Wednesday, April 9, 2014

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's of All-Time: The Wallflowers "Bringing Down The Horse" (Updated and Finished 4/15/14)

Hello,

Released on May 21st, 1996 The Wallflowers "Burning Down The Horse" was a slow burning hit CD. Although it started out slowly, eventually it exploded. I was vaguely aware of The Wallflowers because of this CD's first two singles: "6th Avenue Heartache" and "One Headlight". And while I thought both songs were okay, I definitely wasn't a big Wallflowers fan. They were sort of just there.

I remember the tipping point for me though in becoming a huge Wallflowers fan. I was with my at the time wife and we were in Park City browsing at one of their discount retail stores. I'm fairly sure I'd heard "The Difference" before that day. But when I heard it that day I realized how great of a song it was. I was overwhelmed by how incredibly catchy the song is. Although the lyrics make no sense, I couldn't resist that incredibly catchy song any more. I wanted to find out more about The Wallflowers after that. That same day I went and bought "Bringing Down The Horse".

The Wallflowers self-titled CD released in 1992 was definitely a band finding it's sound. The group grew up considerably before making "Bringing Down The Horse". Although the Wallflowers have released some good CDs since "Bringing Down The Horse", that was their peak. I'm a big fan of "Breach" however and "Red Letter Days" is a perfectly fine CD.

The make up of the band for the recording of "Horse" was Mario Calire on drums, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, piano and vocals, Greg Richling on bass guitar and Michael Ward on lead guitar. Of course their lead singer is Bob's son, Jakob Dylan.

I was able to see The Wallflowers twice in concert. I saw them in the mid-90s when they had blown up and may have been bigger than Counting Crows, who they were opening for. That was a great concert, the Wallflowers were great that night. That was a concert that the only reason I went to it was to see The Wallflowers. But I stuck around to see Counting Crows and I'm really glad I did, because I hadn't appreciated how great of a band they were until that night.

The second time I saw The Wallflowers was near the end of the 90s, they were the headliner and had Everlast open for them. He was good and The Wallflowers were also good. Although at the time they probably weren't quite ready to be a headliner. I do remember their very energetic take of Blur's "Song 2", they rocked that song out. Too bad I can't find a video of it on Youtube. But because it's such a great song, here's Blur performing their hit live:



This is the video for the entire "Bringing Down The Horse":



I listen to the CD I'm writing about while writing these blogs. Most of the time I remember why I really love a CD, but sometimes that turns into complete admiration. This is such a great CD and Jakob Dylan's voice sounds so good here.

1. "One Headlight":



2. "6th Avenue Heartache":



"6th Avenue Heartache" (Live On Letterman):



3. "Bleeders":



4. "Three Marlenas":



"Three Marlenas" (Live):



5. "The Difference":



"The Difference" (Live)



6. "Invisible City":



7. "Laughing Out Loud":



8. "Josephine":



9. "God Don't Make Lonely Girls":



"God Don't Make Lonely Girls" (Live) (Jakob sounds a lot like his Dad here.)



10. "Angel on My Bike":



11. "I Wish I Felt Nothing:



themusicaddict

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