Dan's Comments on The Poignant Santa

1. Some Are: Wow-more befitting a Halloween album than a Christmas one, the way I hear it. The haunting overtones and spooky undertones speak of ghosts. In the sea! These are not sleds, I must concur. Boats. Definitely boats. Fell voices on the air? Nay, nay! In the sea. This can mean only one thing. This song is about the dead who sail the corsair ships along the coast to the mouth of the Anduin at Pelargir! But back to the music. I would be interested in hearing how this song fits into the entire context of the album from whence it came. And not just in context with respect to the songs that immediately surround it on that recording, but also learning a little more about what drove him to create this song? A story he once heard? A dream? A particularly dark point in his life? ("some are bound to fail" referring to his failed marriage?, or failure at staying sober?) It's tough for me to digest as a standalone single. Seems that it would not have been intended to be heard that way. All the same, the spare, eerie words work well, as do the layers of accompanying effects and voices. I like the song OK, but I would like to hear more of that album (and more Bowie in generaL). On a side note-this song is very similar, musically, to one on McCartney's Back to the Egg. Winter Rose/Love Awake.

2. That's the Way: I DO remember hearing the song at Camden Coffee, you dog! The band was "Bridgeling." At the time, I definitely was familiar with the song, but couldn't place it. A really pleasant acoustic journey, but with neat echo-ey electric notes wailing about in response. A neat effect. I love that line about the dead fish, too. Boy, LZ can really run the gamut, lyric-wise, can't they? They've got some classics and some stinkers. Not sure I would have read in the activism notes Mixdorf did to the words, but I can definitely see at as a possibility. Anyone else going to mention the really nice ending for the song? The little half-ascent, accompanied by bass? A nice little finsh.

3. A Most Peculiar Man: Funny! Were I to have guessed at 10 songs that Gibbons would have had on his collection, not even knowing the theme, I would have included this one. Gibbs and this song go way, way back. I think it's partly that he goes way back with any of the LPs that were in the orange crates at the on-campus Indiana State housing unit of JW & Deanna in the mid-70s. But I think he also, at a younger age, really really was drawn to and feeling a connexion to a number of songs that dealt with a theme of "peculiarity" and/or of being misunderstood. With much admiration and all due respect for the man that Pat Gibbons has become, in 8th grade he WAS the Most Peculiar Man. As for me, I've always thought it a nice song, but not close to being one of my favorites of S&G. Listening a number of times to this collection has not really changed my thoughts on that. I do think the "brother somewhere" is a kind of neat addition; the kind of thing meant to make people look at themselves in the mirror and saym "Gosh, I hope I'm not neglecting any Most Peculiar Men in my life..."

4. Caroline Says II: I did not recognize Ansley Dunbar on the drums. Funny, he would have joined Journey about a year after Berlin. Wonder if there's anything to read into that...Right away, I recognized the reworking of Stephanie Says, which I prefer as a song. What is it about friends calling these girls "Alaska?" Anyone else know much Leonard Cohen? I don't necessarily, but the arrangement in this song really reminds me a lot of what I do know. Gibbs, did you pick this song because it has an immensely powerful effect on you, or partly because you knew you needed Lou Reed in a poignant collection, and this song seemed to most fit the bill. I think the words are (as is usual with Reed) are a sort of hyper-reality; sort of like, dealing with "real" issues, but doing so to such an extreme that it approaches the unreal. I like the words, but the slowish, loose arrangement doesn't do a ton for me. Certainly doesn't pick me up. Like Bowie, this song might be another that (for me) would benefit from a little context. I might well really like the album (is this the album with "Mary Queen of Scots?"), but as a standalone song, there's Reed & VU songs I like much better.

5. Photograph: Ah, yes. Another college staple. I remember, shortly after my introduction to The Beatles (sort of like when Homer's mom gets introduced to Joe Namath), and I'm still reeling from this new, mind-blowing world of music, Gibbons takes me on out to Peeple's Records & Tapes (hopefully re-named since then) and picks up a copy of "Blast From Your Past." I was fascinated. Who was this Ringo guy, anyway? Why was he so upset and distressed over the jiggling he was doing on the front cover, and what sort of secret had he learned in settling in for the ride and smiling during the jiggling on the back cover? And why did this 30-something man do a cover of "You're 16, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine?" Anyway, this song was a hit in the "pick hit" era. Straight-ahead pop, and catchy pop, at that. I going to just say it: I think there's a good chance that every song that was attributed to Ringo (e.g. Octopuses Garden, this one) were really written by someone else. There, I said it. But whoever wrote it, very nice song. I really like when the blats by the tuba and the booms on the timpani come in and the orchestration picks up near the end. Gibbs, George Martin there? Damn, there's a lot of things happening in this song. How many tracks? 32? 64? 128?

