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Vic Chesnutt was a prolific American songwriter. In nineteen years the man put out seventeen albums. His lyrics are brilliant and haunting. His style is brutally frank and beautifully poetic at the same time. Often a solo act, Chesnutt recorded two albums near the end of his life in collaboration with Guy Picciotto of Fugazi fame, and the band Silver Mt. Zion. At The Cut was Chesnutt's final release, save for the posthumously released Skitter on Take-Off, thus it is currently the one that popularly people are examining for any clues to the mystery that was Vic Chesnutt. I suggest we look a little deeper into what I view as the darker of the two collaborations. Here is "Everything I Say" from 2007's North Star Deserter.
"Everything I Say" by Vic Chesnutt from North Star Deserter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPyQFmGmb4
The album version is great, but after seeing the above video I decided I would be doing you all a great disservice if I did not use it instead. It is a high definition, fidelity, and quality video of Chesnutt with his full backup band at a house show, shot for an internet show that shows house shows, 'The Neighbors Dog'. In this video you learn that Chesnutt was a consummate entertainer. He is warm and inviting, funny, and delivers one of the most emotionally wrought performances I have ever seen.
From the outset it is obvious what a struggle it must be for Chesnutt to play, yet at the same time somehow it seems effortless. It seems so hard physically for him to play, but it does not come out in the music. I'm making a judgment that really doesn't matter aren't I? If I were to have had the chance to ask Chesnutt about it, my guess is that his answer would be something along the lines of "It's irrelevant because I don't know any other way," or "I can't change it."
The song starts with Chesnutt solo and these lyrics "The barn fell down since I saw it last." The use of the word "fell" is interesting to me. As a standard I expected "burnt," either for it's alliterative or dramatic quality. "Fell" implies something simple. It wasn't missed because of an act of God, it was time for it to happen. Our character had forgotten the barn, and when he came back it was too late. There is no blame but directly themselves for missing the barn. We continue "It's rubble now. Well, so much for the past." Nothing to show for it. Oh well. The band enters on the chorus with an incredibly thick, dark tone that just boils with torment. "Everything I say does me this way. Every little thing I say does me this way." Everything. Every little thing. I can't catch a break, but that's par for the course.
"Some call her a thief, and some call her a prophet." Who is Chesnutt talking about? Is this a person, an idea? Is it life or death? Chesnutt is known for treating such things as characters. He doesn't really give us many clues, but I'm not so sure it matters if we know the specifics of what he is speaking about. In the end we are using this simile to speak about our main character's life. "But her courage is brief. Brief as little, little Miss Muffet." This character is looked upon with either great admiration, or with petty betrayal. Either way this character has a strong edifice within the public eye, but underneath the facade is a person unable to actually be strong, someone more likely to run than stand up to a challenge.
"Everything, every little thing that I say does me this way." I talk big. I talk strong. I am uncompromising and sure, and I am betrayed by this. I might as well not say anything, because it will be torn down. The following solo interlude is big and overwhelming. Everyone is playing furiously and the solo can barely be heard. It's like shouting into the wind, it's a lost cause. And then, calm.
The final verse kicks in, but feels like a dirge, like a death march. Moving forward dismally with no hope. "She wanted to be an inventor, but nothing new was all she could muster." Complete failure. Antithesis of success. The one thing set out to do yielded absolutely no result. I can not do one thing right, but "Everything I say does me this way." I cannot win. The final chorus kicks in and somehow the group manages to make it bigger and more enveloping each time. At the end Chesnutt's voice carries out past the band strong, but frail. Like little Miss Muffet it cracks and fails as it ends and brings the song to such a sacred end that to break the silence Chesnutt cracks a joke.
