This weekend marks the end of LGBT Pride
Month. June was selected as Pride Month
to recognize the landmark Stonewall riot, 50 years ago yesterday, on June 28th,
1969, in Greenwich Village, New York.
This incident is often cited as one of the most significant events that
triggered the modern gay rights movement in the US.
Today’s SotW celebrates gay lib in song – “2-4-6-8 Motorway” by the Tom Robinson Band.
“2-4-6-8 Motorway” was released in 1977
and reached #5 on the UK charts. Though
it didn’t make the pop charts in the US, it did receive significant airplay on
FM Rock radio.
The song has two sides to it. On the one hand, it is about driving a
“lorry” through the night to the early morning.
And it’s two four six eight,
never too late
Me and my radio trucking on through the night
Three five seven nine, on a little white line
Motorway sun coming up with the morning light.
The tie into the gay liberation movement comes to those enlightened with a familiarity of the popular gay lib chant “2,4,6,8, Gay is twice as good as straight… 3,5,7,9, Lesbians are mighty fine”.
Robinson also recorded the much more
obvious “Glad to be Gay” that was included on his 1978 album, Rising Free.
We’ve come a long way since Stonewall
and Robinson’s anthems, but we have further to go to ensure the rights of the
LGBT community – especially for transgender individuals. That’s why Pride Month remains relevant
today.
But maybe it’s not a problem. There is a lot to like about this song. Dreamy and meandering with a wash of rhythm underneath, it’s kind of lovely, which makes it like loud folk rock.
In any case, here’s a heads up.
I keep listening to this, seduced by the wiry guitars and solid drums, and realize I’ve wandered into a pretty powerful description of sexual power and the dynamics that ensue.
There’s a new movie out from Danny Boyle, who made Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, called Yesterday, about an indie Indian rocker who has an accident and wakes up in a world without Beatles. As in, a world in which he knows the Beatles music but no one else knows of it.
I don’t know if this is a good premise for a movie, I have my doubts, but it surfaced this charming story of Peter and Gordon, guys who should have been remnants, but who kept getting hit songs, starting with this one Paul McCartney wrote when he was 16.
I posted a song of The Waldos here before and everyone liked it. Here they are live at the Continental Divide, the NYC club that was where the rocker wing of the CBGB crowd repaired to in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The Waldos and The Senders and in general the spawn of Johnny Thunders played there a lot.
I think it’s ballsy to even attempt Stand By Me and Tony Coiro nails it. I consider their album Rent Party to be one of the best albums of the 90’s. In this video, Walter Lure had broken a string and the band started without him. I like that. They couldn’t wait.
I loved Martin Scorcese’s Dylan documentary, No Direction Home. It seemed unusually synced to Dylan’s creative spirit, a major statement about where his talent came from. And also about where, more generally, talent comes from.
Scorcese’s new Dylan movie is a weirder thing. Alan Light wrote a good piece in the NY Times about its provenance.
I was new to New York when Dylan started prowling the clubs in 1976, playing impromptu shows at the Bitter End that featured a cast of new characters playing Dylan’s music on random nights. I had friends who went, though I never did. I suspect money was an issue, but whatever. This was also the time when Patti Smith and the Heartbreakers and the Ramones and Television and Talking Heads were playing in the East Village, and Steve Forbert and the Roches were playing at Kenny’s Castaways, just over from the Bitter End. Plus Max’s. We didn’t lack for music in those days.
So what’s striking about the new movie is the intensity of Dylan’s performances all the way through. This was true in No Direction Home as well, in the film/video it is impossible to miss the intention and direction he brings to every action he takes, every nuance he conveys, even while professing he wants to run a circus. His intensity isn’t his only talent, but the intensity he brings to these performances is the talent that raises him above most.
Obviously this isn’t a story of remnants, but it is a story of a superstar and his band playing at being remnants, playing small halls, disregarding commercial considerations, and making a rock ‘n’ roll tour into a work of art. Highly recommended. On Netflix.
The version of Hattie Carroll in the movie is fantastic, equally Dylan and Joan Baez, who shines singing harmonies, and so is more exuberant and vivid than this also excellent version that lacks Baez, but is still an amazing song.
In 1988 Edie Brickell & New Bohemians released their debut album, Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars. The album received a lot of airplay on “modern rock” radio stations, at least in Boston, and grabbed my attention. There were two songs in particular that stuck to me — “Circle” and today’s SotW, “What I Am.”
In 2006, Brickell described her
inspiration for the song to the San Francisco Bay Times.
In a world religion class, everyone was complicating life and existence by over-thinking. I had this sense it’s right here, right now. It’s who we are and what we feel. It’s not this tangled web of psychology and philosophy. I was driving to band practice and started singing that song. I wanted to be real, not adopt some philosophy or role. Instinct is our driving force.
So she wrote:
I’m not aware of too many things I know what I know if you know what I mean Philosophy is a talk on a cereal box Religion is a smile on a dog
Besides the beguiling lyric, I was also
drawn to the lead guitar work of Kenny Withrow who co-wrote “What I Am” with
Brickell. He uses an auto-wah/envelope
filter on his leads that reproduces the sound of a Jerry Garcia solo (think
“Estimated Prophet” or “Shakedown Street”).
On a side note, Brickell met Paul Simon
on the set of Saturday Night Live when she was the guest musical artist on
November 5, 1988. About a half year
later they were married and remain so today!
Her dad was a pro bowler that played for the Dallas Broncos.
This band, from Portland Maine, is playing nearby tonight. I’m not going, we’ve got an oratorio being performed by 30 canoeists in the Gowanus Canal at the same time (can’t miss that), but I did check them out.
I’m a sucker for this sort of rock, a rock that has hooks and a beat, a catchy melody and clever wordplay. This one is from 2016, so it’s a good sign they’re still working at it.
Plus, really good band name.
First video I ever saw with a color grading credit. Very video forward.
How do you feel about Ben Folds? I first heard of him when he released his
second album as the Ben Folds Five (there were only 3 people in the band), Whatever and Ever Amen (1997) – that’s
the one with one of his most well-known songs, Brick.”
I kind of liked his sense of humor and
self-deprecation. At the time he
described the groups sound as “punk rock for sissies.”
The band’s guitarless lineup of piano
(Folds), bass (Robert Sledge) and drums (Darren Jessee) made them stand out
against other popular groups of the day.
I often thought they sounded a bit like Todd Rundgren on some of his
more poppy, piano-based hits, like “Hello It’s Me.”
Take a listen to the SotW, “The Battle of Who Could Care Less,” from Whatever… to see if you hear the similarity.
“Battle…” exemplifies the previously
mentioned self-deprecating humor. The
song is about a guy who’s competing to prove his “coolness” by being aloof and
indifferent.
Do
you not hear me anymore?
I know it’s not your thing to care
I know it’s cool to be so bored
It sucks me in when you’re aloof
It sucks me in, it sucks, it works
I guess it’s cool to be alone
This should cheer you up for sure
See, I’ve got your old I.D.
And you’re all dressed up like the Cure
Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Unearned unhappiness
You’re my hero, I confess
Pretty funny stuff!
Folds indie cred was burnished through
his work as the producer of the first solo album by the provocative performance
artist, Amanda Palmer (formerly of The Dresden Dolls).
But somehow, I hold it against him that
he was a judge on a TV singing show – the a capella contest The Sing Off, that was on NBC for five
years. That’s not very hip in my book. Then again, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith agreed
to judge American Idol for two
seasons. So who knows?
