Steve Reynolds Program - Each Is Good In His Own House
Happy What The Hell Day!
Two years ago today, the culmination of abiding and/or ignoring the dumbest ecosystem of fear, ignorance and privilege happened. How are you observing this anniversary? Me, I’m checking in on the scene of the crime periodically to see how the election of King Ding-a-ling is going. Seems like the water torture is finally working and the drip drip of these votes is getting to the Freedom (sic) Caucus and some members are flipping so the Boy from Bakersfield can finally make a knock knock sound with a wooden soup can hammer.
As a quick trip, we went to Crystal Bridges and the North Forest installation in Arkansas. It was a nice little reset. Now to get in a serious groove of writing and working and living and fighting and cheesing and loving. Starting … wait. Gotta check in on the debacle.
Speaking of, if you’ve never seen The Best Man, screenplay by Gore Vidal, you should. It covers a lot of the backroom intrigue of politics. I wish reality had a clever twist of a third act like the movie, but likely it won’t. The movie is great, though Vidal’s romantic dialogue doesn’t ring true. It’s like Klaus Nomi singing The Sound of Music songs: just not in his wheelhouse.
Song #18
Each Is Good In His Own House
by Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard released Moses on A Snail in the middle of his streamlined streak of solo albums done with producer and musician Todd Tobias. Tobias calls it a “low-key album” in that it only had twelve songs, compared to the twenty plus songs of the last two, and because of its bizarrely corny cover with a snapshot of Bob on a beach, looking out at a lake, at sunrise with the title in the corner with the “FEATURING ‘ARROWS AND BALLOONS’…AND 8 MORE” below like a Sing Along With Mitch record sold at Woolworth’s would. Pals have categorized the album as “sad but triumphant Bob” and that does describe half of the songs, but the other half put humor up front. Hell, he literally sings a Michael Scott “that’s what she said” on one track. Maybe the funny tracks obscure how deep the other songs cut.
For a low-key album, it lives on. Bob mentions it when asked what albums he’s especially proud of. The title track is still played by GBV in concert (Doug Gillard really tears up the solo) .The thing that makes Moses last is it has an intrinsic sprituality some others don’t. “Moses on A Snail” is about the desire for the return of a messiah (or salvation) who is taking their sweet time (very slowly / VERY sloooowly!) getting here. The first half of“It’s A Pleasure Being You” could be a Mr. Rogers song, telling kids they’re special, before it gets all abstruse.
And “Each Is Good In His Own House” starts in the name of God. Now, Bob doesn’t drive at his meaning head on—God drives a Cadillac and pays my salary / so I come back and she’s home gardening. Is it a wistful look at postwar suburban life? Or, more likely, is it a present self-assessment of his contented life with his second wife and empty nest? Bob’s impressionistic lyrics give it space to be both.
The riff is simple, one that could be the very first lesson for a student new to the guitar. The drumbeat is one Tobias said he spent hours on, nailing down every accent. “Sometimes too many possibilities bring complications, so it was a matter of eliminating every ‘bad’ possibility until only the good ones are left.”
And that’s what all’s here, the good possibilities. Simple, catchy guitar with precise accompaniment (including subtle keyboard chords intimating an organ) and a chorus of utter beauty to hook you in. The knockout punch is the slow outro fadeout so agreeably pleasant a la Luna or Belle and Sebastian.
It’s the message of the title that really ropes me in. Everybody’s the hero of their own autobiography. Everyone considers themselves acting for some higher purpose. The corollary of that, unfortunately, is people especially feel their most agreeable within their own walls, when not dealing with others. The idea of good is compromised when confronted with competing viewpoints in other houses.
So the “after-dinner life” of home, expertly evoked in Pollard’s lyrics, is the time where one is most content. This song imparts a warm serenity. At least when I am in my own house.
End Matters
This week’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is “Hit Or Miss” by Bo Diddley. Bo’s best songs are years after he invented rock and roll. Plus it gives us the great sample for De La Soul’s “Buddy.”
My friend and I have a podcast ostensibly recapping another podcast but it’s a good excuse to have a weekly phone call with someone I like talking with.