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"Reverence" by the Jesus & Mary Chain
Let us pretend, for a moment, that in our current sociopolitcal climate, the Jesus & Mary Chain originally released "Reverence" from their Honey's Dead album. How would the general Fox News loving public react to the opening lines snarled out by the Reid brothers:
I wanna die just like Jesus Christ/I wanna die on a bed of spikes
I don't remember there being huge controversy when this song came out originally in 1992, but maybe I just wasn't as aware of such nonsense, but I get the impression that if any semi-well known band attempted this today, they would be bomb back to the stone age. Although, I suppose now that I think about it, the band is already called "Jesus & Mary Chain", so I guess singing a song about wanting to die like Jesus Christ isn't too much of a stretch. Maybe all the right wingers were convinced this was, in fact, wholesome Christian music telling us the good news. Ok, maybe not.
That being said, it is vintage Jesus & Mary Chain, full of the omnipresent shaking maracas, snarled basslines and the half asleep vocals of the Brothers Reid. This was well before William found love with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and we're left with the signature "Phil Specter Murder Spree" wall of sound. Brilliant no matter when you're listening.
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adam said on November 5, 2007:
You're saying hipsters have no knowledge of the Jesus and Mary chain?! I think that disqualifies them as hipsters.
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heather said on November 5, 2007:
This album actually did cause some controversy when it came out, depending on where you were at the time - I grew up in a little town in Texas and my right-wing Christian parents confiscated this album and a few others from me for a while - Members of the community also had a meeting about whether or not to let record stores carry albums like this - I saw the J&MC twice this year and made sure to let my dad know that 15 years later I'm still totally into them, regardless of his efforts...
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Erik Gonzalez said on November 5, 2007:
Wow, yeah, there definitely wasn't that reaction to the album growing up outside Boston. Jeepers!
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imaginary dana said on November 5, 2007:
Heather -- that is a great story. What did your father say to that?
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cosby said on November 5, 2007:
i think there are two types of hipsters: people who think they know what they are talking about (type 1) and people who legitimately know what they are talking about (type 2). type 1 will inevitably say 'psychocandy' is the best album because they have the 'lost in translation' soundtrack and 'candy' is a popular album to namedrop. type 2 will have heard their catalog and know that, despite being a good and perhaps their most well known album, 'psychocandy' is definitely not their best work in context of songwriting. asking a type 2 hipster puts them into a k-hole-esque conundrum - do they namedrop the most popular (and, in many ways, least accessible) work or answer truthfully with the best work that may dock them 'scene points'?
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randy said on November 5, 2007:
Overanalyze things much? How about those hipsters who've listened to all their albums and still like Psychocandy best?
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cosby said on November 5, 2007:
i have a similar story to the small town outrage one, but with a completely different outcome. my friend went to a theme park with a j&mc shirt on not knowing there was a christian based outing taking over most of the park. since no one knew what the shirt meant, he got a lot of complements.
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cosby said on November 5, 2007:
oh, i think people are allowed to like whatever they like best; but i think there are a lot of people who haven't heard the bulk of their work, yet will say 'psychocandy' is the best.
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imaginary stella said on November 5, 2007:
I'd vote for "Darklands." What kind of hipster does that make me? (Please say none.)
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heather said on November 5, 2007:
haha - he just laughed and said he'd given up a long time ago anyway!
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Reviews
cosby said on November 1, 2007:
if you ever want to cripple a hipster record store clerk, ask them what they think is the best jesus and mary chain album. that question is like kryptonite to clerks kind of in the know.