10,000 MANIACS: BLIND MAN'S ZOO (1989)
1) Eat For Two; 2) Please Forgive Us; 3) The Big Parade; 4) Trouble Me; 5) You Happy Puppet; 6) Headstrong; 7) Poison In The Well; 8) Dust Bowl; 9) The Lion's Share; 10) Hateful Hate; 11) Jubilee.
Every bad poet, given time and persistence, will produce at least one masterpiece — and if he is really, really bad, he might even produce two. Anyway, 'Eat For Two' is a tremendous song. It is impossible to explain why — it is written exactly the way all of the other upbeat tunes by 10,000 Maniacs are usually written, but somehow Merchant, banging on solid rock, managed to dislodge a single speck of gold lodged in one tiny nook. The wobbly, paranoid guitar backing from Buck, joining with Natalie's grim recounting — "I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two..." — is a perfect setting for one of the darkest songs about accidental pregnancy ever written (actually, I'm not even sure what other songs about accidental pregnancy I can remember at present).
What makes it even more cool is the ambiguity of the message — is this conveying happiness? tenderness? anxiety? desperation? horror? a little bit of everything? who knows? All the soon-to-be-mothers in America must have been eagerly listening to the song back in 1989, and now, from a retro perspective, it is clear that this is exactly that one song that no one could ever do better than Ms. Merchant. Any other gal would have overcooked it. Here, she's perfect.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album does feel very much like a blind man's zoo, no matter how sincerely the band tries to convince us it's really a metaphor for the whole wide world we live in. Take the paranoid guitar waves and the morose chorus away from 'Eat For Two', and here is your recipé for all the other upbeat songs on the record. And things only get screwed up more by the bluntness. If Merchant wants to ask the world for forgiveness on behalf of the entire United States of America for their nasty imperialist behavior, it may not be a particularly spectacular artistic choice to call the song 'Please Forgive Us' — and make sure that the song's major (and only!) hook is the title itself, delivered in a supremely guilt-ridden tone. Yes, liberal guilt is a noble feeling alright, but converting it into popular music as if that were the sole purpose of popular music makes the results not any more different from yer average «Christian rock» on the other side. And don't even get me started on the other titles — I mean, 'Hateful Hate'? Is this supposed to be a good title just because no one ever used it before? Isn't there, like, a good reason for the fact that no one ever used it before?
Three songs break the paralyzed formula. 'Trouble Me', wisely chosen as the other single along with 'Eat For Two', is a relatively simple and touching fast ballad — not memorable at all, but a light little «breather» in between all the preaching. 'Dust Bowl', lyrically, is almost like a sequel to 'Eat For Two', and musically, is full of beautiful interlocking jangly folk lines. And for the coda ('Jubilee'), they enlist a small string section to deliver a six-minute long chamber piece, also not particularly memorable, original, or even good, but... different at least.
Not that it changes things all that much. In strict accordance with the band's agenda, they just give you an attitude-filled diary of world events — Natalie Merchant wants to be your conscience, not your entertainment. Obviously, good music under such conditions can only be produced in a somewhat accidental manner. BUT! — and I do mean but! — before writing it all off, you'd better check it out with your conscience first. Who knows, you might find some parts of it, or even all of it, misplaced somewhere. If so, I reverse my judgement, Blind Man's Zoo is a damn fine record to help one grow back the damaged parts.
(There is also a great recipé to help you confound your friends and befuddle your enemies — put Blind Man's Zoo together with Ted Nugent's Love Grenade on one playlist and hit shuffle. Nuclear reaction guaranteed). Thumbs down, by the way, but I guess that was already understood.
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The only other song about accidental pregnancy I can think of is "One Slip" by Pink Floyd. And that's not all that great.
ReplyDeleteOh, and maybe "Billie Jean"? Maybe?
Yes, but how many are written from a woman's point of view? "Eat for Two" is a brilliant, harrowing piece, which depicts in a most scary manner the feelings of a pregnant, unmarried teen. (And the video only enhances the effect). Indeed, the album's highlight.
ReplyDelete"Trouble Me" is a nice, touching song, if not all that original ("I'll Stand By Me", by the Pretenders, comes to mind as similar, thematically). "Hateful Hate" and "Jubilee" also score as frightening tales of religious bigotry. "You Happy Puppet" has a deceptively happy, poppy melody to go with its lyrics about (?) emotional manipulation.
But, once again, the rest of the album doesn't
register once it stops playing. The Maniacs still didn't have it in them to make a totally memorable album from beginning to end.
By the way, I always though that "One Slip" was about getting AIDS ("I led the way to the funeral pyre").
Bob
'Golden Blunders' by The Posies is about accidental pregnancy, no?
ReplyDeleteI think in general accidental pregnancy is considered too serious a subject for pop lyrics yet "unworthy" for Peter Hammill. Not sure why Leonard Cohen never brings it up though, surely if he sings about Janis Joplin giving him head he can sing about that. Maybe he brings protection, I don't know.