Nel 1991 i Mudhoney pubblicano "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge", il loro secondo full-length (lo storico esordio "Superfuzz Bigmuff" del 1988 è un mini). Per la precisione viene dato alle stampe in luglio e grazie al suo buon successo il gruppo si candida alla fama interanzionale. Purtroppo dopo due mesi, con l'avvento dei blasonatissimi "Nevermind" e "Ten", le 60.000 copie vendute di "Every Good Boy..." verranno ridotte ad un nonnulla dai milioni di album che venderanno i Nirvana e i Pearl Jam.
Un peccato: i Mudhoney, che sono tra i più rappresentativi e primordiali esponenti della scena di Seattle, hanno da sempre meritato miglior sorte. Sarà perché la loro musica non è mai stata accomodante e più di tanto orecchiabile, sarà perché i quattro, menefreghisti incompromissibili ed inguaribili casinari, non hanno mai avuto il carisma di portavoce generazionali come Kurt Cobain e Eddie Vedder, sta di fatto che i Mudhoney non hanno mai riscosso nemmeno un quarto del successo dei più celebri gruppi di Seattle. Eppure, senza nulla togliere ai precedenti lavori, "Every Good Boy..." è un album notevole perchè presenta un tocco di maturità in più rispetto al passato. Innanzitutto viene ampliato il dispiego di mezzi: è dunque possibile sentire un organo in tre canzoni (Generation Genocide, Who You Drivin' Now, Check-Out Time), un'armonica in due (Move Out, Pokin' Around), una presenza maggiore di slide (assieme all'armonica conferma che il blues fa parte del loro corredo), di chitarre ritmiche pulite ed acustiche in sottofondo. Inoltre il loro stile, benché riconoscibilissimo, suona più vario già dalle prime note, poichè la breve intro strumentale Generation Genocide è quasi un pezzo dark prog, con quel tempo dispari cadenzato e marziale, con quel riff sepolcrale suonato in concomitanza da organo e chitarra, con quel finale forsennato che a momenti ricorda i Van Der Graaf Generator più schizzati: si tratta indubbiamente del brano più atipico in scaletta, però testimonia che il gruppo si è aperto a moltplici influenze, comunque riviste e corrette con il tipico piglio graffiante e piacevolmente insolente.
La seconda traccia, Let It Slide, è una classica tirata à la Mudhoney, uno sfrontato rock'n'roll garagesco, ma il resto delle composizioni presenta delle piccole innovazioni applicate al loro sound, che prima di allora era quasi esclusivamente orientato agli Stooges e al più selvaggio garage dei Sessanta: ecco allora che si possono sentire più tentazioni melodiche (Good Enough, Move Out, Check-Out Time), rimandi ai Sonic Youth (Something So Clear, Don't Fade IV), soste in territori punk (Thorn, Into The Drink e anche Pokin' Around, nonostante l'innesto dell'armonica) e hardcore (Shoot The Moon), addirittura qualche reminiscenza surf (Fuzzgun '91). Ad ogni modo non è estinto il debito nei confronti degli Stooges: sembra proprio una loro canzone Who You Drivin' Now, e a poco conta la presenza dell'organo, e anche Broken Hands li ricorda, con quella semplice sequenza di accordi sviluppata su un climax ascendente di potenza e tensione, con quel tema che parte quieto quasi a costituire una perversa ballata per poi deflagrare in muri di chitarre e rumorismi finali.
"Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" è un ottimo lavoro e dopo averlo ascoltato viene naturale chiedersi il motivo per cui i Nostri non sono mai divenuti famosi. Mark Arm e soci non hanno mai aspirato a vendere milioni di copie e a ricevere dischi di platino, però la loro musica, così genuinamente oscurantista e caciarona, è una delle più interessanti sfaccettature del grunge. Se a loro tempo il successo l'hanno ottenuto modesti epigoni del cosiddetto "Seattle Sound" come gli Stone Temple Pilots (per non parlare di tutti gli scipiti gruppetti simil-Strokes che di questi tempi infestano le classifiche!), perché non darne un pò anche a band naturali ed autentiche come quella in questione?
