#489 - Steve Earle - Guitar Town

Honestly, not much to say here. Not to say that this is a bad album, just not glaringly great despite the appearances of Bucky Baxter (steel guitar for others such as R.E.M., Ryan Adams, and Bob Dylan), Richard Burnett (guitarist and producer for the likes of Neil Diamond, Mark Knopfler, Billy Joel, and others), and Emory Gordy Jr. who played in Elvis Presley's TCB Band.

Steve Earle's Guitar Town is the quintessential "hit the road" country album. What sets it apart is that it provided country music that even rockers could enjoy. Earle offers us some okay guitar riffs (although the one towards the 2:00 mark here sounds like Orbison's "Pretty Woman") and songs about the everyman in Reagan era 1986. The title track is arguably the album's most well known song, but "Someday" (which also reminds me of my hometown much like it probably does for all listeners) was used in the film adaptation of The Bridge to Terabithia. Little trivia for you there. That's right....all I could muster up for this critique was that it was in a children's movie. The track "Hillbilly Highway" shows early signs of what was to come later with "Copperhead Road," which brings me to my main argument towards this album's inclusion on the list. Why not Copperhead Road? Why this album on the list of the 500 greatest albums? In my opinion, this album offers nothing but some old-fashioned country, steering wheel tapping tracks for a cool summer day, but does not make for a great album. Maybe Earle hadn't dabbled in heroin yet.

This week's cover song inclusion comes to you from this guy.

-d.

Hoo Boy…..

Where do I start. Should I jump right into how a record titled Guitar Town has absolutely no impressive guitar playing? Or how the terribly corny arrangements make every song sound vaguely like a Kidz Bop version of Put Me In Coach? I get that this was recorded at a crossroads in country music. The pop aspect was coming into play and soon America would be flooded with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson cds. But that doesn’t excuse any of the garbage I just listened to.

Synthesizer really has no place in country, especially not in a song called Hillbilly Highway. That really kind of destroys any outlaw creditability the old Sun Records gang built up. This whole mess pretty much represents the antithesis of Gram Parsons. Overly thought out, yet underperformed. Over produced, yet underwhelming. The vocals are sloppy and lazy throughout. There’s no energy and some words are practically mumbled, that is when they’re even in tune. Occasionally there is actually a decent melody, but I quickly recognize it as being ripped straight from a Tom Petty song.

My Old Friend the Blues was clearly written to be played on jukeboxes in every redneck bar in the country. I actually have a soft spot for slow country ballads, probably from hearing them a lot growing up in a farm town. But this is everything that’s wrong with the genre. Insincere and juvenile, the lyrics would only seem deep to a child or someone who has received blunt force trauma to the head. Perhaps a mule kick. Yet it’s easily the most listenable song here. Let me bring up Parsons again. Compare this to the original version of Love Hurts. Hear the difference? If not, go get a dowel rod and a hammer. No really, we can wait. Alright, now hammer that shit straight through your ears because you don’t deserve them.

I can’t stress enough the level of suck on display here. It’s like someone decided “hey, I’m gonna try to be the next Willie Nelson, except without the brilliant songwriting or musicianship or originality or taste or soul or….”. It hurts me to listen to this. I’m angry at Steve Earle. I’m angry at the people who voted this into the top 500 (especially above ZZTop). I can’t fathom why this was ranked, or even why it was released in the first place. Often when a performance is truly breathtaking we refer to it as effortless, thanks to the immense talent of the performer. This time I use the word effortless because clearly, no effort was put into the making of this album.

-TFM

#490 - Gang of Four - Entertainment!

Gang of Four; comprised of four members from England who formed while at art school in Leeds during 1977. The band took its' name from the Chinese Communist political faction of the same name; the name was just the beginning for the heavy politics GoF infused within their songs. Actually, to get some sense of what you may be delving into before even giving the album a listen, look no further than the album cover. A simple picture of a cowboy and a Native American with the caption, "The Indian smiles, he thinks that the cowboy is his friend. The cowboy smiles, he is glad the Indian is fooled. Now he can exploit him." Further social criticisms ensue on the back cover and album sleeve. You may be saying, "How are these blokes different from any anarcho-punk troup from England?" What sets Gang of Four apart from their predecessors, as well as those bands that would follow, is that while GoF's music was rooted in punk, their songs contained prominent basslines and distinguishable guitar twangs incorporating elements of funk and reggae. Ultimately, the gave the world punk it could dance to. GoF's fans include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., and U2 while paving the way for politico-acts like Rage Against the Machine and offering their influence to bands such as Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party.

Gang of Four's debut, Entertainment!, is an album of criticisms, analysis, and fatigue toward society. Heavily debated upon a number of message boards, the tracks included on Entertainment! range from Marxist ideology to "Great Man theory" to social models to the problems of the everyman. These problems include, but are not limited to the working class, ideas toward leisure, and marital issues evident throughout and created by society as seen in "Anthrax," "Damaged Goods," and "Contract," while "At Home He's a Tourist" speaks to the plight of the everyman who feels alien in his own everyday surroundings. The aptly titled "Not Great Men" deals with the aforementioned "Great Man theory." Other tracks are not so obvious, such as "Guns Before Butter," which some listeners claim deals with the "guns vs. butter model" that states a country can either invest in their military (guns) or in the production of goods (butter). Other listeners, while not necessarily disagreeing, believe the song's title and criticism on the Nazi regime and ideology comes from a quote by Hermann Goering, "Guns will make us powerful, butter will only make us fat." Personally, I enjoy the line that asks, "If I'm only blood and iron / O Doktor Doktor, what's in my shirt?" This ambiguity continues on tracks such as "I Found that Essence Rare," which alludes to the naming of the bikini as well as the H-Bomb testing done on the Bikini atoll.

The track "5:45" deals with the ever-present thought process toward the 6 0'clock news in that all we ever see at dinner-time is death and destruction on the news. Towards the end of the song, repeated lines hammer home the idea that television brainwashes people and makes them drones. "Anthrax" examines the glittering stereotype of love created by entertainment which often leads to let down and depression in the real world. How can we accurately assess relationships when we are bred to believe love and marriage is what Hollywood portrays it as? This speaks volumes for the ever-increasing divorce rate, right? "Contract" also deals with this fascination in terms of the contract of marriage and what it is as opposed to what it should be, while also dealing with society's constant measuring themselves to magazines and television. This track is highly relevant in today's supermodel "I wanna be thin like them" and bored housewife "I wanna fuck like they talk about in Cosmo" cultures.

Entertainment! offers its' listeners all of this ideas and criticism while keeping our heads bobbing and our feet tapping. The album is very accessible even to those who may not lean towards the lines of The Sex Pistols or Against Me!. The music is catchy and interesting from the choir-like melodies in "Damaged Goods" to the crazy cool guitar work at the end of "At Home He's a Tourist." Unfortunately, the tracks that were added in the 1995 reissue were not as inspired, leaving you with the question, "Why add them?" Overall, the first issue is a great album. Worthy.

As promised, the cover song pick of the album. Although, not humorous like the guy yelling "Bollocks" in the last post, I picked this cover, because it shows a young high school band performing a Gang of Four song. Whether it's a good cover or not doesn't matter. What matters is that good music is still reaching the youth.

-d.

This album is what so many others have striven for, and almost none of them have ever reached it’s level. Entertainment! is angry and heavy, yet vaguely funky and great for parties. What makes it work is something a lot of bands have forgotten. You can try to sound edgy, and you can be low-fi, but at the end of the day you have to be some damn good musicians to pull it off. Gang of Four happened to be packed with four guys who could keep some of the most raucous jams as tight as hipster’s jeans.

There’s so much to love here. There is no fear of breaking conventions and it shows right away. "Ether" features bass chords and a drumbeat that seems to be looking for a new beat to accent every few bars. I feel my affection for this song grow with each listening. The next few songs are the building blocks for every rock band that has tried to be danceable since. "Not Great Men" could be on a Franz Ferdinand cd and "Damaged Goods" is a pretty obvious influence for early Red Hot Chili Peppers. None have pulled it off so seamlessly, although in retrospect OKGO might as well just become a Gang of Four cover band for how much they take from these songs.

I’m surprised "Glass" never became a hit. In my opinion the most radio friendly song here, it’s catchy and fun to sing along to. I need to really praise the rhythm section. The basslines are amazing. I can say from experience that it’s not easy to be that aggressive and stay funky. Hugo Burnham is a very underrated drummer as well. He deserves much of the credit for keeping things together when they have no business doing so.

"At Home He’s a Tourist" flirts heavily with disco but is still somehow one of the most cynical and ‘punk’ songs on the record. The completely discordant guitar solo over the last 16 bars or so is genius. There’s an obvious vein of self destruction running through the songs and it spills over into the instrumentals in those moments. It rears up again in "Anthrax," arguably the best known song of their career. The 90+ seconds of feedback that begin the song break way for a rolling train of drums and bass. Lyrically and style wise its one of the most obvious nods to their own influence, Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

I can’t get more specific about individual songs as this would be a ten page review if I did. Just buy it. If you don’t suck at life you will love this album (really hoping Danny also liked this cd). All in all, a brilliant album with such wide ranging influence that 21 years later we’re barely scraping the top of how many musicians have or will be pushed to experiment after listening.

-TFM