On the Radio (Flashback): Spacehog

While writing posts about songs on the radio that stick with me but do not compel me to purchase them (or their albums), I have been thinking about how many songs used to enter my life that way. Before songs could be easily shared, before a single song could be downloaded, if you liked a song, but didn’t love it, and you didn’t have a lot of money, you only heard it on the radio.

And, as I have made clear in earlier posts, some songs are only ok until you hear them 100 times. Then, suddenly, you like them. They become part of your life’s sound track. And, if you spend a lot of time driving and listen only to one radio station (because those were primitive times and cars only had radios, no tape decks or cd players), even songs you only liked a little became a part of your life.

So what do we call songs that we don’t like enough to purchase but we like enough to turn up the volume for when they come on? Good enough songs? Fun driving music? Temporary friends? Or, to steal an idea from Fight Club, single serving soundtracks.

But the thing about local alt-rock channels is that they don’t throw their old hits away. And although songs are often like a child’s toy—loved jealously and intensely only to be discarded one day for another—sometimes they surface again. Last week, an old toy surfaced on the radio.

And then,  I was taken back again to my Ford LTD Station wagon and the frigid drive from work to home when I was a teenager. Once, during a snow storm, the throttle on the car froze up; as a result, it would not stop accelerating, no matter what. So what did I do? Rather than stop at a gas station, or call for help, I would either (1) put the car in neutral when nearing a stop sign or (2) turn the mother off when nearing an intersection. I used the emergency break to help me stop.

(It shouldn’t have been a surprise when the transmission dropped a few months later.)

I drove 30 minutes that way as several inches of snow piled on the sides of the road. The song I remember hearing? “In the Meantime” by Spacehog.

Don’t feel bad if you forgot about Spacehog, I did too. Who knew they were big enough to open for Pearl Jam or that one of them married Liv Tyler? (Ok, I am sure plenty of people know).

I know that I really liked the first single off their debut album Resident Alien (1995). It hurtles into the silence with an interesting bassline over some 80’s retro-synth; a typical early 90’s lead guitar riff falls over that. What makes the song are the dynamic vocals of the lead singer—especially the contrast of the opening falsetto bit and the playful now-bass, now tenor dynamic of the verse and chorus.

To be honest the chorus is a bit empty (We love the all the all of you / Where lands are green and skies are blue / When all in all we’re just like you / We love the all of you) and the piano ending coupled with the vocals in the bridge makes me suspect that the band was once obsessed with Guns N’ Roses Appetite for destruction.

But the song is a good one . (Perhaps not the greatest rock song ever as the comments on Youtube declare.) And worth remembering. I am almost sorry I forgot it. Perhaps now I will buy it. But only the song. And mostly for the memory of that night in the snow when, for once, the car wanted to drive faster than I did.

And you brother, have you any memory of this song?