By the grace of God go I into the great unknown

I wrote a couple posts about Kurt Cobain a while back. In one, I said that Dan Bern’s Kurt was the best song written about Cobain. While I’m not going to back away from that statement entirely, ever since I wrote it, I have been meaning to bring up another fantastic song that certainly challenges for the title:

Mighty KC

This song, from the record Example by the criminally underrecognized For Squirrels, is one of the most touching and magical songs ever written about loss and death. It starts out dark and stormy, and about a one minute the morass solidifies into a desperate sense of anger and loss (“send me off the morgue I’m ready to be buried away in my bed…and I’m alone without the sun”).

But then, just when the crackling of his voice is almost unbearable, the loss is reappropriated into a sense of transcendent wonder (“by the grace of god go I into the great unknown”).The rest of the song teeters back and forth between these perspectives without any clear resolution yet still leaving you with a sense of fulfillment.

It got a mention from Stylus a little bit back in their Top 10 Songs By Artists About Other Artists, which is pretty cool, though I strongly disagree with their characterization of them as a “third-rate grunge band.”

I first found out about For Squirrels in 1996 from my best friend who was moderately obsessed with Nirvana and Cobain. On the first listen to this song, I was hooked, and my love for the band has only grown over the last decade. I really don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that Example is one of the best, if not the very best, of the mid-90s post-grunge albums.

The tragedy is that, just as this band was coming into their own, their van crashed, killing singer Jack Vigliatura and bassist Bill White, ending the band forever. That means we’ll never get to find out what else they were capable of, and Example, which could have been their staging ground, ended up as their swansong.

To give a little more perspective, two of my other favorites:

8:02 PM
Disenchanted

The former is fast-paced rocker strongly reminiscent of the best of REM from the 80s. The latter is more slow-paced, taking its time to build to a momomentous peak. It’s the southern-tinged version of the song Snow Patrol has been trying to write for years. In particular, check out the area around 4:00 (“I will never bow to the ages…”) which fades into an extended coda that would make the Beatles proud.

Speaking of the Beatles, “Under Smithville” captures everything great about the jangly, melodious pop song. “Orangeworker” is another strong cocontributor along those lines. And tracks like “Superstar” and “Long Live the King” show they were capable of tapping into the more intense side of rock and roll, too.

If you’re interested in hearing more, I strongly recommend tracking down a copy for yourself. You can also hear a bunch of live stuff and earlier songs at ForSquirrels.net.