Old Glory

So here in the United States, the first of our patriotic holidays is upon us: Memorial Day. It would be nice to say that I chose to do a set of red, white and blue songs to honor this day, but that’s not really what happened. I was feeling uninspired, (probably from the incredible heat earlier this week). I thought that I would go easy on myself, and do a set of color songs. I knew from when we did that on Star Maker Machine that there was plenty of good material, so I got started. I found myself drawn to a certain mood, and it happened that my song choices were all red, white, or blue. So here they are.

I have told you, my readers, that I personally oppose the wars I have seen my country fight in my lifetime. But this is the time to honor our fallen, and I do want to say that I appreciate the sacrifices our soldiers have made. While I may not agree with the war they are fighting, I understand that their courage is greater than mine, and that they are fighting out of a sincere belief that they are protecting us all. That is worth honoring, and I see no contradiction with my personal beliefs when I say so. My songs this week have a lot to say about being parted from a loved one. This is another of the sacrifices our soldiers make, and I honor that as well. So, by accident or not, I find this set to be a suitable one for the occasion.

Abigail Washburn: Red & Blazing

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The first verse of Red & Blazing has four lines, the last of which is, “I knew that day was ending”. The later verses have only three lines. In omitting the last line, the narrator is hoping against hope that it doesn’t have to come true. This is a great piece of songwriting, presenting the desperation of the narrator perfectly and wordlessly. The music reflects her growing emotional turmoil. Finally, the someone she’s singing about dies, and in the last verse, a last line has returned. But now the words are, “to meet those birds a-singin’”. The person has died, and presumably gone to Heaven. The narrator has her bittersweet release.

But who is dying, exactly? In a short note in the CD booklet, Abigail Washburn tells us that the song is based on an older song called The Dying Soldier.

Diana Krall: Almost Blue

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The first album Diana Krall released after marrying Elvis Costello was The Girl In the Other Room. The album included six cowrites with Costello and this cover of a tune Costello wrote before they ever met. Krall turns the song into a poignant jazz ballad, full of regret over a love squandered and lost. Although Costello once recorded an country album called Almost Blue, this song was not on it; Costello’s original version was arranged not too differently than this. Still, Krall captured the emotions perfectly in this performance.

Rocky Votolato: White Daisy Passing

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Rocky Votolato uses vivid nature imagery to encourage his partner to slow down and savor the small beautiful moments in life. So many of these moments are gone already, never to return. I don’t think Votolato had this in mind, but this song seems to me to be good advice to a soldier who is soon to ship out.

Peter Gabriel: Sky Blue

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Sky Blue is all about the sorrow of parting, and Peter Gabriel makes his point with the eloquence not just of his words, but more importantly, his music. This one gathers emotion as it goes, finally becoming a secular hymn at the end. The background vocals at the end are by The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Spotlight Song of the Week:

Spike Flynn: Silver Nitrate Serenade

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Spike Flynn is a wonderful songwriter from Australia. His shorter songs are little slices of life that perfectly capture the emotions of his characters in just a few lines. But his longer songs are a revelation. These are perfect noir short stories, dripping with atmosphere. As with any good short story, the plotting is tight, with the resolutions feeling completely satisfying. Silver Nitrate Serenade is a superb example. I couldn’t help as I listened to this one seeing in my head Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not.

This music is not blues exactly, but it shows that Flynn is well versed in blues styles. The basic band is drums, bass, acoustic guitar, and keyboards. Sometimes, harmonica or saxophone are added for color and flavor. Flynn sings in voice that reminds me of Mark Knopfler’s, although Flynn sometimes gets gruffer. All in all, it’s a combination that works beautifully. I am looking forward to Spike Flynn’s next one, and if he publishes a novel or a book of short stories in the mean time, I hope I find out about it.

Songwriters React To War

My parents came of age just in time for World War II. They used to tell me how the whole country united behind the war effort. My Father was proud of his small part in helping to defeat the Nazis; he saw it that way, even though he served in the Pacific. And the history books reinforce the fact that this was a war that everyone in America believed we had to win.

But my coming of age occurred during the Vietnam War. That same father took me to my first peace march. The country was sharply divided over whether we needed to win or leave. And it has been this way, in varying degrees, for every war the US has been involved in in my lifetime.

So just as does the public at large, songwriters feel a mix of emotions when their country goes to war. The emotions are always running high, and often drive the creation of some of their finest work.

The songs I am presenting do not present a balanced survey of songwriters’ responses to war. There are songwriters whose work on the subject suggests that they believe that the country is always right in wartime. But the examples of songs that I have heard from them seem to me lacking in nuance. Or perhaps, it’s just a question of my personal biases. In any case, I stand by my selections as showcase of the variety of ways songwriters deal with what is for many people a difficult subject to discuss.

Norman Blake: Graycoat Soldiers

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Norman Blake wrote Graycoat Soldiers in the shadow of the Vietnam War. But Blake evidently wanted some distance from his subject. So the song, about the homefront, takes place during the Civil War. The song is an eloquent depiction of those who get left behind in war.

Gray coat Soldiers is a first for me, and something you won’t see very often. I posted the song some time ago on Star Maker Machine. I won’t normally repeat myself this way, but I couldn’t see addressing this theme, and leaving this one out.

Tom Waits: Soldier‘s Things

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Tom Waits writes about the effect of war on people in a unique way. He imagines a war widow holding a yard sale, and selling all of her soldier husband’s decorations from the war. “Everything’s a dollar in this box”, she croons. By not specifying which war this was, Waits crafts a song which describes the pain of losing a loved one in a war in a universal way.

Peter Gabriel: Games Without Frontiers

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Peter Gabriel takes a mix of characters who represent current and historical figures, and makes them children on a beach. Their fight for territory is just a game to them, but Gabriel reminds us that the consequences are all too real. Gabriel is not writing about a specific war, but the attitude of the song is reflective of British attitudes about World War I. It would seem that this is a war that has cast a long shadow on the Brittish psyche. Some of the character names Gabriel uses also suggest World War II, but I think Gabriel did this to make the song more universal.

XTC: Generals and Majors

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XTC’s Generals and Majors appeared the album Black Sea. Much of this album was XTC’s response to the Falklands war. But Generals and Majors is about war in general. The band is criticizing the elements of society that seem to always want to lead us into war.

Richard Thompson: Dad‘s Gonna Kill Me

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Richard Thompson is not interested here in universality. Dad’s Gonna Kill Me is about the Iraq war. “Dad” is what the soldiers over there call Baghdad. Thompson takes the role of a soldier stationed there, and depicts him as believing that he will never return home alive.