My Top 1000 Songs #811: Deep Blue Afternoon

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

The Green Pajamas have an unheralded catalog nearly as dense as Guided By Voices, a few dozen records of jangly, mildly psychedelic indie pop in the mold of Paisley Underground acts like Rain Parade. Which makes it hard to zero in on a favorite track, a few obvious ones aside. But I really love "Deep Blue Afternoon," from 1999's All Clues Lead To Megan's Bed (one of the band's most consistent collections). It's actually a coda of sorts; earlier on the album is a wonderful little tune called "When She Comes," which I'd probably include on this list instead if its 100-second running time didn't make it feel a little incomplete. But the song picks up again on the album-closing "Afternoon," recycling the same lovely melody, this time tacking on a grandiose, psychedelic crescendo that riffs off of George Harrison's masterpiece "It's All Too Much." 

The result is a track that's half melodic ballad, half trippy freak-out, a perfectly sweet little combo (and still a concise three and a half minutes, once you purge the extended run-out groove). And like much of the band's work, the deceptively pretty psych is counterbalanced by an almost disturbing dollop of sexual obsession.

For completeness, here's "When She Comes":