Under the Bridge: Mix Reviews Volume

This is a magnificent bridge. It makes an exuberant leap across a deep gorge, a gorge that demands some careful inspection, for it contains a great variety of landscapes as your eyes tumble down into its inky depths. Even the bridge is more intricate than it may appear upon first inspection. Sure, you can use it to cross the gorge, but there are places, moments even, upon this bridge that allow remarkable views down into the gorge and across the surrounding landscape. On clear winter evenings you can see to the edge of the cosmos, its twinkling stars beckoning you to join them in their intricate and cautious dance across the heavens.

But back to this gorge...if you look carefully down into its vastness you will see ledges exploding with sunlight, and darkness that you may rightly assume are caves or some other terrible unknown. One side of the gorge is almost always in shadow and its sides are awash in greenery, mosses and lichens and all manner of verdant greenery, all dripping and wet. And if you look carefully, almost every spot on the walls of this gorge are artists of every imagineable genre and medium. Three artists in particular are of interest today, and they exist on different areas upon the sides of the gorge, but all clearly exist in the realm of Sotto-Ponte. Some call them trolls, but that implies too much menace for me. These three seem to prefer the organic life amongst the ferns, rather than dealing with the more conformist world above. Maybe they once wished for life on the bridge, but I think they're comfortable where they are now.

Sotto-Ponte Dweller #1

Jonathan Richman sits happily on a bright outcropping, waving eagerly to any who notice him. He doesn't demand their recognition, he's just thinks not doing so is rude. Life below the bridge has given him a quirky view of the rest of the world, but his sunny vantage generally leaves him in a mishievous mood. If he wanted, he could reach up and untie your shoelaces, but he wouldn't.

Lonely Financial Zone
Unlike most of Boston, the financial district is very quiet in the evenings. There aren't many restaurants or bars or anything else that might give a place life. It is lonely and dark.

The music and the lyrics augment each other well in this song, creating and keeping the mood. The ominous bass drum that opens the song lets you know you're in for something, and while it never quite lives up to the evil portent of that ("THEY ARE COMING!"), it does work through the whole song.

Abominable Snowman in the Market
Some great stuff going on here. Funny, perhaps comic, lyrics surrounded by some really deft and tight playing, including some James Brown-esque call-outs. The nasal thing at the beginning, and then when used when speaking in the voice of the 'housewives' is a little annoying, but it is an interesting, almost literary device.

Government Center
Back to Boston. This is the dreaded Boston Government Center.







An example of Brutalist architecture, from an era when a few thought such places were a good idea. There is some craft in the construction and design of the building, but it is unfriendly to an extreme. They do have lots of music in the plaza outside, where we saw Bela Fleck, for free.

So this song is quite poignant relative to the poor bastards that specifically work inside this beast. It may apply universally, but I can't imagine that with his roots this wasn't THE government center.

A bit of a novelty again, but the musicianship is to be admired, and the lyrics are hilarious. Add in some typewriter carriage returns, and you've got a very fun song.

I didn't really know of Jonathan Richman prior to this, though his name is bandied about in these parts with some regularity. I will have to seek out the compilation CD that MT referred this from.

Sotto-Ponte Dweller #2 and #3

Both John Cale and Leonard Cohen seem to come at the world from similar perspectives. They may not even be neighbors down in the gorge, but the view must be similar, and I suspect both can look up at the happy-go-lucky Jonathan Richman. They both reside in a darker place than Jonathan, and I think perhaps it's the perpetually dark side of the gorge, though not too far down. There is a universal melancholy and a touch of cynicism that runs through these songs that I think a life spent in shadow might explain.

Fear is a Man's Best Friend
I'm ok with this song, though the opening piano makes me think of Locomotive Breath from Jethro Tull, a band that might have existed down amongst the denizens of the gorge. But after that it doesn't do much for me. It's plenty good, lyrics and all, but it's perhaps too cynical for me. And the de-evolution at the end I find very annoying.

Charlemagne
I don't know that my recollections of Charlemagne are good enough to make sense out of his references. It's a very evocative song ltrically, but I can't quite make anything out of it. The music is a bit plodding, though it seems to be in keeping with the mood.

The 'good fences make good neighbors' line joins the ranks of those who seem to miss the point of Robert Frost's Mending Wall. It was Frost's neighbor that thought good fences make good neighbors, while Frost himself thought they were bad. SOmehow only the like 'good fences make good neighbors' makes it out of the poem now completely devoid of its context.

A very sad song.

Paris 1919

Another song I have trouble making much sense out of. At what point does it stop being good lyric writing if your audience can't amke heads or tails of your intention? Much of modern art does this to me. What you're doing MAY be great, but if it is, I'll never know.

I'm not sure this is 'great' art anyway, though I like the feel of it. I just can't figure out waht he's trying to convey. The she in the song seems like she may be a ghost. Paris 1919 would have meant the end of WWI and probably a time of great hope, but painful realization of what has happened. France was pretty much destroyed in WWI having been the site of most of the battles. 1919 was also the time of the last great flu pandemic, so it had that happiness potentially too.

It might all be in there.

I know John Cale from VU only and this was I think my first exposure to his solo work. I don't think I'm likely to seek him out, though an occasional hearing would not be denied.

Sisters of Mercy

I worked on an architecture project for the Sisters of Mercy, an order of nuns that was fading as its members aged. In fact, they were merging with another order. See here. Hospitals with Mercy in the title are apparently associated with the original Sisters of Mercy.

As to the song, it is lovely. Sad to an extreme, though with a base of hope holding it up. Some very bad things happen, and when they do you'll be made better with the care of the fair sisters. There is perhaps a bit more than a little sexual innuendo with some meager attemo at diffusing it, but I don't think that it is that sort of intimate contact that is the point of the song.

There are some interesting stereo things happening, with certain musical elements wandering around in the background as they ebb and flow through the course of the song.

Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

This song fits nicely with Boots of Spanish Leather as possible ways to see the end of a realtionship. It's really an amazingly poignant song, one that might even make the Poignant Santa weep.

His 'hey, that's no way to say goodbye' has a very Gibby syntax and feel to it. Not a bad role model though you discovered him long after your principal musical development.

I don't know if I think the female voice that pops in does much, though it's pleasant enough.

The Guests

Another song about ghosts, as in Paris 1919 above, though this one is both more subtle and more effective if that is in fact the intention of Mr. Cohen. He's got a particularly Tom Petty voice in this one. I could imagine Tom doing some effective imitations.

Lyrically the song paints a picture though it leaves things entirely unresolved, though that may be appropiate for the disenfranhised spirits he sings of. The music works well with a bit of a gypsy feel. The violin and the Spanish-y guitar are used to good effect here.

Leonard Cohen was another artist that I'd heard of, and seems to have influenced a lot of people, though I had not heard him sing that I know of. I'd be curious to check out a greatest hits or some other retrospective.

Bonus Materials

Hialrious and well done. Wish I could have filmed it - the capturing, that is. Thanks for the birthday greetings, and sorry for the slow response time on this end. That said, even on July 18, I am the first to comment, unless Cory has via Pony Express.

Wrap Up

Very intrigued by JR and LC, and perhaps a different batch of songs from JC (thank you jesus!) might have tripped my trigger.

BS: a tie between Abominable Snowman and The Guests.
SIWHI: not possible given that I don't know other songs by these artists
AIWHI: Tom Waits hangs out under the bridge too, along with many others.

Bring on Volume 11.