Detail of "Wallet-washing on Ash Wednesday" by Lothar Rohrer, 1978
"Let Me In" is a pretty common title - Bo Diddley, Young Buck, Jefferson Airplane, the Beau Brummels, and others all recorded songs called "Let Me In", but we only look to the real heavy-hitters when it comes to the Title Fight. So, obviously, the first contender here is the Osmonds. The Osmonds rarely get enough credit for the two hard-rock albums they recorded in the early '70s - people remember "Crazy Horses", but the Osmonds recorded two whole albums of songs of that level of "weird" in 1972 and 1973. Their "Let Me In" comes from The Plan, and album that is (I am NOT kidding about this) a hard-rock opera about Mormon theology, told chronologically from the beginning of time through the end of the world. It is an ambitious and confusingly eclectic album, but it's become something of a favorite of collectors. "Let Me In" was one of the album's two not-so-successful singles, but it's a nice ballad reminiscent of post-Pet-Sounds Beach Boys. Merrill Osmond sings lead, and the song builds to a big corny chorus with all the brothers singing in harmony. The song suffers a little outside the context of The Plan, where it offers a respite from some of the album's crazier moments, but it's a solid pop song from an under-appreciated group.
Speaking of crazy hard-rock albums, REM's 1994 album Monster is considered by many to be the low point in their almost 30-year career. And with good reason. But "Let Me In" is the album's odd man out, a song unlike anything else in the REM discography. The song takes the Monster signature distorted guitar and places it in isolation. Under the waves of distortion, Michael Stipe sings with an understated delivery that fans thought he'd left behind at IRS Records. Gradually, a couple additional components come into the arrangement - first a tambourine and then a nice organ part at the 2-minute mark. Stipe goes into his upper register together with the organ on the final chorus, finally rising above the feedback in a moment that's poignant (possibly more so if you manage to forget that he's singing about Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix). It's impossible for me to hear this song without remembering the way REM performed it on the Monster tour, with Mike Mills wailing on Cobain's old Jagstang in his nudie suit under the spotlight as Stipe sang out of the shadows, while Peter Buck hunched over the organ at the side of the stage. I think I have to give this one to REM.
Winner: REM
"Let Me In" by the Osmonds
"Let Me In" by REM
2 comments:
The Osmonds song is so much better it's not funny. #2 hit in the UK, did you know that? Thanks Wikipedia.
Good week for a post on The Plan, since everyone and their brother will be liveblogging the finale of a science-fiction TV show based on Mormon theology.
The Plan is SO weird - apparently, the Osmonds had the whole thing planned out on paper but lost their outline in a hotel fire. The album is an attempt to recreate the original "plan", and it really comes across that way because it's a mish-mash of different ideas and half-remembered snippets. The other song that was a minor hit in the UK, "Goin' Home", is the best song on the record.
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