My Top 2000 Songs #1108: Knuckles

The Hold Steady would go on to write better songs and produce more fully-realized albums (particularly 2006's triumphant Boys & Girls In America and its 2008 follow-up Stay Positive). But their 2003 debut, Almost Killed Me, was still a boisterous proclamation by a new band doing something different. Their tethering of Craig Finn's dark, funny, character-driven narrations to anthemic rock drawing from both Bruce Springsteen and Bob Mould was distinctive from the start, and while the songs here may lack some of the songcraft of later work, a few reach out and grab you by the throat. 

My personal fave is "Knuckles," a bravado introduction to the band, full of both humor and tragedy, bracing imagery and wicked silliness. 

"I've been trying to get people to call me Freddy Knuckles; people keep calling me Right Said Fred. And it's hard to keep trying when half your friends are dying; and it's hard to hold it steady when half your friends are dead already."

It's more a series of colorful declarations than a proper song, but it demands your attention, preferably at room-shaking volume.

Live 2007:

Reworked as a folk rock song by Communist Daughter:

Cover by Dime Store Hood: