Disc 368 is...Casino
Artist: Blue Rodeo
Year of Release: 1990
What’s Up With The Cover?: The vast negative space that exists when the circus leaves town.
How I Came To Know It: It has been a year and a half since I last rolled Blue Rodeo, but if you were reading then you'd know this is a band that my wife Sheila introduced me to, for which I am grateful.
How It Stacks Up: We have 11 Blue Rodeo albums, which I think is all of them. "Casino" is one of their best - I'll say it is third, narrowly behind "Diamond Mine" which I reviewed way back at Disc 63.
Rating: 4 stars.
As I alluded to in the teaser, it was fitting that I reviewed a Bob Dylan album right before "Casino," because this record is a natural inheritor to that roots rock sound.
Where Dylan uses harmonica to emotionally punctuate songs, "Casino" relies on the Bob Wiseman, who fills the same role with organ, piano and, yes, harmonica. A lot of people think that Blue Rodeo was never the same after Wiseman left the band in 1993. There is some truth to that, with the glaring exception of "5 Days in July," which is their best record, and first without him.
For all of "5 Days in July"s brilliance, I can't imagine "Casino" being nearly as good without Wiseman who gives the record so much energy with his playing.
OK, enough with the Bob Wiseman waffling and back to the record. As ever, the driving force of these songs is Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, who write them all and alternate taking lead vocals.
As I've mentioned in the past, Keelor and Cuddy are so different in their styles, with Cuddy more the plaintive crooner, and Keelor the fevered rockabilly hipster (before hipster was a dirty word). Together, they are perfectly complementary.
I've come to appreciate Keelor more and more in recent years, but on "Casino" it is the songs where Cuddy takes the lead that really grab me.
"Til I Am Myself Again" I believe was the hit off of this record, by Blue Rodeo standards (the band has long flown under the radio radar). It is an amazing opening song, and the best on the album, featuring Cuddy's long-time saw, the pain of a broken relationship. If Cuddy had a break up for every great break up song he's written, he would have dated half the girls in their home town of Toronto.
The song also captures (for me) the disconnect of the road, and the slow loss of identity that comes with immersing yourself in your music (and on a tour bus, presumably, as these guys have long kept a hectic tour schedule). My favourite lines are:
"I had a dream that my house was on fire
People laughed while it burned
I tried to run but my legs were numb
I had to wait 'til the feeling returned.
I don't need a doctor to figure it out
I know what's passing me by
When I look in the mirror sometimes I see
Traces of some other guy."
Good stuff, and if you haven't looked in a mirror and seen traces of some other guy, then you haven't looked hard enough (helpful hint: the other guy is still you). There's a reason that vampires don't reflect in the mirror - they couldn't stand to see their own monstrous natures reflected there. Cuddy has no such problem, and "Casino" once again has him pouring his heart out for our entertainment.
Cuddy has a voice that is deeply underappreciated outside of the loyal cadre of Blue Rodeo zealots across Canada (count me as one of those). He can hit high notes with a reverence and power that make introspective expressions of himself into holy hymns in praise of the human spirit. He's like a preacher for your heart.
When he takes it down in tempo, as he does in "Montreal" he proves that whether he's playing high and fast, or slow and low, he rarely misses the heart. When I listen to "Montreal" I just want him to run back to the girl he's left in that great city. Hell, he makes me want to go find her. Like many Cuddy songs, "Montreal" reminds us that there is a whole other chapter of love that exists after the trite romantic comedy ends, which may not be as neatly wrapped up, but makes for a way better story.
Keelor isn't at Cuddy's level vocally, but few are. He has his moments, though, and he sings with a passion and intensity that can't be denied. I think on later records he really comes into his own, and I have grown to love his contributions. On "Casino" he misses at times. The best Keelor-led song is "Last Laugh" which starts out so beautifully, with an understated Keelor singing:
"I should have seen through it but you were so intent
The nervous breakdown of an overworked bed
You couldn't wait to get over the edge."
Good stuff, but the chorus -
"You were drunk on the silver when he took your crown
He took everything from you that wasn't tied down
You said he was an angel with the chains of gold
Too bad they weren't strong enough to hold."
- seems to me a little strained in its imagery. That said, this is a good track, and when it gets going features some amazing guitar work by Keelor, who has long been a master of the instrument.
By contrast, "Two Tongues" is a Keelor song that goes out on a musical limb and falls off. It is supposed to be some political satire (I think) but it is overwrought and just comes off as nasty and misdirected. Keelor takes a lot of chances musically, more than Cuddy, and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but Blue Rodeo wouldn't be much without him. Keelor more than recovers with the bouncy rock song, "You're Everywhere" which has shades of Chuck Berry, and at only 2:49 in length, leaves you wanting more even as the record ends.
This is a great record, by a great band that has strangely never achieved greatness in the United States. In Canada though, they have a solid and loyal following of fans. Records like "Casino" remind why I'm proud to be one of them.
Best tracks: Til I Am Myself Again, What Am I Doing Here, Montreal, Last Laugh, After The Rain, You're Everywhere
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