Song of the Day – “Fire in the Head” by The Tea Party

So I borrowed a CD from a friend today.  I listened to it on my way home.  Not bad.  Not original.  Not going to listen to it again or get it for myself.

The band is called “Big Elf”.  Now, at first I thought that Ronnie James Dio had “bulked-up” as they say… taken a bunch of steroids and was now in a bigger version of his early 70s band “Elf”.

No, there ain’t no Ronnie James Dios around here.  Let me take a peek at Wikipedia.

Hmm… Wikipedia doesn’t have a page on this band.  I think they’re from England.  They sound like Lenny Kravitz mixed with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.  Not a bad formula, but you can sure tell it’s a formula.  They also managed to rip off The Doors and Pink Floyd, and they did their Floyd impersonation a number of times.

Like I said, not original, but enjoyable nonetheless.  I was a bit leery of listening to the disc at first because the cover showed all the band members with long hair and beards.  No, not like ZZ Top.  I’m talking neatly trimmed facial hair.  One guy had a big top hat.  But the music certainly was better than the cheesy album cover.

So what does any of this have to do with today’s song?

Not much, except for when I mentioned The Doors.  Back in the 90s in Canada, The Tea Party was pretty big.  I remember before I had heard them I had seen them described as a cross between Led Zeppelin and The Doors.  Do you know what?  To a lot of people, those were the only two bands that ever existed in the late 60s and early 70s.

I’ve heard LOTS of bands described as sounding like Led Zeppelin.  The Tea Party sounds like Led Zeppelin only as far as they used the same kind of instruments: guitar, bass, drums.  If you want to hear a band that sounds like Led Zeppelin, pick up Rush’s first album.

The lead singer of The Tea Party does sound a bit like Jim Morrison sometimes.  Now this is because of his vocal range being about the same as J.M.’s.  I’m sure there’s no other connection there.  Oh wait… singer/guitarist was in a Doors tribute band.

Well, two thirds of Nirvana were once in a C.C.R. tribute band.  Figure THAT one out.

This song is from The Tea Party’s second album… second real album anyway, as they re-recorded their independently released first album and consider that to be their first album.

It’s a fucking amazing song.  Very powerful and very brooding… let’s throw some more adjectives in there… chugging, pounding, majestic, dramatic, emo…

Did I just say emo?

I used to get VERY emotional when I listened to “The Edges of Twilight” album after I broke up with my ex.  That’s the album this song comes from.

But I grew up.  Now, I can’t really stand some of the lyrics… they’re so fucking emo!

“Does it tear you apart… my love?

Does it tear you apart… my love?

Cause it tears me apart….. yes it tears me apart!”

Okay.  Time to get over it, folks.

Come to phink of it, The Doors were pretty damn emo too.  When I was in high school, I thought they were thought-provoking and poetic.  Well, time teaches, don’t it?

And like Rod Stewart said, “Every Picture Tells A Story Donut”.

I don’t know what the fuck that means.  What exactly is a “story donut”?  I don’t like donuts.  They give me headaches.

I get headaches from certain brands of pre-packaged foods.  It’s fucking infuriating, not to mention painful.  I kept a database of ingredients one time, and of all the foods that gave me bad headaches, there was not one single common ingredient among them.

But thank FSM that I no longer get headaches from Chef Boyardee!!!

Zoy!

Are you done listening to that song yet?  I’m just trying to remember if there’s anything else I wanted to say about it.

Brooding.

No wait, I already said that.

Good song, no?