CD Odyssey Disc 498: The Proclaimers

A couple weeks back I skipped guitar practice to watch the Bruins play the Penguins and we lost.  I blamed the vengeful Gods of Guitar Practice.

Tonight I skipped most of the Bruins/Habs game to go to guitar lessons.  Sadly, we still lost, but I can’t blame the Gods of Guitar Practice.  Instead I’ll fall back on the time-honoured tradition of blaming the officiating and bad luck.  Damn I hate the Montreal Canadiens.

Disc 498 is… Sunshine on Leith

Artist: The Proclaimers

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover?  The Reid brothers look out on urban Scotland, and give us a backside view of their eighties jeans.  It was not a good decade for jeans.

How I Came To Know It:  I first heard these guys when I was going to university in the late eighties.  They were pretty big on campus for a couple of years.  I bought this CD very early on and I’ve had it in my collection for over twenty years now.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have two Proclaimers albums; this one and “This Is The Story” which I reviewed back at Disc 363 (also the day after I got my last tattoo – January 29, 2012).  Of the two albums, I prefer “Sunshine on Leith.”

Rating:  4 stars.

When you proclaim something you do more than tell someone, you lay it down like it is some kind of gospel, and that’s how this record by the Proclaimers comes across – big, brash and unapologetic.

The boys play their acoustic guitars loud and they sing brazenly on top of it, mixing in love and politics in equal measure.  I can’t decide if they are the male version of the Indigo Girls or the Scottish version of Billy Bragg.

Like their previous release, the politics once again strongly reference Scottish nationalism.  Songs like “Cap In Hand” are pointed, but more directed at Scottish complacency than at any foreign power.  In places it sounds like they’re channeling Sean Connery on a bad night, but I still love this song.  It feels like a soccer chant and a picket slogan wrapped up into one guitar strumming package of protest folk.

More thoughtful, and heart wrenching is “What Do You Do” which paints the distressing picture of what it is like to be a majority community, but to feel like a minority within a larger confederation:

“What do you do

When Democracy’s all through

What do you do

When minority means you?”

It is a longstanding political question the world over, with no perfect answer.  Fortunately, we don’t solve political questions on “A Creative Maelstrom,” we discuss music.  Huzzah!  On that note, it should be mentioned The Proclaimers aren’t always dour and politically combative.  For example, “It’s Saturday Night” is a funny song about a bender that sounds like it could’ve been a country and western hit in the fifties except for updated activities like this:

“So let me walk straight, don’t let me feel pain

I’m gonna scratch cars, with my keys again.”

The lyrics say “Sex Pistols” but the tune says “Hank Williams” and the American country influences don’t stop there.  Considering how long I’ve owned this album and how many times I’ve listened to it, I was more than a little embarrassed to only now notice that “My Old Friend the Blues” is a remake of the Steve Earle song recorded for his album “Guitar Town” two years earlier.  Major kudos to the Proclaimers for remaking one of my all-time favourite artists.  I particularly like the guitar playing on the Proclaimers version, and the harmonies of the twin brothers are on fine display.  That said, overall I still prefer the sadder, more introspective Steve Earle version.  With the exception of the brilliant guitar work, the remake is just a little too stilted and by rote.

Of course, this album can’t be discussed without noting the huge song that propelled them briefly to international stardom – three times.  “I’m Gonna Be” was a fairly big hit when the album came out in 1988, and then even more son when it was rediscovered first in the 1993 romantic film “Benny and Joon” and then again in 2001 for “Shrek.”

So every decade, “I’m Gonna Be” got massive radio play, to the point where this otherwise very good song may be terminally overexposed.  It is a damned shame, because it was never a bad song, but I still wanted to skip it (and “I’m On My Way” as well, which isn’t far behind in terms of overplay).

For good or ill, Odyssey rules preclude skipping songs – a full listen, monkey!  I dutifully complied and found myself begrudgingly enjoying the song yet another time despite my fervent wishes to the contrary.

The biggest disappointment of “Sunshine on Leith” is that it is universally remembered for these two latterly mentioned tracks, which while OK are at best middle of the pack compared to some of the lesser known gems on this balanced and musically stimulating folk record.

To know more about some of those other songs, all you would have had to do was pay attention but in case you haven’t, just check out the next section of this entry.

Best tracks:  Cap In Hand, Sean, Sunshine on Leith, What Do You Do, It’s Saturday Night

CD Odyssey Disc 363: The Proclaimers

I surprised myself with a relatively early morning this morning, after a long Saturday.

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!