You know how people try to console you with that philosophical bit of banality that “everything happens for a reason”?
Eric Bachmann isn’t having it.
With a self-titled release that signals a break from his snide and sneering Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers records of the past, Bachmann shows a newfound earnest directness in his lyrical approach.
“Mercy” bathes one such very direct message in early 60’s retro glory with an arrangement that’s equal parts Phil Spector and Four Seasons. While Bachmann reminds us that “there is chaos in the violence” and “there are those who suffer for no reason every day” the ultimate take-away message is to “fill your heart with love and cherish what you can while you are here”.
This haunting folk ballad certainly deserves recognition here, where one of our main objectives is to give wider appreciation to great but lesser-known music.
The only difficult decision involved which version of the song to recognize–there are at least three excellent ones.
Cheryl Wheeler originally wrote the song, although her version wasn’t released until 1991, two years after O’Connell’s.
Chanteuse Hayley Westenra also released an excellent recording of “Summerfly” in 2007:
In another younger day I could dream the time away In the universe inside my room And the world was really mine from June till September
And if it wasn’t really so I was lucky not to know And I was lucky not to wonder why ‘Cause the summertime is all that I remember
A summer fly was buzzin’ every night when I was young In the gentle world my childlike senses knew And the world was just my cousin, and the wind was just the tongue In the voice my lonely moments listened to
And I look at me today all the dreams have gone away And I am where I never thought I’d be Seein’ things I never thought I’d see happen to me
And I lay awake at night till the darkness turns to light Hearin’ voices callin’ out my name Callin’ over and again the same message to me
Cryin’ who’s your partner, who’s your darlin’, who’s your baby now? Who wakes up at night to pull you in? It don’t matter, you’ll just make him lonely anyhow Don’t know why you even try to win
Cryin’ who’s your partner, who’s your darlin’, who’s your baby now? Who wakes up at night to pull you in? It don’t matter, you’ll just make her lonely anyhow Don’t know why you even try to win
Another Steven Page album, another song I can’t scrape off my brain. The former Barenaked Ladies co-front man delivers another slice of pure audio candy here.
As BNL classics such as “Jane”, “It’s All Been Done” and “Alternative Girlfriend” (and several other posts on this blog) attest, the guy knows how to assemble an irresistible pop track.
In a homage to power poppers Fountains of Wayne/elaborate inside musician joke, musical chameleon Robbie Fulks sends up FOW’s formulaic tendencies while creating a track that mimics their style perfectly.
Let’s go to iTunes customer reviewer “Denise” for a fuller explanation:
According to Yep Roc Records website, Robbie Fulks “Fountains of Wayne Hotline” began as a travel game Fulks and his bandmates would play while touring. FOW’s ‘Welcome Interstate Managers’ had just come out and according to Fulks “I guess it was the band’s super-competency and amazing consistency that made me imagine them as operators of a crisis hotline for songwriters. In our game one of us would place an emergency call for counseling, and a member of a large bureaucratic labyrinth, usually harried and gruff, would offer a solution based on time-honored Fountains of Wayne techniques.” So what started out as boredom relief, ended up being written into a song, which the band began playing at some shows. It proved popular, but fearing the novelty would end up haunting them, Fulks retired it. The Yep Roc site quotes Fulks saying “Soon all kinds of people were asking for copies, such as — in a particularly vehement request–a team of able-bodied lawyers representing the real-life Fountains of Wayne. But it has all ended well, with the band liking the song, us still never having to perform it live, and this MP3 that is now available for your listening pleasure.” According to Yep Roc, FOW’s Adam Schlesinger says, “If Robbie Fulks wants to ride someone’s coattails, he ought to pick someone more famous than us. We, for example, cover Britney Spears songs to get attention. But hey, we’re still flattered. In fact, we might hire him to write our next album for us.”
The full lyrics follow:
I hung a shingle
Country Music for Hire
No fans, no singles
10 years later I’m tired
Now I’ve racked my brain
And I’ve looked all around
But I can’t find a way
to freshen my sound
And now who do you call
when you’re down to one musical dime?
Fountains of Wayne Hotline
(phone ringback)
— Fountains of Wayne Hotline. Gerald speaking. How can I help you?
