio station.
A guy named G, who taught me so much about music and remains a friend
17 years later. No, this song is playing as I swing across campus,
freed from a silly boyfriend but wondering about someone sillier,
leaves falling around my head.
