You Can Never Hold Back Spring
Driving back from lunch today I was stopped behind a school bus on Independence Ave in the neighborhood, windows down and moonroof open. The sun shone and the air was clean with that feeling of Spring’s possibilities. The driver was outside at the back of the bus, operating an automatic wheelchair lift in front of the driveway of a house.
A casually-dressed, middle-aged mom and her angelic little girl, with corn rows and barrettes, stood quietly waiting at the curb for big brother to emerge from the bus. In my head the cherubic little brown-skinned girl had been whiling away the hours at home with mom, wondering when it would ever be time for the school bus to arrive- a daily ritual, I presumed.
Big brother and son finally did exit the bus in his wheelchair, head slightly bobbing, rhythmically, his face frozen in a permanent smile.
As the bus pulled away in front of me I lingered there to watch them greet each other, this snapshot of familial homecoming- a picture of innocence facing seemingly insurmountable odds.
Explanation, Please
I love this song "Passion Play" by Joni Mitchell off her album
Night Ride Home. I get the gist of the Biblical references and Jesus stuff, but can someone explain the purpose of the "Exxon Blue/ Radiation Rose" sections? Systemic, corporate evil, perhaps? What say you?
Passion PlayMagdalene is trembling
Like a washing on a line
Trembling and gleaming
Never before was a man so kind
Never so redeeming
Enter the multitudes
In exxon blue
In radiation rose
Ecstasy
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(who’re you gonna get)
I am up a sycamore
Looking through the leaves
A sinner of some position
Who in the world can this heart healer be
This magical physician
Enter the multitudes
In exxon blue
In radiation rose
Misery
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(who’re you gonna get)
Enter the multitudes
The walking wounded
They come to this diver of the heart
Of the multitudes
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
Oh, climb down, climb down he says to me
From the middle of unrest
They think his light is squandered
But he sees a stray in the wilderness
And I see how far I’ve wandered
Enter the multitudes
In exxon blue
In radiation rose
Apathy
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(who’re you gonna get)
Enter the multitudes
The walking wounded
They come to this diver of the heart
Of the multitudes
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
Oh, all around the marketplace
The buzzing of the flies
The buzzing and the stinging
Divinely barren
And wickedly wise
The killer nails are ringing
Enter the multitudes
In exxon blue
In radiation rose
Tragedy
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(who’re you gonna get)
Whatcha Listenin' To?
In between large doses of They Might Be Giants and Wilco last week, I have continued on with the musical odyssey that has been the last year or so of my life. Here’s what I’ve been hearing as of late:
Led Zeppelin
Physical GraffittiI have loved the early Led Zep for many years. I have delved into their later output as of late and I am realizing that their aesthetic broadened quite a bit after the fourth album. The production became more dense, less “live” sounding. They started to redefine what rock n’ roll is all about. For example, listen to the rhythmic unnaturalness of a song like “Kashmir” on this album or the trancy start of what would have been the second record- “In the Light.” There is a middle eastern modality to it that reminds you just how far they had come since their early days of more blues-based faire. But this record’s more experimental moments are still tempered by riff-rock and pop-ish melodies every now and then. My favorite song, without a doubt, is “Down By the Seaside,” a laid-back swing shuffle that somehow drifts back and forth into straight-ahead rock. If you’ve never heard this album I recommend that you check it out. There is a lot of info to process.
Aretha Franklin
Lady SoulThere is a certain “I-don’t-know-what” to this collection of songs from 1968. I wasn’t bowled over by I Never Loved a Man the way I Love You from the year before, and I’m not usually blown away by soul/r&b music anyway, but Aretha is in fine voice here. Someone in her position is really only as good as the material that her producers find for her to sing, and there were a couple of huge hits off this album: “Chain of Fools” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” the latter of which bringing to mind a couple issues for me:
1) Unlike most pop songs which easily allow you to switch the pronouns of “he” and “she” to easily adapt it for your own use, this song does not. And so I was torn, even when listening in the privacy of my own car. With all that I am, I wanted to sing along to that triumphant chorus. But I couldn’t. I’m not a woman. No amount of specious arguments or justifications could make this song true for me. Nobody makes me feel like a natural woman.
