TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SMILE A LITTLE SMILE FOR ME

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Oct. 8, 2004

The great ethereal art-rock Philosopher’s Stone, The Beach Boys’ fabled “teenage symphony to God” known as Smile is finally a reality -- though now it‘s a 62-year-old man‘s symphony to eternity.

Brian Wilson Presents Smile, released last week, is nothing less than an artistic triumph, an eccentric, often-emotion trip through American history as seen through the drug-addled eyes of youth in the late ‘60s. There are stretches of intense melancholy, moments of sheer silliness, tears, smiles, banjos, theremins, French horns, Beach Boys-style harmonies, barnyard noises, fake Hawaiian music, orchestral flourishes, crow cries uncovering the cornfields, columnated ruins dominoing, fresh, crispy vegetables …

As the Bioneers would say, it’s all alive, it’s all intelligent, it’s all connected.

A little history for those not versed in Smilelore:

It was Wilson’s friendly -- but very serious -- rivalry with The Beatles that led him to start the album that he first called “Dumb Angel,” but later became known as Smile.

Teaming up with then-unknown songwriter Van Dyke Parks and the best studio musicians in L.A. Wilson recorded untold hours of sessions for the album, intended to be even more artful than Pet Sounds and more cosmic than “Good Vibrations.”

But Wilson‘s increasingly bizarre behavior during these sessions showed that his mental state was slipping into the abyss.

Capitol Records, which back then was cranking out two or three Beach Boys albums a year, kept pressuring Wilson to finish Smile. The company even printed covers for the album for an early 1967.

There were other pressures as well. The other Beach Boys, especially Mike Love, hated the strange music, hated the weird lyrics by Parks and hated what Brian Wilson had become. And Wilson’s already fragile psyche wasn’t helped by the amount of LSD and speed he was consuming.

By the time The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Wilson cracked. It was the start of a decades-long exile in Banana Land for Brian. The group did a half-hearted salvage job on the shambles that was Smile with Smiley Smile, which was released in late 1967.

A few stray Smile tunes popped up through the years on Beach Boys albums. And of course there were jillions of bootlegs of the Smile sessions in various forms.

In 1993, the Beach Boys’ box set Good Vibrations contained a generous suite of Smile material. Still, this was only a hint of what Smile could have been. It left a fan only wanting more.

For years Wilson has expressed reluctance about revisiting Smile. Nothing but bad memories from a terrible period in his life, he’d say. But with the steady goading of his wife and members of his latest touring band The Wondermints, Wilson finally agreed to finish what he’d started all those years ago.

I had hoped that one day Wilson would go to the vaults and finally patch together a definitive version of the album. Instead, Wilson and The Wondermints recorded entirely new tracks. And, with the help of Parks, Wilson even wrote some new material for the project.

I was disappointed with the new live version of Pet Sounds Wilson released a couple of years ago. It gave me little reason to hope for the new Smile. Plus, I was one of those jaded rock ‘n’ roll cynics who feared that remaking the lost masterpiece would ultimately cheapen the mystery and mythology of Smile.

I was in for a fantastic surprise.

First of all, there are some first-rate songs here. I always thought “Heroes and Villains” was musically stranger -- and stronger -- than “Good Vibrations.” It tells a vague story with the historical backdrop of the western migration of this country. It’s done here complete with the “in the cantina” bridge that was missing from the original single.

And the melody of the chorus is hauntingly reprised in various points in the album, most noticeably in “Roll Plymouth Rock,” (originally titled “Do You Like Worms/“) which deals with the European conquest of America from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii. To the “Heroes and Villains” melody, Wilson sings, “Bicycle rider, just see what you’ve done to the church of the American Indian.”

There’s “Cabin Essence,” a wistful meditation on frontier life accented by a lone plunking banjo, a sad harmonica and a weirdo chorus chirping “doing doing doing” The scene is pastoral until the last when ominous visions of the railroad crossing the country and the Grand Coulee Dam spring forth.

And perhaps the grandest Wilson song of them all, “Surf’s Up” is the album’s centerpiece. It’s one of the saddest tunes Wilson ever wrote: “A choke of grief, hard-hearted I/Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry.”

“Surf’s Up” is preceded here by two cuts that seem to serve as introductions, “Song For Children” and “Child is Father to the Man,” playing not only with the background vocal part in final refrain of “Surf’s Up” but with a melody line from “Good Vibrations.”

