Tuesday July 5, 2022 “Bittersweet” Big Head Todd & the Monsters
Today’s ‘stuff’ is from Big Head Todd & the Monsters, and yeah we’ll get to that band name in a bit but I wanted to begin by saying that I have listened to this song dozens of times, perhaps even hundreds and have seen the band perform it live but I never really paid close attention the the words, beyond the chorus.
So even as I joined along on that chorus realizing that the title of the song is ‘Bittersweet” I wasn’t aware just how achingly sad it was until I listened to it with all of the lyrics.
As for the band’s name, first of all Big Head Todd and the Monsters, formed in Boulder, CO, aren't that large or that scary but when Todd Park Mohr first started a rock trio with high school friends, the name of the band was chosen quickly, and was meant as a tribute to a previous generation of musicians with names like jazz saxophonist Eddie "Clean-Head" Vinson.
Big Head Todd would release two albums in 1990 with little charting success but touring intensely they built a large and growing fan base that would attract the attention of the Giant Records division of Warner Brothers and the release of their third album Sister Sweetly would include today’s song “Bitterweet Surrender along with two other top twenty songs “Broken Hearted Savior” and “Circle”.
They would release an album in 1997, Beautiful World which would include blues legend John Lee Hooker. Big Head Todd band member Rob Squires said, "Hooker has just this incredible presence. He walked into the room and literally everyone was intimidated including our producer and the people who work in the studio."
I’m reminded of the remarkable passage of time when I realize that it’s thirty years since the release of Sister Sweetly when the single from that album, “Bittersweet Surrender” was playing regularly on the radio and yet in my mind this is a current tune.
Stay safe and well…and maybe give a listen to that final verse that begins “I said I know we don’t talk about it…” and be sure that suggestion doesn’t feel too familiar.