#Mark Sandman

[taste-in-music]

10 songs for august 2024

[fallimentiquotidiani]

Where is the ritual?

And tell me where, where is the taste?

Where is the sacrifice?

And tell me where, where is the faith?

Someday

There'll be a cure for pain

That's the day

I throw my drugs away

When they find a cure for pain

Where is the cave

Where the wise woman went?

And tell me where

Where's all that money that I spent?

I propose a toast

To my self control

You see it crawlin' helpless on the floor

Someday

There'll be a cure for pain

That's the day

I throw my drugs away

When they find a cure for pain

When they find a cure for pain

When the find a cure

When the find a cure for pain

[dansandoa]

[minowly]

I'm pretty sure this sound is playing at the gates of heaven

[rjwhite]

That's the Day I Throw my Drugs Away

The Morphine album Cure for Pain came out 30 years ago, on September 14, 1993. A few years back, I was on this music review mailing list, where each member had to take a turn writing about an album of great importance to them. This was mine.

Ever since I was a kid, cities always held a fascination for me. I was not well-traveled, growing up in the middle of Michigan. The idea of being in some cosmopolitan, dense, East Coast metropolis was amazing to me, yet it took until well into college to even head out there, for a college television conference in Providence in 1996. We made the drive from Michigan State University, cut across Canada in the dead of night to spend a day in Boston, then head down to Providence in rush hour traffic. Checked into the hotel and one of the people in our group asked who was playing in town. Morphine at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. A friend said we absolutely had to go, as the band was amazing. I’d never heard of them, but went along because, hey, a concert in an actual, real city and everything, you know?

A loud club with cheap beer. Lots of people crowded in. The band came on. It was one of those weird things you always remember. These guys were on stage- not young, one of them playing a bass with only two strings? The one guy playing two saxes at once? The lead singer going into some beat poetry? What was this? I’d never seen or heard anything like it. My mind exploded. The band, the crowd, everything was in sync. Leaving the club, being downtown in an old, established city- the whole weekend of experiencing something I’d built up for so long … it just cemented that I needed to be in a place like that. I needed to live somewhere with history, vitality.

We got back to East Lansing and one of the first things I did that week was go to Flat, Black and Circular (still one of the best record shops I’ve ever been lucky enough to shop) and pick up Cure for Pain. It wasn’t even the album they were touring for (Like Swimming). I think Cure for Pain was the first one I saw in the rack? But it grabbed me and entranced me and hooked me for life. I listened and listened and listened. This incredible, smooth, wonderful mix of I don’t know what- jazz? Rock? Stories of cheating and sleaziness and sadness and loss and regret?

It’s just a wonderful thing to just discover a band you had no idea existed and instantly be taken with them. To feel that connection you never knew was there and somehow know you’ll be listening to them for a good, long while. It’s almost like falling in love with someone, you know?

I just always associate the album with that time and it’s all smashed together in my head, making that absolutely certain decision that, someway, somehow, I was going to live on the East Coast, in an honest-to-god city where I could go to places like Lupo’s and see bands like Morphine for the first time.

Now, I live in Philadelphia and never go to shows!

Though the odd, strange miracle of the internet, I’m able to hear a bootleg of that very night, knowing that 21-year-old RJ is in that crowd somewhere, just happy and dumbfounded by what he is hearing and utterly enjoying being in that moment.

I don’t know if I can hear myself in there, though. That might be too strange, like thinking of the dead people in the repeated laugh tracks of old sitcoms.

But, the record! Just a pleasure to listen to, front to back.

“Dawna” and “Buena” kicking it off… “I’m Free Now” as a sad, incredible post-breakup song where you feel like that terrible jerk who’s made a bad mistake (I'm free now to direct a movie/Sing a song or write a book about yours truly/How I'm so interesting I'm so great I'm really just a fuck-up/And It's such a waste to burn down these walls around me)... That delicate mandolin of “In Spite of Me”... The barrelling train of “Mary Won’t You Call My Name”... That jazzy, smoky rambling of “Let’s Take a Trip Together”... “Thursday” is almost a short film, with the wenching title track slamming you right after… all of it...

