Sometimes the random element to
what I review can be a bit disappointing.
For example, to introduce you to this next album – a collaboration of
two great artists inspired by a third - it would have been easier to have done
their first album together, rather than Volume II.
But hey, that’s the way the random
cookie crumbles. So here’s Volume II –
it’s still good.
Disc 537 is…. Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
Artist: Billy
Bragg and Wilco
Year of Release: 2000
What’s up with the Cover? I’m guessing the background of this shot is Mermaid
Avenue, around the time of Woody Guthrie, however who cares about that when you
have a cute kitty in the foreground! In
recent years I’ve come to love the tuxedo cat, but there’s a lot to be said for
the tabby.
How I Came To Know It: I had found out about the amazing first “Mermaid
Avenue” album just a few years ago, and then learned there was a sequel. Without delay I sought it out and added it to
my collection. If one album of this
music was good, I reasoned, then two must be better.
How It Stacks Up: Turns out I was right, and “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II”
is a strong record as well, but overall the first “Mermaid Avenue” is stronger,
so I have to rank this one second.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
On his 1997
song “Christmas in Washington” Steve
Earle pines:
“Come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow.”
A year
later, Steve’s wish would symbolically come true, when Guthrie’s daughter Nora
met up with Billy Bragg and Wilco and gave them a myriad of song lyrics her
father had penned but never recorded. If
there had ever been music to go with these lyrics, they were lost to the mists
of time, but with the help of Bragg and Wilco, they were brought to life and
with them, Guthrie rose again somehow.
The “Mermaid
Avenue” project was such a success (artistically at least) that two years later
Bragg and Wilco did another whole second album of them. That album, not terribly inventively, is
called “Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II” again after the street in Coney Island,
Brooklyn that Guthrie lived on. Whatever
its title, it is a worthy successor to a contemporary folk classic.
As with
the first record, Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco alternate taking lead
vocals and they both bring something beautiful to Guthrie’s original thoughts. Bragg’s protest folk styles are a more natural
fit for Guthrie’s lyrics, but Jeff Tweedy frontman and the rest of Wilco are
equally good. In fact, the indie rock
style of Wilco gives a nice counterbalance to Bragg’s more traditional approach. The ghost of Guthrie is everpresent, and the
three artistic voices form a nice triangle, each corner equally propping up the
record’s feel.
Given
Earle’s prayer for the return of Guthrie, the opening track, “Airline to Heaven” is a fitting start,
as Guthrie muses about one day going to heaven.
The words were penned in 1939, but like every song on the record it is
as fresh and relevant today as any song.
I
enjoyed hearing, “My Flying Saucer” as
the next track, a true 1950s whimsical approach to the topic at a time when
flying saucers were just becoming a fad.
I’ve always wanted to do a ‘flying saucer’ playlist which would feature
the song, plus Blue Rodeo’s “Cynthia”,
Blue Oyster Cult’s “Sole Survivor” the
Carpenters’ “Calling Occupants” and
Tool’s “Rosetta Stoned” I’m sure I could find a few more once I put
my mind to it. But I digress…
Back to “Mermaid
Avenue (Vol. II).” Not surprisingly some
of the most resonant songs are those that speak to social justice issues,
something that all parties to the music understand. “Hot
Rod Hotel” is the song about a porter/night clerk at a hotel and all the
menial tasks he is forced to perform to put food on the table, until one day he
rebels when asked to clean up a particularly horrible room. The song sounds like it will end sad and
defeated, but it actually is a working class triumph:
“The lammy tried to make me clean
up that crappy mess
Or else he’d fire me off my job
and let me starve to death
I laid aside my polish rag and downed
my dusting pan
And I’ve not seen the old Hot Rod
nor that old town since then.”
This
song is a timely reminder that no matter where we find ourselves on the
corporate ladder, we can always choose dignity and honour if faced with
acquiescing to the unreasonable.
Not all
the songs are as compelling as this, unfortunately. “I Was
Born” sounds like a transcription of a toddler trying to remember when she
was born, and the guest vocals of Natalie Merchant plays that up to the further
detriment of the song. “Blood of the Lamb” has a pretty gospel
feel to it, but it is just a bit too preachy for my tastes (note: good gospel never feels actually preachy). Finally, “Joe
Di Maggio Done It Again” would be a fun song if you were a baseball fan,
but I am not.
These
misses are more about my personal preferences, however, rather than being inherently
bad songs, and even so they are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The rule
here makes a heartfelt record that misses very few beats. There is political commentary aplenty,
including calling out fascists, and supporting a write-in third party candidate
due to disgust with all the people approved on the ballot.
The album
also features gentle love songs like “Remember
the Mountain Bed” rich with verses dripping with sexy autumnal glory:
“Do you still sing of the
mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves
Do you still sigh there near the
sky where the holly berry bleeds
You laughed as I covered you over
with leaves, face, breast, hips and thighs
You smiled when I said the leaves
were just the color of your eyes.”
Whew! Is it getting hot in here?
Er…anyway, many of the themes on “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” are twenty or thirty years before their time, and Bragg and Wilco ensure they fit for the modern ear without ever losing the protest folk charm of Guthrie himself. This album is a worthy successor to a project that was inspired by Guthrie's own 'Airline to Heaven', and a little honest hope from some talented folks still down here waiting in this earthly terminal for their turn to be remembered.
Best tracks: Airline to Heaven, Hot Rod Hotel, Stetson Kennedy, Remember
the Mountain Bed, All You Fascists, Black Wind Blowing, Someday Some Morning
Sometime
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