30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 7: Morphine - “In Spite of Me”

*phew* I caught up. Alas, I’m certain to have to do this again. But I don’t mind and I hope, who ever is reading this, that you don’t either.

As one of the most sentimental and sad entries in this list, this song really stands out. I can go all “emo” on you and tell you why, but I’ll leave that for a more intimate time story over a coffee or a bottle of vino. Suffice to say, from the moment I first heard it, this song hit a place in my heart that I’d unfortunately never understood til then why it hurt so much.

The first time I heard Morphine was actually the first time I’d seen them live. I was listening to one of my favorite late night college radio shows and they put up tickets to see the Cranes in NYC for grabs, I called in and got them right away. Morphine opened and that was all I needed to see. Wow. Here was a soulful Jazz band played with a rock edge. The lineup was interesting, the only traditional rock band instrument being drums, the lead singer, Mark (who, I heard died in the late 90’s, very sad and unfortunate), played stand-up bass and had an amazing low sort of baritone voice, and the other instrument was a sax. No guitar on stage, yet they rocked. Oh it was amazing.

The next day, I went to Revolver Records on 8th St. and picked up the CD since I hadn’t the money with me at the show to buy it. It was their newest release, “Cure for Pain”. This song was on it, and it was a life changer. I’ll just say this went on many a mix tape, haha. Enjoy.