There’s even snips of cover songs that crop up on Smile. There’s a verse of Johnny Mercer’s “I Wanna Be Around,” (best known in its Tony Bennett version) hiding between “I’m in Great Shape” and “Workshop.”

But the best of all is “You Are My Sunshine.” This country classic is recast with some of the saddest chords ever played by man, sung by Wilson backed by weeping strings and clicking percussion. The depressing mood is broken by a cheerful honking sax.

Perhaps Smile isn’t the ultimate pop album of all time as some of the hype that surrounded the great lost work implied. It’s often disjointed and if you’re like Mike Love and want song lyrics to always make literal sense, this album will only frustrate you.

But for me Smile is pure pop pleasure and ultimate proof of Brian Wilson’s crazy genius.

For more information on Smile, CLICK HERE

NEW MEXICAN VOTERS PANEL: THE DEBATES SO FAR

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Oct. 8, 2004

The overwhelming consensus of a panel of Santa Fe area voters following the presidential election -- including most of those leaning toward President Bush -- is that Bush lost the first debate last week.

However neither the first presidential debate between Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry, nor this week’s debate between the vice presidential candidates, appeared to have changed any panel member’s mind about who to back, members said at their meeting Thursday.

“Kerry did a number on him,” said Bobby Gonzales, a retired sheriff’s deputy. “I’m still supporting Bush, but Kerry just took him behind the shed and spanked him.”

“Kerry did great,” said Dana Czoski, a substitute teacher who also is backing Bush. “Kerry gave a great performance, but that’s what it was a performance. I still think he is terribly naïve about these people,” she said, referring to terrorists.

The 12-member panel was selected by the New Mexican to give the average voter’s perspective on the presidential election. On Thursday, the second of four moderated meetings, the panel spent the first part of the meeting discussing the debate and other political news of the week.

Geary Radcliffe, a retired Los Alamos National Laboratory employee who is leaning toward Bush agreed that Kerry won the debate.

However, he said after watching the debate on television he read a transcript of the event he downloaded from the internet. Without seeing Bush’s facial expressions -- which were roundly criticized after the debate -- and hearing the coices of the candidates, the debate seemed more even, Radcliffe said.

But Kerry didn’t get all rave reviews from the panel. Daveen Masias, who said she is considering voting for independent Ralph Nader, said, “It was eye-opening to hear a potential president say `I will hunt down the terrorists and kill them.’ We’re in trouble as it is.”

But Masias said she was encouraged that Kerry brought up the fact that after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year, the only Iraqi government facility U.S. troops guarded was the Oil Ministry. “It is an oil war,” she said.

In the case of the vice presidential debate, the reactions fell along more predictable lines. Kerry supporters tended to say Sen. John Edwards won, while Bush backers proclaimed victory for Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Kerry and Edwards did me proud,” said Carmen Rodriguez, a community activist. “Both were very articulate.”

“I look at Cheney and his record and I found without doubt that he was very misleading,” said Paul Rainbird, a past president of Southwestern Association for Indian Arts . “I know that Edwards does not have a lot of experience as a political person, but he seemed very sincere.”

But Lori Montoya, a college student, said, “The debate showed me that Cheney could really be president. All Edwards did was look like a trial lawyer.”

“With all of Cheney’s years of experience, he just spanked Edwards,“ said Mike Yerby, a Qwest employee who is leaning toward Bush.

Some members said they were bothered that Edwards mentioned the fact that Cheney has a lesbian daughter.

Edwards, during a debate question concerning a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage, commended Cheney for standing by his daughter.

“I was really upset when Edwards brought up Cheney’s daughter’s sexuality,” Gonzales said.

But Dave Duran, a paralegal for the National Guard who is backing Kerry, said, “I like how it was brought up. (Gay rights) is an important issue.

Rodriguez agreed. “It’s not a big secret that Mary Cheney is a lesbian. She’s acknowledged it. Her father has acknowledged it. (Gay rights) is an issue that needs to be discussed.”

Several panel members on both sides of the political divide, said there seemed to be too much negativity in the debates.

“The in fighting gets old,” said Ken Barros, a Kerry supporter who works for county government. “They should be talking about how to make things better for the American people. Sometimes it’s like high school when they go back and forth and back and forth.”

