February 28, 2021 Classic Seether Gasoline - A New Adventure

I  definitely had trouble picking the next album to cover.  Verbally rather than the musical definition of cover.  I have been listening to Disclaimer II, Seether 2002-2013 [greatest hits] and Holdings Onto Strings Better Left to Fray.  And of course Fragile.  The plethora of choices.  The depth of indecision.  And yet, I'm going to pick one so I can procrastinate doing my taxes for a bit longer.  I need to do a correction from a previous post.  The alternate radio station in my state does play Seether!  The afternoon lineup was Trapt, Stone Sour, Collective Soul, 3 Doors Down, Foo Fighters, Tool, Bush and Seether.  Ha!

I decided on Seether 2002-2013, for several reasons, and I'm going to do a different take on it. The first disc starts with Fine Again, Driven Under, Gasoline, and Broken.  Those four and the two on the second disc, Out of My Way and Hang On were previously released on Disclaimer II and Remedy, Truth and The Gift were on Karma and Effect, 2004 and 2005 respectively.  The first three were originally on the Saron Gas album, Fragile, released in 2000, so they have been with us over 20 years.  At this point, they are rock music equivalents of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and there is no way I'm going to review them.  It was ballsy enough for me to review the newer ones.  

Although I've played guitar for many years, it's been either classical guitar or folk music with a nylon string acoustic.  In fact, I hadn't played for so long, I had to practice again to get the calluses back on the fingertips of my left hand.  So I have a vintage electric guitar [mine by marriage that is].  I replaced the strings today, helped by a brief You Tube tutorial, after struggling with the lower E for 15 minutes; it's different putting on classical nylon strings.  You'd think not, but it is.  So my take on these songs is, can I learn to play rock guitar by learning to play classic Seether songs?  You will recall that Shaun said in an interview that he learned to play guitar by learning to play all the songs on a Nirvana album.  I have an advantage in that I have played a guitar before and can read music to some extent, although I don't know how much help the latter will be.  On the down side, I had an electric guitar for about 5 minutes when I was 17 and that is the extent of my steel string experience.  Think finger picking, not using a pick.  My classic frets only go to up to 12 before the body of the guitar gets in the way.  With the electric guitar cut-out, there are 9 more above that.  This should be interesting.

Song choice #1 Gasoline.  I didn't like this song from when I remember hearing it on radio back when it came out.  First impression was that the lyrics are misogynistic.  I've heard of more than one woman not liking this song because of that.  Even in a very recent post on a Seether Facebook site, the poster mentioned that his girlfriend hated it*. When I really listened to the lyrics, I found that it isn't that way at all.  Considering Shaun and Dale were 22 and 21 when it first came out, I may have had a preconceived idea based on their genders and ages.  Basically the song is about the male protagonist's intense interest in a beautiful woman who doesn't have time for him and doesn't really like him.  May even be unrequited love from afar.  He is looking to attract her attention by incendiary means.  I personally think the line, "I wanna waste her monthly blood, wanna get some on my love" taken literally shows rather forward thinking attitudes.  If they were just going for the rhyme, that's o.k. too.  A rather sexy line, really, if that doesn't creep you out.  What's the first thing you think of when he sings "on my love".  O.K., maybe it's just me.

The guitar part is stellar in Gasoline and I'm hoping that it may be easier to learn that the later ones?  Probably just wishful thinking, but the young man on the You Tube tutorial, who is definitely young enough to be my son, is hopefully going to show me how to play it.  Hell, technically I'm old enough to be Shaun and Dale's mom.  Not quite old enough to be John's mom.  At least I have that.  So wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes.

A special shout out to Dale for the absolutely appalling photos of  Toilets from Around the World, which are featured in the liner notes [the toilets are appalling, not the photos.]  Some of the worst I've seen.  Although the worst I've seen personally was in a gas station on the border between Utah and California in the 1970's.  No toilet, just a hole in the stall where the toilet used to be.  People were still using it.  Not just touring musicians have the joy of relying on the dubious cleanliness of public toilets [and port-a-potties at some venues], they just have more of a chance to encounter them than those of us with a more stationary workplace.  Here is one of the pages of Dale's photos. [I wonder if he's considered putting out a Toilets of the World travel book with geographic notes.]

I am especially enamored of the one on the bottom, second from the left.  Sit down?  I think not!

My husband works on construction sites and will take a detour home whenever he is able to use his "home base" rather than a worksite Honey Pot.  O.K., here's the home base argument.  I claim that the toilet seat should stay down because between the two of us, the seat needs to be down 3/4 of the time, two for me and one for him.  He claims because he pees a lot more of the time than he needs to poop, the percentage for seat up should be higher than 1/4 of the time.  I don't buy it.  Thankfully, we have two bathrooms, so we are at a truce.

I will leave you with the overwhelmingly more attractive photo of Seether from the inside of the cover.  Now if I wasn't a mature, sensible woman, I would mention how gorgeous Dale's blue eyes are.  But of course, I'm too grown up to say anything like that.

EM

*I was wrong, it wasn't Gasoline, it was Driven Under.

PS. Outstanding Shaun Morgan and/or Seether covers of songs:  Seether covers Creep by Stone Temple Pilots.  Shaun Morgan of Seether covering Knockin' on Heaven's Door.  Seether - The Needle And The Damage Done.  Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog) by Shaun Morgan /Seether & Adam Gontier/Saint Asonia in 360˚ VR.  Have you see the recordings in 360, they are awesome!  You can rotate around the screen and see everyone in the circle, the ceiling, their shoes.  How cool is that?

December 2024 I can put up with their cover of  "Careless Whisper" (George Michael) because it's Seether, but the line "Guilty feet have got no rhythm" always annoyed me--Yes They Do! Perhaps I'm overthinking this.  Recently listened to Shaun singing, "I've Got You Under My Skin."  Whatever they are doing, it's way creepier than the Frank Sinatra version.  Here I was thinking it was a nice romantic song.  Black Honey (cover of Thrice) and the newest cover a 21 Pilot song, "Jumpsuit."  Just outstanding!