Prison: Prisoners of Their Hairdos

Christine Lavin: Prisoners of Their Hairdos
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My recent run of television-related posts would suggest a discussion of The Prisoner, one of the great TV shows of the 1960s, and one of the first shows designed to blow the viewers’ minds, and I still might, but while it had a theme song (with a great credit sequence), it really wasn’t a music based show.

I’ve also recently written elsewhere about Jason Isbell’s cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak,” so that’s out. As I perused my music library, I came across this song, which I hadn’t listened to in years, and which reminded me that you don’t need to be in a cell to be a prisoner.

Christine Lavin has been on the folk scene since the 1980s, and while she has had a long, successful career as a singer-songwriter, she never had the sort of national breakout that some of her contemporaries like Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman or Shawn Colvin, although she is incredibly well respected in the folk music world. Lavin writes mostly about relationships, and while she can write seriously, she is probably best known for her sense of humor. Many of her songs are laugh out loud funny. I sometimes wonder if her lack of fame stems from the fact that women folk singers are stereotypically supposed to be sad, tortured souls, and Lavin’s humor prevents her from being taken seriously. But that’s really too bad, because she has consistently written and performed great songs, not all of which are jokey.

In addition, she has long been an incredible supporter of other musicians, playing them on the radio, and working with them. I remember listening to her as the first host of WFUV’s Sunday Breakfast, playing music by artists she liked, sometimes even unreleased tracks. Even after friend (and fellow former WPRB Program Director John Platt) took over the show, Lavin would send him music to play, and she occasionally would sub for him. As much as I loved listening to John, which I don’t get to do as much since the station, in a bad move, pushed him to Sunday evening, when sports, TV, life and dinner usually take precedence (sorry!), it was fun to hear Lavin’s unique style every once in a while.

“Prisoners of Their Hairdos” is on the funny side of Lavin’s musical spectrum, and points out that some people’s coiffures are so distinctive that:

If they changed the way they combed their hair 
They'd never be recognized anywhere 
They're prisoners 

Lavin lists Crystal Gayle, Dorothy Hamill, Don King, Lyle Lovett, Gloria Steinem, Stevie Nicks Leon Redbone, Pee Wee Herman, Tom Wolfe, Pope John Paul, Ted Koppel, and Mary Travers as hairdo prisoners, and I’m sure we could think of more recent ones, since the song was released in 1991. An amateur golfer/more amateur president comes to mind…..

The song points out that ZZ Top are, similarly, prisoners of their beards, and Dolly Parton is a prisoner of her…….wigs. But, on the other hand, the B-52’s beehives, she suggests, are prisoners of the band.

There was a time where I had a great deal of hair, but time and genetics has rendered me almost bald, and now I keep my hair short, for ease of care. Typically, when I go to the barber, she asks me, “what do you want to do?” And my response is usually, “there really isn’t much you can do.” My daughter’s father-in-law (English really needs a word like machatenester or consuegro) shaves his head daily, and has tried to convince me to do the same. I’ve declined, because I don’t want to become a prisoner of my baldness.

Eateries and Watering Holes: Tom's Diner

Suzanne Vega: Tom’s Diner
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Sitting at the counter unnoticed even by the man who pours her coffee, she watches the people with whom she is briefly sharing space.  The rain outside is pathetic fallacy writ large, but she's trying not to notice because to notice is to remember and if she wanted to do that she would not be distracting herself by watching the people as they come and go.  The lovers she pretends not to see aren't helping, but those who are unattached either die unremembered or are too wrapped-up in themselves to connect to anyone.  Cathedral bells make an announcement - a wedding perhaps, or just the march of time - and the floodgates open, if only for a moment.  Life, of course, continues on unabated and it's time to catch the train.

Forget the DNA remix: it missed the point.  A song this lonely can only truly be delivered sparse and unadorned.

Medical Conditions: 99.9 F Degrees

Suzanne Vega: 99.9 F Degrees

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Speaking of elevated temperatures, I have been waiting for Susan’s post, before I put this one up. In due time, Suzanne Vega and Mitchell Froom would divorce. But this one is about the first bloom of love. I wonder how Froom felt producing and playing on a song about himself. I guess that’s the chance you take when music is your life.

We Are Family: We Were Family Edition

This week, we have had songs by brothers, sisters, and by parents and their children. But no one else has tackled married couples. Perhaps this has to do with a question: when should two (or more) people in a committed relationship of choice be considered a family? Surely, a same-sex couple, who can not legally marry, are no less a family than a heterosexual couple that can. And were Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer not a family because they never actually married? I wouldn’t think so. Still, society has its opinion, and those would have been controversial choices.

There is also another aspect to this. Were a couple who have since broken up a family while they were together? I don’t think the answer has anything to do with whether or not they had children together. I think the closeness they felt when the relationship was at its best is far more relevant. And the music they made together is often the best clue to this. Let’s look at three examples.

Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

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The most obvious example is Richard and Linda Thompson. They were married shortly after Richard completed his original stint with Fairport Convention, and they were together for many years. Their recordings together were always billed as being by both of them, and they achieved a style together that is demonstrably different from how either of them sounds on their own. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is a fine example of that sound.

Joni Mitchell: My Secret Place

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Joni Mitchell’s jazz period ended after the Mingus album, (how do you top that?), and the death of bass player Jaco Pastorius. At that point, she did two things that would have been unthinkable to those who had followed her career to that point: she married bass player and producer Larry Klein, and she decided to rock out. The albums from this “rock” period are some of Mitchell’s least known work, and her most uneven. The best songs from this time, however, are as good as any in her catalog, although stylistically different. Mitchell’s marriage to Klein eventually ended, but he worked on her most recent album, Shine, although they were no longer married. So I would say that Klein is still part of Mitchell’s musical family.

Suzanne Vega: In Liverpool

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My last example is also the most problematic. Suzanne Vega’s marriage to producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom only lasted for one album, 99.9 F degrees. I remember that the reviews at the time of the albums release hailed the album as a bold new direction for Vega. And I remember reading an interview with Vega at the time where she talked about how excited she was.

I saw Vega live a few years later, after the marriage was over. Vega reached a point in the performance where she was ready to take requests from the audience. But first, she cautioned us that she would not play any songs from 99.9 F degrees. But, to my ear, there was one song on the album that sounded like the rest of Vega’s material to that point. So I blithely shouted out, “In Liverpool”. Sure enough, that was the one song she had done with Froom that she was willing to lay claim to at that point, and it sounded great that day. So I don’t know how Vega feels about Froom or these songs nowadays. But I also don’t know if that answers the question of whether, however briefly, she and Froom were a family.

Leftovers (Metals): Ironbound - Fancy Poultry

Suzanne Vega: Ironbound - Fancy Poultry

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During Metals week, I was hard at work shopping for a new file host, and making improvements to my blog. So I never got the chance to post this one.

The Ironbound section of Newark NJ is a Portugese enclave. The area takes its name from the fact that it is bounded on all sides by railroad tracks. Newark is a short trip on the PATH train from Greenwich Village, where Suzanne Vega was living when she wrote this. It is not necessary for me to describe it further; Vega does that beautifully.

Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse: Luka

Suzanne Vega: Luka

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One thing that happens in abusive relationships is that the abuser isolates the victim. She knows that any attempt to reach out to the outside world will be met with violence. To protect herself from this, the victim tries to maintain the illusion for outsiders that nothing is wrong. Even when the evidence to the contrary is almost overwhelming. This is Luka in a nutshell.

For the art for this post, I have used an image by Ieneke Jansen, from her series The Different Colors of Domestic Violence. To see more and purchase prints, go here.

Fruits and Vegetables: The Apples and Oranges Edition

There really *is* no place like home - so comforting to once again be under my own roof, with my own family and dog... and my own CD collection!

It's taking a bit of time to catch up and get back in the proverbial "swing of things"... so I thought I'd offer up some apples, oranges and a wayward plum as my Star Maker Machine re-entry - hope you've all had a juicy summer...

Barenaked Ladies: These Apples

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What's not to love about a Canadian folk/pop/rock "boy" band singing of romance and postcards and grammar, oh my! - "these apples are delicious!"...

Osborne Brothers (featuring Steve Thomas): Orange Blossom Special

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The notes on the back of my CD state that "Orange Blossom Special ranks as probably the most popular fiddle tune of all time. Written in the mid-thirties by fiddlers Chubby Wise and Ervin Rouse, the song took its title from a southeastern train on the Seabord Airline Railroad. Originally an instrumental, verses were later added and it has evolved into a favorite showpiece for other instruments as well" - enjoy!