“The vice presidential debate was particularly contentious,” Carrie Norris, a Santa Fe business owner and a Bush supporter said. “The first thing out of Edwards’ mouth was calling Cheney a liar. There was a lot of it coming from both sides.”

Further coverage of the New Mexican voter panel’s second meeting will be in Sunday’s paper.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: A MISSION FROM GOD

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Oct. 7, 2004

When Amelia Hollis Romero lost her race for a District 2 City Council race four years ago, she took it as a sign from above.

“I wanted to be on the City Council,” Romero, 65, said in a recent interview. “But God said, ‘I don’t think so, Amelia. Turn the page.’ ”
And so she did.

Not long after the 2000 council elections, Romero called up several dozen friends to discuss an idea to remedy a problem she’d come up against while campaigning.

“I’d met so many people who had such apathy and who didn’t know the issues or the policies of the city and the state,” Romero said. “I wanted to form a group to bring to our community forums they could go to and be educated.”

So Romero and her group organized a group called Voices of Santa Fe, which for the past four years has presented forums on a variety of topics.

The Eldorado Hotel has allowed the group to use one of its meeting rooms for its forums. Santa Fe Public Access Television (Comcast Cable Channel 8) has televised most of the gatherings.

Voices has organized public discussions of common political issues such as economic development, health care, forest fires and water. And it has sponsored forums on social issues not frequently discussed by politicians, such as mentoring youth and hospice for those who are dying.

And the group has held candidate forums, which sometimes produce real news. This was the case with the state Legislature candidate forum in May in which a Senate contender saw her candidacy go up in flames when she lied about having been arrested for drunken driving.

Forum tonight

It’s not likely that anything like that will happen at the Voices of Santa Fe forum tonight, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at Eldorado.

For one thing, it’s a presidential forum, so the candidates won’t be there, just local surrogates.

As is the usual practice at a Voices of Santa Fe forum, any local candidate for any office who shows will be allowed up two minutes at the podium.

Voices vice president Al Lopez — running as a Republican against Democratic state Sen. Phil Griego, but that’s another story — says local representatives will speak for Republican President Bush, Democrat John Kerry, independent Ralph Nader, the Green Party’s David Cobb and Libertarian Michael Badnarik.

Constitutional crisis

But there was no mention of the sixth presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka, the Millersville, Md., lawyer who is the nominee of the Constitution Party.

In fairness, there has been little if any visible activity of the Peroutka or the Constitution Party in these parts.

Who are these guys? According to Peroutka’s Web site, he believes Bush is just too much of a namby-pamby liberal on issues like gun control and abortion. However on the issue of the Iraq war, Peroutka is closer to Nader, calling the war “unconstitutional,” which, one supposes, is the worst thing a leader of the Constitution Party can say about anything.

Pop cultural wars:


After about the 15th pre-debate story I read characterizing the Dick Cheney-John Edwards matchup as Darth Vader versus Luke Skywalker (would this make Ted Kennedy “Yoda”?), I realized a national political cliché was being born.

How common is this metaphor? A Google on-line search Wednesday produced 2,190 hits in a search for pages with both “Dick Cheney” and “Darth Vader.” But there were only 268 hits for “John Edwards” and “Luke Skywalker.”

As for the guys at the top of the ticket, the Google search yielded an amazing 2,580 hits for “John Kerry” and “Herman Munster,” a concept popularized by the hilarious bipartisan "This Land!" parody on jibjab.com. But there were only 895 hits for “George W. Bush” and “Alfred E. Newman.”

And for the record, there were three hits in a Google search for “Bill Richardson” and “Ralph Kramden,” but none of the three pages were actually comparing the governor with Jackie Gleason’s character on The Honeymooners.

R.I.P. RODNEY

The death of Rodney Dangerfield reminds me of a line from a Waco Brothers song:

History is written by the winners.
This is a loser's song ...

Rodney spoke to the losers inside us all. He spoke to our flaws, our humiliations our hangovers, our betrayals, our lemon cars and unfaithful lovers.

No respect. No respect at all. Rodney turned it into a mantra, transforming self pity into a cosmic joke. He created a persona of a bug-eyed Everyman slob who could look at the bad luck and injustice of his life and laugh at the absurdity of it all -- with impeccable wit and precision timing, pulling at his tie and sweating like he was the subject of a police interrogation.

(Mantra? Transforming? Rodney would only snort at the idea. As he said, "Some people go to India looking for the meaning of life. I'm still trying to figure out how to start my car.)

