The Meat Man was always pushing.  “Watch this, listen to this.”  To his credit, he introduced me to a lot of music this way.  He wasn’t so open to my suggestions, but Roky Erickson is a personal favourite now that I discovered through Meat, by watching the Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways series.  Most of things he pushed me to watch or listen to never stuck.  A few, like the Moody Blues and Roky, did stick through multiple years.

Over the Christmas holidays of 2014, he pushed again and we spent an entire day watching the Sonic Highways series.  I took down his comments, and wrote eight reviews on the fly in a single day.  Eight hours of viewing, eight hours of writing.  I resented a lot of his pushing, but this time, the push was really worth it.

I wanted him to return in the new year to help me finish and get the series posted.  What he realized then, and I did not, was that the series was already finished.  It didn’t need any polishing.  Sure, it could have used some more connective tissue but the key words were all there.  I waited and waited for his return, but he was simply not interested in revisiting.  So the reviews sat there unpublished for nine years, until I finally decided to post them now.

I’ve never written a song by song review of an album before so this was something that only ever happened once.  I’m grateful that I did it and I hope you enjoy it.  I owe Meat a thanks for pushing me this time.  I haven’t played the album since.

 

Sonic Highways 1 – Chicago “Something From Nothing”

 

Sonic Highways 2 – Washington – “The Feast and the Famine”

 

Sonic Highways 3 – Nashville “Congregation”

 

Sonic Highways 4 – Austin – “What Did I Do?/God as my Witness”

 

Sonic Highways 5 – Los Angeles – “Outside”

 

Sonic Highways 6 – New Orleans – “In the Clear”

 

Sonic Highways – 7 Seattle – “Subterranean”

 

Sonic Highways 8 – New York – “I am a River”

 

4/5 stars (album)

5/5 stars (series)

 

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