Too Absent Herald

1. “(It Wasn’t God Who Made) Honky Tonk Angels” – Kitty Wells

Kitty Wells’ twang is all over my most-played list. I came late to appreciate the looping narrative of country (cf. Elvis Costello’s Almost Blue).

But here, too, is all of country’s epistemology, from McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show:
“‘Is growin’ up always miserable?” Sonny Said. “Nobody seems to enjoy it much.”
“Oh, it ain’t necessarily miserable,” Sam replied. “About eighty per cent of the time, I guess.”‘

The endurance that a country ballad singer relates is admirable (especially since November, 2000). The piping up and saying more; adding your own two cents: This is the attraction of someone taking the stage with the same three-chord structure.
Close behind Ms. Wells: Hank, Sr., Faron Young, and, of course, Dolly’s Jolene.

2. “Homely Girl” – The Fabulous Five The Original Labour of Love [Trojan Records]

I’m a sucker for the way reggae groups cover some of the most insipid pop songs. I’m also an enthusiast of translation, a student of how meaning is modified. You can tell what books I have enjoyed because you see them in multiple languages on my shelf. So I tend to give as much credit for the remake as for the original.

So yes, in a manner of speaking, I’m a Neil Diamond fan, and I own his 1969 Touching You, Touching Me (wherein he had the guts to cover “Both Sides, Now” and “Everybody’s Talkin’”).

Try as you might to simply enjoy the sensual spiritualism of the Fabulous Five echoing through the thick air of some Kingston studio, you’ll draw a wry smile of wonder over what in heaven’s name Diamond was doing with this lyric.

3. “The Chokin’ Kind” – Joss Stone

The flip-side of the attraction of covers: The cover singer shares an interest with the listener as one friend to another. Our “friend” is singing to us a suggestion, opening the secret stash of their own development and inspiration.

The above observation is true here, as well. Joe Simon’s original is every bit as sassy and ingenious: “When you fall in love/ take a tip from me,/ If you don’t like the peach/ Then walk on by the tree.”

Much has been written about the fact that Betty Wright (“Clean-up Woman”) discovered something in Joss Stone’s sixteen year-old voice that rang true to an R&B sound. But as an album of homage, The Soul Sessions is closest to a literal translation, because it was recorded live in the studio. One can like a singer because it feels like they are singing to you. That this girl takes on these songs makes it feel (more difficult) that she is singing for me.

4. “Bad” – U2 (Live at LIVE AID, 1985)

It takes me about twelve minutes to put an IKEA Billy shelf together.

This recording is twelve minutes and thirty-three seconds long, and Bono spins out the time with an introduction of the band (perhaps necessary in 1985), and lyrical quotations from “Satellite of Love”, “Ruby Tuesday”, and “Walk on the Wilde Side”; the rest is Bono climbing the cat-walk in Wembley Stadium.

This recording creates in me the memory of feelings I didn’t have (secular humanism) at the time I first heard it, during the Live-Aid broadcast.

This recording reminds me of the first time I felt ashamed of being an American. Then, of course, it was only the slight shame at the lousy American artists’ song for Ethiopia, compared with (Let Them Know it’s Christmas), Feed the World. (Not that much has changed, except now, on a quiet night at 16th and Pennsylvania, you might hear Bush and Cheney singing “We Are the World” while tossing an inflated globe in the air.)

This recording should not be so hard to find. This concert should be in everyone’s head.

This recording is beautiful.

5. “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” – Bruce Springsteen

“Now the greasers they tramp the streets or get busted for sleeping on the beach all night,
Them boys in their high heels, ah Sandy, their skins are so white.
And me I just got tired of hangin’ in them dusty arcades bangin’ them pleasure machines,
Chasin’ the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they promise to unsnap their jeans

Springsteen doing Lou Reed, but still Springsteen, and that’s something.

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