The origin of Joe Grushecky’s milestone American Babylon album starts with “Chain Smokin’,” the album’s second track.
“Chain Smokin’ was a song that I’d been playing around with for a while,” Joe told me in an interview last year. “I started taking some acoustic gigs, and I was never a ‘copy’ guy. It never appealed to me, doing a whole night of covers… So I had been working on Chain Smokin’ for a while, and I just thought it was a really good song.”
Joe’s being modest–“Chain Smokin'” is a great song. Thematically, it owes more than a little to Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” from a decade prior (made famous by Sinead O’Connor in her 1989 cover), and there are even some lyrical similarities.
But whereas Prince’s song dials up the melodrama, “Chain Smokin'” takes a much subtler approach to illustrating the relationship withdrawal that follows a messy break-up. Musically and lyrically, “Chain Smokin'” broods and simmers and obsesses just like its narrator does. The entire song contains only about six unique lines, but that’s what makes it so powerful.
Joe used “Chain Smokin'” as the springboard for his next album, enlisting his friend Bruce to help him create it. They recorded it in Bruce’s studio in Los Angeles in late 1993, with Bruce contributing his guitar and prominent backing vocals throughout–their very first studio collaboration.
Joe and Bruce have played “Chain Smokin'” together several times over the years, including a half-dozen performances during Joe’s legendary October Assault mini-tour in the autumn of 1995, which featured Bruce as an honorary Houserocker.
Joe fortuitously had their hometown show at Nick’s Fat City in Pittsburgh recorded, and he released it as a bonus disc with his DVD biography, A Good Life: The Joe Grushecky Story. Among their great performances that night was a smoldering version of “Chain Smokin’.”
Bruce and Joe have only played it together twice more since their 1995 tour together, but “Chain Smokin'” remains a fan and artist favorite. Catch Joe and The Houserockers in concert when they get back on the road, and odds are good you’ll catch a great rendition of “Chain Smokin’,” too.
Update 9/20/2021: In advance of the 25th anniversary reissue of American Babylon, Joe released the original demo he and Bruce made for “Chain Smokin’.” Take a listen to the track that kicked off years of collaboration:
Chain Smokin’
Recorded: October-November 1993
Released: American Babylon (1995)
First performed: August 20, 1994 (Long Branch, NJ)
Last performed: July 18, 2015 (Asbury Park, NJ)
