Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXXVII--Marshall Crenshaw: Someday, Someway

We'll spend another week in pop heaven as FNJ features a song by an artist who hails from my adopted home--and one who offers proof that Michigan has produced many a talented musician, and not just twits like Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.

I recently read someone who said that if we lived in a just world, Marshall Crenshaw would rule the airwaves and I nodded in agreement.  After spending his formative years here in the suburbs of Detroit, Crenshaw began his career as an understudy playing John Lennon in Beatlemania.  After eventually taking over the role and touring the country, Crenshaw left the troupe and formed a band in New York City and began his solo career in earnest.  In 1982 Crenshaw released his debut album and first single to critical acclaim--both would go on to be the most commercially successful of his career, though they were moderate sellers at best.  Crenshaw has gone on to release nine more albums, six EPs, wrote a book about rock and roll in the movies, and still plays 40-50 shows a year, most within driving distance of his home.  He's known for playing a mean guitar, too.

Every now and again you'll hear a song for the first time and think "Holy shit, what was that?" Invariably, it's a song you'll love for the rest of your life--and such was the case with "Someday, Someway" for me.  Released as the initial single from his very aptly titled first album, Marshall Crenshaw, it garnered enough airplay and sales to reach #36 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  Opening with what a friend of mine called jangly guitars (if there was anything the 80's was good at, it was jangly guitars), Crenshaw forays into a power pop plea to the love of his life to tell him what's making her so sad--alas she won't and Creshaw is left to hope that someday, someway he'll understand and be able to return the love she has given to him.  Throughout, "Someday, Someway" swings and sways, a little rockabilly, and is given a pop sheen through Crenshaw's sincere vocals, power drumming (provided by Crenshaw's brother Robert), and a melody that I'm sure Jesus Christ himself would be humming for days if he'd ever heard it.  It's primal pop for people who worship at the altar of rock and roll....

Fun Fact:  Crenshaw was often compared (favorably) to Buddy Holly early in his career, and eventually would play Holly in the movie La Bamba.  Cool!

Lyric Sheet:  "Now after all you've done for me/All I really want to do/Is take the love you brought my way/And give it all right back to you...."

Enjoy:

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emaycee