The Dream Syndicate - Merritville

One of my all-time favourite rock albums is Medicine Show (1984), the second album by Los Angeles outfit The Dream Syndicate, led by Steve Wynn who went on to have an interesting solo career as well. His songwriting skills are exquisite, and it's never more evident than on "Merritville", a seven and half minute long masterpiece. There are two major elements to this song apart from Wynn's sneering and biting delivery of the dark and mysterious lyrics, and that's the Roy Bittan-esque piano trills played by hired hand Tom Zvoncheck and most importantly Karl Precoda's incredible guitar excesses. In the song's intro you get a taste of both and they each get their chance to shine later on, Precoda in the middle of the song and Zvoncheck towards the end and eventual fade-out. It's an amazing song, that should have its place alongside epic rock classics such as Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" or Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland", but is largely ignored and/or forgotten by most. That's a great shame.

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