Cuz I Have Found All That Shimmers in This World Is Sure to Fade Away Again
If you do a search of my Twitter user proper name and the word "shimmer", you're going to find at least a dozen instances of me proclaiming my love for a song that turned 20 years sometime today.
"Shimmer" was the tune that launched the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania rock band Fuel. Yous may be more familiar with their later massive breakthrough "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" from their sophomore full-length record Something Like Man — that song spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Modern Rock Tracks in 2000.
But "Shimmer" sounds more timeless compared to everything that came after it. Lead vocalizer Brett Scallions' syrupy vocals are introduced aslope a light guitar melody. A string arrangement accompanies him as he sings the outset bridge — "We're here and now / Will we ever be again? / Cause I take found, all that shimmers in this world is certain to fade away over again". The vocal then explodes with drums and guitar into the side by side poesy like you're diving into a puddle on a hot day, and from the moment I heard the song I was hooked.
It has a great build, a catchy hook and tune, and the way Scallions sings the final chorus "It's besides far away for me to hold, it's too far away" never fails to requite me goosebumps. Revisit it beneath.
I spoke with the songwriter behind the tune, Fuel's former lead guitarist Carl Bell, revisiting the vocal that launched his career as a musician — a song that holds up pretty damn well xx years later.
"I felt good about it for sure when I wrote information technology," Bong told Pass The Aux over the phone. "I knew the chord changes were squeamish. It'due south got that C-chord with an open string running through it. It was a movable position on the neck. It has this squeamish chimey sound to the chord changes. I remember liking that. I love that little string-line that was going to exist in there."
"Brett could actually sing information technology, he always brought that natural compression to his vocalisation that he sings that'southward so unique," Bell said of his former bandmate. "He and I could go far a room together and we could become these amazing vocal recordings and I remember being blown abroad past some of the stuff he could do."
I remember staying upward late to watch Fuel'due south dissever VH1 Storytellers episode with Train and Bong shared with the crowd the origin of the tune. It's about the commencement time he ever experienced serious heartbreak, how a girl dumped him for another guy that she ended up marrying. Years later she called him when her human relationship was having problems, and he all the same felt hurt and also helpless in terms of beingness to aid her through what she was going through. It'south also well-nigh beingness jaded about relationships after y'all've been burned before. It's the sort of thing many of us tin can relate to, and it comes through with each word in the song.
"It'south just i of those things that leaves a lasting impression on you," Bell told me almost the song'due south origins. "'Shimmer' came out of that experience and I remember it's the kind of lasting experience almost of us have gone through."
"Shimmer" is likewise a song that I consider to be 1 of the best modern pop songs ever written. Sometimes I've gotten pushback on that — Mark, Fuel doesn't write "popular songs". Well what is a popular song?
To me, to exist a pop song, you lot accept to be accessible. And "Shimmer" was highly accessible. It'south the most accessible vocal Fuel always wrote, and it's amazing considering some of the other songs that appeared on their debut album Sunburn. "Shimmer" was followed up by a vocal called "Jesus Or A Gun" on the album's tracklisting. It was as heavy rock sounding as yous'd imagine. But "Shimmer" prophesied the band's futurity crossover appeal.
I asked Carl Bell if he idea "Shimmer" could be considered a popular song, and information technology'due south no surprise information technology was a point of contention within the band xx years ago.
"Xx years ago I wouldn't have felt information technology was a pop vocal, just looking dorsum on it now, I see what you're saying," Bell said.
"Information technology'due south funny that yous say that because there was a huge argument within the band because the record company wanted to take that and cross it over into top 40. Of course we were on alternative stone charts and you gotta call up this is xx years ago when everybody was then worried about protecting their image. Nowadays, I bet you don't even have a word about this. But back then you were a little more than precious well-nigh the fashion you were presented and we were probably too precious about how we were presented. We didn't desire to take this song to top 40. But the tape label saw it the manner you lot see it, that it was more of a song that could be — even though it had the rock side — it could be played on pop radio."
"Shimmer" didn't enjoy the success of "Hemorrhage" or some of their other hits, only it did reach No. 2 on the Billboard Mod Rock Tracks charts. The song that was No. 1 was pretty unstoppable, and Bell holds no grudge against the tune they couldn't degrade.
"Information technology never reached No. 1 on the charts because the Goo Goo Dolls song 'Iris' was ahead of information technology and we could never summit that vocal," Bell recalls. "But I always said to people, if there was any song I would play second fiddle to and I had to do it, it would be that song. I'1000 OK playing second fiddle to "Iris" considering that's a song I always liked and ever wished I had wrote that song."
Carl Bell played with Fuel through 2010, though Scallions was out of the ring from 2006 until 2010. Fuel still tours, though at the present time Scallions is the simply original member. There'southward no bad blood — prior interviews suggest Bell is happy that his songs and Fuel lives on, saying they deserve to be experienced live by new audiences.
Carl Bell likewise but released his first solo record concluding year, a pretty damn good country album called Tennessee Fuel— the album name a nod to his erstwhile Tennessee roots as well equally his old band'southward name. Bell's got a expert voice, and Fuel fans can get nostalgic through the country version of one of their other hits "Bad 24-hour interval".
Could we ane twenty-four hour period run into Fuel'south original lineup? The fact that there doesn't seem to exist whatsoever ill volition means I wouldn't rule it out. If so, I'll exist the kickoff lined up to sing "Shimmer".
Source: http://www.passtheaux.co/20-years-on-fuel-shimmer/
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