He was my favorite comedian for more than 30 years. Even though he eventually became "hip" in the early '80s due to the popularity of Caddyshack, I loved Rodney partly because he was so un-hip. No counterculture pandering. No pretense of political revelance. No rebel anger, not even at the wife who liked to talk after sex -- so she's call him from a motel. Rodney was old school, but Christ he was funny.

When I graduated from college I mailed jackalope postcards to three celebrities I admired: Billy Carter, Patti Smith and Rodney. I'm not sure what my purpose was. Maybe just announcing my arrival to these folks I considered giants. (Or maybe the weed was just real good in Santa Fe that month.)

But I got replies from all three. Billy sent me a postcard with a picture of him drinking a beer at his gas pump in Plains, Ga. Patti, who'd recently been hospitalized after falling off the stage at a concert, sent me a note talking about recovering from a spinal injury. Rodney's fan club president sent me an autographed publicity shot of the man. The picture looked like it was 20 years old. But I loved it. It hung on my wall in who knows how many houses and apartments I lived in since 1976.

Thanks for the photo, Rodney. Thanks for the laughs.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, Oct. 3, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Feeling of Gaze/Too Tough to Die by The Twilight Singers
Hard to Be Human by The Mekons
139 Hurnalser Gurtel by Sally Timms
The Right Profile by The Clash
Murder in My Heart For the Judge by Moby Grape
New Feeling by Talking Heads
Becky by The Hollis Wake

A Dying Man's Plea by Mavis Staples
Make It With You by Aretha Franklin
Big Mama's Bumble Bee Blues by Big Mama Thorton
I Wanna Dance With You by Nathaniel Mayer
Act Nice and Gentle by The Black Keys
Open the Door Richard by Louis Jordan
Blueberry Hill by Louis Armstrong

Child is Father to the Man/Surf's Up by Brian Wilson
A Drop in Time by Mercury Rev
Bad Days by Flaming Lips
Light and Day/Reach For the Sun by The Polyphonic Spree
Hush by Jellyfish
Sidewalk Serfer Girl by Super Furry Animals
Cabin Essence by Brian Wilson

Dead and Lovely by Tom Waits
In the Neighborhood by Kazik Staszewski
Innocent When You Dream by Elvis Costello
The Day After Tomorrow by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, October 1, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle by Vassar Clements with Maria Muldaur
Blues About You Baby by Big Al Anderson
Slangshotz 'n Boom-R-Angz by C.C. Adcock
Mon Conne La Cause by David Hidalgo
Black Haired Girl by Dave Alvin
A Six Pack to Go by Hank Thompson
Hucklebuck by The Riptones
Soleil Brille by Beausoleil

Color of Her Eyes by The Gear Daddies
Where the Devil Don't Stay by Drive-By Truckers
With God on Our Side by Buddy Miller
Masters of War by Betty Dylan
Condi Condi by Steve Earle

Little Rivi-Airhead By Junior Brown
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenberg
Mrs. Leroy Brown by Loretta Lynn
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin by Floyd Tilman with George Jones
You're the Reason by Nancy Apple
Motel Time Again by Bobby Bare Jr.
Hollywood by Kasey Chambers
That Little Honky Tonk Queen by Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley
Merchants Lunch by Austin Lounge Lizards

Denim Scarecrow by Nels Andrews
Proud Eagle by Bingo
Can Man Polka by Joe West
Root of All Evil by Desdemona Finch
Tell Me True by Grey DeLisle
Feel Like Going Home By Charlie Rich
Alone and Forsaken by 16 Horsepower
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SOME CDs BY LOCAL FOLKS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Oct. 1, 2004

Here’s a round-up of some recent CDs by New Mexico artists, including a couple of famous guys with connections to Santa Fe.

Sunday Shoes by Nels Andrews. The dark, brooding songwriter archetype is a tough one to pull off. The dustbin of recording history is cluttered with third-rate Leonard Cohens, Nick Caves, Mark Eitzels, Mark Lannegans, etc.

But when it’s done right, that is when the singer sounds authentic, when his woeful tales are intriguing and when the music packs a punch, the dark, brooding songwriter is a powerful figure.

Albuquerque’s Nels Andrews pulls it off with his debut album. He’s not in the same league with Cohen, Cave, etc., at least not yet. But Sunday Shoes is a good start.

