Almost unbearably pretty, delicate,
like a perfect, intricate cobweb spun across your path on a summer’s day, ephemeral, evanescent, something that cannot last, that a casual hand or gentle breeze might
accidentally sunder. An evocation of another era, the innocence of all our
childhoods. Suffused with sadness, regret, longing, tenderness, but also the
understanding, forgiveness and acceptance that accompanies the passage of time. It reminds me in a way of Fleetwood Mac's Say Goodbye, written by Lindsey Buckingham.
A wistful but philosophical meditation
on young love, from the vantage of the present, with Dave’s voice
even more affecting as it breaks slightly reaching for a note, as if
what he feels can't be restrained by his physical ability, that it
transcends something so corporeal. A melancholy refrain gives way to
a chorus that gently takes flight, never soaring but remaining in
harmony with the simple restraint of the song. It refuses to
aggrandise the sentiment into something it’s not.
More Artful Dodger than Oliver in Dead End Street, wicked boy
The video of this on YouTube was my
first sighting of a grown-up Dave. I only started liking the Kinks,
as you can tell from these blogs, in 2011. And the fact that he was
so much older than the wicked boy I had seen in Kinks videos,
physically almost frail (post-stroke), increased the song’s
poignancy, as a reflection on a youth that was over and the exuberance, purity and intensity of first love.
Pretty boy
Every time I heard this song I used to cry,
particularly if I were watching Dave sing it live at those unforgettable Satsang events, detailed in Dave Davies Breaks My Heart (Again): Satsang I and Dave Davies: Satsang II: April 2012: You Only Live Twice. It’s like a
snippet from someone’s diary, personal, intimate, authentic. I’m
not sure that Ray could write a song like this because he has too
much self-awareness. Dave has an emotional intelligence that, put
into song, can transcend some of Ray’s writing. And here there’s
something unadulterated, a truth, something that Ray perhaps can't
access as easily (or chooses not to access) because his intelligence,
his craft, get in the way, advising an ironic distance; he has too
many options, too many personae, too many angles and ideas. He sees
each side. And Ray rarely opens his heart like this. He keeps his
heart under wraps, keeps it safe. Here Dave shares an experience,
private and precious, at once individual and universal, lets his
guard down, exposes his vulnerability. It was this song that made me
like Dave. I went on to love the dis-ingenu Dave of the early
Kinks, always more Artful Dodger than Oliver, the wicked boy.
Today as I'm sifting through these photographs of you/Never thought I'd feel this way/All these memories keep calling me to you/How I wish they'd go away/All these visions just remind me of better days/And I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain/I see you laughing as we run across the fields/Through the thunder and the rain/Finding shelter in each other's arms that day/All the things I didn't say/All these words keep going round and round in my brain/And I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain/Wish I could do something about it/Life can be cruel, no doubt about it/In life's many mysteries/It just wasn't meant to be, oh no/I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain.
Another pretty boy
Ray’s style is more masterful, more
knowing, more constructed, an artifice, in words and music. There’s truth and power but
it’s one step removed. His songs make you think as well as feel.
But when they’re simple and seem heartfelt, you know it’s a
decision, the reflection of a thought, that this is how he meant them to sound although early Kinks songs had
a similar immediate charm. I would say that Ray is probably a deeper thinker than Dave generally (and I'm sure that Dave would take issue with that), that Dave doesn't always consider before he acts, is more impetuous in life. And the result is songs that don't always make sense lyrically, don't necessarily follow any standard template but seem to arise organically and have an added impact because of that, for instance, This Man He Weeps Tonight and Mindless Child of Motherhood. I'm not going to say Ray's work is not emotionally affecting because I'm moved by so much of it, from the super successful (Waterloo Sunset- unbelievably, this seems to be the first time I've mentioned this fantastic song in any of my Kinks blogs, as if I didn't appreciate its consummate artistry) to the, to non-Kinks fans, relatively obscure (Get Back in the Line), not to mention the incredibly rousing I'm Not Like Everybody Else (this live version is particularly amazing). But he will never let his guard down
(in his work at least). Dave is unguarded. There is an honesty and
directness in this and many other Dave songs. It’s as if the song were born, rather
than carefully crafted, although I know it wasn’t. There's something uncomplicated,
unostentatious, sincere, instinctual that we react to instinctively.
Dave then
This song is almost like when you pick a scab off a cut to reveal fresh skin
underneath. It’s still tender but it’s healed, it's new. Love is lost; love
is found; we lament, but scars fade and life goes on. Dave moves on, often burning his bridges behind him.
So, how can I fall out of love with Dave, when songs like this still touch me? And that’s not nothing. It’s
something: to be moved by a tune, a lyric, a delivery, all of which
are in their way, Dave’s way, immaculate here. Flowers in the Rain is a direct call from Dave's heart to our hearts to which our hearts cannot help but respond.
Looks so innocent but is probably about to say something totally incendiary
First of all, I have to say it’s simply crass to use a band
member’s untimely demise as a platform to attack a band as Gersh Kuntzman
does in this vitriolic diatribe for the New York Daily News, in which he calls the Eagles a horrific band. Why he is then astonished by the strong reactions of already
grieving fans amazes me. It seems that the New York Times agrees,
recently publishing an article on how to speak of the dead, partly as a reaction to these anti-Eagles tirades, the gist of which is summed up by this comment: 'Hey, it’s ok to not like the Eagles. It’s also ok to shut up about it for a few days
when one of them dies.' Try to remember some of us are heart-broken.
Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Henley, Glenn Frey
I’ve already written a blog riposte (‘Kick
’em When They’re Up'), to a similar wave of ‘cooler-than-thou’ journalism,
which extended across most of the British broadsheets and in this,
there’s a link to the idiotic article that inspired it (trashing Fleetwood Mac
and the Eagles and any band who dared to have longevity as if their still being around was an affront to the world).
They invariably act like these bands were always dinosaurs and should be extinct by now. But to longtime fans, part of the appeal is their endurance and the fact that the songs, which were fresh and exciting when you first heard them and immediately memorable are now like old friends who you don't see that often but always get on well with when you do. They're as familiar and comfortable as the flannel shirts Don and Glenn wear onstage.
Heartfelt thanks to those, like Bob Lefsetz, who wrote moving
tributes to Glenn. It's a shame that for every positive, there's a negative, like the aforementioned Kuntzman and a
venomous piece from the Houston Chronicle that I can no longer access.
Jeff Bridges, The Dude in The Big Lebowski
Kuntzman's is the typical hipster's response; it runs along
these lines: ‘The Coen brothers are cool, therefore their films are cool, their characters are cool,
therefore the Dude must be cool (and Jeff Bridges of course), and the Dude
doesn’t like the Eagles therefore the Eagles can't be cool, therefore, in order
to be cool, I have to dislike the Eagles’. Do we care what these people think? Probably not as it’s their loss but it’s still incredibly
aggravating when someone is ignorant enough to dismiss a band’s entire oeuvre. For more on my dislike of the Coen Brothers, see Inside Llewyn Davis.
With Don Felder
The Eagles don't need to be rehabilitated for the modern age or
regarded from an ironic distance like people have a tendency to do with Abba (which is always so condescending). This sometimes happens when bands are inordinately successful. They exclude themselves from the cult of cool. Or cool of cult. There's always more cultural cachet to be had from supporting a little-known or even vaguely obscure artist and believe me, I'm crazy about a number of artists who fit the latter category, from Benedict Benjamin to XC-NN. I can see the cult in cultural. There aren't many people who want to believe that their taste is run of the mill and mainstream and there's an understanding that once you attain this universal popularity, you are somehow no longer worthy of it. You know the build 'em up to knock 'em down approach.
So, to rebut some of his assertions. Don't get me wrong, I
know he has a right to his point of view, as much as I have a right to
disagree.
1 The Eagles were a lousy band (or 'horrific' as he puts in the title)
This is a statement designed purely to provoke attention and
response. Surely no one who's heard Hotel California can really think this? Even if you think you don't know it, you know it.
2 The Eagles produced 'pop pap'.
To label One of These Nights, a song that could set my heart
racing, it was so exciting, so atmospheric, 'pop pap' just beggars belief. It's possible that
GK's childhood was a lot less mundane than mine. Either that or he has no imagination.
Has he ever heard Outlaw Man (listen to that banjo), No More Walks in the Wood, Waiting in the Weeds,
Doolin' Dalton? Pop pap would be Calvin Harris and his ilk.
3 The Eagles have too many songs with 'easy' in the titles.
Well, this does seem to be his point. Delve a bit deeper.
There are plenty that don't.
Jackson Browne
4 Jackson Browne’s version of Take It Easy is sexier than
the Eagles' one.
This is plain crazy. Only a man could have written this. Ok,
I know that JB was a ladies man in his day but sexier than Glenn, who simply
oozed pheromones? I don't think so. I always thought of Jackson Browne as
sensitive and thoughtful while Glenn was master of the snap retort, every hair
toss replete with unabashed sex appeal. More on this in Glenn
Frey, Cowboy Casanova and in this appreciation of Timothy B. Schmit. Plus only Glenn could have delivered these immortal
lines: 'It's a girl, my Lord/In a flatbed Ford/Slowing down to take a look at
me'. Or have the humour and self-awareness to sing in Already Gone:* 'Well, I heard some people talkin' just the other day/And they said you were gonna put me on a shelf/But let me tell ya/I got some news for you/And you'll soon find out it's true/And then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself'. * Already Gone was written by Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund but the lyrics seem to be quintessentially Glenn.
5 You can't like the Clash if you appreciate the Eagles.
Hmm, I'm pretty sure that I bought a Clash album and an
Eagles album on the same day. They're not mutually exclusive. Although the
Adverts are my favourite band from the punk era. Yes, and that was a totally
gratuitous nod to the One Chord Wonders, simply because I could and more people should.
Bernie Leadon
6 There's an implicit assumption that, if it weren't for the
Eagles, people who the author deems more deserving (because they have a
smaller following or because they're less marketable) like Gram Parsons and
Gene Clark would have been more successful. This is a fallacious argument. I
would propose the opposite. For many, the Eagles were a ‘gateway’ band into
obscurer terrain. Bernie Leadon’s My Man was in fact a tribute to Gram
Parsons. If it hadn't been for the Eagles, I might never have listened to Poco
or Gene Clark. It doesn't really matter who came first or who was more successful. And I expect there are those who believe that with the Eagles, it's all about the money. I appreciate their honesty - even when they were young, they admitted they wanted to make a lot of money. Because of this and because of funny items like this spoof of band members talking: 'Henley: Uh, I think what Glenn was trying to say was that sure, the
album came out just fine, but do you not remember the torture it took us
to make it? How Azoff had to ply us with $100 bills in a trail from our
houses to the studio?', people have assumed that the music is secondary. They don't seem to realise that these are jokes but even so, doesn't it somehow make them cooler? For instance, this from the same cruel but funny article: 'Schmit: I can’t afford Eagles concert tickets. Henley: Well, I can. And trust me. You’d stay in your seat the whole
time. Every time you turn your head away from the stage, you’ve wasted
approximately 27 dollars.'
