Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXLI--Cracker: Low

Of this week's tune, I only have three words for my intro:  jangly fucking guitars!

Cracker formed in Redlands, California in 1990 when Dave Lowery joined with childhood friend Johnny Hickman after his original band, Camper Van Beethoven, had disbanded.  Within a year the band had a recording contract and released its first album in 1992 to critical and (some) commercial success.  The next year the band released its second, and most commercially successful, album.  They continued touring and recording through the nineties, though in 1999 Camper Van Beethoven reunited and Lowery has since performed alternately with both bands.  Both Lowery and Hickman have released solo albums.  For their career, Cracker has released nine studio albums, three compilations, an EP, five live albums, and eighteen singles.  They still tour regularly, with Lowery and Hickman the only constants, though the band hasn't released any new music since 2014.

"Low" was the first single released from their 1993 album Kerosene Hat.  The single would peak at #59 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album hit #59 on the Billboard 200.  They would be the highest charting single and LP the band would have.

Fun Fact:  After the band formed Lowery and Hickman moved to Richmond, Virginia where they rented an old house that's only source of heat was kerosene heaters.  Whenever they ran out of kerosene, Lowery would put on his winter coat and an old wool hat to make the cold, cold, trek to a nearby gas station to buy some more.  Thus it became his "kerosene hat," and hence the name of their second album.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know fuck-all what this week's song is about. I get that it has something to do with a woman, that's somewhat good ("like being stoned") and (maybe) somewhat bad ("like being low"), but I wouldn't swear to it.  No matter--it's got plenty of exciting jangly guitars, plenty of offbeat lyrics, and plenty of inspired vocals from Lowery.  As I was doing my half-assed research, a number of commenters on the song considered it a quintessential song from the nineties...and I think that's a pretty fair assessment.  But despite its connection to that era, it still sounds remarkably fresh--a great tune is a great tune regardless of when it was released, and "Low" is one great tune.

Lyric Sheet:  "Blue, blue is the sun/A brown, brown is the sky/A green, green are her eyes/A million miles, a million miles..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee