willdrewsmusicblog-blog

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Artist: The Shins Song: New Slang Album: Oh, Inverted World (2001)

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Artist: Zero 7 Song: In the Waiting Line Album: Simple Things (2001)

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Artist: Stone Temple Pilots  Song: Adhesive Album: Tiny Music From a Vatican Gift Shop (1996)

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Artist: Elliott Smith Song: Happiness Album: Figure 8 (2000)

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Artist: Sufjan Stevens Song: To Be Alone With You Album: Seven Swans (2014)

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The Revivalists: “Wish I Knew You”

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Jeff Buckley - “Morning Theft” (Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk) In my first post today, I tried to flesh out a sort of continuum based on A.O. Scott’s pretentiousness/sincerity dichotomy, with one extreme representing “emptiness masked by ostentation” and the other end representing sincerity, with the understanding that the perception of too much sincerity can be turned against the artist. “Morning Theft” may be the love song on which Buckley best navigates possible criticisms from both sides.  In writing one of his sparest original compositions, Buckley didn’t give himself a lot of room for vocal acrobatics, and his band, entering about halfway through, supplies tasteful, barely-there backing.  This lack of ornamentation puts Buckley’s lyrics and nuanced delivery up front, and there’s little doubt that there’s substance here.  And it’s in that substance that we might bump up against those complaints of too much sincerity (or “sentimentality,” “masturbation,” “oversharing,” whatever-you-want-to-call-it).  But they wouldn’t be justified.  While the lyrics might superficially seem a return to the melancholy lost love song model from Grace*, “Morning Theft” carries with it a more sophisticated perspective.  A relationship has ended, but Buckley’s reaction is equivocal.  He begins with self-consolation:

Time takes care of the wound; Or so I can believe

But soon turns to cutting self-analysis:

But what am i still to you? Some thief who stole from you Or some fool drama queen 
whose chances were few?

To philosophizing:

Love brings us to who we need
 A place where we can save
 A heart that beats
 As both siphon and reservoir

And finally, an appeal:

Meet me tomorrow night
 Or any day you want I have no more right to wonder Just how or when

 And though the meaning fits
 There’s no relief in this
 I miss my beautiful friend

The bizarre comparisons, “You’re a woman, I’m a calf; You’re a window, I’m a knife” are so prominent in the song and land so oddly that they practically beg to be taken as proof that Buckley still had a lot to learn as a lyricist.  But it’s their very prominence and Buckley’s insistence on retaining these lines (with a slight change of article) in its few live performances that suggest an intended ambiguity.  It’s exactly this sort of ambiguity, particularly in Buckley’s later work, that I’ll focus on tomorrow.  * Mind you, I don’t consider those songs overly sincere; they’re just more straightforward than “Morning Theft,” thus more vulnerable to such critiques.

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Jeff Buckley - “Everybody Here Wants You” (Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk)

Genre is also coded racially.  Obviously an artist can perform a genre not attributed to her race, but it’s sometimes signaled in descriptions of the music, for example “blue-eyed soul” (Goldin-Perschbacher, 27).

Going with the quote above, what can one make of a song like “Everybody Here Wants You”?  In racial terms, it falls plainly in the blue-eyed soul category.  But does perceived or proclaimed influence have some bearing on genre?  By most accounts, Buckley never claimed to be a fan of blue-eyed soul, specifically.  For better or worse, he presumably didn’t pick up the slow jam impulse in “Everybody Here Wants You” from George Michael or Hall & Oats, but from Prince (I don’t think I’m overstating the similarity here, am I?).  In fact, Buckley had some harsh words for one of the world’s more notable blue-eyed soul performers:

RR: I want to talk about another Michael. I read a review that compared your recent EP, Live at Sin-é, with Michael Bolton’s new record. 
 JB: Oh, my God! Oh, shit, that’s really disgusting!
 RR: It gets worse. They said he has succeeded in taking from the tradition of African American soul and blues singers in a way that you have miserably failed. JB: Really? But the thing is, I’m not taking from that tradition. I don’t want to be black. Michael Bolton desperately wants to be black, black, black. He also sucks. - Interview with Ray Rogers, Interview Magazine, Feb. 1994

And he’s right—Michael Bolton most certainly does suck (“Jack Sparrow” doesn’t begin to cover all of your sins, fella).  But I think Buckley doth protest a bit too much here.  He may not want to be black, but, like most (well, all) rock artists, he took tons from the African-American soul and blues tradition—even more than many, considering his cover choices and soulful excursions like “Everybody Here Wants You,” “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over,” and “Forget Her,” the blues-pop Grace outtake eventually released on the Legacy Edition.  Even some of his choices of punk and proto-punk covers have unusual racial dynamics (e.g., the MC5’s White Panther shtick and Bad Brains’ status as the first notable black hardcore band). At the same time, considering the importance of the soul and blues tradition in American popular music, it’s practically redundant to have to establish the black influence in practically any rock artist’s music and, conversely, to characterize adjacent genres by race.  Were Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn playing “blue-eyed soul” while Booker T. and Al Jackson, Jr. played “soul”?  Because of the dues owed to African-American culture in virtually all areas of contemporary rock and pop, Buckley’s relationship with racial identity is far more distinctive in those rare instances in which he worked outside of American-derived popular music forms.  I’ll explore such an instance in the next post. Goldin-Perschbacher, Shana. Sexuality, Listening, and Intimacy: Gender Transgression in Popular Music, 1993-2008. Diss. University of Virginia, 2008.

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This is a pretty cool blog. Definitely enjoying the theme.

“Do I Wanna Know?”

To be 100% honest, this week wouldn’t be happening - at least not with me - if this song had not happened. I lost touch with the Arctic Monkeys. I would guess somewhere around 2010. (I could blame this on leaving Europe, but that would be weak.) I didn’t even know they released “R U Mine?” last year. They played Lollapalooza and I went to find a tree in the back because it was raining. They opened for the Black Keys and I didn’t realize until I was there. Then I got some snacks because that’s what my friends were doing.

Guys - it was not great.

But this summer I heard “Do I Wanna Know?” I can’t remember which came first - whether I had this germ of an idea that I could build a week around AM (I was on the prowl for a good - and personal - OWOB group) or the single - but it changed things. The rhythm, the way it gets under your skin. The way Turner’s voice builds the words into the song and just emotes like it’s his job. (Well, yes, it is.)

“There this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow / and I play it on repeat.”

For me, this song resonates with my fan-ship with the band. Which is weird, but whatever. I did play it on repeat. And I wrote. Much of what I wrote didn’t make it out of the summer or into this week. But that is what the point is not. 

“Do I Wanna Know?” was my bridge back - to crawl over, if you will - to the band. When I fell out of touch, I was thinking I was going to school to be a criminal psychologist.  Three years later, I’m trying to make a go of music journalism. The Arctic Monkeys I hear now are better than they once were. They are more. Maybe they don’t evoke the same feelings of angsty, angry kinship but the level on which I appreciate their efforts and story as a band is one I owe to “Do I Wanna Know?”

Tomorrow we’ll talk about Alex “just discovered the question mark” Turner.

(But seriously.“R U Mine?” “Do I Wanna Know?” “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” Where was all this punctuation before?)

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Radiohead- Paranoid Android

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Like the old one, there’s really no format.

Also, I work about 50-60 hours a week. So, updates may not be regular.

Well, at least for now.