My Top 2000 Songs #1138: I Can't Be Counted On

Up early, spent the past hour turning all the clocks back--so many clocks in this house!--and ready to crank up a little Sunday morning music...

The sun-fried southwestern stoner rock that Meat Puppets honed on 1984's Meat Puppets II and 1985's Up On The Sun, while presaging the Americana boom of the late 80s and early 90s, was just a little too indie rock to get far beyond the college radio ghetto. So 1987's Huevos felt like a surprising shift into almost-radio-friendly classic rock revivalism, riven through with ZZ Top and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

It gelled most successfully on "I Can't Be Counted On," a wickedly fun, driving rocker with withering guitar licks that, but for Curt Kirkwood's left-of-the-dial vocals, felt like a sure-fire alternate-universe radio hit. That some mainstream country rock artist hasn't covered this and made it into a slightly-more-polished fan-pleasing monster continues to shock me.

Live 1990 (starting at around 3:30 into the clip):

Cover by Halcyon Brothers: