Posts tagged Crowded House

OK, I’m back after giving you all time to soak in The Giant Panther’s Top 20 list.  It didn’t look much like mine, but that’s the beauty of having two writers that have slightly different musical priorities and tastes.  We grew up in different eras too, but it’s all good and hopefully that makes it interesting for the reader.  Congrats to Ryan on his great list and thanks to all of you for coming to our site and reading it.  We’ve only been over here on WordPress for a couple of months now, but Ryan’s post broke new readership ground with regard to site hits.   All very inspiring, but now I’m back to get them back to normal (he said facetiously)…

Back in 1991 I have to tell you I had full on Crowded House fever.   What’s that?  Yet another Australian band I fell in love with?  Say it ain’t so Big John.   I can distinctly remember managing The CD Store on Newbury Street in Boston when their debut CD, 1986′s self titled Crowded House, hit the stores.   The owner made me play it over and over and over until I either got it or couldn’t stand it anymore.  Similar CDs suffered the same fate in those days; among them were The Pretenders Get Close and Paul Simon’s Graceland.   We literally could not get through a single day without playing those records all the way to the end.  Same for Anita Baker’s Rapture.  If I thought about it for ten seconds I could probably drum up five more, but you get the point.   The guy was just trying to move product.   I was a retail clerk just trying to hear great music all day while I earned my $30K or whatever pitiful number it was.   Sometimes I got force fed some stuff I didn’t like.  I’m sure Whitney Houston and Anita Baker are fabulous artists, but they just weren’t my cup of tea.  I even learned to like another record that I was force fed back in the day; Bruce Hornsby & The Range’s The Way It Is.  Really.  I hated it then, but I actually enjoy it from time to time now.  It’s a strange phenomenon, but I had to hear it against my will about 200 times before I gave it any quarter whatsoever.   Maybe the customers who actually bought it, when we could keep it in stock, weren’t my kind of folks back then, but whatever it was, today I’m a fan of that record.  I don’t play it everyday or anything, but when the mood strikes me I don’t mind it is all I’m saying.  Guilty Pleasure?   Yeah I suppose so.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, Crowded House.   I have to admit, I didn’t know jack squat about Neil & Tim Finn’s previous band, Split Enz, except for “I Got You” which was a big time New Wave hit in the early part of the 80′s.   I know now they had an ardent following and a fair amount of critical acclaim before coming apart in 1984.   I would have mistakenly written them off as a one hit wonder act if it wasn’t for Crowded House.  Apparently it wasn’t long after Split Enz took a powder that a band called The Mullanes was formed almost immediately.  Neil Finn, younger brother of Tim, Paul Hestor and Nick Seymour, younger brother of Hunters & Collectors member Mark Seymour represented early Crowded House.   I’m usually not much for record label interference, but mercifully Capitol Records induced The Mullanes to change their name to Crowded House after the band shared a, yep, crowded house together in Los Angeles during the making of their debut CD.   I can’t quite remember when I finally figured out these guys had talent, but their record had three tremendous singles in ”Don’t Dream It’s Over, World Where You Live and  Something So Strong.”   I didn’t immediately take to them, but I now realize that was wrong.

1988′s Crowded House followup was called Temple of Lo Men.   I didn’t get it and the record bombed relative to the their first release.   The critics liked it, but  unfortunately that doesn’t mean much.  If you don’t believe me just take a gander at the Top 50 selling records today.  I’d be very lucky if I owned  five of them.   I’m don’t really consider myself a music snob; well maybe a little, but what music moves the most units consistently floors me.   I no longer subscribe to Billboard, Rolling Stone or Spin Magazines, mostly because I detest mixing politics and rock, but when I did I hardly ever believed what  I saw.   Regardless, Crowded House stumbled a bit with Temple of Low Men.  Now I’ve learned from the past that one of my readers is going to come at me with both guns blazing when I say that, but the numbers don’t lie.  

In 1991 when Woodface was released; oh my.   What a treasure.   “Chocolate Cake” was the first single.  It was almost a throwaway track, but it got some traction in Modern Rock circles.  “Weather With You” was flat brilliant though.   I just loved that track.  My favorite Crowded House song is probably “It’s Only Natural” which might surprise some, but I really got a charge out of that song.  Still do.  OK, I’ve babbled on long enough today.  Crowded House released a record called Together Alone in 1993 before calling it quits in 1996 or so.  They reunited for another record in 2007 called Time On Earth, but I haven’t caught up with that one yet.   To summarize; Crowded House had some extraordinarily beautiful songs with gorgeous harmonies.   They were hit or miss with the U.S. public from time to time in terms of their CDs, but I’d have killed to have written at least half a dozen of their tracks.   It’s the damnedest thing; I can’t remember if I ever saw them live either.  Now that’s not like me at all.  I’m really getting old!  I’ll have to dig through my stubs for you.

Crowded House – Chocolate Cake.mp3

Crowded House – Weather With You.mp3

Crowded House – It’s Only Natural.mp3

Crowded House – It’s Only Natural.mp3 YSI

Buy or download Woodface from Amazon here.