I mentioned that the last two Chesnutt albums have been released posthumously. That is because Chesnutt committed suicide roughly a month after this video was filmed. Chesnutt took an overdose of muscle relaxants and, after being in a coma for a few days, passed away on December 25th, 2009. For those of you playing along at home, that brings the tally of artists on Suicide Watch Songs that have committed suicide to three. There is a song on At The Cut titled "Flirted with you all my life," in which Chesnutt is speaking about death and his history with attempting suicide. Certainly it is a good song and deserves it's place in the Chesnutt canon, but because of Chesnutt's suicide, it now has become his most popular song, as though his actions changed the meaning of the song. It worries me that people will latch on to that song and not go any deeper. I've seen it happen before. When Elliott Smith committed suicide he was in the middle of recording an album. After he died, some collaborators of his came together to finish the album. One of the songs on the album was titled "A Fond Farewell." It was the only song of Elliott Smith's that I ever heard on the radio. I heard countless "It's so sad that this guy died" remarks from DJ's that never played his music before. The fact that a great artist wrote a song about death before they died doesn't make that artist any better or any worse and it is insulting to judge them by that factor. Vic Chesnutt was an amazing dark, and deep songwriter. He had a great ability to be stark and honest without being cheap, and to link a song of his by an event that on one end of the spectrum can be called coincidence and the other inevitability cheapens the man and his work. I beg you, if you are one who came to Chesnutt through that song in particular, you owe it to him to dig a little deeper.
Well, that does it. One year of Suicide Watch Songs down, hopefully many more to come. Next time for our one year anniversary we'll take a look at the song that inspired Suicide Watch Songs. It just happens to be an Elliott Smith song, and it just happens to come from the same album as "A Fond Farewell." As always, feel free to comment here, or on the forums at Communist Day Care Center, or send me an email directly at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Passover
Greetings to you dear reader on this first day of the new year. While it is yet one more day in a string of days, I will take the opportunity to exploit the occasion and wish each and every one of you peace in your determination to change. In terms of this weblog, I resolve to diversify. Longtime readers know that my tendencies, at least for this forum, lean towards the singer/songwriter modern folk ilk. Like all New Year's Resolutions I give no guarantee on the longevity of this one, but in the spirit of the new year lets take a look at reader suggested "Passover" from Joy Division's Closer
"Passover" by Joy Division from Closer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_NggH3O90o
The suggestion came from a friend, and came in the form of him handing me a vinyl copy of Closer and saying "Here, you should do something from this," or something close to that effect. That being said, I am certain I will be corrected if I am incorrect on any of the following biographical information.
Joy Division formed in the late 70's in the burgeoning post-punk scene of Manchester, England. The band would often perform at a local club called The Factory. The manager of said club, Tony Wilson, started Factory Records and signed many of the acts that played at there. Joy Division was the most successful band to come from the label, save one, but more about that later. Joy Division's singer and frontman Ian Curtis was an epileptic. In early to mid 1980 the band was finishing their second full length album and preparing for their first United States tour. The stress was causing Curtis' epilepsy to fall out of control. Curtis was known at this time to have seizures on stage. All of this led to deepen his already apparent depression, and on May 18, 1980, the day the band was to start that first U.S. Tour Ian Curtis hanged himself. The brilliantly dark and extremely influential album Closer was released posthumously the next month.
I need to take a moment to step on this other soapbox that's to the left of the one I am on. There has been a rash of band reunitings lately that has gotten on my nerves. It seems that the economically sound movement these days is to put aside all those differences you had and get the band back together. These groups always perform horribly and are nothing but a disappointment. The reason is that these groups have no option but to become caricatures of themselves. They are working from a back catalog that at one time was culturally relevant, but is no longer. The band inevitably ends up performing music that they played many years prior, pretending that they are that many years younger, imagining that their music was going to have some kind of impact in the same way it did before. Art of all forms is as much about it's cultural context as it is of it's content. What good is expression without reason to express? Why must people try to fix their own art? At this point I must draw us back to Joy Division. After Curtis' suicide, the band formed as a separate entity, New Order. They did not continue on as Joy Division. While one could say that Joy Division has become the more culturally important and influential band, it should be noted that New Order went on to be much more successful than Joy Division ever was. New Order made the decision to move forward, not live in the past.
"Passover" opens with drums soaked in the cave reverb that is quintessential to the genre. After a few bars the bass and guitar come in. As a melodical whole, the song recycles the same content continuously. The background as a whole could be looked at essentially as an ostinato that thickens and gets nastier as the lyrical theme unfurls. The guitar enters with a simple descending line from which it will build most of it's other material. The bass is key, yet very much in the background, sometimes playing root notes, sometimes a melodic lick, and sometimes nothing at all.
All falls away as Curtis enters with his deep voice for the song's first verse. "This is a crisis I knew had to come, destroying the balance I kept, Doubting, unsettling and turning around, wondering what will come next." Our protagonist has been waiting for this. At some point a decision was made, a situation entered, or a fact ignored that set this timeline into motion. All of this could have been avoided, but our storyteller decided to move forward anyway. Curtis continues "Is this the role that you wanted to live? I was foolish to ask for so much. Without the protection and infancy's guard, it all falls apart at first touch." It was a chance to live better. Our protagonist was striving to survive at a higher level than afforded him. Infancy's guard was when he could straddle both worlds, return if need be. Maybe this was something he did many times, but one must make the plunge eventually. Whatever protection he had must have been eaten up while protecting him, and now his situation is as precarious as a house of cards. He is just waiting for it to topple.
We are interluded by the familiar descending guitar lick, though it is a little more dissonant than before. Once again it falls by the wayside as Curtis enters. "Watching the reel as it comes to a close, brutally taking it's time." We see it coming. "People who change for no reason at all, it's happening all of the time." Our protagonist feels betrayed, but not by one person, not the person that set this in motion. Our protagonist knows in his heart that the whole situation is his fault. The protagonist feels betrayed by everyone, the entire world. He trusts no one and expects everyone to change on him. "Can I go on with this chain of events disturbing and purging my mind? Back out of my duties when all's said and done? I know that I'll lose every time." There is no good answer. If I act, I lose. If I don't, I lose.
The interlude between verses is a little thicker and holds more tension than before. "Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire." The gears are turning and there is no way out but straight on. "Sanctuary from these feverish smiles left with a mark on the door." Things are bad and they will get worse, but for the moment I am protected. "Is this the gift that I wanted to give? Forgive and forget's what they teach, or pass through the deserts once more, and watch as they drop by the beach." Our protagonists world has fallen down around him, but by some good grace he has been spared. He wonders however, if perishing would have been better. The gift he wanted to give was that of a better life, what he was able to give was an idea of what that kind of life was just in time to make life worse than it was before. Our protagonists life is now an endless trip through the desert instead of an endless vacation.
The song ends with a recap of the first verse, ending this time with "Turning around to the next set of lives, wondering what will come next." We are left as stark and empty as our protagonist, left with nothing, with no expectations, and waiting for the next wave to wash over him.
Passover as a religious holiday commemorates the Exodus of the Israelite from Egypt, and the passing over of their households during the plagues. It was the start of a long and hard journey to find one's place in the world. Our protagonist in this song thought they had found it, but they have been turned back into the desert. They don't have a place in this world. Where as in the Jewish history, passover means the protection of God, in our story it means to be looked at and told you're not good enough, to be passed over.
As always feel free to comment or suggest, comment, criticize, or berate in the comments below, the forum at Communistdaycarecenter.net/Forum or by email at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net
"Passover" by Joy Division from Closer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_NggH3O90o
The suggestion came from a friend, and came in the form of him handing me a vinyl copy of Closer and saying "Here, you should do something from this," or something close to that effect. That being said, I am certain I will be corrected if I am incorrect on any of the following biographical information.
Joy Division formed in the late 70's in the burgeoning post-punk scene of Manchester, England. The band would often perform at a local club called The Factory. The manager of said club, Tony Wilson, started Factory Records and signed many of the acts that played at there. Joy Division was the most successful band to come from the label, save one, but more about that later. Joy Division's singer and frontman Ian Curtis was an epileptic. In early to mid 1980 the band was finishing their second full length album and preparing for their first United States tour. The stress was causing Curtis' epilepsy to fall out of control. Curtis was known at this time to have seizures on stage. All of this led to deepen his already apparent depression, and on May 18, 1980, the day the band was to start that first U.S. Tour Ian Curtis hanged himself. The brilliantly dark and extremely influential album Closer was released posthumously the next month.
