Welcome to what I will call “Fallen Fridays”. It won’t be as often as a “Sunday’s Child”, but it will happen from time to time. You might be asking yourself, what exactly is a Fallen Friday Jody? Well, it’s my pick on a band that should have been huge, or might have actually had a hit, or even a mild hit. Only afterwards they managed to hit something else – Obscurity, fell out of the public’s eye, got dropped from their label, or any one of a number of things that led to their demise. What better way than to begin with one of my all-time favorite bands: Jellyfish.
I originally wanted to call this post Too Much, Too Little, Too Late. That would have summed them up perfectly with their song by the same title. However, it’s not on iTunes. Some genius somewhere decided that of the two CD’s Jellyfish officially released, only half of the songs on each one should be available for sale. How’s that for getting screwed even after you’ve been dropped?!? So, I’ve decided to go with another title Joining a Fan Club because that’s also something that the Jellyfish achieved in their demise – a fanatical following.
Seriously, this band should have destroyed the musical world with its talent. It was poised to do so. Then like so many other musical geniuses and their bands, something went horribly awry. I’m guessing that a major part of the problem was the label. Another part was probably the fact that Grunge was beginning to stomp out everything. And lastly, it could very well have been internal band egos as well. I have one story safely tucked away in my memory banks after a night at Largo (a famous musical spot in Hollywood). One night I was there watching an ex-member of Jellyfish, Jon Brion, play – he has residency there. An audience member, who shall remain annonymous, asked for something from another ex-band member and Jon went off on a tangent that probably depressed the whole room there to see him. It’s likely there are numerous other stories about it. But rather than add to the speculation, I’ll just leave it at that.
Anyway, at some point or another Jellyfish disbanded after a brief encounter with budding fame. The odd thing is, they are the only band I can think of where a full box-set was released by another label long after they broke up. The box-set had demos and outtakes of numerous songs that didn’t make the album, snippets from live performances and interviews, etc… Tons of unreleased stuff, all to appease the voracious appetite of Jellyfish fans. Do you know of another band that has a four disc box-set, that never was huge and only put out two albums? Best leave me a comment to back it up.
On to the song. This is the definition of a true fan, one who joins the fan club. As Andy Sturmer once said in a live show – I got burned by the KISS Army once… I’m sure that more than one Jellyfish fan feels the same. I never got to see them live. They broke up long before I had even heard of them. But man do I ever enjoy the music these guys created. I own both CD’s, I own the box-set. I have several bootlegs, I even have demos of stuff that didn’t make the box-set. I even own CD’s and bootleg demos from ex-band members that did things like Imperial Drag (Eric Dover, Roger Manning), Jon Brion (producing Fionna Apple), Bleu (whom I’ve showcased in a previous post) etc… Everyone involved with the Jellyfish was a true genius of music. You might not like their brand of pop which is very much like a modern version of Wings & Paul McCartney mixed with Foghat or something, but you have to respect the talent and the clever lyrics.
Oh I suppose I could also make that connection between Jason Falkner and Bleu now too. In case you are paying attention on a daily basis. Here it is: Jason Falkner was one of the Jellyfish’s live band members. So his two degrees go between Jason and Andy, then Andy to Bleu. See it didn’t take me long to spill that story. All of a day.
It’s truely sad when the music suits and number crunchers kill such creation. Despite that I believe you owe it to yourself to go buy every thing you can find that the Jellyfish recorded. It’s timeless music. It’s fun music. It’s inventive music. It’s easy to sing along to music. BUY IT!!!
Don’t like it? Tell me.
Stay tuned for future installments of “Fallen Fridays.”
(** Disclaimer – if the label that made so many dopey choices with this band decides that my blog isn’t conducive to helping them make more money off these true geniuses, I will pull the audio in such record time that Einstein would have to have invented time travel to make it any quicker. The words will remain though. **)