· Oh, yeah. Thanks. Uh, hello. Um, yeah, I’m a country singer in, uh, a small Midwestern town. And uh, I’m here in the studio today. Uh, let me explain. We’re working on a track. And uh we juhs, dih- dih- dih- just did a verse. It was kind of broken down. And at this point I’m not sure where to take it. Where to go from here…
— Sir, sir. Calm down. We can help you. We can help you. What you need to do now is employ the “radical dynamic shift”
· The, the radical… yes, uh, wha-, what do you mean by that?
— You know. Full band entry, fortissimo, while maintaining consistent apparent volume on the vocal track.
· Oh. Oh! Yeah, yeah! That’s a great idea! Hey, thanks a lot! Thanks for your time!
— My pleasure. We’re always here.
It’s such a drag
to face another filthy stage
Beating these 3 chords
into early middle age
I’d be better off with
7 at hand
An analog synth and an
angry young band
Then I could turn my muddy water
into sweet Mexican wine
Fountains of Wayne Hotline
— Slightly distorted melodic solo!
— Check!
(phone ringback)
—Hotline. Department of Bridges and Infrastructure. Grant speaking.
· Oh yeah, hi there. I called a little while ago. I talked to a gentleman. I believe his name was Gerald. And, um, he…
— Sir, we’ve got about seven Geralds here. You’re talking to me now.
· Yeah, of course, yeah. The point is I’m in the middle of the song, we’re about 3 minutes in, and I’m not sure where to take it from here. We’ve done a couple verses and its just kind of, um hit a, hit a wall.
— Yeah. Yeah, well, Tell me about your textural variations and harmonic palette that you have going so far.
· Oh of course. Well, um. Two 16-bar verses, the first one broken down, followed by a radical dynamic shift.
— Oh, THAT Gerald.
A slightly distorted melodic guitar solo. And chordally, let’s see, a 1, a 5, a 4, with and without a sub-dominant 7, a 2, 2 minor, and briefly a 9th compound over the tonic.
— Uh, well that 9th, is that telegraphed or is that just gratuitous coloration?
· Um, a bit of both, actually.
— Oh, OK. Well let’s hit the bridge, I’ll tell you what you do. No new chords introduced. Get a split bar of 4 in there, and push the one. And then we’ll slather the holy hell out of the thing with a semi-ironic Beach Boys vocal pad. And then an asymmetrical back end. There’s your bridge.
· Uh huh.
— Yep.
· Isn’t that kind of a lot of information to put in the…
— Sir, I’ve been on this hotline for 15 years you’re gonna have to trust me on this one.
· OK, OK. Thank you very much. I’ll give it a try. Thank you.
— You got it, chief.
Oh, yeah
Now we’re getting big and full
Oh, yeah
Try a wider interval
Just like this? Oh yeah!
More like: Oh yeah!!
Check me out: Oooooooo, yeah!!
I feel invincible and all dialed-in
kinda Long Island with some West Coast sin
So let’s cut to the coda
Any old gimmick is fine
Fountains of Wayne Hotline
I find Rod Stewart infuriatingly chameleonic. The same guy who gave us some of rock’s most tender ballads (some self-penned, others well-chosen covers) has seemed content at other times to cover himself in schmutz like “Hot Legs” and “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and the same artist who blended folk and rock in innovative ways has satisfied himself too often with recording superficial pap or simply lending his voice to American pop standards.
I stopped paying attention for the most part when his records went from sounding something like this:
to sounding more like this:
The same album that found him crossing into disco territory for the first time also brought us this gem of an album track.
“The Best Days of My Life” begins with one of those superfluous acoustic intros Rod used to be so fond of, similar to those that adorned the LP versions of “Maggie May” and “You Wear it Well”, before giving way to one of his trademark melodic and heartfelt love songs, a statement of devotion of the same cloth as “You’re in My Heart”.
This rare track, one of the last the Hollies recorded with Graham Nash in the fold, never appeared on any of that band’s albums. It was included on a 1969 UK charity album to benefit the World Wildlife Fund. The album is perhaps best known for the first release of the Beatles’ “Across the Universe”; a line from that song gave compilation its name.
Every Moment Has A Song 