Album: Behind The Parade
Year: 2011
. . .
Thirty years down the line from his first solo album, and a quarter-century after his shot at becoming the star he shoulda been, Tommy Keene was still cranking out great music.
And in fact, I would rank 2011’s Behind The Parade as maybe his second best album, after Songs From The Film, as songs like “Running For Your Life,” “Nowhere Drag,” “Factory Town” and especially the opening track, “Deep Six Saturday,” were pure power pop poetry.
Like his previous two albums, 2009’s In The Late Bright and 2006’s Crashing The Ether, most of the instrumentation on Behind The Parade — outside of the drums, of course — was performed entirely by Keene. Which meant that is was his crunching Townshend-like rhythm guitar and melodic bass that you heard from the start.
We’ll find a deep six Saturday
Going on a go by holidayOur fortified world is tumbling down
Ready for the night to turn around
I’m not sure what a “deep six Saturday” is, exactly, but it sounds like a lot of fun. I’m also not sure if it leads with the chorus or leads with the verse — I think it leads with the verse — but I do love the stop-time bridge.
All along this side view
When the max out finds you
There’s a new upholstery
Make the most of your scene now
And I love most what comes after it: a trumpet — courtesy of Chris Bautista — calling the melody line of “we’ll find a deep six Saturday,” with Keene responding on guitar. It comes out of nowhere, and totally takes the song to another level, and the disappears until the end of the song.
By which point, Keene sings “we’ll find a deep six Saturday” a couple of times, and the just chants “Saturday” a few times until Bautista comes back in and takes the song into its fade.
“Deep Six Saturday” was catchy enough that they made a video for it, forgetting that it was 2011, and there wasn’t a chance that Keene’s music was going to catch on at that late date. As much as I’d love for it to have done.
“Deep Six Saturday” (Official Video)
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