Dinosaur Jr: Take A Run At the Sun

This blog is supposed to be some sort of forum where I talk expertly about some of the music that has meant a lot to me over the years. Oddly, I seem to be talking a lot about people I know very little about. That said, the song I'm talking about today couldn't possibly mean more to me. I've been having an average day and this song has just come on the ipod, and it's brightened up my day a little, like it has done before, in darker times.

That song is Dinosaur Jr's Take A Run At the Sun.

Dinosaur Jr, as far as this writer who only owns Ear Bleeding Country: the Best Of, were misfits in the US underground scene. Mix the noise of Neil Young's best work with Crazy Horse, the melodic brilliance and lush warmth of the Beach Boys and the slacker careless style of US indie at the time and you get three guys who never really liked eachother much anyway. I'm sure there are far better places to read more about Dinosaur Jr on the internet.

Take A Run At the Sun was the last proper single released under the band name, before lead dude (and, he's such a dude) J. Mascis went solo. But this song was pretty much J on his own anyway, and totally indulging in his Beach Boys fantasies.

It was also not part of an album, but the song was written for and given to the movie Grace Of My Heart, a film about the rise of a Brill Building songwriter, based pretty much on Carole King. That soundtrack also had another great, towering song written for it - Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's God Give Me Strength.

Oh, and the song is great. Opening with the sweetest of harmonies, lyrics so tender and caring they sound like the warmest, most inviting set of arms in the world. The film clip is also fantastic. A great song for unhappy times.

MP3: Dinosaur Jr - Take A Run At the Sun
- From the compilation Ear Bleeding Country: the Best of Dinosaur Jr (Rhino, 2001)