2) Speaking of appreciation for this song- as lovely as it is, as iconic as the arrangement is, I still cannot hear this song without associating it with a women’s underwear ad on television from way back when I was a kid. Which, for me, begs the question: does a song ever bounce back to being “important” and “artistic” once it has been used to sell you underwear? My hunch is “no.”
John Lennon
ImagineSo
Plastic Ono Band was an exorcism of Lennon’s inner life.
Imagine is a collection of more easily digestible pop music, which is not to say that there is a lack of depth with regard to his lyrical concerns. There is a reason that the title track resounds so deeply within people. This album just seems less about Lennon and more about the world.
I was blown away by the contrast between the happy good-time backing for the truisms contained in the song “Crippled Inside.”
One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside. A pretty melancholy thought. But not so much when accompanied by music that sounds like the background to muppets frolicking in a park. The song “How Do You Sleep?” gets a lot of press, being a slam against McCartney and all. It just struck me as kind of immature. How can you be mean to Paul McCartney? Maybe you’re allowed to be when you really know him. Who knows? Anyway, this album is a much more pleasant listening experience than his previous one.
Simon and Garfunkel
Bridge Over Troubled WaterI realized one thing pretty quickly while listening to this album. There is no one who came out of the 60s folk tradition with a more sophisticated harmonic sense than Paul Simon. And I’m not just talking about all of the gospelly chromatic applied dominants in the piano part for the title track. All of the major sevenths in the bossa-nova-esque “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” confirm it as well. These songs are a far-cry from three-chord, guy-and-a-guitar, folkie singer-songwriter-type stuff.
Paul’s voice on “The Only Living Boy in New York” is just so perfect. It made me feel all warm inside. These guys had a way with melody and harmony. And that’s just my cursory gloss of the purely instrumental concerns. I’ll let Steven deal with lyrical concerns and whatever else I missed. (So, take it away, Steven, if you feel compelled.) Suffice it say that, after hearing this album for the first time, I am sold on these guys. Can’t wait to hear more.
Yngwie Malmsteen
Best Of: 1990-1999Rarely before have I read about a guy so divisive for purely musical reasons. Sure, Sinead was controversial for tearing up the pope’s picture and Madonna rolled around in a wedding dress, blah, blah, blah. What did Yngwie do? Oh, he played a bunch of fast notes on a guitar. And in doing so he came to represent all that was wrong with 80s hard rock music in general and metal guitar specifically. The terms “flashy,” “soulless,” and “musical masturbation” get thrown around a lot in discussions about this guys’ output. And he didn’t do himself any favors by proclaiming himself to be a mongo guitar virtuoso dude.
I chuckled to myself several times while listening to this collection, largely because the junior high version of me would have LOVED this stuff, purely for the guitar. And to be fair, the stuff he plays on the guitar is insanely difficulty, but only from considerations of pure speed. He is really not tied to any kind of rhythmic limitations. It’s just a flurry of notes, so it’s a different kind of “impressive” than, say, the rhythmic irregularity of a Robert Fripp or Dream Theater, for instance.
Anyway, this album’s being the sole Malmsteen disc in the library’s collection is interesting because it’s really a document of what he did AFTER his 80’s heyday. I don’t imagine much changed stylistically in those ten years, however.
The Hollies
The Hollies’ Greatest HitsThere were two reasons I wanted to hear this album: “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and “The Air That I Breathe.” Homework assignment: compare “The Air That I Breathe” to Radiohead’s “Creep.”
George Harrison Said It Pretty Well...
It's the season of lightness and expectation. I've had this song in my head the last few days...
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years
Since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
Little darling, the smile's returning to their faces
Little darling, it seems like years
Since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years
Since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
It's alright
A Rare Moment of Self-Disclosure
It’s been a little over a month since I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. That’s the kind with “insulin resistance.” Due to my body’s love/hate relationship with insulin, my blood sugar level is often too high.
I’ve been thinking about blood a lot these days. I stick my finger at least once a day and see this strange red, life-giving liquid. It’s an interesting way to put together an organism isn’t it? All of these tissues need oxygen and nutrients and energy. Why not get it there with a red liquid?
