Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. LXXXII--Freedy Johnston: Bad Reputation

We have another Jukebox first this week--the first time a week's featured artist has done a (killer) cover version of the preceding week's tune.  That's right--Freedy Johnston did an "It's The Shit" rendition of "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)."

Anyhoo, the best praise I can give to this week's tune is that as I was listening to "Bad Reputation" earlier this week in preparation for this post about halfway through I literally said aloud, "Jesus Christ this is a great fucking song."

Not quite the gravitas of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" but here in 2016 U.S.A., about as good of an exaltation as you'll get.

Freedy (a nickname of his mother for him) Johnston was born Frederic John Fatzer in the swarming metropolis of Kinsley, Kansas (pop. 1658 as of 2009).  At the age of 16 he bought his first guitar via mail order; at the age of 24 he moved to New York City to become a star.  While he never quite became the next Bob Dylan, he began recording albums in 1989 and has been at it ever since.  Johnston is known as a "songwriter's songwriter" (maybe someday when I get big somebody will refer to me as a "blogger's blogger") and was voted songwriter of the year in 1994 by Rolling Stone.  Not a bad resume for a guy who probably truly knows the meaning of "...we're not in Kansas, anymore...."

Released in 1994 on his This Perfect World LP, "Bad Reputation" is Johnston's best known song, reaching #54 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  It's the love song of a troubled man, warning a woman that though he's trying he probably won't be the man she deserves--though she already knows this.  Still he sees her face everywhere and can't get her out of his mind.

"Bad Reputation" is a song of wonderful moments, the first of which is the opening (which for whatever reason, reminds me of The Temptations "Ain't Too Proud to Beg") which starts like a million other ballads only to break, out of nowhere, into one of the catchiest choruses you'll ever hear.  Another is Johnston's use of repetitive words ("and it isn't just talk, talk, talk" or "just wasting your time, time, time").   And still another is when toward the end of the song the instrumentation cuts and leaves a stanza just to Johnston, his guitar and his vocals.  In the end, though, it's (as is often the case) Johnston's vocals which seal the deal.  He strikes just the right balance between sorrow and regret without ever becoming maudlin.  And "Bad Reputation" is another in a long line of fine additions to Friday Night Jukebox.

Liner notes:  "Suddenly I'm on the street/Seven years disappear below my feet..."

Enjoy:

Bonus Video (because you can't--well I can't anyway--get enough of "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes")):

Peace,
emaycee