Day 1/CD 1: 10,000 Maniacs - mtv unplugged album

ARTIST: 10,000 Maniacs featuring Natalie Merchant
TITLE: 10,000 Maniacs mtv unplugged
TRACKS: 14
GENRE: Alternative Rock
RECORDED: 1992
 
As I recall MTV was still about music then...1992 was the inaugural season of "The Real World" and the beginning of the end of Music Television in its original form.

FAVORITE TRACK: 12 - Because The Night

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TRACK BY TRACK
 
These Are The Days - Buy!
Good feeling for appreciate the now!
 
These are days, you'll remember
Never before and never since, I promise
Will the whole world be warm as this and as you feel it
 
Eat For Two - No Sale!
Depressing about unwanted pregnancy - not my cup of tea.
 
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed

Candy Everybody Wants - No Sale!
Good tune, but lyrics leave me cold
 
If lust and hate is the candy
If blood and love tastes so sweet
Then we give 'em what they want
I'm Not The Man - No Sale!
Kind of a modern I shot the sherriff, but I did not shoot the Deputy with a racial twist.  Important message, but don't love the song.
 

But I'm not the man
He goes free as the candle vigil glows
As they burn my clothes

As the crowd cries, "Hang him slow!"
And I feel my blood go cold, he goes free

Call out the K K K, they're wild after me
And with that frenzied look of half-demented zeal
They'd love to serve me up my final meal

Who'll read my final rite and hear my last appeal?
Who struck this devil's deal?

Don't Talk - No Sale!
Alanon theme song.

And you need somewhere to put the blame
For how you feel inside
You'll look for a close and easy mark
And you'll see me as fair game

Talk, talk, talk about it
You talk as if you care
But when your talk is over
Tilt that bottle in the air

Hey Jack Kerouac - No Sale!
Toe tapping tune, but not a Jack Kerouac fan.

You chose your words from mouths of
Babes lost in the world
Cool junk bootin' madmen
Street minded girls
In Harlem, howlin' at night

What's The Matter Here? - No Sale!
I prefer Hell is for Children (Pat Benatar) for a passionate appeal against child abuse.

Oh I have heard the excuses
Everybody uses
He's your kid
Just do as you see fit
But get this through
That I don't approve
Of what you did
To your own flesh and blood

Gold Rush Brides - No Sale!
Truly hated this one...and halfway through the album, I'm really getting sick of every one of Natale Merchant's songs sounding EXACTLY THE SAME!

In letters mailed back home her eastern sisters
They would moan as they would read
Accounts of madness, childbirth, loneliness and grief

Like the Weather - No Sale!
I can so relate here in snowy, cold, miserable January in NY but I don't need to magnify the seasonal attitude disorder in song.

The color of the sky is gray as I can see through the blinds
Lift my head from the pillow and then I fall again
I get a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather
A quiver in my lip as if I may cry

Trouble Me - Buy!
A relationship anthem if I ever heard one - man to woman, woman to man, parent to child, friend to friend. 

Trouble me, trouble me
Disturb me with all your cares and you worries
Speak to me
And let our words build a shelter from the storm
Let me
And lastly, let me know what I can mend

There's more, honestly, than my sweet friend, you can see
Trust is what I'm offering if you trouble me

Jezebel - No Sale!
Broken marriage story didn't connect.

I know your feelings are tender
And that inside you the embers still glow
But I'm a shadow, I'm only a bed of blackened coal
Call myself Jezebel for wanting to leave

Because The Night - Buy!
Oh hell yes...can feel Bruce's influence in this song.

Take me now, baby, here as I am
Hold me close, n' try n' understand
Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed

Stockton Gala Days -  No Sale!
Ho Hum.  Sting's Fields of Gold captures similar theme much better.

The summer fields grow high we made garland crowns in hiding
Pulled stems of flowers from my hair blue in the stream like none
I have seen apart from dreams that escape me
There was no girl as bold as you
 
Noah's Dove - No Sale!
This is only the first album and the 14th track almost had me shutting it all down.  Took all my willpower not to hit the eject button on this one.


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UPON REVIEW: 
There was obviously a reason I was never a full-out 10,000 Maniacs fan, despite the local connection (Natalie Merchant and I were born in Jamestown NY, just 4 years apart).  I like a few of the more popular hits, but overall not a keeper.

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   These Are Days, Trouble Me, and Because The Night.