"Lighting Hangs before my eyes at the rage inside of me... And every color in the sky just needs to be seen... The crying of a baby, the dying of the sun... Today may be descending, but tonight has just begun..."- Doug Hopkins, "Cathedral City".
Upon the reflection of my own songwriting, there's one source of inspiration who's voice continues to shine through and resonate in my own work, and that is Doug Hopkins. The man most-famously known for penning "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You".
It's no secret that I highly regard Doug Hopkins to by my favorite writer, and I don't mean that from a songwriting stand point. The lyrics in Doug's poetry paint a tale of one man's thoughts, struggles, and simple beauty he saw in the world. And what makes it really stick is that he told these stories in such a palatable and clever way.
If Doug only had his chance, he would have become the most prominent songwriter of his decade. Kurt Cobain, John Lennon- these men had nothing on Doug.
Like many others, I discovered Doug through the Gin Blossoms. I remember chancing upon "Found Out About You" when I was sixteen, and there was just something about that song that just shot itself right through me. The music bed was provocative in its longing for reclamation.
I didn't have to follow the lyrics to know that I was hearing something personal about heartbreak. As soon as I could, I scurried off to Music One in Greenbelt (Back when it was still respectable) and bought Outside Looking In: The Best of The Gin Blossoms. While I personally find it to be a weak representation of their music, it gave me the opportunity to follow and discover a band that has always been around me.
The more I listened, the more interested I became in Doug Hopkins. I wanted to know more about the man who penned these amazing songs. It took a couple years, but upon the discovery of songs like "Dream With You", "Keli Richards", "Angels Tonight", "100 Summers", "Lost Horizons", "Blue Eyes Bleeding", and "My Guardian Angel" did I really start to see the beauty in Doug's work.
He was the kind of songwriter who could see the beauty of the smallest things and write about. And again, what made his lyrics so meaningful was that he was able to describe with such simplicity.
I think back to "Hold Me Down" and that lyric, "I can't remember why I liked this feeling, when it always seems to let me down.". I just think its so brilliant. It's one of those things we all feel but can never somehow seem to place; and Doug, in his genius, constructed the best flow of words to perfectly describe that.
What set Doug's work apart from other songwriters was the edge he gave each song. No matter what it was; whether it was a rocker like "Slave Dealer's Daughter", a mid-tempo burst of power pop in "Hey Jealousy", or a ballad like "Pieces of The Night" was the amount of natural power each song had.
You didn't have to distort it, you didn't have to back it up with a mesh of guitars. The power in Doug's songs came purely from the music bed it was spawned from.
Doug was meticulous with the construction of his songs. He was known take his time with songs, composing each aspect of its construction; from lyrics, to the changes in chords, and even as deep as the bass that would carry it and whatever jangle would accompany it to give it the mood and the aura it deserved.
Doug Hopkins was a songwriter's songwriter, and I don't think I can stress that enough. 
Take "Found Out About You"; the best example of Doug's songwriting. This song is a considerably adolescent take on heartbreak, but it resounds in such an intense way.
The lyrics are brutally visual. There are times when I listen to it and find myself imagining Doug passing through a bus stop and the house of his ex-girlfriend, with the trace of the song just forming inside his head.
What always gets to me each time I hear it is the final verse:
"Street lights blink on through the car window,
I get the time too often on am radio.
Well, you know it's all I think about-
I write your name, drive past your house.
You're boyfriend's over I watch the lights go out...".
Who wasn't been there and felt that?
All those visuals and the emotion they carry are translated further in the music. It's stance at mid-tempo captures the listener and strikes them into something romantic and painful. You don't know what it is, but as the song progresses and builds in this subtle storm of jangled guitars, a baseline that creeps itself up the back of the song, and a beat that mimics the fury of the storm.
It builds and builds until it explodes into this guitar solo that bursts itself through until it collects the song and draws it back in it's final moments. And as Robin Wilson sings deeper into the final verse, the song explodes one final time as if it had conceded to acceptance.
Doug Hopkins was perhaps the finest songwriter the world never got to know. And if I could use this as any avenue, I just want to thank him for all the amazing songs he wrote and the inspiration he provided to myself and many others; including indie rock giants, Jimmy Eat World.
Doug Hopkins is forever immortalized with the songs he wrote. And its a strengthening notion because in every moment, there always someone new who's about to chance upon his music.
RIP Doug Hopkins
1961-1993
Photos courtesy of Lost Horizons,
http://www.losthorizons.info/index.html
Whenever I come across new artists I like, I have the tendency to acquire as much of their music as humanly possible. But lately, I've noticed a trend in my ever-developing listening habit's, I pace.
Simply put, I take my time jumping from one album to another. I listen to one album, usually the something preceding whatever it is I wind up playing next, and I take my time with it. There's no rushing, it's just simply enjoying the music and whatever it is the artist I'm listening has to offer.
