CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN: CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN (1986)
1) Good Guys & Bad Guys;
2) Joe Stalin's Cadillac; 3) Five Sticks; 4) Lulu Land; 5) Une Fois; 6) We Saw
Jerry's Daughter; 7) Surprise Truck; 8) Stairway To Heavan (Sic); 9) The
History Of Utah; 10) Still Wishing To Course; 11) We Love You; 12) Hoe Yourself
Down; 13) Peace & Love; 14) Folly; 15) Interstellar Overdrive; 16) Shut Us
Down.
On their third album, Camper Van Beethoven
continue to «normalize» their sound, in this particular case, «normalization»
being the equivalent of showing how much they love rock music from the late
Sixties and early Seventies (and hey, who doesn't? Oh, okay, today some people don't, but what else
could those intelligent college-rock kids from the Eighties choose as the main
source of inspiration? Barry White?). More often than not, the inspiration is
indirect: for instance, they take Led Zep-based song titles (ʽFive Sticksʼ,
ʽStairway To Heavanʼ) and use them for psychedelic freakouts — the former is
ʽThe Ambiguity Songʼ backwards, the latter is ʽChairman Maoʼ backwards (and
somehow not completely losing its original charm in the process). Or, for
instance, they express their reverence for the Grateful Dead by poking gentle fun
at Deadheads (ʽWe Saw Jerry's Daughterʼ, which, incidentally, is also one of
the album's fastest and catchiest pop numbers — although it doesn't sound much
like a Grateful Dead song at all).
But just so you know that you can never
properly predict the Campers' next move, they go out on a limb and introduce a
faithful, as-note-for-note-as-possible rendition of Pink Floyd's ʽInterstellar
Overdriveʼ — somewhat stripped down compared to the original, but still with
tremendous attention to detail. Needless to say, a cover like that really only
works in the context of the album: it adds nothing to the classic ʽInterstellar
Overdriveʼ experience, but it matters all the world to us that it is done here
by the same guys who, in their regular hours, produce sarcastic deconstructions
of all the musical genres in the world.
There is also more emphasis on the lyrical
message and the surrealist stories behind the music, fortunately, not at the
expense of musical ideas. ʽGood Guys & Bad Guysʼ and ʽJoe Stalin's
Cadillacʼ start things off with some political flavor — the former addresses
the Russian issue from the point of view of an easy-going redneck (or college
dropout, whatever) lazily basking in the sun, and the latter somehow jabs and
stabs at all the dictatorial powers in the world, though I am still not exactly
sure how; I guess that "Well my cadillac is Johnson's cadillac, is
Stalin's cadillac, is Somoza's cadillac..." implies that dictators only
become dictators because we allow them to, but then again, maybe it does not
imply anything at all, and the whole thing is just an excuse for some reckless
boogie fun. (And again, there's a completely ad hoc Led Zeppelin reference at
the end of the song — purely by association, led on by the word
"bridge" in the line "gonna drive my cadillac off a
bridge". What do you think when
you hear the word "bridge"? You must not be a true Led Zep fan if you
think something different).
On a slighter note, ʽThe History Of Utahʼ
tackles you-know-what, presenting a very
alternative history of the establishment of the Church of Latter-day Saints to
the sound of a droning psycho-boogie with a penchant for abrupt tempo changes;
and ʽWe Love Youʼ is a variation on ʽThe Devil Went Down To Georgiaʼ, with a
notable change in the theme (the Devil becomes a member of the band rather than
taking the souls of its members). Still, both songs do reflect certain problems
that the band members seem to have with religious practices — and their
irreverence extends even to the very psychedelia that seems to fuel this record
(ʽLulu Landʼ, a parody on the mind-opening, transcendental nature of flower
power era psychedelic anthems).
On the whole, though, as fun as the record is
on a first-come, first-serve basis, the remaining impression is, well, not quite
as impressive as before. Too many of the songs just sound like jokes, made
tastier through the factor of unpredictability — but jokes all the same. As far
as actual songs are concerned, ʽGood Guys & Bad Guysʼ is arguably the only
number here that qualifies: everything else is either a parody, or a brief
freakout, or a passable, but straightforward genre experiment (ʽHoe Yourself
Downʼ sure sounds good, but its meaning here is only gained in the context of
other songs — normally, if you want this type of fast country dance by itself, you
go to Nashville, don't you?), or, well, ʽInterstellar Overdriveʼ. Still a thumbs up,
of course, but I find myself pining for all those ska instrumentals.
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