gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (11/10/84)
Rock stars don't hold press conferences for much the same reason that certain politicians don't: there's always the chance that the public will hear them say something _r_e_a_l_l_y stupid. The notion of cultural authority in the music mark- etplace is, in fact, _m_o_r_e dependent on the perceived image of the person(s) who make the noise, because that's the only arena in which we can judge their commitment, sincerity, or talent. Our patent acceptance of the "star" system hurts us in the same way that our acceptance of the lie that we can "return to an ideal past" does: it damages us when we accept it, and it damages others when we use it as a critical tool. Having said all this, I'd like to talk a little bit about Big Country's _S_t_e_e_l_t_o_w_n--a fair amount of the criticism it has received both betrays the extent to which we've bought into the myth of "effect alone", but also misses some of the album's more subtle successes and failures. This is a period of renewed interest in the basic primary colors of rock music, drums, bass, and guitar. While the heavy metal crowd continues its fixation with "the sound of one head banging", there's this other parallel development of the same basic instrumentation in the service of dif- ferent ideals. The new bands' interests are social rather than sexual, and the movement has generated enough interest to actuall coax some popular bands to abandon their initial instrumental configurations in favour of the guitar (ABC and Simple Minds come to mind here). Big Country's initial appeal was based in no small measure on their reliance upon the traditional attack mixed with a strong Celtic streak: their first album is a martial pack of modal tunes in which the guitars provide the high volume equivalent of the bag- pipe. Likewise, the lyrics favored a kind of wide-screen Scottish aphorism, filled with images of strong people in difficult straights and appeals for the rally to some vague cause. _S_t_e_e_l_t_o_w_n finds them mining a similar lode, but the critical response has been considerably more subdued. There _i_s less of the celebratory roar in this record, and the best cuts on the album only suggest the high points of the last album. So the critical equation reads: fewer singles, fewer hits, second album suicide (blame it on the producer). I am presuaded that it is _n_o_t that simple. The record may put you off for its unrelenting sense of darkness and loss: this is not the music of a concert crowd shaking its fists at the air. What Stewart Adamson has done will be perhaps less recognizeable to American audiences raised on loud gui- tars and celebrations of adolescence. Big Country are making what looks suspiciously like a modern form of Scottish folk music--they have turned to the folk traditions for the lyri- cal images of loss, resolve in the face of crisis, and people and politics. With a few minor changes, these lyrics could have been written a century before. The Reagan of _H_e_a_r_t_s _o_f _t_h_e _W_e_s_t could as easily be any political pied piper, and the Falklands War that colors _C_o_m_e _B_a_c_k _t_o _M_e and _W_h_e_r_e _t_h_e _R_o_s_e _i_s _S_o_w_n could be any war. This record is a more coherent whole for that, and bears a more realistic wallop in the same way that the characters of Bruce Springsteen's _N_e_b_r_a_s_k_a do. And I think that the record's shortcomings also are tied into Big Country's efforts to make a different kind of music that eschews simple effect for a connection to history. Since they've chosen Irish and Scottish models for composi- tion, they've got a fundemental rhythmic problem: the music must be light on its feet. A careful listen to _I_n _a _B_i_g _C_o_u_n_t_r_y and _F_i_e_l_d_s _o_f _F_i_r_e from their last album will reveal a host of little turns and shifts in rhythm that are absent from much of _S_t_e_e_l_t_o_w_n.Producer opening up sonic possibli- ties of the quartet, and given us a really interesting album of "hard" guitar music. But the rhythms are hamstrung as a whole, and much of the record lumbers like a dinosaur when it should be running (not too surprisingly, the album's quieter moments-- _C_o_m_e _B_a_c_k _t_o _M_e and _G_i_r_l _w_i_t_h _G_r_e_y _E_y_e_s show the most fluidity ). On the whole, this album is the work of people trying to consolidate their strengths by tying into a tradition with some real resonance. They just haven't got all the bugs out of the program yet. And as I've said before, I always find a musical risk that partly pays off infinitely more worthy of praise than a simple victory with little on the line. There's some real substance to this album, but it makes a demand on its audience that may be lost, since so much of the people who watch the debates and crowd the record stores may only have the attention span for the easy answer.
6912ar04@sjuvax.UUCP (rowley) (11/19/84)
(nuke the bug)
A note of slight interest: the song "Where the Red Rose is Sown"
contains the following line:
"If I die in a combat zone, box me up and ship me home"
obviously gleaned from a Vietnam-era marching cadence still in use...
--
A. J. Rowley
"see, no problem!"
There is no dark side of the moon really; as a matter of fact, it's all dark....
- Pink Floyd, "Eclipse"