I started out getting my 3rd tattoo! Technically, I suppose this is my third and fourth tattoo, since they are parallel armbands. I get all my tattooing done by Leroy at Union Tattoo. Leroy is the best - he not only understands what I want, he makes it better than I imagined it. I've posted picture of my latest at the end of this blog entry. If you want to check out more of Leroy's stuff, visit: http://www.junkyarddesigns.ca/.
OK - on to the music review, which was not nearly inspiring as my new tattoo.
Disc 363 is...This Is The Story
Artist: The Proclaimers
Year of Release: 1987
What’s Up With The Cover?: Look, w'ere identical twins! And we're in a band together! And we're twins! Yeah...this is not a good cover.
How I Came To Know It: I had purchased their huge follow-up album, "Sunshine On Leith" and liked it, so I was looking for more. This was their only other record that I could find at the time, and so I bought it.
How It Stacks Up: I was surprised to find the Proclaimers have made eight records, but I only have two. Of the two, "This Is The Story" is the weaker one.
Rating: 3 stars.
The theory that people lose their accents when singing never listened to the Proclaimers. These guys are Scottish, and they want you to know about it.
This could be distracting, except for the fact that many of their songs are specifically about Scotland, including one ("Throw the 'R' Away) which is specifically about their accents:
"I've been so sad
Since you said my accent was bad
He's worn a frown
This Caledonian clown
I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate
To make sure my words
On your Saxon ears don't grate
But I wouldn't know a single word to say
If I flattened all the vowels and threw the 'R' away."
The lyrics are playful, but there is a harder edge of nationalism in Proclaimer songs, including the more than occasional poke at the English. Having been to Scotland, I can attest this is a pretty common sentiment, although for the most part Scots take a humorous and self-deprecating approach to the question of England-Scotland relations.
In 1996 Sheila and I were lucky enough to watch a soccer match between England and Scotland while sitting in a pub in Oban (a small town on the northwest coast, and famous for amazing Scotch). The pub was packed with enthusiastic fans, chanting complicated songs at the TV, and booing every time English star Paul Gascoyne touched the ball.
In between shouts from older folks sitting in the back yelling at younger folks in front to 'move yer head!' the Scottish side put up a spirited attack before losing 2-0 to a more talented English team. After the game, the enthusiasm of the crowd was barely diminished by the loss, although there were many colourful epithets directed at the English, and a lot of fatalism over the ongoing struggles of the Scottish side. Beside that, everyone just returned to their beers and getting to know the tourists in their midst. But I digress...
Back to "This Is the Story," which captures this unsinkable, gregarious spirit through jumpy folk-pop. Most songs have nothing more than the two brothers (Craig and Charlie Reid) singing and a couple of acoustic guitars. When not singing in harmony, one Reid brother will typically do a background, supportive melody that creates the effect of another instrument in the mix. It sounds simple at first, but the more you listen, the more intricate you realize it is. It is music that requires incredible timing to work, and it is done without the aid of a drummer.
In addition to "Throw The 'R' Away" other standouts on the album are "Over And Done With" and "The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues."
"Over And Done With" is a song about not dwelling on your past, or using it as a crutch for how you're feeling in the present (a sentiment that appeals to my existential leanings). The first verse is about a nasty teacher from high school:
"This is the story of our first teacher
Shetland made her jumpers
And the devil made her features
Threw up her hands when my mum said our names
Embroidered all her stories with slanderous claims
But, it's over and done with. It's over and done with."
Sure, we've all had a rotten teacher along the way that tried to fill our heads with doubt. The Proclaimers remind us that dwelling on that is completely pointless. Better to just say "It's over and done with" and move on. Of course, if she is a real shrew, you can additionally write a nasty song about her, and make some money out of it.
"The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues" has a wordy title, but the same basic message. It is an up-tempo song featuring all of the best elements of the Proclaimers: catchy guitar strumming, heavily-brogued singing and lyrics that make you smile and forget your worries.
It isn't all peaches and cream on this record, though, which despite a few highpoints is very uneven in places. On "Misty Blue" the music and lyrics combine a cutesy melody that belongs in a children's song, with lyrics that have an over-large helping of schmaltz. "The First Attack" is a religious dirge, without the gravitas a dirge requires to work.
Also, for all the joy I've gotten out of Scotland forever lyrics, on repeat listens the songs lose some of their impact and stray toward novelty.
However, on balance I'm going to take some advice from "The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues," namely:
"I'm not going to talk about doubts and confusion
On a night when I can see with my eyes shut."
A line that has gotten me through many a negative moment in my life, and for that reason alone I'll relax my hard-marking ways and give this album three stars for nostalgia.
Best tracks: Throw the 'R' Away, Over And Done With, Sky Takes The Soul, The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues
And now, as promised here are my awesome new tattoos!
They are two armbands. The top one is a band of grape leaves, with two crossed thyrsi (the thyrsus is the symbol of the Greek god Dionysus), representing wild abandon, revelry and artistic inspiration.
The lower band is a band of laurels, with a lyre in the centre, representing the Greek god Apollo, god of music and the arts. As a writer, I like the dichotomy between these two ideas as they would apply to the creative world, one representing spontaneous inspiration and the other the discipline required to forge finished art out of that inspiration.
Here's a view going around the arm.
Yes, the bands go all the way around, nearly touching on the inside of my arm. That area I didn't photograph because it is still quite pink. Getting tattooed on the inside of your arm is far less pleasant than the outside, but art has its price.
Thanks again to Leroy for his amazing work. You are a true artist, sir!
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