This Is Book's Music

Seattle’s music scene was and still is quite eclectic, but the one thing the grunge movement did was make people believe that the Emerald City was a ROCK TOWN, and *only* a rock down. Rock is still a ruler, but the city has always had many monarchs, even in the days of The Sonics, Jimi Hendrix, Heart, and Rail.

Green Pajamas did not become massively huge, although they should have been up there with Let’s Active, R.E.M., Cheap Trick, The Alarm, The Bangles, Split Enz and Crowded House as far as pop bands who could rock and rock bands who were not afraid to show a pop edge. There’s a sense of craft heard in 1987′s Book Of Hours (Green Monkey) that came from not only wanting to play music, but caring for the music and where it came from, as their influences are heard in every song. The Complete Book Of Hours represents a side of Seattle’s music that its inhabitants fondly remember, and hopefully with the reissue of the band’s classic debut album, people will discover this as the pop masterpiece it is. As I look at the cover illustration and the photos of the band on the CD cover, I remember when these guys were on the verge of something that was “next level”, with critics and fans more than willing to show their support. Had these guys made it on the level of a U2 or Echo & The Bunnymen, who knows what could have been. The material on here hold up brilliantly, 23 years after the fact and if someone were to push these songs to today’s audiences, they might be compared with the likes of Big Star. I’ll stop comparing them with everyone I feel they should be, for Green Pajamas were who they were, and were brilliant in their time because of it. An undeniable classic.