The always fun annual music edition of the Oxford American arrived last week. The free CD, as always has some really interesting stuff. There is " G Man Hoover" by the "legendary" Van Dyke Parks. It is possibly one of the most gloriously fucked up things I have ever heard. It is fucked up even for Van Dyke Parks. Then you have "Don't Let The Sun Go down On Your Grievances" which is performed by a mad man named Daniel Johnston. It is the aural version of gawking at a car wreck. Iris Dement is on and she is her typically luminous self.
The last cut on the CD is "Hammond Song" by The Roches, a one trick pony sister act that had their 15 minutes of fame back when the country was in the throes of its fleeting fascination with choral music. "Hammond Song" is a lovely song about a girl arguing with her parents about running off to Hammond, Louisiana with a boy-girlishly referred to in the song as "that fella."
Typical of the Roche sisters, it is beautifully sung. Also as is typical of their usual offering it is highly stylized with bizarre pronunciations and overly complex chord structures. The average vocal line of a Roches song is not so nearly volcanic and/or really gay as the crap Queen used to get away with, but it tends to get in the way of what should have been a simple and beautiful song.
Don't tell that to John Jeremiah Sullivan, who in his essay about the song in the OA wrote:
" The Roches' water pails have always hung pretty deep in the American songbook. Some of what I have uncharitably called geekiness above (earlier on in the essay) is really Charles Ivesian pastiche-weaving, playing with a virtuosity of styles and modes as much as with words and chords."
Charles Ivesian? The Roches? If any artist featured on this little CD is Ivesian in the slightest it is "the legendary" Van Dyke Parks.
It is rare when one stumbles across such complete and utter bullshit. Was the editor asleep when this overheated-and slightly creepy-essay came across his desk?
By the way, how can somebody write a piece about this song and fail to mention the amazing guitar line played by the really legendary Robert Fripp about whom Jack White of the White Stripes might be accurately described as "Robert Frippian."
Buy the magazine. Give it a listen. Draw your own conclusions.
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4 comments:
If you have time you should check out the documentary about Daniel Johnston called "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" - Blockbuster should have it. That guy has some serious mental problems - but I do like some of his music.
Ya think?
I almost drove off the road when I heard Daniel Johnston encouraging everybody to sing along. Made my day, and I promise to not let the sun go down on my grieve-e-ances.
From what I have managed to read about this gentleman he is indeed full-blown batshit crazy to use the clinical term. This condition obviously informs his art, so to speak.
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