#103. 'Now we grieve 'cuz now is gone'

The Von Bondies "C'mon C'mon"

Ah, simplicity, my old friend and foe! It's hard to talk about songs as simple as "C'mon C'mon" without it seeming a bit much. After all, there's not much beyond three chords and a fierce full band performance to talk about here and trying to ascribe any larger meaning to it is kinda pointless. Really, this might just be the best pure rock song on the list in that it's not reliant on anythong besides brute force to get itself noticed. There's no subtlty here, no intricate riffing no deep, thoughtful lyrics to get wrapped up in at all, but that's probably 100% of the reason why it couldn't not be on here.

Honestly, this ticks every single box for what a great piece of rock 'n' roll should be, and it does it in a mere two minutes and thirteen seconds. It's absolutely fierce on every level, there's a great three-chord riff that anchors it, an inescapable bassline and a near-throat shredding performance from leader Jason Stollsteimer athat all add together to make it entirely memorable in spite of its wysiwyg nature. The MVP though is drummer Don Blum, who powers the entire track on the strength of his drumming and then pushing it further into the realms of aggression with some well placed, simple fills in the second verse. Sure the overall performance may feel a bit studio-neutered (I'd kill to see 'em tear this one up live) but it's still more in your face than most rock songs this decade, and that works to its advantage.

On top of that you've got Stollsteimer, who may be more famous for getting sucker-punched by Jack White than anything else, giveing a truly impassioned vocal performance. I won't go as far as some people in saying that it's a lyrical masterwork, but Stollsteimer's delivery is more than enough to make them work better than they should. And they shouldn't work if you start to think about it: 'c'mon c'mon' is the most overused lyric in rock music and the stuff around that repeated mantra is your basic break up catharsis, but there's such fire behind the words that I can give those issues a pass. When a song is this energized and the vocals are this passionate I'll forgive a lot really.

Coming up tomorrow: Another off-template single form the most dependable singles artist of the early decade.