Hootie and the Blowfish is the greatest band on the face of the earth.
Okay...if you can stop laughing long enough, please continue to read.
I'm completely obsessed with this band. I have been since they came out with Cracked Rear View. I'm not sure what it is...but I am utterly and completely enamored by them. Darius Rucker's voice is one man's voice that I could listen to all day without getting tired of it. There's a couple others, like Eddie Vedder's and Kurt Cobain's, but Darius tops the list.
I'll admit it. When I first started listening to them, it was because of their name. "Hootie and the what-fish?" I said to myself.
And then I saw their video. When their first video played on VH1, I remember liking them for their uniqueness. "Hey, a black guy in an all-white band," I remember thinking. "That's a great concept." I thought that was even more intriguing then their name. But that wasn't the only thing I liked. At the time, Darius seemed a tad bit chubby. Besides John Popper of Blues Traveler, there were not many lead singers of bands who had extra meat on their bones. I liked it...because I was chubby...but I wasn't black. And I'm still not...yet.
But then my fascination with them deepened. I began listening to their lyrics. I don't like to label them as many have - "the band that brought down grunge." There were many bands at the time that were very similar to HBF (that's short for Hootie and the Blowfish for the laymen). But the other bands just weren't as overplayed as HBF was...nor was their name as funny. Come on...Sister Hazel?? That's not very funny. Toad the Wet Sprocket was pretty funny...but it just wasn't as catchy as Hootie. HBF's lyrics were happy, save for the few obligatory ballads that every band is forced to compile on their albums. But unlike the grunge bands that fell to the feet of Hootie, the theme of their ballads didn't revolve around "angst" and being a "social outcast" or "teenage loserdom." Their songs didn't have the message of "Life sucks and I want to kill myself." They were about breakups and parental deaths and growing up. Their lyrics were more mature, focusing on dealing with heartache rather than wallowing in it. Their song, "Hold My Hand" was basically about sticking together through the troubles of life rather than running away or being intent on self-pity.
And so my love grew...exponentially. I went to a Hootie concert - my very first concert ever. My second concert, coincidently, was Lollapalooza - a festival of bands and musicians that personified self-pity. I not only had to beg my friends to go to see HBF, but I also had to buy their tickets. And what's more, we had to drive to Dayton, Ohio to see the concert because the scheduled shows in Michigan were sold out.
The next year, I had to choose a college to go to. I decided to go to the University of South Carolina. Yep, that's right. The hallowed halls of USC - Columbia...the same university that was graced by the mesmerizing voice of Darius himself. It was a religious experience for me. The entire summer prior to my leaving, the only music I listened to was Hootie. My CD player was all Hootie, all the time. Their second album, Fairweather Johnson, had just been released and now I had double the Hootie for my listening pleasures.
HBF helped me grow up. For every situation I was going through, good or bad, there was a Hootie song that helped me get through it. USC didn't work out for me, due to family problems back home. But the spirit of HBF stayed with me.
Soon after coming back, I met the gal that would be my wife...just before their third album - Musical Chairs - was released. There were songs on that album that carried me through feelings of a new love.
One of my biggest praises of HBF is that they don't go around spouting their political views. The closest they come is one line in the song "Drowning" - "Why is the rebel flag still hanging from the statehouse walls?" I hate these bands that think they can use their popularity and position to spout off their irrelevant and uninformed opinions. Very few musicians have my permission to do this. Bono is one of them because he actually gets involved. But enough about Bono...back to Hootie. Out of all the Hootie concerts I've been to (and trust me, it's MANY), I've never heard an "Impeach Bush" or anything political coming out of their mouths. I respect that. I think they're Democrats, but the fact that I don't know for sure impresses me.
And another think I like - they admit that they started playing music so they could get free beer and women. I love honesty, especially when most of the pretentious musicians are like, "Aww man, I just love what music does. I need to spread the message. I couldn't care less about the money." Yeah right. That's why you and everybody that has said that fought Napster tooth and nail. Just say you're doing it for the money..or for the ladies...or whatever. That's more respectable.
Anyway...I'm cutting this off now because I'll probably be doing more Hootie-inspired blogs in the future...the near future. Thanks for reading. Give 'em a listen if you haven't tried 'em out yet. They're amazing.
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