Only a Memory
May 12, 2022 by Daniel de Visé
Marshall Crenshaw cracked the Billboard Top 40 only once. The Smithereens reached Casey Kasem's airspace twice. Neither artist ever scored anything like a monster hit.But every amateur guitarist of a certain age seems to know how to play "Blood and Roses" and "Behind a Wall of Sleep" from the first Smithereens album, and "Someday, Someway" and "Cynical Girl" from Marshall Crenshaw's debut. These are canonical songs, as essential to fin-de-siècle American guy rock as Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream" or Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." Call out any of those titles at a weekend jam session and, more likely than not, everyone will know what to do.
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