"Fare thee well I’m bound to roam / This ain’t never been my home," sings Steve Earle in "Tennessee Blues," the opening track of his latest album Washington Square Serenade, widely described as a love letter to his new home New York City. In the next track "Down Here Below" Earle fashions a talking blues (rap's great-grandpappy; think talking blues on speed) to celebrate and ring the city's changes, both its struggles and its freedoms, our strivings for and fallings short:
I saw Joe Mitchell’s ghost on a downtown ‘A’ train He just rides on forever now that the Fulton fish market’s shut down He said ‘they ain’t never gonna get that smell out of the water I don’t give a damn how much of that new money they burn’Now hell’s kitchen’s Clinton and the bowery’s Nolita And the east village’s creepin’ ‘cross the Williamsburg bridge And hey, whatever happened to alphabet city? Ain’t no place left in this town that a poor boy can go
After "Satellite Radio," a kissing cousin to Springsteen's "Radio Nowhere" - - the same metaphor bearing the same cargo of existential angst ("Is there anybody out there?"), Earle launches into "City of Immigrants," a celebration of diversity and the promise of America. City of bone City of skin City of pain City of immigrantsAll of us are immigrants Every daughter, every son Everyone is everyone All of us are immigrants - everyone
Next comes the first of the album's three love songs "Sparkle and Shine," wherein Earle crows over having landed the most sparkliest, shiniest, sweetest, coolest, finest woman in the world (Allison Moorer). Through use of a refrain line at the end of the verses, the sentiment of the singer moves from incredulity ("And I can't believe she's mine") to pride ("And everyone knows she's mine"). Another of the love songs "Come Home to Me" beautifully captures the vulnerable, aching, needy side of love:
I knew I’d cry, when you were gone Baby, baby, baby please come home to me Thought I’d survive but I was wrong Baby, baby, baby, please. . .
The doors unlocked The light is on Baby, baby, baby, please come home to me Baby, baby, baby, please
The assymetry of the two refrain lines, cutting the second off at "please," is simply brilliant. That "please" speaks volumes. As does the gentle melody and gorgeous harmonies of the album's penultimate track "Day's Aren't Long Enough," penned and sung with Allison Moorer - - it's not just the romance of romance that thrills you, but something deep and fragile and sad moving under that, the gayiety that glitters even in the face of hard times and tragedy, as well as the relief of making port after a storm.
Songs like "Oxycontin Blues," the haunting and inegmatic "Jericho Road," Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole," and the ominous "Red Is the Color," with its blistering blues, reprise and/or forecast such storms, as does Earle's lovely tribute to folk music's elder statesman Pete "If I Had a Hammer" Seeger "Steve's Hammer (For Pete)":
One of these days I’m gonna lay this hammer down Leave my burden restin’ on the ground When the air don’t choke ya and the ocean’s clean And kids don’t die for gasoline One of these days I’m gonna lay this hammer downOne of these days maybe, but in the meantime Steve Earle is singing (and swinging) for justice, freedom, love to beat the band. I bet Pete Seeger is glad and proud; I know I am. More than a love song to NYC, Washington Square Serenade, like all of Earle's records of late, is a love song to America in all her devils and dust, inequities and lies, magnificence and dreams and grace.
[Pale male] looks up and down on fifth ave and says “God I love this town”But life goes on down here below And all us mortals struggle so
Start to finish Washington Square Serenade is one of the most solid and accomplished records you could ever hope to find.
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footnote: Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer"
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If a talking blues is rap's great-grandpappy, how does it feel about its retarded little bastard?
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Did no one tell you? Like God was supposed to be, music is love and all of her children are bastards.
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Well, I guess you just did. Although whether it could be called music is very debatable on my block.
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That one you carry around on top of your neck? Sorry, couldn't resist, but I slam you, bro', with mad love. Gotta love the haters and the instigators, top dog.
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Just trying to live up to my billing as a cranky old curmudgeon. Doing a pretty good job, too! :-)
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How does it feel being stuck in a parenthesis? Where I live it's as wide open as the Nebraska prairie - - scary at times to live so undefended and the howling winds of change can run you crazy, but, man, you can see for miles and there's nothing like the prairie or that sky and the feeling of being utterly lost and utterly free.
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I think you're mixing your metaphors. But regardless, I see the Beatles at the top of your MOG list and eastmountainsouth and Nickel Creek close by. So I salute the good parts of your taste - you know, the ones I like? Steve had a killer track on a recent UNCUT magazine sampler - "Steve's Hammer". Is that the title this track is from?
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It's all from the new one Washington Square Serenade. What was the gist of the killer track you heard, maybe I'd know what it is and where it's from? Musikfriend has done himself proud today with some amazing selections from Ralph Vaughan Williams, if clasical is to your taste. Actually, I just started a playlist for myself called "remedial hip-hop" which, as the MOGgers keep telling you, is not the same as rap, though it incorporates rapping as one of its many elements. All to say that hip-hop is not my first or second or third or fourth or fifth genre of choice, but there's no doubting it's music, and there are many instances I like. I could say the same of mainstream country. I'm pretty new to Steve Earle, caught maybe the last three records, looking forward to slowly working my way back. Thanks for the confab (which isn't what I mean, but I like the sound - - music trumps meaning any day on my planet..
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"One of these days I'm gonna lay my hammer down" is the opening line which repeats throughout the song. The title of the song IS Steve's Hammer (for Pete) and it appeared on the Give Peace A Chance "free" CD sampler from Uncut. I'm too lazy right now to look up the CD, but since your post title starts out Steve's Hammer, I thought you'd know - sounds like it probably is from the new one. I find myself going backwards, not forwards - getting into music that preceded me (Big Joe Turner, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Nat Cole Trio) and other genres (Latin). It just rings more true to these ears than a lot of more recent music. But that's me...
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There's something screwy about this post. If you read it on my My MOG page it's longer and I actualy quote from the song your talking about at the end, but the text seems to have been cut off elsewhere on MOG. But on my My Mog page all of the comments don't appear. Go figure.
Backwards, forwards, all over the place. Though haven't developed much of an ear for Latin music.
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Sometimes if you insert a blank line in your post, to form a correct paragraph, the new MOG will cut off your post at that point. Go back and hit edit and see if that's your problem. Why comments disappear? No idea...
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Thanks for the tip. I tried editing a couple of times and when that didn't work I reposted the whole thing. Not deleting this one though because I don't want to lose this exchange.