Britpop, Missed Concerts, Bad Birthdays and Love Songs by...Woody Guthrie(!)

When I'm immersed in campaigns, it's usually difficult for me to keep up on my reading, staying in touch with my family and friends, and certainly difficult for me to search out and experience new music.  Most of us are putting in extra time to elect Barack Obama and extend our margins in the House and Senate.  (By the way, have you made your Hell to Pay contribution tonight?)  But despite working crazy hours, I've ended up with 35 minutes of driving every morning and night, and I've been taking advantage of the time to listen to some newly purchased CD's.  

Rhino Records' The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-pop Gems of the Last Millennium is probably my favorite CD set of the last several years.  If you had any interest in what was known as "alternative" music from the late 80's to the oughts, something you consider a "favorite" is probably in here.  From A to Zed, it's here.  Starting with The Smiths, the Cocteau Twins and Felt, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths and the Jesus and Mary Chain, the first disc moves in to the Madchester era (Stone Roses, Charlatans), the Ecstasy-addled dance of Primal Scream and Happy Mondays, and ends with the wistful pop of the Trash Can Sinatras and The Sundays.  

The second disc chronicles the Shoegazer scene with tracks from Ride, The Pale Saints, The Telescopes, Curve and Lush.  The third disc hits the heyday of the Brit Pop explosion, with songs from Suede, James, New Order, the Boo Radleys, St. Etienne, Echobelly, and ends with Stutter by Elastica, which years later still boosts my adrenaline like it did the first time I heard it.  But the heart of the disc is the back to back to back tracks by Blur, Oasis and Pulp.  Oasis was in some ways the 90's synthesis of The Beatles and the Stones, but "Tracey Jacks" by Blur and "Common People" by Pulp show that one of the great underrated influences on British popular music is the storytelling of Ray Davies and The Kinks.  The fourth disc for me fades a bit (although they picked a great Verve song, and I love listening to "Ladies and Gentleman, We Are Floating in Space" by Spirtualized).  

As I've listened to these discs, I've thought about the first time I heard Harriet Wheeler singing "but the only thing I ever really wanted to say was wrong, was wrong, was wrong," or the stories of friends angry that the Jesus and Mary Chain only stayed on stage 35 minutes, or listening to Stereolab's Transient Random Noisebursts with Announcements the week it was released over and over and over again, or talking with Ian Masters of The Pale Saints and thinking he was the embodiment of English preciousness, or even a few months ago when a friend went to the jukebox and played "The Only One I Know" by The Charlatans and then "Hush" by Deep Purple to make the case that The Charlatans were lucky they weren't sued for ripping off Deep Purple's organ riff.  

As I mentioned, one of the sacrifices of doing a lot of work to help elect Democrats is that you don't have as much time to see concerts.  I've missed a few good ones recently.  On that second disc of the Brit Box is a song from Loveless, the album by My Bloody Valentine, which I've probably listened to more than any album over the last 15 years.  I can't think of any album that's more beautifully evokes emotional turmoil.  The swirling feedback may at first sound like a sonic assault, but over repeated listens, it reveals beautiful melodies buried under the assault.  I didn't see MBV on their tour for Loveless, and in the years after it frontman Kevin Shields was blocked.  Loveless is a masterpiece, and Shields appeared incapable of topping it, and thus wouldn't release anything new.  But My Bloody Valentine recently reunited, and did shows in the NYC area that were positively reviewed.  But I was too busy, and again missed it.  I hope it's not another 15+ years before I get the opportunity to see them.  

I've been missing concerts, but being out of DC gave me an opportunity to listen to some good local radio.  I've discovered some great stuff.  I had read wonderful things about Bright Eyes, but when one morning I heard "Four Winds" from Cassadaga I realized why critics make all the Dylan comparisons.  It's a mad roller-coaster of a vocal, with wonderful rootsy music that sounds like it could have been played by The Band.  

Usually after a campaign I try to hit a concert or two, often around my birthday, which is later next month.  Often in recent years my mood on my birthday has been affected by what happened in the previous election.  I thought about this some weeks back when I was listening to Thirty One Today by Aimee Mann.  My thirty-first and forty-first birthdays were both pretty good.  But each had been preceded by a fairly dismal birthday the year before, and this song evoked that sense of despair at the state of my life on those previous milestones:

I've heard Thirty One Today on a station I've been listening to during my commute.  I also heard one morning about an upcoming show I knew I'd miss.  Jonatha Brooke, one of my favorite songwriters, was doing a show to promote her new album The Works.  Most singer-songwriters spend at least part of their careers following in the footsteps of Bob Dylan.  Brooke reached farther back.  At the invitation of his daughter Nora, she spent some time in the Woody Guthrie archives, looking at Woody's writings from later in life, when his illness kept him confined to bed, and he didn't put his words to music.  

It's been ten years since Billy Bragg and Wilco released Mermaid Avenue, a collection of Guthrie's unrecorded songs from his later years.  As wonderful as that album and its follow-up are, Brooke's album surpasses it, for the songs she recorded are revelatory.  While Bragg showcased some of Guthrie's unknown political and playful songs, Brooke exposes a whole new Guthrie, one whose love songs are breathtakingly passionate, and that confront the struggles of life, and revel not in overcoming these struggles but in engaging and embracing the challenges of life.  

The Works took me a week to get through, because with almost every song, I felt compelled to listen to it over and over.  Two, however, stand out.  First, My Sweet and Bitter Bowl, which Brooke imagines is "a love song to Marjorie, Woody's wife, and by most accounts the love of his life. Nora told me the very first night they were together, Woody didn't touch Marjorie - they just held hands. Apparently that sealed the deal."

If you would open and raise my soul
If you would pass my gates and doors
If you'd unlock my frozen loves,
Just drink my sweet and my bitter bowl

I am your battles still to fight;
I'll be your roughest day and night;
I'll take from you your hardest sweat
And pay you in words not sung nor said

But the stunner of the album, a song I listened to repeatedly until I had it memorized, is My Battle:

Show me how, how to fight my battle in life
Show me how to fight
And I'll run away with you

Teach me how, how to fight my hard times in life
Teach me how to fight and
I'll run away with you

And I will never dread the day I will die
"Cause my sunset is somebody's morning sky

Show me how, how to face my troublesome fights
Show me how to face them
And I'll run away with you

Teach me how, how to win my union in life
Show me how to win
And I'll run away with you

And I will never dread the day I will die
"Cause my sunset is somebody's morning sky

Show me how, how to win for all of my people
Show me how to win
And I'll run away with you

Teach me how, how to love this battle of life
teach me how to love
And I'll run away with you

How to fight, how to win, how to love
Teach me how, show me how, teach me how
How to love
How to fight, how to win, how to love

As we're working on campaigns, we're thinking about winning.  But My Battle, which I've first heard in the midst of a hugely important election campaign, one that's dominating my life, made me step back and realize that while winning and losing on November 4th will determine what kind of world we will experience the next few years and the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, it's also imperative that we remember that it's not just the outcome at the ballot box that matters.  No, it's that we engage the fight, that we endure the struggles, the way we strive to win, and that we love.  

So, what are you listening to tonight?