Checking in with yet another Fallen Friday. This one is borderline and I’m probably gonna catch some flack for it. Fuck it, I’m going out on the limb and I’m going to say that Alanis is a Fallen Friday candidate and here she is. I’m a fan and it sucks to say that. Who knows, it’s overly possible that she comes back with a vengence and I’ll have to eat my prediction.
Months before she hit it really big my new friend at the time in Vegas, Brian Festone, called me on the phone to tell me about Alanis. Said I had to go get the CD cause she was gonna blow up big. Boy did ever predict that one. Blow up big she did. I don’t have exact figures, though I believe she had or still has the largest selling debut album of all time. I did scrape together the bucks to buy the CD. It was raw, it was real, and it was damn good. Still is in fact.
I never really followed her career like a die-hard fan, but I have seen her live. I ended up at the time dating a girl who’s boss was Alanis’ manager. She got free tickets to see her in LA with Jason Falkner as the opener. I enjoyed the show to say the least. Another twist was that I knew her lead guitarist. We had talked about skiing and snowboarding a few times at a Boogie Knights gig in Canyon Country. Seems as though he’s spent time in Park City. My old stomping grounds. To get back to the show… I rather enjoyed her performance. She’s got a wacky stage presence. It probably goes along with her wacky sense of humor that sneaks out every so often. It’s too bad its not more often. She flails about and moves all over the stage. Makes great use of it.
Despite her strange humor that should show more often, she also has a tendency to take herself a bit to seriously in an unflattering way. I think I know someone else that does that too – maybe I should heed my own observations. It’s this over serious side that I think has led to her falling out with my taste. She has had moments of brilliance, but nothing like Jagged Little Pill. Then again, she was set up to fall from the beginning of that release. I mean, where do you go from selling more records on your debut than anyone? The answer: Down. It’s unfortunate but true.
Chances are you already own this song – very good. But there are still other gems to explore. If you haven’t, I’d recommend it. But proceed with caution. iTunes can certainly be helpfull for mining her catalog for those gems.
(** Disclaimer: If Madonna pulls the ace from her sleeve and trumps my kings, I’ll fold the audio faster than you can say Maverick. However, my laydown will become as famous as these words here. **)