Slint: "Good Morning Captain" (1991)

"Good Morning Captain" by Slint is the greatest song of all time.  Yesssssiree.

I find it difficult to use words to describe what a "hook" does to me, but I find it equally difficult to describe a song like "Good Morning Captain," which contains no hooks of note, yet is still the greatest song of all time.

Slint are "indie rock legends," in a way, but I doubt many contemporary "indie rockers" listen to Spiderland.  Contemporary indie rockers want "hooks"... and almost nothing else.  For a while now, the "independent" music scene-- the scene covered by Pitchfork, anyway-- seems to have forgotten-- nay, spat upon-- the very things which make Slint, and "Good Morning Captain," so timeless.  Namely...


Darkness: "Good Morning Captain," from its trebley, unsettling intro, to its brutal conclusion, is un-apologetically bleak.

Difficulty: Again, there's no hooks here, and Slint asks you to be patient for a bit... This is a long song, with no chorus.  Make no mistake, though, there is definitely catharsis.

Guitar Interplay: Spiderland is an unconventional guitar record, sure, but it's still a guitar record.  Riffs and solos have been replaced by harmonics, feedback screeches, and sudden explosions into distorted chordage.

The modern indie rock band, focused on whimsy and brightness and mass appeal, has forgotten the amount of power one can derive from darkness, difficulty, and guitar interplay.  So I wouldn't expect modern indie rockers to love "Good Morning Captain" immediately.  But that makes me wonder... Does anyone like "Good Morning Captain," or Spiderland, immediately?  And if, for some strange reason, some guy really does, can that person really be trusted to not be a serial killer?  I mean, you gotta be real fucked up to dig this song from the get go.  Like, in a real fucking bad way.


This is a harsh song.  But-- if you're good-- you'll come around to it.  And you'll start to realize that, hooks be damned, the song has a rather compelling structure to it.  And you'll start to feel that bass and drums pattern in your bones, and when that little mushroom cloud of feedback first blows up, you'll start to kind of like this crushing, all-encompassing depression, and when that second, much bigger burst of feedback erupts, and Brian McMahan starts screaming--for like the first time on the record-- and you start hearing the words "I MISS YOU" in the din, and the guitars riff on, and the rhythm slays for a moment, you'll wonder why you ever thought this thing was offputting at all, and you'll see that-- brutal as it is-- "Good Morning Captain" is kinda like "Stairway to Heaven," all buildup and buildup and buildup and CLIMAX, and you'll realize, wiping a tear from your eye, that

"Good Morning Captain" is the greatest song of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c