...er, Monday Random Ten
1. Big Joe Turner - Corrine
Corrina
2. Wire - Boiling
Boy
3. Karen Dalton - In a
Station
4. Steve Goodman - City of New
Orleans
5. Björk -
Aurora
6. Firesign Theatre - Chump Makes A
Resolution
7. Deaf Pedestrians - 15 Beers
Ago
8. Blink 182 -
Mutt
9. Gentle Giant -
Talybont
10. Cranes - Beautiful
Sadness
And number 11: Paul
McCartney - C Moon.
There was a time, O
my children, when Rolling Stone was a music paper. It had a reaally big review
section, in which not only the important records were reviewed, but all sorts of
weird little things. (There was also nothing about television or Hollywood, and
this guy Raoul Duke was writing this serial called "Fear & Loathing In Las
Vegas.; It also felt it was the ne plus ultra, for its landmark 100th issue, to
have an epochal interview with Jerry Garcia.) It was there that I found out
about Karen Dalton.
It was usually enough for
them to give a positive review there for me to go pick up the LP. After all, I
was dead set on expanding my horizons. I was rarely disappointed, in that the
disc would almost always stand out in some way. Karen Dalton's In My Own Time,
was a bit of a bump. Even for the adventurous, this was not an easy record to
listen to. This woman had a raw edge and a bite to her voice, that sandpapered
the nerves. The first reaction is "What the hell is this?" Her voice was like
Toni Childs after a nervous breakdown, or Pheobe Snow after two bottles of
bourbon. It was not a record I could put on to impress anybody--it would create
enemies. I listened to it once, and then not again for months. But then I took
it out and began to listen to it more and more often. When I was alone, of
course.
Fast forward about thirty
years, when I subscribe to eMusic. Now I just recently went to a meet-and-greet
with the folks from eMusic at the University of Chicago (my alma mater)--and it
was really interesting: as with many online companies, i think the entire
company was there who weren't handcuffed to the server. But they were impressive
in their commitment to all that is indy, serious and strange about music. mp3,
noDRM, and as a result all small labels.
And
one day, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Karen Dalton. Now I still
have the vinyl, and I know exactly where it is--a guy may have his clothes in
random piles on the floor (I do not), but his records will be alphabetized.
Nonetheless, since I'm not set up to transfer from vinyl to the iPod, bam! I
download it.
And after probably twenty years,
the sound returns--and man, this woman's voice is
shot!
She knows how to sing: hyer phrasing is on the money, and her passion is full
throttle--but it's like listening to a saxophone with a bad reed. At times her
voice just breaks out into a squawk. And this isn't Diamanda Galas performance
art, either: there's nothing planned
here.
But the fascination is still there.
It's like watching the Judy Garland TV show: all sorts of things were coming
loose there, and she was the least glossy, least packaged variety show host
ever--but that only made her performances more electrifying. There's nothing
Hollywood Palace about Karen, but she's something, all
right.
And let me just distinguish her
from another artist, Kathy Dalton, right next to her on the shelf, and in some
ways easy to confuse. She's a bluest, folky solo vocalist, and her one album is
entitled Boogie Bands and One-Night Stands, which is her one modest hit. It's a
repackage of the album with the less generic title
Amazing.
However.
The
album happens to be on DiscReet records--which was Frank Zappa's label. (Besides
Zappa's own stuff, Tim Buckley was on the label--as was--gulp!--Ted Nugent.) And
if you look at the back up band, you realize that it is--gulp again--Little
Feat. (and the demigod Van Dyke Parks arranging horns and Carl Wilson of the
Beach Boys on backing vocals.) And it's a varied and un-ordinary album to a
delightful extent--but you'd never know it by looking at. They just don't do
anti-marketing like this any more.)
As
for Karen's second album, it's filled with expert musicians--including one
current member of Congress, John Hall on
guitar.
And it was and is one of the
fun things about the music of my adolescence: with artists at war with record
companies and artists, for the briefest of historical periods winning, theres
all sorts of weird things in the corners of music releases, records made under
false pretenses, strange performances where none should be. Things gradually got
under control, and more's the pity.
Posted: Monday - March 12, 2007 at 03:25 PM