"There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment." ~Elvis Costello
These were the qualities that marked Adam Schlesinger’s songwriting. And, frankly, on a survey of what rank-and-file fans would say they prize most about rock ‘n’ roll, these would probably end up near the very bottom. Maybe, as attributes, they’d be even closer to antonyms for the crude rush most people associate with, if not love about, rock.
But that’s all right: Fountains of Wayne was not for everybody, despite the wide-open accessibility of the band’s earworms. For a select few of us with a special taste for the sweet-and-sour, FoW, with Schlesinger as one of its two co-architects, was something like the greatest rock band of the last quarter-century…
For a band that only recorded 5 official studio albums and one collection of rarities, Fountains of Wayne certainly made an impact among the power pop and geek rock crowd, who know the quality of the songs Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger produced.
Only trouble is, concise, clever, wryly observational lyrics and harmony-layered earworms aren’t prized by the masses like angst-filled bellowing, flirtsy dance pop or beer-soaked, cliched-for-your-safety country fare.
It’s a central tenet of my appreciation of FOW that “Stacy’s Mom” was not exactly the strongest brand ambassador for the band. With this and other posts (see links below) we hope to remedy that a little.
The specificity of detail in a FOW lyric is arresting. When fledgling songwriters are told to avoid tired, cliched phrases, they should be made to listen to the work of Schlesinger and Collingwood, whose lyrics are the opposite of cliche.
It’s a trait they share with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, who also continues to write great original melodies in an era when they have all the apparent appeal of a barbershop quartet or Bach minuet.
FOW’s eye for resonant lyrical detail pulled you into the story songs. Perhaps then it wasn’t surprising that Schlesinger made his mark on the theater stage as well: he co-wrote the songs for the stage adaptation of the film Cry Baby (which debuted the year of this album’s release) and other musicals as well.
The narrative lyric was a band strength.
To this listener’s ears, Fountains of Wayne were (Adam Schlesinger succumbed to COVID in April of 2020) the best of the latter day purveyors of power pop, the pop rock sound that descended from the Raspberries, Badfinger, etc.
But like the best pitchers, FOW weren’t working with just one pitch. The change up–their ability to turn in a heart-tugging ballad such as “I-95”–set them apart from lesser one-trick artists.
Collingwood and Schlesinger didn’t feel constrained to match lyrics to the mood of the music, either. Sometimes downer lyrics graced an ebullient arrangement a la ABBA.
Conversely songs like “Halley’s Waitress” (from 2003’s Welcome Interstate Managers) are musically somber with a witty lyric.
These juxtapositions give their songs dimension. It’s as if they found and revealed the joy amid life’s struggle, and the poignancy in a light-hearted situation. Cause life is like that.
Natalia Lafourcade: “El Lugar Correcto” (Live) (2024)
When Mexican singer/songstress Natalia Lafourcade says, as is her wont at her concerts, “Welcome to my living room”, it feels like you’ve found el lugar correcto indeed.
She writes and plays in a myriad of styles; paints with many colors. But there is gentle, effortless beauty in all her work. And a deep love for the music itselt.
She was born for this.
The Right Place
Sorry, I had to be absent for a moment I had an appointment to attend with myself I had forgotten how to see in a mirror In my face, in my eyes, what inhabits my universe
Forgive me if I cried, cried, cried while dancing I had old pains to attend to from that past Then I returned to that necessary silence To hear the heart speak of the truth
Of the truth that are those sunsets Of the truth that shines in the present time Of the truth that is in those simple things, like breathing
Excuse me, I had to be absent for a moment There was a flower drying inside the house I had forgotten how to keep it company To the solitude of my old garden in Veracruz
Forgive me if I cried, cried, cried while dancing I had old pains to attend to from that past Then I returned to that necessary silence
To hear the heart speak the truth
And the right place is now To walk The right place is now No more is needed And the right place is now To walk And the right place is now No more is needed
Every Moment Has A Song 