For years, I’ve considered doing a post about my favorite “yeahs” in music.
Yeah, you read that right.
I’m specifically talking about those emphatic moments wherein an artist is so caught up in the proceedings that he/she can’t help themselves from augmenting the song with an extra bit of monosyllabic emphasis.
The trouble with this idea — beyond it being irretrievably trivial — is that I could never find all the clips readily available on YouTube at any single time.
The list has also kept changing. There are some I’d initially thought of reluctantly including (specifically two lamentably 90’s choices — Layne Staley’s clipped “yeah” during the guitar break in “Them Bones” by Alice and Chains and Billy Corgan’s towards the climax of “Siva” by the Smashing Pumpkins … two bands I’ve really never been especially thrilled with), that I later entirely jettisoned.
As such, I never bothered to do a post. This afternoon, however, following a spirited discussion with a friend over some mid-afternoon beers at Vazac’s Horseshoe Bar on Avenue B regarding the under-praised merits of Flaming Pablum favorites Cop Shoot Cop, I did some perusing around YouTube.
It’s not so much a list as, well, a pair, but here are my two favorite “yeahs."
First is Tod [A]’s gravelly segue into the full, belligerent blossom of the live version of “Shine On, Elizabeth,” originally from the “Room 429” e.p. Hear it at precisely 0:22, ushering in the clanky clamor of Cop Shoot Cop at their most feral.
My second is from the live bonus disc that initially accompanied 1998’s The Best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.” Towards the climax of a particularly rousing trek through “Red Right Hand,” Mr. Cave emphatically declares his hearty endorsement of the band’s execution at precisely 04:47. It never fails to get my blood goin’.
What are your favorites?
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