Redneck Ramblings: Volume 1

Jules kicks off a brand new column of country ramblings...

Cluas.com is delighted to publish the first instalment of a brand new column 'Redneck Ramblings' written by The Most Reverend Jules Jackson. There is no set format or subject matter but country music will have a strong presence, as will surfing.

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Mostly I've been listening to?

"Drunkard Blues" by Eugene Clapp
I've been there, haven't we all, but the brilliant and underrated Eugene Clapp decided to commit to song a step by step account of the ghastly things that can happen when you tie on one too many, "He saw a pretty girl just standing there / Lord he felt like a dog when he puked in her hair".  It has to be heard to be believed. "Red Headed Angel" by Amy Hills
She claims on her MySpace.com site that although she's from the South she is not a Republican or a Fundamentalist and that she only has an accent when she's drinking but I'll tell you one thing, she's a damn fine lyricist. I have been playing this a lot, maybe it's the gentle melody, maybe it's the lovely lyrics, "And she flutters around with no sense of control / As she takes the direct path into you soul ", or maybe its just because I have a serious crush on a flame haired Surf Betty right now. Whatever the reason, you should check Amy out.

"Surfer Girl" by Dave Alvin
I love this song and have a ton of versions of it. Brian Wilson claimed during a live concert I heard broadcast on 2FM that this was the first song he ever wrote. Certainly, it's a classic and Dave Alvin's cover of it on his new album, "West of the West", which is dedicated to the work of Californian songwriters, is about as a good as it gets, outside of the Beach Boys that is, another one for the Surf Betty in your life. "Pretty Boy Floyd" by Dana Copper
Dana Cooper is one of those guys born too late to be part of the 1970's California rock scene and as a result he has never received the acclaim or the success that his talent deserves. This sparkling version of Woody Guthrie's ballad concerning the famous outlaw outstrips others by more famous musicians. "Fuck This Town" by Robbie Fulks
Fulks is a real godfather of Alt-country and this bitter, mean spirited, hilarious account of his attempts to break into the mainstream of Nashville's Music Row manages to be both funny and tuneful, "Now it's 3 years later, and I'm wonderin' where I went wrong / Shook a lotta hands, ate a lotta lunch, wrote a lotta dumbass songs / But I couldn't get a break in Nashville, if I tried my whole life long".  "Desperado" by Linda Ronstadt
Hearing Don Henley performing this as the sky darkened over Dublin at the recent Eagles gig at Lansdowne Road has been one of my magic moments in music. This version by the gorgeous Linda Ronstadt doesn't quite equal it but it's still a lovely take on one of the great songs in the canon of country music and is certainly much better that Johnny Cash's trundling, leaden stab at a tune that deserves to be sung and not just spoken in a deep voice. "Jump" by Dave Lee Roth with the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band
Is it? No, it can't be? Yes, it is Dave Lee Roth! And he is grabbing the Rock-grass baton from Hayseed Dixie and running away with it over the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. There is a rumour going around that Dave and the boys are going to play the 2006 Cambridge Folk Festival. Now that would be a show.

Mostly I've been reading?

'Where Dead Voices Gather" by Nick Tosches
Tosches" magisterial account of his search for the factual story of Emmett Miller; a forgotten blackface minstrel who had come to Tosches attention after he heard Merle Haggard's, "I Love Dixie Blues" which was dedicated, in part, to Miller's music. This book is both a narrative history and a battle cry against the grinding orthodoxy of what people like to call "the official version".  Tosches is revisionist in the best sense of the word, as he declares that, "Let us have nothing of the proper thought of fools and mediocrity and misknowing", and then uses first hand investigation rather than second hand quotation to reveal a history of American music more fascinating and complicated than the "official version".  If you thought that Bob Dylan derived his "Talking Blues" purely from Woody Guthrie, then think again. "Pipe Dreams" by Kelly Slater
Kelly Slater is to the surfboard what Lance Armstrong is to the bicycle and Michael Schumacher is to the racing car but he's no Boswell. This fascinating but flawed account of Slater's journey to an unprecedented seventh word title is as hard to read as it must have been for Slater to write and my sympathy for his travails evaporated during his account of his time as an actor on "Baywatch" where he played Jimmy Slade, a womanising surfer. According to Slater, the indignities of the role included him having to kiss and fondle Nicole Eggert, who played his onscreen love interest Summer, in a swimming pool. Yeah Kelly, what a tough job! Apparently, if you want to get a black eye, all you have to do is paddle out to Kelly Slater in the line-up and say, "Hey, Jimmy Slade".

Mostly I've been thinking?

That Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" isn't really about a woman, or political activism or anything serious but is really about eating porridge with your mates. Yep, I know, it is the most ubiquitous song in Marley's back catalogue and I doubt there is a person who hasn't at some stage swayed drunkenly to it in a night club, at a wedding or in the back of a camper van but the truth is that it's basically about one of Marley's favourite food stuffs.

Where is the evidence for that I hear you cry" ok, firstly, Marley was a life long advocate of the jazz woodbines and, as such, would have suffered from the mother of all munchies.

Two, the song is credited not to Marley alone but to Bob Marley and Vincent Ford; a mate of Marley's who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown. Although Ford probably didn't write this song, he did receive royalty cheques from it and this act of generosity on Marley's part enabled Ford to keep his soup kitchen open.

Thirdly, the lyric which appears in the second verse, "Then we would cook cornmeal porridge, Of which I'll share with you".  I know, I know, it's not revisionism in the best sense of the word but hey, it's my column.

Until next time, keep on twangin".

Jules Jackson (read more about this writer)