The Hold Steady kicked off their recorded output in March 2004 with a track called Positive Jam. The song begins with two minutes of spoken word-esque pretext, lead singer Craig Finn rattling through historical woes and cycles of calamity. And then the guitars kick in, and the Hold Steady step into the world.
The podcast A Positive Jam kicks off our recorded output by breaking down ‘Positive Jam’ for our first full episode, as the first episode breaking down Almost Killed Me, the Hold Steady’s debut album. Hosts Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman are joined by Matt Brooks to talk about how this sets the road map for the Hold Steady’s career, why the song works, and also whether it actually works as a stand-alone.
Here’s the episode itself.
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Here are a few categories and things to listen for, in the song itself and in our podcast:
Best Line in the song: We got shiftless in the fifties / Holding hands and going steady / Twisting into dark parts of big Midwestern cities.
Best musical moment: The feedback at the 2:15 mark building and giving way to huge guitar chords and solo guitar licks panning from one side of your stereo sound to the other.
Billy Joel/Bruce Springsteen or AC/DC/Thin Lizzy?: Every Hold Steady track seems to exist on this spectrum. It’s a contrast between loud, guitar-driven rock that takes no prisoners and more of a soulful, troubador lyricism both in the melody and the lyrics themselves. Like any band, the Hold Steady is at their best when they forge their influences into a unique sound. But it’s still fun to try to rank their songs by which side of the line they’re closer to, so we do that frequently on our podcast’s episodes. And even if we don’t remember to do so live, we can revisit here thanks to our handy graphics department.
On ‘Positive Jam’ as many a Hold Steady track, it’s a song of two parts. The first part, with the Dmsus2 to Dm back and forth, is more lyrically driven. Craig Finn’s nearly spoken lyrics take us through history with a social awareness that drives the song to the Billy & Bruce side of the scale. But once the guitars kick in (see above), this becomes one of their hardest rockers, even if the rhythmic drive is in low gear. That ending outweighs the pensive start, and so we rank this closer to the AC/DC and Thin Lizzy side of the line.
Worst Take of the episode: Daniel comparing “Positive Jam” to both Rebecca Black’s “Friday” and Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, though it makes more sense when you listen to it.
Biggest question: Does this song work on its own, or only as a curtain-raiser? Matt and Mike lean towards no, Daniel towards yes.
Background reading: Here’s a link to the Vulture interview Matt referred to.
Review of the week: Shout out to the one year old, who had this to say:
Thanks, the one year old! A Positive Jam, a podcast for all ages.
For the audience: How important is ‘Positive Jam’ to a Hold Steady concert? A staple? Forgettable? In between?