You’re good

No guitar anywhere. Morphine ran on a homemade two-string slide bass, a baritone saxophone, and drums, and “Good” — the opening title track of their 1992 debut — is the sound of that limitation becoming a style. Mark Sandman called it “low rock,” and nobody else has ever quite managed it.

The record came out of Cambridge, Massachusetts on Accurate/Distortion, a tiny indie run by jazz saxophonist Russ Gershon, while grunge was conquering the world at full treble. Morphine went the other way — down. Dana Colley’s baritone sax carries the melody, Jerome Deupree keeps the pulse, and Sandman half-sings, half-confides over the top, repeating “you’re good, good, good, good” until the compliment starts to sound like a question.

Sandman got seven more years of it. He collapsed and died onstage in Palestrina, Italy, in July 1999, mid-set, and the band ended on the spot. Start here, where they started.