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The CHIRP Blog
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (April 26 - May 2)
On the Podcast:
- Mick interviews Thee Sacred Souls
Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 4/26/21:
Mother Nature & BoatHouse – SZNZ (Closed Sessions)
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (April 19 - April 25)
On the Podcast:
- Mike Nikolich speaks with Chicago-based folk artist p. a. pritchett
Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 4/19/21:
Various Artists – Bills & Aches & Blues (4AD)
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (April 12 - April 18)
On the Podcast:
- Mick talks with Bryanna and Peyton of Buggin
On the Blog:
- Nikki Stout reviews G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END by GY!BE
- Eddie Sayago compares two versions of "Back on the Chain Gang"
- Eddie Sayago compares two versions of "You Got the Love"
- Eddie Sayago explores Five Tina Turner Cover Songs
- Clarence Ewing writes a brief introduction to 1970s Disco
Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 4/12/21:
Ratboys – Happy Birthday, Ratboy (Topshelf)
Nikki Stout writesAlbum Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor makes music for contemplation—for time slowed down, for places standing still, for futures on hold. Listening to a Godspeed You! album is like reading a Cormack McCarthy novel, churning through deliciously austere layers to find the soul within. There are villains, there are struggles, there is loss.
Written while on their final tour pre-COVID and recorded during the second wave of the pandemic, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END explores what hope looks like in end times for the Montreal collective. That’s not to say G_d’s Pee is off brand for Godspeed You!, or even that it forces new perspective. It simply continues to roll the stone up the hill with enough grace to wipe the sweat from its brow.
Eddie writesTake Two: “Back On The Chain Gang” (The Pretenders Vs. Selena)
by Eddie Sayago
There is a chance that you have come across a song (or two, or so many more) that you enjoy and did not realize that it's either been covered by someone else or is a cover itself. We hope that this series allows you to appreciate both the original and the covers they have inspired, and to seek out and enjoy new music in the process.
For this entry, we take a look at “Back On The Chain Gang”, a song about loss originally written and recorded by one-half of the original Pretenders, and a slightly sunnier Spanish-language cover performed by Selena over a decade later.
The original: Pretenders “Back On The Chain Gang” (1982)
It was a tough time for the Pretenders when they stepped into the studio to record “Back On The Chain Gang” in July 1982. Only half the band was around; singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers. The previous month, they kicked out bassist Pete Farndon due to his drug issues and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose only a few days later. (Farndon would die of a heroin overdose the following year.)
Hynde was feeling the pressure from the music industry as her profile rose higher. “I found a picture of you, o-o-oh, o-o-oh/Well it hijacked my world at night” references her estranged partner, The Kinks’ Ray Davies, as she was pregnant with their daughter at the time of recording. Hynde would dedicate “Back On The Chain Gang” to Honeyman-Scott and would become one of their signature songs, never losing its emotional punch.