In short: Since I listen to nothing but music that was released before I was born, I take my time with album and in the process, I build up hype for the preceding album; anticipating whatever it was they did next.
That came a week ago through New Order's Low Life. And today, it came in the form of Marhsall Crenshaw's second album, Field Day and you know what, it pretty much met every expectation I had.
This album is just pure Marshall Crenshaw.
That's not said to discredit Marshall Crenshaw. Quite the contrary, Field Day is the perfect follow up to Crenshaw's self-titled debut released the previous year.
His lyrical adolescent charms and his hook for conjuring amazingly crisp and catchy melodies has gotten stronger, perhaps a bit more polished.
Just as his debut album opened with a punch of power-pop wonder in "There She Goes Again", Field Day opens up with "Whenever You're On My Mind". Without a doubt, it's the strongest song on the album. It's such a wonderful song.
This is the kind of pop song that has to be studied by songwriters. It's simple, it's catchy, it's lyrics are boyishly endearing; the song's strength lies in its simplicity. And most importantly, for album-listeners, it completely sets the tone for the rest of the album.
In the past couple years, I could never quite an album I just want to hold and cherish. The kind of album you want to take with you everywhere just for the sake of having it, much like a security blanket.
I can honestly say I haven't really felt this way about an album since 2007, when waiting for me in a balikbayan box was The Replacements' Let It Be.
I think the reason for this is that hardly ever come across an album with an album with a strong, and highly melodic, opening track. That isn't to say that a good number of the albums I've listened to lately, far from it. There's they hardly any skeletal system in the track listings to many albums.
Most albums have their best song in the middle. It's almost like many artists and producers are worried that outside of the lead singles, the album's gonna suck so they bury the songs midway through instead of putting it at the top and having confidence in the piece of music their creating and sharing with the world.
The reason for that, I think, is this: Popular music, as a whole, has always relied on strong singles. You think about the history of Popular music, and you find that hardly ever is there any emphasis at all in full-album listening and that's because for the longest time, many artists relied on singles, especially newer musicians who couldn't take the financial gamble to record a full length album.
Getting back on track, Marshall Crenshaw is among the few 
masterminds pop music has ever seen and it's a crime that's almost completely ignored and under-looked. If the two album of his that I've listened to has anything to say, its Marshall Crenshaw is songsmith that utilizes pop music as his base. It's a piece of musical marble that he can work his way around because he knows it, and he understands its fundamentals.
Field Day stands as one of the best albums I've ever listened to and with that, it's setting a pretty tall expectation for Marshall Crenshaw's third album, 1985's Downtown. And with that, I expect to hear someone who's gotten better at being Marshall Crenshaw.
Radio Free Pop's Rating for Field Day: Four Vinyls & A Single out of Five (aka: 4.5/5)
(Pictured Above
The Vaselines
Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee)
If there's anything this band is probably known for, it's Nirvana's covers of "Molly's Lips" and "Son Of A Gun" from Incesticide and "Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam" from their infamous, Mtv Unplugged From New York. The Scottish Duo garnered so much attention from Seattle Musicians during the late 80's, that thanks to Nirvana's input, famed Seattle power-label, bought their recordings and released them as single disc set entitled: The Way of The Vaselines: A Complete History in 1992.
While their nothing you'd expect to hear from Nirvana's covers, The Vaselines are a wonderful duo steeped in sixties folk-pop, punk, and post-new wave.
The Way of The Vaselines: A Complete History comprises of two EP's, Son of A Gun and Dying For It, and the band's only full length studio release, Dum-Dum.
For anyone looking into checking the Vaselines out, this album is the place to start. Everything you could possibly want, including a then-unreleased track in the form of "Bitch" is available on this set.
Among anything else, what's prominent is their knack for creating well crafted pop songs. Every song is as catchy as the last and they have a lot of fun with their little creations. And it really shows in their melodies and in their lyrics. From the ever loved, "Son of A Gun", to the thoughtfully reinterpreted Christian folk of "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam", the euphemism-driven tracks of "Rory Ride Me Raw" and "Monsterpussy", to the classic rock'n roll fun of "Teenage Superstars" and "Lovecraft"; the Vaselines know how to conjure a storm for the most dense listener.
In 2008, the band reunited and played along side Grunge heavyweights including the reunited, Green River (A band consisting of members of Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, and Pearl Jam) for Sub Pop Records' 20th Anniversary SP20 festival.
The reunion led to a double reissue of The Way of The Vaselines, similar to that of Nirvana's Bleach, in the form of Enter The Vaselines, which features a plethora of demos and live tracks taken from gigs in Bristol and London.
With renewed interest in the band's material, the Vaselines are scheduled to release their second full length album, Sex With An X, next month under Sub Pop Records.
