On the twenty-fifth anniversary of "Lemon Parade", it is my mind telling the story. Twenty-five years of memories, accelerating with each new calendar. I feel like my eyes have opened from a brief nap, and yet five years have passed since the last time I sat down to contemplate my thoughts on the record. That anniversary saw Tonic gift us with their acoustic version of the album. After twenty years, it was remarkable to be able to hear a record I was so familiar with in a new light. Stripped of the post-grunge guitar haze, and letting the resonance of the strings fill the sonic space, a statement was made for how timeless great songs can be. Playing a song on an acoustic guitar can be a daring endeavor, because there is nothing to hide your shortcomings behind.
Five years on, my thoughts regarding "Lemon Parade" have not changed. I still list it as my favorite album of all time, but the way I think about the album has shifted more from the present to the past. With the amount of new music released every year, I don't get to listen to every favorite from the past as much as I might like to, and when I do want to listen to Tonic, I have found myself gravitating towards "Head On Straight" as the more easily replayable album.
That is perhaps because "Lemon Parade" is an album that is quite timeless, but also entirely of its time. Listening to it today, the haze that sits over the guitar distortion could have only come from the post-grunge era. Tonic's songwriting was always classic rock at its core, but the record does not sound like an album from the 70s. At least in terms of production it doesn't. The songs themselves are entirely classic, and presented with a diversity of sound, structure, and approach that fits the mold of historic records like "Led Zeppelin IV". It takes a deft touch to make the hard hitting two-note riff of "Casual Affair" sit alongside a delicate ballad like "Mr. Golden Deal". Diverse records don't always sound cohesive, in part because songwriters are not always able to adapt their voice to more than one niche.
In recent years, I have often found myself saying that Graveyard's first three albums are the best run of pure rock and roll of the last fifteen years. They took the foundational blocks of classic rock, and updated them for a new era and a new audience. It struck me recently that the reason I love those records is the same reason I love "Lemon Parade". Both gave me a taste of a time I was not alive for, nor can quite understand looking back at them from the present day. But listening to their music, I can feel the tingle of excitement that must have filled the grooves of every new vinyl put on the turn-table. It was an exciting time as rock was evolving into what it would eventually become, and it's something that can't be replicated anymore. Rock is largely stagnant, because the bands of today have a narrower set of influences, most of whom are the original rock bands, so the focus continues to grow ever narrower.
"Lemon Parade" opened my ears to a world of new possibilities. More than just introducing me to who has endured for twenty years as my favorite band, this album was the first step in my journey to becoming a rocker. That fact only dawned on me recently, as compiling lists of old favorite songs reminded me I was in a very different place in the years leading up to hearing "If You Could Only See". The shift in my taste was obvious in the songs from before and after that time, which I never realized as it was happening.
Tonic has always been important to me, not just because of how much I loved the music, but because it was the strumming guitar as Emerson sang the opening line of their biggest hit, and the drive of the riff in "You Wanted More", that made me want to pick up an instrument. While there are other influences that have contributed as much to my songwriting, Tonic is the reason I am a musician. In these last five years, I have come to realize I would not be the same person if it wasn't for "Lemon Parade". So much of my own identity is wrapped up in being a creative soul, I'm not sure what I would be without that. It all started with a pen being put to paper, imagining the sound of chords I didn't yet know how to play. I am who I am because I have outlets to say things that are hard to explain.
There are inflection points in every life where we are pointed in directions, whether we know it or not. For me, "Lemon Parade" is one of the markers of a turn, and I'm still learning where that road will take me. All I know for sure is twenty-five years later, I am still traveling in the same direction, and I still have the same songs running through my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment