Scrabble-Rousers #8: Nihilism

What Scrabble-Rousers is: A word is chosen at random by blindly flipping the pages and finger-pointing a word/phrase (in this case “nihilism”) from a book also chosen at random (in this case: the I ♥ Huckabees script written by David O. Russell & Jeff Baena).

"Of course not," Gorgias said. "He never existed."

What does nihilism have to do with music? Nothing.

Bad joke.

It’s impossible to talk about punk, rap, goth, metal and a lot of fringe underground music without discussing nihilistic themes. Whether you truly believe the Sex Pistols were sincere enough to be nihilistic (even though contrived controversy to further commercialism seem contrary to the doctrine) doesn’t matter because they were inevitably associated with it.

Sid Vicious was without a doubt a bad, bad nihilistic man – he brutally beat a man with a bicycle chain, blinded a young woman with the throw of a beer bottle, is a legendary bassist despite having been a bad bass player, may or may not have stabbed his girlfriend to death, and died from heroine procured by his mum. If Sid Vicious wasn’t a nihilist, he was “Something Else”:

Stereolab harped on the very roots of nihilism in their song “Nihilistic Assault Group”, questioning morality’s existence as a real human virtue or a contrived shroud. Or something like that. “Nothing” seems to be lost in translation from the group’s French tongue. Regardless, Stereolab summons its most shoegaze sensibilities on this track.

Nihilist Assault Group by Stereolab.

Rancid actually sang about the lure and temptation of nihilism and the supposed liberation (“release me from moral assumption”), while staving off what seems too obvious a pitfall (“nihilistic feelings are moving/if I try real hard, I’ll see right through them.”). They may look the part of nihilistic scum, but Rancid cares. Maybe this helped kill punk.

Or is it better when two actual nihilists watch the same video and critique it:

Mouse on the Keys, a jazzy leader in the world of abstract musical expressionism, hold court by participating in the ongoing nihilistic debate with “Completed Nihilism.” One could guess what completed nihilism is – a past-tense jab on Nietzsche’s thoughts, or something so meaningless it is only perfect? Don’t know, don’t care, because it is a vague introduction piece to Messiean-like expressionism, particularly “Vingt Regard sur L’enfant – Jesus”:

Scrabble-Rousers #7: Burt Reynolds

What Scrabble-Rousers is: A word is chosen at random by blindly flipping the pages and finger-pointing a word/phrase (in this case “Burt Reynolds”) from a book also chosen at random (in this case The Andy Warhol Diaries edited by Pat Hackett).

Having grabbed The Andy Warhol Diaries from the shelf, today’s topic of Scrabble-Rousers had the topic range potential from AIDS and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Ardehir Zahedi and ZZ Top. And, so, Burt Reynolds related music it is.

Burt

Burt Reynolds is known to inspire a mustache here and there, but inspiring a legitimately good metal guitarist to pursue a life of mock metal? That’s the case with former Byzantine guitarist Skip Cromer, whose current project, The Burt Reynolds Death Metal Experience, is as much hilarious as it is good. And it only makes sense that Cromer has opened for Unknown Hinson.

Cromer’s own video introduction: “Classic vintage music video from 1987. This was Burt Reynolds Death Metal Experiment at its height in popularity.”

Scouring the Burt Reynolds catalog, the list of classic soundtracks and songs that played while the mustache danced for us is impossible to enumerate. This, however, is perhaps the most famous sound in cinematic history:

Burt helped bring disco back for a spell with his appearance as pornman Jack Horner in Boogie Nights. Unfortunately, the soundtrack (which was released in two parts) was nothing more than an expensive version of any other 70s compilation cheapo. The second release did feature Apollo 100’s only hit.  The studio-based group recorded “Joy,” a re-arranged baroque-pop version of J.S. Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper both played conduit to the pioneering rock and roll of Bill Justis. Justis was an accomplished musician in his own right, but also arranged music for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, including arrangements for Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

“Raunchy” was Justis’ biggest hit:

Reynolds played Quint Asper on the TV show Gunsmoke in the early 60s, which actually began as a radio series. The Dodge City narrative of westward expansion gave way to two theme songs: one without lyrics composed by Rex Koury and one with lyrics written and sung by Tex Ritter, which was never played on either radio or television:

Traditional:

Tex Ritter:

Finally, Burt Reynolds himself performing a Silver Jews-like honky-tonk “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial.”

From Smokey and the Bandit 2:

Scrabble-Rousers #6: Garret

I should preface each edition of Scrabble-Rousers with the concept’s explanation: A word is chosen at random by blindly flipping the pages and finger-pointing a word (in this case “garret”) from a book also chosen at random (in this case The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen). This is how Leif Garrett all of a sudden appears on a blog.

Interestingly, my computer’s dictionary defines “garret” as “a top-floor or attic-room, esp. a small dismal one (traditionally inhabited by an artist).” I’m not sure if anyone actually uses the word “garret” anymore, what with “attic” seemingly more available on the brain; I’ll try as hard as I can not to ruminate on musicals and limericks (which most certainly make lyrical use of “garret”).

The Honeydripper

The only song with the word “garret” in the title that exists in my collection (and I was shocked to even see one) was Roosevelt Sykes’ “Skeet and Garret.” Sykes was a blues artist from Arkansas known to music historians as the father of modern blues piano. He was also known as “The Honeydripper.”

“Skeet and Garret” by Roosevelt Sykes

The most popular songs dealing strictly with the subject at hand is the traditional Irish folk song “Old Maid in the Garret.” (The song title is commonly misspelled with two T’s). The song is sung in a cheerful way though the story is of a single, desperate middle-aged woman resigned to her attic. At one point, she welcomes “any man at all that will marry me for pity.” Sign me up. The traditional version, almost always sung by a man, can be construed as a horrid artifact of sexism. This is why Steeleye Span, a folk rock band of 40 years, liberated it with their own rendition featuring two female leads (Maddie Prior and Gay Woods). Here are both:

The Clancy Brothers version:

Steeleye Span version:

Sexism indeed, but try not to chuckle from this lyric: “There’s nothing in this wide world would make me half so cheery/As a wee fat manny who would call me his own deary.”

Time to cheat. There really isn’t much out there musically by way of garrets outside of show tunes, so what happens if we slyly switch synonymously over to “Attic.” Same idea, less ye olde arcane. The instinctive thought of an attic should be the same to everyone – dark, damp, Anne Frank, ghosts, grime, dust, sadness, isolation, old, musty, things forgotten. “Attic Lights” by Atlas Sound has a striking connection to all the aforementioned indirect connotations of an attic. It is a song of great pain, density and sadness, yet has an ending of pure triumph and closure.

The Antlers, when it was still just the solo project of Peter Silberman, released In the Attic of the Universe, an album he has now stated was written during a dark period in his life. In an interview with Ca Va Cool, Silberman said the album “was made at a time that I was really screwing up my life and very unhappy, and for some reason was finding some kind of comfort in the enormity of space. I was really disconnected at the time.” What doesn’t come up is the interview is the juxtaposition of the timelessness/infinite space and the confinement/claustrophobic nature of an attic. However, like Bradford Cox’s “Attic Lights” found paradise, Antlers’ “Stairs to the Attic” found  “The answer, the feeling, and the truth/ That I’m small.” In that cosmic sense, yaknow?