Due parole più di ogni altre sono in grado di qualificare i Mudhoney: ingiustamente sottovalutati.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Let It Slide (02:35)
Let it slide
Let it slide
Let it slide
Let it slide
They can make it sound so nice
Everybody's got a price
Ho, ho, ho, ho
Give it away
Give it away
Give it away
Give it away
Nobody's here to stay
They own you to the grave
Ho, ho, ho, ho
Try to hide
Try to hide
Try to hide
Try to hide
Everybody's got a price
They can make it sound so nice
Ho, ho, ho, ho
Hell to pay
Hell to pay
Hell to pay
Hell to pay
They own you to the grave
Nobody's here to stay
Ho, ho, ho, ho
03 Good Enough (03:26)
I've made mistakes
That I'm sure I'll make again
Guess I liked them enough
The first time around
No way to fight them
No use denying
The way it grows
Uh-huh
Whatever happens
Never thought for a second
That I'd let go
Uh-huh
Everybody says
You must have lost your head
Well, one more time is good enough for me
Yeah, one more time is good enough for me
It's a hard road to your heart
And there was a time when I never thought I'd get that far
Uh-huh
Everybody says
You must have lost your head
Well, one more time is good enough for me
Yeah, one more time is good enough for me
04 Something So Clear (04:13)
Gray skies feel so good today
Gray skies feel so good today
Bring me cold, come rain
Clearing the prey of the way
Never thought something so clear
Never thought something so clear
Got it so bad
Should have seen it coming
Should have seen it coming
Like a bird flying at a window
Didn't see it coming
Didn't see it coming
Like a bad timing on the sidewalk
Never thought something so clear
Never thought something so clear
Got it so bad
There's a certain comfort in being confused
I find certain comfort in being confused
It's clear to me, and it's clear to you
No more confusion with you
Never thought something so clear
Never thought something so clear
Got so bad
Got
05 Thorn (02:10)
I've got a thorn in my side
About the size of your eye
I feel it sticking through
I feel it sticking through
You're all watching for me
With such intensity
It doesn't matter what I do
It doesn't matter what I do
Take your eyes off me
Maybe then you'll see
The world was sticking at you
The world was watching you
You're just a thorn in my side
Wasting effort, wasting time
It doesn't matter what I do
It doesn't matter what I do
It doesn't matter what I do
Your world is dying too
(Well, my baby left me
Well, my baby left me
Yeah, she ran
That's right, she ran
Well, I got all the time in the stinking world
And a shotgun in my hand)
06 Into the Drink (02:08)
You're messing, baby, messing hard
Messing all the time
Messing, sugar, messing busy
You're messing in my mind
Well, I don't got what you want
And I don't care what you think
Better back off, back off, back off, baby
You'll get dumped into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
I don't need your judgment
And I don't believe your lies
I don't feel your lousy love
I got rights to exercise
But I don't got what you want
And I don't care what you think
Better back off, back off, back off, baby
You'll get dumped into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
Your useless piece of weaponry
Will never shoot me down
If I didn't do it, no one could
So waste another round
Well, I don't got what you want
And I don't care what you think
Better back off, back off, back off, baby
If you don't, into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
Into the drink
08 Who You Drivin' Now? (02:21)
(Oh who you drivin' baby? all right
Sing it with me baby, all right
Hoo, hoo, hoo
Now
Now)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey girl
Watch what you're doing
The way you keep running around
Gonna be a ruin
Drivin' reckless in your pinto
Full tank of gas
When you get rear ended, girl
Gonna be a hell of a crash
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin' now?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, girl
Wrap him around your finger
All the boys follow you
But you don't got the singer
You're drivin' my T-Bird
But the gauge is on empty
Don't get in, don't look back
You got no fuel left
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin' now?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin'?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin'?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin'?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Who you drivin' now?
Now
10 Shoot the Moon (02:27)
Looking for a life in the back of your mind
Looking so hard, you're going blind
Swear you tasted it, down the sun
Sooner or later, darkness will come
I've seen it
It's getting dark
It's getting dark
It's getting
On your high horse overlooking the plains
You're in a place where no one remains
Shoot the moon, it's already shot
It's coming for you or. are you gone?
I've seen it
It scares me
It scares you
It's so
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Can't keep on holding her
That's too fun
You know she's gone
She's no longer around
Can't keep on holding her
That's too fun
You know she's gone
She's no longer around
She's no longer around
No longer around
No longer around
No longer around
No longer around
No longer around
No longer around
No longer around
12 Pokin' Around (03:30)
Alone the kitchen with the
Crap in the cupboard
You save for later
For when he leaves you all alone
You're so excited
He's finally gone
You used to miss him
Now you're so turned on
You used to miss him
Now you're so turned on
Pokin' around
Gotten out of hand
I feel for you
I feel for you
Pokin' around
Lover you can't stand
I feel for you
I feel for
I hover above you
Looking over your shoulder
In the dingy kitchen
You're looking so much older
He's out on the town
Looking for you
Living the way you'd like
You make your own truth
Livin' the way you'd like
You make your own truth
Pokin' around
Gotten out of hand
I feel for you
I feel for you
Pokin' around
Wants another hole
I feel for you
I feel for you
Pokin' around
Lover, you can't stand
I feel for you
I feel for you
13 Don't Fade IV (03:58)
(zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz)
My dreams are turned to rust
Leaving nothing, and nothing is enough
Today
Today
So broken up, way down inside
Too hurt to try to hide
Away
Away
I had that dream again last night
That I woke up to everything all right
Dream
Don't fade away
Dream
Don't fade into another shitty day
Out my window it only gets worse
In my mirror it's getting worse
Look away
I had that dream again last night
That I woke up to everything all right
Dream
Don't fade away
Dream
Don't fade into another shitty day
I have this dream every night
The same dream again and again
I dream I'm awake
And everything
Is all right
Dream
Don't fade away
Dream
Don't fade away
Dream
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