Every Atheist Needs: The Pusher

Originally, The Pusher was a song written about drugs and the difference between a dealer and a pusher. It was performed by Steppenwolf for the movie, Easy Rider

and was a pretty big hit back when everyone wore hideous clothes. In the nineties, Shannon Hoon usurped the power of the Pusher, in just as hideous clothing,  to sing about Christian evangelism.

You may remember Shannon from the one-hit wonder band, Blind Melon, responsible for the bee girl who haunted every 90s teen’s dreams. Remember No Rain? All I can say is that my life is pretty plain…

That song hit notes that would make Jeezy’s prostate sweat. But alas, we heard it too much, we were bee girl’d out and we lost interest in Hoon and his Melonious backers.

Godless Mom was one of the few who bought that self-titled Blind Melon album, and actually listened to the other tracks. I loved what I heard, and when I found out that Hoon had pissed on the audience in my hometown, I became quickly obsessed. I bought everything they ever released, including Nico which was released after his cliche rock star overdose (Godless Mom learned from the gut-wrenching experience of idolizing Kurt Cobain, not to fucking give another shit about another rock star. Ever).

Nico is full of beyond incredible music, including “Soul One” and “John Sinclair”, but “The Pusher” is the best song on the whole album, even if you take away the subject matter. It’s catchy as all hell, no holy, and it didn’t sound like anything else people were listening to back then. It is, to this day, one of my favourite songs ever.

What do you think:

While I do love this song and album, my favourite Blind Melon album is Soup. I think it’s damned near as perfect as an album could possibly get, and it effectively gives you the creeps. Songs like my absolute favourite Blind Melon song,  Skinned. This song lulls you into a sense of security with the upbeat sounding fucking kazoo, and then mind fucks you with dark lyrics like, “I’ll make a shoehorn outta your shin, I’ll make a lampshade of durable skin”

Then there’s Car Seat (God’s Presents) in which Hoon recites a poem written by his grandmother about God (the same poem he had tattooed on his arm, featured on the cover of Nico), after a few lyrics sung from the perspective of a dead child.

Hoon was not religious and had some contempt for how religion manifested itself throughout the world. He didn’t speak about it often.

Are you a Blind Melon Fan? What’s your favourite song?

#music