Joe Walsh
7 'This diatribe has one caveat: Joe Walsh. The greatest of
all Eagles always kept his soft-rock comrades at arm’s length'.
Another thing you’ll notice about these carping critics.
They always make an exception for Joe Walsh because they think he’s a
card-carrying rockstar (complete with drugged-up past) with street cred because
of his previous cool (read 'bad') behaviour, and his skill on the guitar. All
the hipsters think Joe is cool – partly because he used to smash things up. Sure, he
adds something but he’s not the Eagles (no offence to Joe fans, who are legend and legion), neither is Timothy B. Schmit (much as I
like him now). They’re the Johnny-Come-Latelys, the New Kids in Town. Although I do make an exception for Don Felder. Whatever people say now, he'll always be an Eagle to me.
There were some straightforward but perfectly crafted country rock songs, but country rock itself wasn't even a proper genre then and what there was had little purchase on the music scene until the Eagles arrived. There was
(the) Buffalo Springfield then Poco, but their reach was limited. And that's not to
mention the influence the Eagles have had: Fleet Foxes, Jayhawks, Golden Smog and so
on, all building careers on the template of exquisite harmonies, contagious
melodies and something to say. Protest songs are now sadly a thing of the past but I love it when a writer cares about a cause or a situation. although I focus on some of my favourites here, in a list that includes Jackson Browne's tour de force, For America.
And there's so much wit and so much self-awareness in the title of their comeback tour: Hell Freezes Over. They simultaneously don't take themselves seriously while being deadly serious and cashing in on their previous pledge.
The trouble is that the Eagles are too successful and this
kind of unprecedented achievement leads people to carp and moan. Once, when I
was younger and more arrogant, I used to like to say that I thought the Beatles
were overrated, in order to provoke a reaction. Now I think it's sort of great that I like some of the same music as my Dad and can take him to see the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac.
Glenn Frey, RIP Outlaw Man
Yes, as Bob Lefsetz mentions, they lived the American Dream,
but they also analysed, deconstructed and dismantled it in songs like Hotel
California and The Last Resort, showing how quickly it could turn into a
nightmare. Henley’s lyrics roll off the tongue because they sound so natural
but they’re still clever, polemical, insightful (surely there isn’t anyone too
soulless or too secure to identify with the sentiment in Wasted Time?), or
incisive, dismissive, satirical (Get over It: 'Victim of this/Victim of that/Your Momma's too thin/And your Daddy's too fat'). They’re not glib. But compare
them with the subject matter of chart songs today – see my blog on ‘Modern Music’ – they raise issues, are often poetic and thought-provoking. They’re not about
having a party or waving your hands in the air or being sexy in the club. So, you might say music is changing but subject matter, melody, scope are all decreasing. No longer do we have pop songs about boys being molested on school trips. Name that tune.
I’m not saying that I love every Eagles song – there are
some on each album that I consider Eagles by numbers but these very tracks are
other fans’ favourites: Busy Being Fabulous, Chug All Night (well maybe not
Chug All Night) and so on.
And I'd like to ask: When does the Dude lose his 'coolness'? And surely, if everybody thinks he's cool, he's now too mainstream to actually be so. But what I meant to say was that Eagles music is timeless and will hopefully move and entertain future generations. They're not this week's fancy or last year's trend. They are much more than this, they are beyond cool and, as Glenn said, 'a band for all time'.
Every time I start to listen to an Eagles song now, I get all choked up and I know I'll feel this way for some time. I really wish I didn't have to write this but
Song composers: Charley Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski,
Julian Maas, Robin Grubert
Singer: Conchita Wurst [Conchita Wurst is the female alter ego of Tom Neuwirth.] [Quick Kinks connection. Another contender would be Ray
Davies’s ‘Oh, What a Day It’s Going to Be’, performed here by Mo and Steve
(whoever they might be). I think this is the closest Ray ever got to the Bond
oeuvre, for overblown passion, bordering on the histrionic.] Conchita: 'I'm just a singer in a fabulous dress, with great hair and a
beard.' Conchita: 'It's just art.''
I didn’t encounter the phenomenon that is Conchita until this year, not
being a huge Eurovision fan, when I caught the Eurovision’s Greatest Hits
programme. In 2014, Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria,
with ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’, her victory a testament to tolerance and a tribute to her inordinatelydisarming personality and incredible charisma as much as her voice and the song (and to persistence as it looks like this was her second attempt at Eurovision; in 2012, she narrowly missed out on representing Austria with 'That's What I Am' and specialises in delivering inspirational, life-affirming songs, such as 'Unbreakable' and 'You Are Unstoppable', with total conviction, although ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ is the only one that sounds like it should be played
over Bond credits).
I think there’s a real case for ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ to be the theme for the next film in the Bond franchise. I’m by
no means the first person to think so – just search on YouTube for ‘Rise Like a
Phoenix 007’ and you’ll see what I mean. You could even call the movie Phoenix,in the tradition of the one-word title. Ok, there’s no tradition yet but
who says there can't be? We had Skyfall and now Spectre. It even sounds
like a Bond title, making reference to a fantastic, mythical creature (much like Conchita herself) rising
from the flame (you only live twice and all that). Oh, I'm so annoyed. Someone's just released a film called Phoenix.
Golden Lady I
This song seems to have been written with Bond in mind, with all the requisite elements – the lush soundscape and accomplished arrangement of an archetypal Bond theme. Reminiscent of those glorious John Barry
anthems, immortalised by Dame Shirley Bassey, ‘Goldfinger’ (lyrics: Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley; coincidentally this and another Bassey classic, 'This Is My Life' (Bruno Canfora/Antonio Amurri/Norman Newell) were sung by Tom Neuwirth on a talent show – there's evidently an affinity over and above their fashion sense; Shirley's version rocks) and ‘Diamonds Are Forever’
(lyrics: Don Black; here's The X Factor's Aiden Grimshaw’s more electronic take), with all the heightened melodrama and emotion of the thwarted
diva destined to rise resplendent. I gather that Barry used to
‘Bondify’ (my term) the other artists' songs so that they fitted his
aural vision for the Bond canon. All the themes have a particular feel, an elusive essence that is as hard to define as it is easy to recognise. It’s as if ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ has already
undergone this process; it's already perfect. [John Barry composed many unforgettable movie themes – the
incredibly touching ‘Born Free’ which I never hear without shedding a tear, the
gorgeously romantic and evocative ‘Out of Africa’.]
Golden Lady II
With the subjects of
metamorphosis, transformation, self-realisation and adversity overcome as well
as the promise of retribution, it could fit any movie script but is perhaps
particularly apposite to a Bond narrative. Like other Bond numbers, it can be
appreciated and understood on a personal and a universal level as a hymn to
resilience, resurgence and self-empowerment. Bold, fearless and unrepentant. Hearing and looking at
Conchita, you can't help but be reminded of Gloria Gaynor’s paean to individuality
‘I Am What I Am’ a little, in particular, the line ‘I am my own special
creation’. The lavish orchestration and Conchita’s perfect vocal
delivery emulate and almost exceed those Shirley Bassey numbers but the lyrics
and Conchita’s unique image (although there are some parallels with Dame
Shirley here too, as can be seen in the pictures) – magnificent, figure-hugging
floor-length gowns, the old-school glamour of the night-club siren, combined
with full make-up (her
make-up video on YouTube has had three million views; Shirley didn’t shirk
on make-up either) and beard – help to reinvent and revitalise this tried and
tested template for a new era. A daring blend of the familiar and the
innovative that challenges the norms, just as any movie franchise should after
fifty-odd years.
Make-up tutorial
'Waking in the rubble/Walking over glass/Neighbours say we're
trouble/Well that time has passed/Peering from the mirror/No, that isn't
me/Stranger getting nearer/Who can this person be?/You wouldn't know me at all
today/From the fading light I fly'
A sweeping string intro before a muted piano accompaniment
to Conchita’s at first deliberately portentous and subdued vocal, building excitement and the sense that something is about to happen. Cue the chorus.
Not one to shirk the make-up
'Rise like a phoenix/Out of the
ashes/Seeking rather than vengeance/Retribution/You were warned/Once I'm
transformed/Once I'm reborn/You know I will rise like a phoenix/But you're my
flame'
Conchita exudes mystery and sex appeal as well as an engaging blend of strength and vulnerability. Her utterly commanding interpretation makes the most of the majestic chord change for the
obligatory soaring and triumphant crescendo of the chorus: proud,
fierce, conveyed with defiant dignity. Or even dignified defiance.
‘Go about your business/Act as if you're free/No one could
have witnessed/What you did to me’
The suspenseful strings here could easily be lifted and used as build-up
to a thrilling Bond set piece.
The next Bond villain?
'I rise up to the sky/You threw me down but/I'm gonna fly'
The finale is suitably grandiose and simply glorious. Conchita's control is absolute.
When asked if she would like to play a Bond girl, Conchita replied:
'No, that would mean
nothing to me. But I would love to play a Bond villain, who fights to the very end.'
To be continued I hope. A Radio Times poll has Conchita as an overwhelming
favourite to sing the next Bond number. She scores nearly 82 percent, with her
nearest rival on about 2 percent. That’s a pretty convincing win.
[I’m a bit confused about my reaction to Conchita. I’m a straight woman (though sometimes wish I wasn't) but
I find the Conchita persona completely captivating even though she’s a man (yes
pronouns don’t really work with Conchita), dressed and made up like a woman
(hyper feminine and always elegant) with a beard. Of course, Conchita is really
a gay man in drag (Tom Neuwirth) but still I wonder, is it just me? Or do some
people’s charms simply override usual gender preferences? I sort of fancy
Conchita but I don’t fancy Tom.]
* From 'City in a Bottle'. Links to songs in the titles. For tenuous Kinks connection, see end.
Happy Shakey Graves Day!
Thought I would post this to
celebrate.
Random, arbitrary, magical – how we hear new music these
days
A musical segment on the TV series Third Watch
showcased a distinctive tune and I thought, finally some good new music.