Suzanne Vega: My Favorite Plum

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I remember hearing Caramel on the Sessions at West 54th TV program in Spring of 1998... and rushing right out to buy her (at that time) new CD - food has long been a metaphor for desire and, as Suzanne sings of her longing, the temptation to indulge is strong and seductive...

"Can all this fruit be free?" indeed...

Color My World: Primary Colors Edition

Suzanne Vega: Small Blue Thing

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Small. Blue. Thing. Three short words which combine to form an intricate puzzle. There is a sense here of small, as in insignificant. Blue here may represent sad. Or, taken together, this small blue thing may be something rare and precious. All of this is in Suzanne Vega’s lyric, for the listener to puzzle out. The solution to the puzzle changes every time I listen. And that makes this one of Vega’s best songs.

Bruce Cockburn: Red Brother Red Sister

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Bruce Cockburn is a Canadian artist who made several albums there before anyone in the United States ever heard of him. So, we had a lot of lost time to make up for. Here, Cockburn addresses the topic of prejudice against Native Americans. We Americans tend to shunt this subject aside; we have “more important things to worry about”, seems to be the attitude. But, judging by the number of Canadian artists I have heard address the subject, the subject is much closer to the surface there. I would like to hear from our Canadian readers on this. Cockburn has delivered some strident political messages in some of his songs, but here he keeps it low key, and the song is better for it.

October Project: Sunday Morning, Yellow Sky

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The original lineup of October Project only lasted for two albums. Then, Mary Fahl, whose lead vocals were so much a part of there sound, went solo and the group broke up. More recently, I heard that they got back together without Fahl, but I regard that as a different group using the name. The original lineup is heard here, with Fahl’s soaring alto at the front.

Sunday Morning, Yellow Sky depicts a man in desperate straits. His redemption lies in the dream of a lover, or perhaps the blessing of an angel as he sleeps. This song is also open to multiple interpretations. But the importance of dreams is clear. The song closes with a quote from Alice In Wonderland, as Alice falls down the rabbit hole. We the listeners know what dreams await her, but she does not.

Anniversaries: Anniversary

Suzanne Vega: Anniversary

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The first song I ever posted on Star Maker Machine was by Suzanne Vega. It was during Songwriting week in June, and I offered The Queen and the Soldier as an example of a song whose multiple potential meanings keep the listener coming back. So, it is only fitting that I observe our first anniversary with this tune. Once again, Vega’s lyric invites multiple interpretations.

Actually, The Queen and the Soldier was technically a “reader submission”, which we now call guest posts, and they often lead to additions to our contributor roster. One of the characteristics of a life form is its ability to grow, and Star Maker Machine is certainly alive and well.

Trick or Treat: Caramel

Suzanne Vega: Caramel

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I’ve searching around for some “treats” for this week, and I have reached a conclusion: all such songs are actually about sexual attraction. “Caramel” is certainly no exception. But where “Candyman Blues” and even “Lollipop” are very clear about their intentions, “Caramel” is all suggestion. All are great songs, but Suzanne Vega’s tune is all the more intense for what it doesn’t say.

Suzanne Vega was the first artist I ever posted here at Starmaker. I apologize to her for waiting so long to get back to her work.

Songwriting: The Queen And The Soldier

Suzanne Vega: The Queen And The Soldier

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My wife and I compliment each other very well. When it comes to songs, I usually respond first to the music, the arrangement, and the production. I sometimes go years loving a song without knowing what it is about. My wife is the opposite: although she has more musical training than I do, she hears lyrics, sometimes to the exclusion of all else.

So when the first thing that grabs me about a song is the lyrics, it's an event. The first time I heard "The Queen and the Soldier" was such an event.

The story this song tells is fairly straight forward. A soldier goes to tell his queen that he will no longer fight in her wars. She has him killed for his disobedience. End. But it's not so simple as all that.

What sets this song apart is the description of the characters' emotions. He either is in love with the queen, or falls in love with her in the course of the story. She seems to fall in love with him, which terrifies her. So does she order his death because he defies her orders to fight, or because she fears her own emotions?

Sometimes this song for me is a literal story about two characters who are trapped in societal roles which doom their love. Sometimes it is a symbolic antiwar song. And sometimes it is a metaphor for a failed relationship. Are any of these interpretations what Suzanne Vega had in mind? I have no idea, and I wouldn't want to ask her if ever got the chance. The mystery of "The Queen and the Soldier" is what makes it a great song.

Reader submission from Darius