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I could be wrong about this, but to the best of my knowledge The Smithereens' "Blood and Roses" was the last good song on mainstream radio. I was living in New York City when Especially For You came out, eking out a living at a publishing house. I was so poor that the only way I could afford to join a gym was if I ran into work from Queens, saving the buck on subway fare and spending it, more or less, on a monthly membership at the 23rd Street YMCA. Running over the Queensboro Bridge isn't the most pleasant experience, and the situation gets worse as you cross into the city, making your way deliberately downtown. Once on Sixth Avenue near Macy's a homeless guy reached out and socked me in the stomach for no reason at all.
A battered radio player was my only company, its dial so insensitive that I could basically only get WNEW. Fortunately, that station didn't quite suck yet. They were still breaking new bands, at least some of the time. In the summer of 1986, they began playing "Blood and Roses", and to this day the thundering bass at the beginning of the track calls to mind barely light mornings, the guy feeding pigeons under the bridge on the Queens side, the swirl of garbage and the roar of city buses.
WNEW was on the verge of becoming a classic rock station, and in some ways it makes sense that Especially For You was one of the last new records to make their cut. The Smithereens were a bar-hardened New Jersey foursome: Pat DiNizio on guitar and vocals, Dennis Dikken on drums, Jim Babjack on guitar and Mike Mesaros on bass. They played deeply unfashionable, classically-influenced rock. The band had made their start backing Otis Blackwell, the songwriter best known for penning Elvis Presley's "Return to Sender" and Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire". They brought a Britpop sheen to their hard-rocking sound, blending The Who with Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello with Chuck Berry. They were doing garage before the Strokes hit middle school, before Lenny Kaye dredged up his first Nugget.
Especially For You was the band's first full-length album, bringing together about five years' worth of club-tested favorites into a single package. Produced by Don Dixon (REM, Marshall Crenshaw) with Suzanne Vega and Marshall Crenshaw making brief appearances, it is a remarkably consistent album, with hardly a weak moment. It starts with the dark yet buoyant "Strangers When We Meet", whose minor chords and mournful lyrics are set against a soaring doo-wah chorus. "Listen to Me Girl", which follows, is a slow, jangly stomp, as wry and offhandedly hooky as Crenshaw's "Cynical Girl". There's a tension in nearly every song between the pure joy of power pop and an underlying melancholy; for instance, in "Groovy Tueday", the effortless chorus of "Woke up on a groovy Tuesday" leads inexorably into the observation that "nothing lasts". The two ideas are layered over one another in the song's final moments, creating a tune that could be happy or sad depending on who's listening.
The Smithereens excelled at taking very familiar musical ideas and making them fresh again. The guitar opening to "Time and Time Again" is classic '50s rock and roll; its sweet harmonic chorus could come from any '60s boy group. The song is instantly familiar, yet also completely of and by itself. It's not a rip-off, not even an homage -- more like a channelling of the spirit of old rock and roll.
Especially for You contains two really great tracks, the kind of songs that, as Craig Finn might put it, "get scratched into your soul". The first of these is the gorgeous "Behind the Wall of Sleep", all ringing guitars and unstoppable hooks. The track's mod British tinge even extends to the lyrics, an unforgettable description of a female bass player who "had hair like Jeanie Shrimpton back in 1965..." and who "stood just like Bill Wyman." There has never been a cool romantic like Pat DiNizio, stepping back out of himself to observe while his character throws himself on love's mercy.
The second great song is "Blood and Roses", with its meandering bassline and insinuating minor-key melody. The song is about love and disillusion; a girl falls out of a relationship with the observation, "I want to love but it comes out wrong / I want to live but I don't be long / I close my eyes and I see blood and roses." I can't figure out why this song doesn't come across as overdramatic or overblown, but it doesn't. Maybe it's the sincere, simple rock and roll under the alienation, maybe it's the way the words meld to the melody. You can't really pinpoint what makes a rock and roll song exceptional, but this one is.
There's a bit of a dip after that -- how could there not be? -- with the rockabilly-ish "Crazy Mixed Up Kid" and the Byrdsian jangle of "Hand of Glory". The vinyl version closes with the gently soaring "Alone at Midnight", while the CD reissue goes on to append "White Castle Blues", a live staple co-written by DiNizio and Babjak.
The Smithereens went on to release four more albums of new material, plus compilations of their greatest hits (Blown to Smithereens) and unreleased rarities (Attack of the Smithereens). DiNizio emerged as a reform party candidate for the New Jersey senate in 2000, eventually losing to massively financed Goldman Sachs partner Jon Corzine in the general election. The band, however, never broke up, and still occasionally plays shows in the New York and New Jersey area.
As for me, I eventually got a better job and stopped running to work (I couldn't figure out how to get a winter coat into my backpack, for one thing). WNEW became completely unlistenable over time, but since I was no longer eligible for food stamps, I splurged that winter on the first of many tape Walkmans. I did feel betrayed by the radio -- I think everyone my age who loved music felt that way at one time or another -- but at least I'd found out about one more excellent band.
-- Jennifer Kelly
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