However, investigations led to the revelation that this great new band was an
old favourite, no other than Fleetwood Mac; the song was ‘Peacekeeper’. You didn’t know it was me who discovered the Mac, did you? Remind anyone just a little of Paul Simon's ‘Kodachrome’?
I first heard Citizen Cope on a trailer for a TV show that I
never watched: Sons of Anarchy. Of course it was difficult
to find out more about the singer and the song without knowing his name or the
title but anything is possible with
YouTube and Google so tried various lines from the short snippet I had heard
until I identified the song as ‘Son’s Gonna Rise’. Now one album and two gigs later ...
On the plane, watched Boyhood and found myself
humming an exquisitely pretty song from it all the way home so tried to remember one line
of the lyric so that I could search for it online: ‘Hero’ by Family of
the Year. Every time I hear this song, it cheers me up so I wouldn't be without it.
Was there life before YouTube? And why?
I’m not
particularly techno-savvy. I haven’t even progressed to being able to
download anything and don’t really understand people who go for long country walks while
glued to their iPods. Don’t you want to hear the birds, the wind,
someone yelling at you that you’re trespassing? But even someone as digitally retarded as me can cope with YouTube and I use it to check out new music although eventually I like to own a
physical artefact, something to hold, like a CD/DVD.
So how did I stumble into Shakey Graves?
I watched a movie and it was complete nonsense (Nora Roberts
histrionics) but there was this totally sweet-looking guy in it, outshining the
rest of the cast in a cameo as the evil brother. Read my review here. The film
was Midnight Bayou. The actor’s name was Alejandro Rose-Garcia.
gotta love someone who looks like this ...
Early Graves (sorry)
I was curious – he didn’t seem to have been in many
movies so I checked him out on YouTube; thought this was really cute, ‘Ali, Ali, Julie, Julie’.
I realised he had this alter ego or other title: Shakey Graves. I tried to listen to several tracks (emphasis on ‘tried’) but didn’t
get it. Some of it was live and occasionally seemed like self-indulgent
caterwauling, some supremely lo-fi, soft and understated, that left
little impression on me but even though I’m not someone who
usually has the patience to acquire a taste, I kept listening (I'd say partly because
he’s not exactly hard to look at, but in fact most tracks I liked only had a pic of the CD cover from Roll the Bones. I wasn't ready for Shakey live).
... but uses this on his cd sleeve
These songs were like shy children (and I’ve always had a
soft spot for shy children), standing behind me,
tugging at my skirt, politely asking for attention,particularly ‘Built to Roam’,
with the chorus quietly but increasingly insistently reiterating till it’s
almost a threat: ‘Watch out/Cause here I come bored and lazy/Here I come no
dignity/So long, sad city of angels/ You ain’t been very good to me’, this
compounded with a laden pause (for effect) before the second instance – Shakey
really knows how to emphasise a stanza or line with a breath beforehand or a
sigh after. Subtly, slowly, they infiltrated my consciousness. They clung to
me like teasels, attached themselves via static. I brushed them off but they
would regroup and reconnect and so they insidiously crept up on me, spun
gossamer strands around me, saved me till later.
some strange
enchantment
I was beguiled by the girl-nextdoor prettiness of ‘To Cure What Ails’
(fantastic title, lyrics: ‘I think I’ve grown a little thinner/Without you
riding my coat tails/I would trade it all again/For a nice stroll in your
skin/Just to cure what ails’), the lilting loveliness of ‘Word of Mouth’ (‘When anybody tries to tell him what to do/He holds his
breath until he turns blue’) and
the sunny plaint of ‘Proper Fence’ (‘Well she said kiss me/And lord I
listened’).
To begin with, they seemed like shadows of songs, sort of ethereal. I thought
them insubstantial but gradually they began to exercise some strange
enchantment on me. The plucking and finger-picking created delicate melodies,
intricate patterns, falling like summer rain on ‘Business Lunch’ and ‘Roll the Bones’ (upbeat tune with downbeat message, a spoonful of sugar as Julie Andrews
might put it: ‘Yeah so struggle all you like/Yeah put up the good fight/They
say some day everybody dies alone’)
or generating shades as subtle as a hand-coloured postcard on ‘Bully’s Lament’,sometimes with weirdly distorted vocals, often
overlaid with syncopated handclaps, background vocals a nanosecond or so behind
the lead.
The lyrics were intriguing, clever, full of allusions and
mystery, and new ways of expressing interesting ideas. Take ‘Unlucky Skin’ (favourite line:
‘No monetary value(s) have I’; me neither), ‘Stereotypes of a Blue Collar Male’ (‘Church and stuff church and stuff/I never thought God
would call my bluff/But he did/Yes he did/Yes he goddamn did’) or the rowdy live version of ‘City in a Bottle’: ‘If she was six teeth younger
and I had half a mind/You know I'd carry her away from that wicked thing
outside’.‘Six teeth younger’!
I love it. Atmospheric, sultry horns seem to stagger drunkenly through what is surely
the seediest, sleaziest, sexiest swing tune since ‘Mack the Knife’ (Bobby Darin – accept no subsitute).
boy from the backwoods
I can only compare them to those Magic Eye pictures where
you have to alter your focus in order to see something in the image, which
isn’t immediately apparent, perhaps a completely different picture. But with
Shakey, once you’ve altered your focus, you remain in this altered state, you
can't go back and you wouldn’t want to. You can't unsee it. Or rather unhear
it. It’s always magical to you.
Some songs were on the Roll the Bones album
or The Donor Blues ep (only available via download on
Shakey Graves Day) but many only exist on YouTube. Waiting for a recording of 'Bully's Lament' (unbelievable right?), ‘Once in a While’, ‘Where a Boy Once Stood’, ‘Word of Mouth’, ‘Late July’ (didn’t even
rate this till I heard an astounding live version in Louisville), ‘Tomorrow’,
‘Parliament’ (SG as backwoods boy/hillbilly hobo), ‘Coat of Arms’ (‘When is the last day of school/Today is the
first day of class’). I've made a list if anyone's interested ...
boo and shakey
Vampire slayers
The new songs were a different proposition. Bolder, brasher,
bolshier cousins to the earlier ones. They didn’t tap tentatively at the door;
they high-kicked it down like vampire slayers. However, I was initially put off
by a frantic, scary version of ‘Dearly Departed’, with Esmé Patterson that
everyone else loved. I still prefer it when he does this alone or with Boo (Chris Boosahda) and she’s not
there (inadvertently continuing the undead theme with this Zombies classic). I love the way Shakey and Boo whip each other up into a
frenzy, into a perfect pitch of intensity. Boo adds a certain something to the Shakey experience until ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'. Compare the
2013 Pickathon version of ‘Where a Boy Once Stood’ (admittedly a different time, place, audience) with this from Stetson Center Stage 2014.
I think it was ‘Hardwired’ (which is on the new CD And
the War Came) that did it for me. That was a song and a half. My
reservations fell away. This is my favourite version – he doesn’t alter the
tempo too much and the song retains its momentum more.
‘Well water was wine/Back on blue mountain time/While I
watched your lovin' expire/While I lay close to you/As the lace on the shoe/And
that's when I knew/We were hardwired’. The English grad in me loved the interline rhyme of‘lay
close to you’/‘lace on the shoe’. I might be wrong but I think originally the lyrics were:‘Well I bumbled like bees/While you boiled like the seas’ but now he mostly
sings‘Well you bumbled like bees/And I boiled like the seas’and he’s altered
‘But you are as you came/Mostly bliss and cocaine/A match just beggin' for
fire’to ‘But you are as you came/Mostly bliss and cocaine/Just a match beggin'
for fire’but I prefer the first version – it not only scans better but alters
the stress too, making the girl (we assume it’s a girl) sound even more
combustible. Like she can't wait. And the
melody was instantly memorable; the backing reminiscent of early Hall and Oates – never a bad thing ('I'll Be By', for instance).
wild card
Next I was mesmerised by the stunning ‘Wild Card’ here from
Stetson Centre Stage.Like I say when Christian Kane sings 'Rattlesnake Smile': it should be illegal
for anyone to sound this sexy. This epitomises the Shakey/Boo dynamic: organic, symbiotic. The
guitar and drum kick straight to my heart. ‘The Perfect Parts’ I wasn’t enamoured of to begin with, thinking it too rocky but now I'm particularly partial to the rowdy version. The way he delivers the line ‘Well I used to take
my women on the rocks’ sends a thrill through me. And I love the image ‘The
city’s put me through the wash’. Definitely felt like that. 'House of Winston' is irresistible, with sparkling, iridescent guitar work, coupled with the adorable line ‘I wanna
waste your time’.
His lyrics are a mischievous mix of humorous and profound. ‘The Pansy Waltz’ always
makes me smile: ‘Well I dusted all the bones out in my yard/I fixed the
screen door, raised the barn/But still you call me from the moon/Every single
afternoon/Tell me all about the astronauts you've come to love/And how the
earth looks from above/And how I should've been a better friend to you’.Again, the natural connection between the musicians, their obvious joy in performing together (although illicit substances might be playing a part here) all add to the appeal.
‘It’s
sort of a rediscovery on stage. I’ll write a song … you get thrown in a room
with a bunch of people, I like to change it.’
the diumvirate
The live versions were always totally different to the
studio tracks and I found this offputting at first. I thought he changed the nature (or what I perceived to be the nature) of the songs too much,
slowing to a crawl when I thought he should be in the fast lane, yelling when I
anticipated a whisper. It felt like he was constantly dismantling them,
rearranging them and I didn’t understand why. There are still some I can't
listen to. But I mainly heard the newer songs live first and found, with the
exception of ‘Only Son’, one of those songs like 'Where a Boy Once Stood’
or ‘Wild Card’ on which he effortlessly ratchets from sublime and tender in the
verse to a regular maelstrom in the chorus (Shakey the storm and the calm at
the eye of the storm at the same time) – a satisfying contrast, although this live performance from Lagunitas showcases the Shakey/Boo diumvirate (ok, I admit I made that word up); they play as if they were two strands of
the same cloth, interwoven to create an elaborate tapestry.
a man
possessed
But now I see that a song is not an object set in
stone that has to be reproduced as perfectly or accurately as the track on the
record. Grant Hart often alters lyrics for different situations.
With Shakey Graves, everything could change; the song is a living thing,
endlessly manipulable, and he can play it whichever way he wants, depending on
his mood or maybe the mood of an audience. With his crazy musical skills and
vocal range and power, he sees limitless possibilities so opts to explore them.
He can pare them down or fill them out, purr or roar.
So sometimes the songs are like old friends in different
clothes or they appear to be complete strangers who strike you suddenly as a
little familiar, just a frisson of déjà vu. There's maybe one mannerism you recall. He continually confounds expectations. It doesn’t always work
but it ensures each gig is an exciting experience with songs that sometimes
sound brand new.
And I could never doubt his fervour as he howls till the veins
cord in his neck, his face reddens and sweat streams, he sings like a man
possessed, could never doubt his absolute commitment to performing them with
utter focus and intensity. See this ‘Dearly Departed’ for instance
or this electrifying, impossibly sexy rendition of ‘Call It Heaven’ from
Telluride.
So
anyway, I’m hoping that Shakey will come to the UK this year since we travelled
all the way to the US last year (having not had a vacation for three years) to
try to catch him live two nights in a row but the first attempt was a disaster.
Even though we had bought tickets in advance and won tickets in a competition
for the same show (what are the odds? didn’t find this out till we got back home), we weren’t
allowed in at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville because my sister failed to bring
any ID. I had my passport and we’re twins but there was no budging the
management and the draconian laws of Tennessee. Did get to see him at the Mercury Ballroom in Louisville and the gig was incendiary but made us even sadder we’d missed him the
first night. So just one UK gig please?
'I can be the city boy that I make fun of and I can also be
the country boy that will get dip on you.'
Trick
or treat, I don’t care. Just get over here.
A poem about Shakey’s version of‘I’m on Fire’ (akin to being serenaded by the devil) is here and another fan's perspective on Shakey is here.
Anyone searching for a Kinks connection, there is one. Shakey and some renegades sing a version of 'Dead-End Street' here. You know, given the title of the blog, I should always add one.
'He’s a good time cowboy Casanova/Leaning up against the
record machine/Looks like a cool drink of water/But he’s candy-coated misery' ('Cowboy Casanova', Carrie Underwood)
I’ve got to admit that, before I was Schmitten, which was
pretty recently (see my Schmitten blogs), Glenn Frey was my favourite Eagle and
Don Henley was my sister’s. She bought Henley's solo material, I bought Glenn Frey's. This song sums up the Frey persona to me – a bad boy
you’d do well to steer clear of (but don't want to), with tons of charisma and sex appeal.
‘You're struttin' into town like you're slingin' a gun/Just
a small town dude with a big city attitude’ (‘Just Like Jesse James’, Cher)
Seeing pictures of him from the 70s on the EaglesOnline
forum, I’m reminded of Angela’s (Claire Danes) comment about Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) in my favourite
teen TV drama My So-Called Life‘I love the way he leans’. Glenn leans
pretty well. Anyway, I’ve already covered the Frey sex appeal in another blog.
‘If you look
at my vocal participation over the course of the 70s, I sang less and less. It
was intentional. We had Don Henley.’ (Glenn Frey, HOTE)
Although this is true, although I love
Don’s voice, it’s partly (perhaps mainly) the different vocalists (and particularly the blending of their vocals), their strengths and styles
that create the diversity in the music and increase the band’s appeal. I’m
crazy for Glenn’s voice. There's an edge to it. And he sounded great on this tour. Plus Glenn does much more than sing – he writes songs, figures out arrangements, decides who sings what and
still finds time to exercise his inner Svengali and get people's backs up.
Glenn Frey: ‘It takes Henley for me to finish a song. And it takes me
for Henley to finish a song.’
The creative dynamic between Glenn and Don was incredibly
productive. We have a lot to thank Linda Ronstadt for.
Desperado – who leans best?
‘I like the way your sparkling earrings lay/Against your
skin so brown/And I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight/With a
billion stars all around’ (or in plain English ‘Like your earrings/Fancy a
shag?’ but so much more persuasive the way Glenn puts it) ('Peaceful Easy Feeling', Eagles)
It was always Glenn – the hair, the attitude, the confidence, the moustache, the jeans, the smouldering gaze … need I go on? He was the ultimate
'Outlaw Man' for me. All that swagger and charm as epitomised in the above lyric.
‘Well, I'm standing on a
corner/in Winslow, Arizona/And such a fine sight to see/It's a girl, my Lord,
in a flatbed Ford/Slowin' down to take a look at me … We may lose and we may
win/Though we will never be here again/So open up, I'm climbin' in/Take it
easy’ ( 'Take It Easy', Eagles)
Jackson Browne asks him to finish a verse and that was all (s)he wrote. It
all comes so naturally to him. When we holidayed in the States, we had to go to that
corner. I’m sure many Eagles fans have made the same pilgrimage and there we
were when a cool-looking guy in a flatbed Ford (is that the same as a pick-up?)
stopped to ask us directions to the Probation Office. Or was it the Parole Office? Well, two English girls in summer dresses – I guess we must have looked like
we would know. He recognised the would-be bad girls in us.
Used car salesman on vacation?
In some ways, Glenn is the most altered (though still good-looking and wearing well) – possibly because he
was the epitome of careless youth while Don always seemed more mature. The
others simply look like older/rounder/balder/greyer/skinnier versions of what
they were but Glenn now resembles a used car salesman on vacation except that
he has managed to retain that slightly disreputable air and that ‘big city
attitude’ in his persona.
'Outlaw Man'
'We gave Glenn a nickname, The Lone Arranger. He had a
vision about how our voices could blend and how to arrange the vocals and, in
many cases, the tracks. He also had a knack for remembering and choosing good
songs.' (Don Henley)
So if Don is the main singer and writer, the soul of the
band – the angst, bitterness, anger, world-weariness; Glenn’s the pumping
heart, the motor that keeps it all going, the somewhat schizophrenic,
one-minute romantic dupe (‘What Do I Do with My Heart?’ rivals the tortured love
songs usually reserved for TBS), the next ranting paranoid with villainous past
('Somebody') – my favourite Glenn incarnation: 'There's a jack-o-lantern moon in the midnight sky/Somebody gonna live, somebody gonna die/But down in the graveyard on that old tombstone/There's a big black crow and it's callin' you home' ('Somebody', Eagles)
Unfortunately for us all, 'Somebody' is not available as a link anywhere.
Or:
'When you said goodbye, you were on the run/Tryin' to get away from the things you've done' ('You Belong to the City', Glenn Frey)
I love the seedy side of Glenn: the romance of the illicit in 'You Belong to the City'. Always one step ahead of the law, restless, dangerous. That sultry atmospheric sax intro; Glenn's intimate vocal on the verse before the chorus kicks in and he steps it up.
Happy days
'Somebody's gonna hurt someone/Before the night is
through/Somebody's gonna come undone/There's nothin' we can do' (‘Heartache Tonight’, Eagles)
Don Felder on
The Long Run:
‘We realized that Glenn had nothing to sing on the record
except …"Teenage Jail" … we just had
nothing in his genre. So we called Bob Seger, and Bob had started about 60 or
70 percent of "Heartache Tonight", which was perfect for Glenn … .We couldn’t
put out a record without Glenn singing a hit on it.’
This relates to the 'Glenn singing less and less' syndrome (something I really really don't understand). The general feeling is that Don is trying to put Glenn down
here. It didn't come across like this to me to begin with but I sort of get it now, as it sounds as if he and the the others had to find a way to help Glenn out. But he’s right about one thing: this song is entirely within Glenn’s
vibe. (I wouldn’t say Glenn has a genre though, that he can't step out
of – he’s perfectly capable of singing anything but this is something he excels
at – uptempo, rocky, a song with a bite for a Saturday night): an obvious single
and a sure-fire hit.
Glenn rocks 70s fashion like no one else
Bernie: This is a song that I used to hear a lot of on the
radio last summer. Right around Halloween.
Glenn: Yeah round Halloween. That ain’t the summer.
This 1973 exchange between Glenn and Bernie at the beginning
of ‘Witchy Woman’ sums up their relationship. Backbiting. You have to hear the tone of his voice as he delivers this line. How much he enjoys it. So quick. He ain’t going to be a diplomat any time soon. By the end of the song
though, it’s the playing that counts and I’m glad they were able to get back to
that for the latest tour.
Glenn Frey: ‘There's a lot of compromise involved in a rock band and
trying to make people happy and feel a part of everything that you're doing. It
demands a lot of sacrifice and a lot of compromise and a lot of patience and
diplomacy.’
Patience and diplomacy were perhaps not Glenn’s strong suit.
This may be why Bernie ended up pouring a beer over his head.
‘A rock band is not a perfect democracy. It’s more like a sports
team. No one can do anything without the other guys, but everybody doesn’t get
to touch the ball all the time.’ (Glenn Frey, HOTE)
Glenn’s attitude has undergone a bit of a sea-change. Love
the way he expresses this, with a touch of venom. You can almost hear him
adding ‘So get over it’.
Hair looking extra cool
Glenn's never been given to wordy avoidance or justifications
(the sort that Don’s so good at). Witness this from HOTE:
Don: In the context of the times and the profession, the way
we behaved wasn’t all that remarkable.
Glenn: It was the 70s. There were drugs everywhere.
Leave it to Glenn to tell it like it is and there's little doubt that his blunt attitude led to much of the creative tension. Ok he can be objectionable but I love that
about him, that he doesn’t attempt to excuse or rationalise. Sometimes I feel
like I’m surrounded by people who hedge their bets and are afraid to have an opinion.
Everyone talks about how funny Joe is (and he has some classic moments in HOTE), such as:
‘The first thing that happens is that you get
some kind of label, and you gotta live up to it, and you just get caught up in
that, and I forget what the second thing is’
but with Joe I always get the feeling that he sometimes only realises he’s said
something funny halfway through or just after he’s said it whereas Glenn is
much more self-aware and just as entertaining and his throwaway lines in the
HOTE film are classics. He’s always been the master of the soundbite, hence
‘Life in the Fast Lane’, ‘Lyin’ Eyes’. Here are a couple of classic Glenn lines:
Did I mention the hair?
'These songs are so old that when
they were written, the Dead Sea was only sick.'
‘Detroit, where mother is only half a word’ or
‘Detroit, the city that gave us Ted Nugent … and won't take him back’
There’s a reason Glenn gets to tell the jokes at the gigs,
albeit the same ones night after night. He delivers them way better than Don
could. My favourites are the Detroit ones above.
‘I own a lot of guitars. And the reason is, I'm looking for
one I can play.’ (From glennfreyonline)
Never afraid to be self-deprecating,
Glenn happy to participate in a joke guitar duel with Joe Walsh every night of
the tour, in which he gets to showcase what he can do but never really win.
Glenn wins the battle of the moustaches
Not quite finished but it seems appropriate to post this today. Well, it's the 6th in the USA but the 7th here. Happy birthday, Glenn!
Some quotes and images lifted from GlennFreyOnline. Thanks, guys!