And there is that old saying- “Blood is thicker than water,” which vaguely has something to do with families and the ties that bind. I never fully understood that saying, but one thing is for sure. I wish it weren’t true. I wish blood were
at most as thin as water. I wish blood couldn’t possibly strain the very vessels that carry it. I wouldn’t have needed to revolutionize my life. I wouldn’t have to be so obsessed with numbers, feeling like Harold Crick in
Stranger Than Fiction. I wouldn’t have to be mindful of possible complications should I let this disease get out of control. I wouldn’t have to blah, blah, blah.
The fact is, friends, that kind of wishful thinking will get me nowhere.
Here’s what I think about instead…I think about my life as it is. Since I started to get hunches about this diabetes thing a couple years ago I have steadily adopted a more active and healthy lifestyle. I am now lighter (both physically and emotionally) than I have been in many, many years. And I am only going to get lighter. I approach the circumstances of life much more positively and less fatalistically. I know very little of the dread that used to plague my visions of the future. It’s probably because of a bunch of chemicals and hormones and who-knows-what swirling around inside of me that activates when you eat well and move around. Whatever the methodology, I am a much happier person these days.
If it took diabetes to shock me out of the catatonia of my previous life, so be it.
Labels: Diabetes
Oh, Wilco. How I Love You.
I’ve got a bit of a mooning infatuation with
these guys. Thusly I jumped at the chance to see them in concert. And at Cain’s Ballroom?!? There really isn’t a bad spot to see or hear at that venue!
So I got to the venue Saturday night about twenty minutes after the doors opened and camped out at a spot about thirty feet from Nels Cline’s “science experiment table.” I’d seen and heard my share of local bands from this vantage point, but never absolute musical heroes of national and even international fame. Another first: as none of my friends got tickets for this show I experienced all of the night’s music-making by myself. A very odd sensation.
As John Doe, (from the 80s LA punk band X) played an unexpected, yet well-received high-energy set of Americana rock, (including guest lap steel by Nels on one song), the crowd started to grow around me.
After the opener I don’t think I ever awaited a bunch of musicians to walk onstage with as much childlike expectation before. And after a minimum of waiting around for roadies to tune guitars and hook up mics, the band casually walked onstage- Jeff Tweedy wearing a Nashville- showbiz, white embroidered suitcoat, looking like he owned the place. To me he was the very image of a paradox. The soft-spoken artist equating his music to “pieces of his soul” in the film
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, wore this outfit about as convincingly as a little kid in a cub scout uniform. So I laughed as soon as I saw him. I had chosen my spot well, as I wound up mid-way between Tweedy and Nels for most of the show. (I say “most of the show,” because I had to get some breathing room about halfway through the first encore. Getting older sucks.)
All told, they played over 2 ½ hours’ worth of music spanning their entire catalog, including several Woody Guthrie covers in honor of one of this state’s most famous musical heroes. Most thrilling for me, (during a thrilling evening in general) was the song “Impossible Germany” off the new record. With this song you get three distinct guitar parts and one of Nels’s shining moments of beautifully lyrical soloing. This song clearly demonstrates one of the things that makes Wilco great- the interplay of a bunch of guys contributing often little things on their own to create this collage of tasteful sound that is much more than a mere sum of its parts, all the while striking a very delicate balance between improvisation and tight, well-planned arrangements.
I witnessed all this as a man alone in a crowd. There may be something to the talk of concerts being communal, tribal events, great “shared experiences” and all that, but not so for me this particular night.
It was as if those guys were playing just for me and I have been spoiled for other bands for a long time…
An Update
There are lots of things going on in the life of Mike these days. Sorry I haven't given you much to read in recent days.
Today I'm discovering the joy of a day off after a rocking concert. I took a car full of friends to Dallas last night for a They Might Be Giants show at the House of Blues- an awesome venue in which to see musical heroes of mine since way back in my high school days. So, today I'm enjoying a sabbath.
This is truly one of my best musical weeks ever, as I will go to Tulsa on Saturday to see current musical heroes Wilco. Having already seen them live before, I am about to spurt with excitement!
More later as time permits...