Andrews is starting to get recognized. He won the "New Folk" prize at t the 2002 Kerrville Folk Festival, an honor whose past winners include Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett. Sunday Shoes, originally self released early this year, was picked up by a hip little Nashville label, Catamount.

He sings songs of forgotten people struggling against terrible odds winning quiet victories and humiliating defeats, of drifters roaming the backroads and back alleys of America, of ambiguous loves and doomed relationships.

The songs are full of Albuquerque references. The first track is “Central Avenue Romance.” The namesake of “Lilli Marlene” is from Martineztown

My favorite tune is “Jesse’s Mom,“ which actually is more about Jesse himself. He’s a child of illicit miscegenation, who grows up rejected in two worlds and continuously pulling up stakes, leaving those he loves to search for a place with “no more hard times,” proving that he’s possessed by the “gypsy in his blood” that his mother thought she had.

Andrews is served well by a crafty little roadhouse band called The El Paso Eyepatch, featuring ex-Hazeldine member Jeffrey Richards on guitar and banjo and Michelle Collins on harmony vocals. Another major contributor is guest mandolinist/lap steel player Jason Daniello. Brett Sparks of The Handsome Family plays accordion on “Jesse‘s Mom.”

The CD release party for Sunday Shoes is tonight at The Launchpad in Albuquerque. Guest bands include Jason and the Argonauts, Shine Cherries and The Darlington Horns. $5 cover.

*Lo Fi-Highs/Hi-Fi Lows by The Hollis Wake. I just recently figured out who this Santa Fe band reminds me of: The New Ponographers, a critic’s-darling Vancouver band that, like the Wake, plays high-charged guitar power-pop with melodic hooks that steal your heart away.

The main difference is that the New Pornographers don’t let Neko Case sing nearly enough while The genderly-intergrated Hollis Wake gives plenty of spotlight to its female singers Krysty Bosse and Sarah Meadows.

In fact the best songs on Lo-Fi Highs are from the female perspective. Take the song “This Time,” which concerns circles and cycles, if you get my drift: “It doesn’t seem the slightest bit fair/My body has to suffer this wear and tear/ especially when it’s two weeks late/ and I don’t want to procreate …”

Initially my only complaint about the album is that it uses four songs that also appear on The Hollis Wake’s first album Suburban Crime Spree. However, there’s apparently a good reason for doing so -- the new versions are better.

This especially is true for the song “Becky,” a tune about a Santa Fe barmaid who is so desperate to leave the City Different she turns to crime. The vocals on the new version is 10 times more passionate, especially on the kicker line in the chorus; “Get me out of this retarded town!”

I don’t care how much you might love Santa Fe, I think most of us have felt this sentiment before.

* After Hours by Big Al Anderson. I just found out a couple of months ago that Anderson, a 22-year member of NRBQ, is a Santa Fe resident, at least part time. (He also has a place in Nashville.)

Billing himself as “300 Pounds Of Twangin' Steel & Sex Appeal,” Anderson is a musician’s musician. His work might remind listeners of the late Charlie Rich -- especially those slow, jazzy, devastatingly lovely ballads like “Love Make a Fool of Me” and “Better Word For Love.”

And there’s a little Dan Penn -- one of Stax Records’ greatest songwriters -- in Anderson too. You hear that in tunes like “Just Another Place I Don’t Belong,” which could only be described as country soul.

Big Al plays some straight ahead country with “It’s Only Natural,” and the Hank Snow influenced “Blues About You Baby,” which was co written by Delbert McClinton.

After Hours is available only on the internet. CLICK HERE

*Down Home Chrome by Junior Brown. When I first heard that Junior was recording for Telarc, a label best .known for its blues artists, I was afraid that he might be making a sharp turn toward electric guitar blues, a style he loves at least as much as the hard-core country for which he’s known and loved.

Indeed the new album ends with a 10-minute blues workout called “Monkey Wrench Blues.” And there’s a cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Foxy Lady,” which I’m pretty sure I first heard the artist formerly known as Jamie Brown do in 1968 when we were both at Santa Fe Mid High and he was in a local psychedelic group called Humble Harvey.

But country fans don’t worry. Down Home Chrome is full of Brown’s trademark country cut-up songs, in which he plays the steel part of his guit-steel as much as the guit part.

But my favorite cut here “Hill Country Hot Rod Man,” in which Brown uses a horn section to create a fresh country neo-swing fusion.