Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXX--Jake Bugg: Messed Up Kids

This week's tune, once again, came courtesy of a shout out from my darling daughter.  I also thought that this week's tune would be the youngest on the FNJ cavalcade of hits, but alas, Father John Misty's "Holy Shit" is a couple years younger.  Fascinating facts!

Jake Bugg was born Jake Edwin Charles Kennedy in 1994...which would make him all of twenty-five years old.  At first I thought that I wasn't accomplishing much of note at the age of twenty-five, but then I remembered that I was helping to raise two kids at that age and that helping children develop into functioning adults was a tad more important than making a pop record.  Anyhoo...Bugg began recording at the age of 17, released his first LP at 18 (which hit #1 in his native U.K.), and has followed it up with three more albums as well as three EPs.  While Bugg hasn't had much commercial success here in the states (two albums hit the top 100 and two singles hit the top 40), he has had quite a bit of success in the U.K. with four top ten albums and 10 of his singles hitting the top 100 on their singles chart.  Bugg has been nominated twice for Brit Awards (U.K. equivalent of our Grammys), and at the end of last year signed with a new label in an attempt to relaunch his career.  Best of luck!

"Messed Up Kids" was released on Bugg's second album Shangri La in 2013, and was also released on an EP entitled, appropriately enough, Messed Up Kids in 2014.  The song was not released as a single here in the U.S. of A., but reached #71 on the U.K. charts.  The album was his best selling in America (#46--with a bullet!--on the Billboard 200), and hit #3 in the U.K.

Co-written with fellow FNJ alum Brendan Benson (for his work with the Raconteurs on "Steady as She Goes"), "Messed Up Kids" is a statement song depicting the rather rough waters faced by youth in the increasingly economically fractured U.K. (Political Statement:  and where we're headed if things don't change here).  Bugg and Benson do a nice job lyrically of not just pointing out society's ills, but also painting a picture that shows them as well.  Bugg's vocals are solid--he changes ranges from the stanzas to the chorus and it gives the song a stronger voice.  Extra props for the guitars--emaycee loves him some jangly guitars and Bugg jang, jang, jangles away on his.  In the end, the song reminds me a lot of the Undertones "Teenage Kicks" (also featured here on Friday Night Jukebox) and that might be all I need to say--it's one hell of a song to be compared to.  Here's hoping forty years down the road folks are still singing the praises of "Messed Up Kids" a la "Teenage Kicks."

Lyric Sheet:  "And everywhere I see a sea of empty pockets/Beautiful girls with eyes so dark within their sockets/So far away/It's a washed out Saturday...

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXX--The Raconteurs: Steady, As She Goes

While there have been quite a few songs since the turn of the century that I've quite enjoyed, I'd be hard pressed to remember one that I enjoyed more than I've enjoyed this week's tune.

And to those who say it sounds like a White Stripes tune (not surprisingly, as Jack White sings lead vocals and plays lead guitar), I counter with...ain't nothin' wrong with that.

The seeds of the Raconteurs were formed in Nashville in 2005 when old friends Jack White and Brendan Benson got together and wrote "Steady, As She Goes."  Later that year they were joined by Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of Detroit band The Greenhornes (not familiar) in the Motor City and between their full-time gigs managed to record an album's worth of tunes.  They followed with a tour (including being an opening act for Nobel Prize laureate, Bob Dylan), and another album in 2008.  They have reunited here and there since, and in 2014 got together and started on another album but it remains uncompleted and it's uncertain whether they will return as a foursome.  Nonetheless, all four continue to make and play music successfully for a living and one supposes it's hard to complain much about that.

Released on their Broken Boy Soldiers LP in 2006, "Steady, As She Goes" would go on to be a minor hit here in the states (#54--with a bullet!--on The Billboard Hot 100), but do considerably better in Canada (#3) and the UK (#4), probably because they're so much cooler than we are.  Both the album and the single would earn the Raconteurs Grammy nominations, and the song ended up on numerous year end best of compilations for 2006.

Starting with an ominous drum count, "Steady, As She Goes" moves into a funky ass bass line which sounds very much borrowed from Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" (what the hell--if you're going to borrow, might as well be from a good one), before running headlong into some bitchin' guitar work from Jack White, a staccato scratch of the strings that plays well with the bass.  The chorus moves into power chord heaven with some great backing vocals from Brendan Benson (I don't know a lot of Benson's solo work, but from what I've heard, despite the comparisons to the White Stripes, Benson's influence can definitely be heard in the chorus--for those not in the know, Benson's "What" is well worth a listen).  You may notice I've stayed away from the song's lyrics--that's partly intentional as the song seems to me to be the chiding of an acquaintance who may have married more for stability than love and I'm pretty sure there have been people married for worse reasons, but what the hell do I know.  Anyway, it all adds up to a power pop dream of a song, with guitar, bass, and drums becoming so much more than the sum of their parts, and a catchy as all hell chorus that'll (thankfully) stay with you for days.

Lyric Sheet:  "But no matter what you do, you'll always feel as though you tripped and fell/So steady as she goes...."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee