10,000 Maniacs seemed the epitome of worthy, earnest, wholesome fare - not quite "Bad Music Era" because never less than palatable and well-made, but just part of the filler of the time
Except, they did have two Moments - perhaps two-and-a-half
A possible reference point here - Patti Smith in she-shaman mode - Natalie dancing barefoot, literally, on stage in those days, often (albeit not here)
A certain gamey aroma to the persona at this point
But the music of "My Mother the War" is coming out of postpunk and into a folky American-ness - a path paved by R.E.M. (the Gang of Four traces in "9+9") and Violent Femmes
postpunk residuals on this song being the high-toned melodic basslines (quite frilly), the slashing guitar
Natalie M as the distaff Stipe is the main thing that comes over - the vaguely mystical vibe, the abstract-leaning imagery, the aura of invocation
(Stipe also a big fan / influencee of P. Smith)
I think also of Golden Palominos and that unexpected intersection between John Lydon and Richard Thompson
Then a shift towards a wholly (and wholly wholesome) American frame of reference (fellow travelers would include Camper Van Beethoven, Maria McKee, Throwing Muses etc) - a shift discernible across the board in college rock (although Anglophilia remained a stubborn persistence - the cult of XTC, Robyn Hitchcock solo etc )
College towns make up this sound's prime geographic constituency, not just the coastal states and the N.E. liberal bastion, but blue enclaves within Southern red states ... Athens, archetypal in that regard... Austin, also... Chapel Hill
Natalie's voice at its most buttermilk-pancakes here
Video directed by Ade Edmonson (!) and there is an attempt to glam up Natalie (not so gamey, the aura now) and focus entirely on her (the band appear only momentarily, as silhouettes), with the record company possibly already envisioning a breakaway solo career
And then the "half" that makes it "two and a half" moments of gorgeous glory
When they did this unexpected cover version, my awareness of Cat Stevens was limited to the "Matthew and Son" 1960s 'character song mini-boom' phase - and then the much later
"(Remember The Days of the) Old Schoolyard" which I found poignant as a boy (still at school). Oh and there was "Morning Has Broken" of course.... But I had had no idea he'd been a huge star in America in the early 1970s, riding the singer-songwriter boom, with tunes like this -
I found this an oddly touching song to re-present, earnestly, to the Alternative Nation - at the risk of considerable scorn from your S. Youth / Forced Exposure types
But the other songs of this phase were issue-and-cause oriented, caring 'n' concerned in a way that didn't play well with us Young Gods fans - and lyrically too blunt and literal for us Kristin Hersh fans either.
proto-Lilith Fair fare
If they never did anything quite as mawkish as "Everybody Hurts", they never did anything as perfectly pitched and piercing as "Losing My Religion" either
Aha! Talking of Patti Smith
And then the solo career, about which the missus wrote a sarky piece for the NY Times
The post-Merchant Maniacs carried on without her! And did that thing of replacing the singer with as close a facsimile as they could find.
An unlikely cover - and with a thumping 4to-4loor kick drum underneath, perhaps trying to have an Everything But the Girl meets Todd Terry "Missing" style hit?
2 comments:
A very static audience there for My Mother the War, which is how I remember it. I saw them playing at a college event that year and thought they were terrific, but I was one of very few people dancing.
The pre-Warners recordings collected on Hope Chest still sound good, with those post-punk roots much more obvious than they later became. Planned Obsolescence is the secret missing link between PiL and Edie Brickell.
>Planned Obsolescence is the secret missing link between PiL and Edie <Brickell.
haha
i'm not sure i ever heard Hope Chest, or indeed the whole album My Mother the War is on
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