95. Mission of Burma - That’s When I Reach for My Revolver
This is cringe, but I first heard and truly connected with this song on Guitar Hero. In the decade plus since then I’ve at least sought out Signals, Calls, and Marches and put it in rotation. Academy Fight Song is another strong candidate for this list, but how can you not love Revolver?
Thinking about writing this today made me think about punk and underground and authenticity. I went to a handful of punk shows when I was struggling financially after college, living in a south Philly shithole apartment with bedbugs and mice and a cokehead slumlord whom I shared a wall with. I rode a bus for 40 minutes or walked for an hour to get to my job in a shiny, fancy high rise building where I had to wear a nice ironed button up shirt and worked with really formal people and be on and corporate all the time even though it was a nonprofit and I was making ~$30k. My student loans were more monthly than my rent payment, and my beer and concert budget was pretty unpredictable, so the free or $5 shows at Kung Fu Necktie or tiny clubs like that were a respite.
I felt like an outsider to the scene no matter what, though I tried on the costume and lifestyle variously for a while. That’s kind of how I feel about certain genres like punk or hip hop or jazz, like, I wasn’t there when it was all coming together, I’m not who the music is “for.” Same deal for stuff from before I was born, what access should I have to it?
But at the end of the day you end up liking what you like, and fuck authenticity and all that. I read the chapter about Mission of Burma in “Our Band Could Be Your Life” and heard them characterized as a band’s band, and that definitely makes sense to me. I dig the layered and changing vocals responsibility, the harmonies on the later chorus, and how tight and self-contained this is while still feeling expansive and rock-like. Each line is short and simple, which allows the music to propel the very fun to sing words forward. In a way it’s what makes it a fun Guitar Hero/Rock Band song, you can imagine yourself as part of the DIY band.
With all apologies to proper scenesters for not going deeper than this cut, this song always hits, no matter what. Crank the volume and let it ride.