July 3 will mark the anniversary of Morphine frontman Mark Sandman’s death from a heart attack in the midst of a 1999 concert in Europe. If you could throw this (or anything from their wonderful catalog, really) on, I think that would be nice.

Anyway, that's why I love this 30-year-old record and this band. Listen to it wherever you can, it's a hell of a beautiful thing.

[dinosaursr66]

Loved Treat Her Right. Love Morphine. Great Morphine song here.

SONG OF THE DAY - Tuesday, January 16, 2024

[manitat]

Morphine live @ Cultural Center, Charleston, West Virginia, Sep 1993

01 A Head With Wings

02 You Look Like Rain

03 Buena

[ryanhamiltonwalsh]

Sandman & Strummer

Reissues out now!

[liefst]

ok. one more morphine song. something about this recording with the chatter of the audience and the intimacy of the small venue – makes me feel as if i was there. and the song is touching

[dobstey]

Morphine ~ Let's Take a Trip Together

[pinkfloyd-musicartnaturelove]

Such a sultry song by Morphine.

YOU LOOK LIKE RAIN - MORPHINE

Your mind and your experience call to me

You have lived and your intelligence is sexy

I want to know what you got to say

I want to know what you got to say

I want to know what you got to say

I can tell you taste like the sky

'Cause you look like rain

You look like rain

You look like rain

You look like rain

You look like rain

You think like a whip on a horse's back

Stretched out to the limit you make it crack

Send that horse 'round and 'round the track

I want to know what you got to say

I want to know what you got to say

I want to know what you got to say

I can tell you taste like the sky

'Cause you look like rain

You look like rain

You look like rain

You look like rain

[slowandsweet]

Morphine - In spite of me

[pabloalcantarasongs-blog]

O grave som do silêncio (para Mark Sandman)

Mar bravo O segundo anterior Do choque das ondas nas pedras O som Em baixa frequência Precede o estouro O estardalhaço Sei lá o que Isso quer dizer Mas sinto: Bate no peito

O limite entre música e a obra ali na esquina O limite entre música e o ronco do cachorro O limite entre música e o motor do avião Tão leve pelo ar E tão pesado

Um mundo pesado Desafinado e sem sentido Buscá-lo Causa dor E a cura Para cantá-la Fica mais bonito No sax tenor

Tão grave E tão leve pelo ar

O mundo lá Pesado Amarrado Por um fio, a vida Amarrada Por uma corda bamba No seu baixo, duas Cordas bombas Estourando e soando Tão grave no peito

E pesado Bate no peito o bumbo Bambas tremem Bombas gemem Sentidos, dores e segredos Tremem, gemem Nas pontas dos dedos Cordas Nós e calos

Em cima do palco Sente, treme, soa, geme Estoura O peito Uma bomba na pulsação do bumbo Nas bambas cordas O limite entre a música e o trovão O limite entre música e o grave som do silêncio De um coração Que para de bater

Tão grave E leve pelo ar O silêncio.

[minowly]

no more sleep

[bluemoonperegrine]

"Patience" by Mark Sandman

It was a journey to get to this song, but I'm glad that I did! I'll cut to the chase and link to the song before rambling about it.

If you've heard of the indie rock band Morphine, you've heard Mark Sandman. He was the lead vocalist and songwriter who died far too young. As I learned a little while ago, Sandman died in 1999 from a heart attack while performing.

Radio Paradise played "Hombre" off of "Sandbox," a retrospective collection of Sandman's work, neither of which I'd known existed. Although "Hombre" is good if not my cup of tea, I decided to try other songs on the album. I'm glad I did!

"Patience" is upbeat and catchy with ironic lyrics. The song features Sandman's bass vocals, the baritone saxophone that Morphine is known for, and--are you ready for this?--mandolins.

It's weird but it works.

Apparently Sandman was a creative genius. I say this based on his music and what I read on his wikipedia page.

EDITED TO ADD: The "Sandbox" album is incredible. Recommended!

[dinosaursr66]

Just one of those songs that clicks right away. Mark Sandman sings.

SONG OF THE DAY- January 22, 2023