Music Project: Saturdays

Saturday morning baby, and pancakes too. If you are not familiar with The Eels you won’t realize this is atypically upbeat for them. I walked into a used cd store quite a few years ago and heard a song that had me rushing up to the counter and asking who that was. I was listening to Your Lucky Day in Hell from Novocaine for the Soul, their first cd. I still prefer that cd because it is the only one in which they use a double bass (the player left because he thought they were getting too big (more than ten people showing up for a gig?)). All Eels songs are written by a fellow called E.

One time I was trying to find a couple of songs for an introduction to this band for a mix cd and ended up listening to about 5 of their cds in a row. What struck me was how consistent the worldview of the writer was. The world as a hell of sorts; one you just have to live through. And though its not my view I find just the strength and consistency of the man’s vision is rare in music. I also like the fact that the man is obviously quite literate. Smart lyrics and cool observations such as in the song These are the Good Old Days.

But its not all doom and gloom; there is a dark humour through it all. He would have been a good source for music for Twin Peaks; he has the same surreal tinged suburban angst. One last one from these fellows, a tender love song called It’s a Motherfucker. Really. The video is one of those great mashups; the song with a montage from the animated film The Ice Age.

That’s the morning, now for the afternoon.

Somewhat outdated but love the piano riff here and the sunny day feeling. Kind of a neighborhood feel like Springsteen’s Asbury Park songs. For the first two albums Chicago was actually cool. There are more than a few artists like this. Elton John’s first cd was alternative for the time; an understated folky record with gospel elements (Border Song) and a piano sound that was new to the world. It is unfortunate than when someone with undeniable talent follows the first cds in which every song has promise to a career that has wandered into the middle of the road. But all too often we write off these people and forget that though the albums are forgettable they are still quite capable of the occasional amazing song. Songwriting is a craft and if someone managed it once, they don’t entirely lose it. Of course Elton is really a special case; there is something just wrong with someone who would perform Your Song in a duck suit.

Other Saturday songs include Cat Steven’s Another Saturday Night (now back as Yusef and sounding very good after all those years of silence), Sparklehorse’s Saturday (just a little too limp and faltering for my tastes), and the inimitable Tom Waits‘ Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night. Waits is another example of an artist of consistent vision pervading all his work. I’ve raved about him before so I won’t again. And then there is Saturday Sun, a curious low key atmospheric number by Nick Drake who I always seem to confuse with Nick Cave. I find Drake somewhat thin and Cave a little too turgid, like a solemn and bloody old time biblical preacher (though I did like his screenplay for The Proposition).

And soon to Sunday.