6. Thorn in My Side: Anyone else think of Sinead's "Emperor's New Clothes" when they hear this? Both being a bit uncharacteristically (for the respective artists) upbeat musical pop songs each masking uncomfortable lyrics and guaranteeing T-Clogs toes to tappin'. I think the "you gave me such a bad time..." spoken words near the beginning are very funny; a nod to the producer-created girl groups in the early 60s ("It's My Party," "My Boyfriend's Back," etc.) My, but she has a lovely, emotive voice. I love the chord change at the first "I should have known better," and her delivery of "To runaway from you, is all that I can do" gives me chills. Saxamaphone seems just a little out of place, but I guess it was the 80s, right? On a side note, on hair & figures: I think Annie Lennox's red hair and stark white skin scared 7th grade Dan just a bit, and then when Dave Stewart started strumming a bow across her bodysuited figure in the prow of a scull; well, that was just too much.

7. Thinking About You: An OK song, but somehow the hook just never quite landed with me. I agree that there is passion in the voice and in the instrumentation, but I just never got my head around the tune in a way that moved me. I did like the approach on the words; sort of reminded me of the old country song, "Success," though a lot more esoteric. "Success" was basically just saying stuff like, "You have no time to love me anymore, nowthat fame and fortune knocked upon your door." That's how I see these words, anyway. She's not just left him cause the relationship is over, she's left him and gone on to bigger and better things. A kick to the nuts after the punch to the gut. A later thought: Rather than a past boyfriend, what if this song is written from the standpoint of a nobody that is obsessed with a star? Just some potential stalker?
8. The End of the Spoon: Good Lord, this could have almost been an out-take of a "That's the Way" recording session! Am I the only one to see this? If you were to tell me I would mistake Dave Matthews' voice for Robert Plant's, I'd tell you you're crazy. But the tune, the instrumentation, the singing, all very similar! Anyway, an OK little ditty, really made by the words. Yes, quite poignant, but could it be that it is worse than you think. "Goodbye for now," perhaps the person who brought you in from the cold is now killing you. Jesus. I did like the name "The End of the Spoon" when I thought that was the actual name of the song, rather than it just being the end of a song called, "The Spoon." Boy, so, if you're dying, perhaps you're being fed something poisonous with...a spoon? Undertones not unlike The Cure's Lullabye.

9. We Live Again: For me, the crown jewel discovery of the collection. I did not previously know it, and now I love it. He is quite a little master, isn't he? I don't see it in the comments, but I thought someone ventured the idea that it might well have been Gibbons that penned these words, so like his they seem to be. I concur. Very Gibbonsy metaphors & imagery. And fantastic, the words. The kind of words I wish I could write, but can't even approach. Hard to pick a favorite line from such a feast, but I'd have to go with: Over the hill, a desolate wind/Turns shit to gold and blows my soul crazy. Unique arrangement and melody, but not for the sake of pushing boundaries; simply because they are of the rare sort where you believe the song was out there in the breasts of God somewhere, just waiting for someone to put it together in just this way. Great melodic progression. Great harmony. This, by my reckoning, is a fucking perfect song.

10. Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You: Well, AJ pushes the envelope on the 10-song frontier, and Gibbs does the same on the 2-songs by same artist frontier! I think this is a really neat song. Classic LZ, with a really dynamic contrast between the plinky acoustic and the crashing electric, a lot of "babys" and vocal wailing. Very emotive singing & playing. A stuffed-shirt doctorate in poetry might make the mistake of dismissing these words as trite. The Coalescent Music Club (I'm hoping) understands pure, ultimate rock n' roll lyrics when they read them. Baby, baby, I don’t wanna leave you/I ain’t jokin’ woman, I got to ramble. Are you kidding me?? And (though not until I did my final, headphones in a dark room listen) I did hear it calling him at 1:41.

Thanks for the collection, MT. It may well be that this will change in future listens, but I do feel there is a little less cohesion (aside from the topical sort of theme), song to song, than in some of the earlier collections. For me, anyway. Just seemed a little less of an album-album. But definitely great as a jumping off point or kick in the seat of the pants to continue my exploration of all these artists (who really, aside from Dave Matthews, are all on my "must add more to collection" list).

BS: No surprise after my words above, but "We Live Again." It is my "Such Great Heights."
SIWHI: Hard believing someone who knows "Scorn Not His Simplicity" (Sinead) would not have included it. Also surprised, knowing your own poignant connection with "Miss Claire Remembers" (Enya), you would not have included it. That is, unless your feelings about that song were only mockery on your part.