I need to take a moment to step on this other soapbox that's to the left of the one I am on. There has been a rash of band reunitings lately that has gotten on my nerves. It seems that the economically sound movement these days is to put aside all those differences you had and get the band back together. These groups always perform horribly and are nothing but a disappointment. The reason is that these groups have no option but to become caricatures of themselves. They are working from a back catalog that at one time was culturally relevant, but is no longer. The band inevitably ends up performing music that they played many years prior, pretending that they are that many years younger, imagining that their music was going to have some kind of impact in the same way it did before. Art of all forms is as much about it's cultural context as it is of it's content. What good is expression without reason to express? Why must people try to fix their own art? At this point I must draw us back to Joy Division. After Curtis' suicide, the band formed as a separate entity, New Order. They did not continue on as Joy Division. While one could say that Joy Division has become the more culturally important and influential band, it should be noted that New Order went on to be much more successful than Joy Division ever was. New Order made the decision to move forward, not live in the past.
"Passover" opens with drums soaked in the cave reverb that is quintessential to the genre. After a few bars the bass and guitar come in. As a melodical whole, the song recycles the same content continuously. The background as a whole could be looked at essentially as an ostinato that thickens and gets nastier as the lyrical theme unfurls. The guitar enters with a simple descending line from which it will build most of it's other material. The bass is key, yet very much in the background, sometimes playing root notes, sometimes a melodic lick, and sometimes nothing at all.
All falls away as Curtis enters with his deep voice for the song's first verse. "This is a crisis I knew had to come, destroying the balance I kept, Doubting, unsettling and turning around, wondering what will come next." Our protagonist has been waiting for this. At some point a decision was made, a situation entered, or a fact ignored that set this timeline into motion. All of this could have been avoided, but our storyteller decided to move forward anyway. Curtis continues "Is this the role that you wanted to live? I was foolish to ask for so much. Without the protection and infancy's guard, it all falls apart at first touch." It was a chance to live better. Our protagonist was striving to survive at a higher level than afforded him. Infancy's guard was when he could straddle both worlds, return if need be. Maybe this was something he did many times, but one must make the plunge eventually. Whatever protection he had must have been eaten up while protecting him, and now his situation is as precarious as a house of cards. He is just waiting for it to topple.
We are interluded by the familiar descending guitar lick, though it is a little more dissonant than before. Once again it falls by the wayside as Curtis enters. "Watching the reel as it comes to a close, brutally taking it's time." We see it coming. "People who change for no reason at all, it's happening all of the time." Our protagonist feels betrayed, but not by one person, not the person that set this in motion. Our protagonist knows in his heart that the whole situation is his fault. The protagonist feels betrayed by everyone, the entire world. He trusts no one and expects everyone to change on him. "Can I go on with this chain of events disturbing and purging my mind? Back out of my duties when all's said and done? I know that I'll lose every time." There is no good answer. If I act, I lose. If I don't, I lose.
The interlude between verses is a little thicker and holds more tension than before. "Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire." The gears are turning and there is no way out but straight on. "Sanctuary from these feverish smiles left with a mark on the door." Things are bad and they will get worse, but for the moment I am protected. "Is this the gift that I wanted to give? Forgive and forget's what they teach, or pass through the deserts once more, and watch as they drop by the beach." Our protagonists world has fallen down around him, but by some good grace he has been spared. He wonders however, if perishing would have been better. The gift he wanted to give was that of a better life, what he was able to give was an idea of what that kind of life was just in time to make life worse than it was before. Our protagonists life is now an endless trip through the desert instead of an endless vacation.
The song ends with a recap of the first verse, ending this time with "Turning around to the next set of lives, wondering what will come next." We are left as stark and empty as our protagonist, left with nothing, with no expectations, and waiting for the next wave to wash over him.
Passover as a religious holiday commemorates the Exodus of the Israelite from Egypt, and the passing over of their households during the plagues. It was the start of a long and hard journey to find one's place in the world. Our protagonist in this song thought they had found it, but they have been turned back into the desert. They don't have a place in this world. Where as in the Jewish history, passover means the protection of God, in our story it means to be looked at and told you're not good enough, to be passed over.
As always feel free to comment or suggest, comment, criticize, or berate in the comments below, the forum at Communistdaycarecenter.net/Forum or by email at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net
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