Wide Awake

Since Sunday I’ve been overflowing the boundaries of length for blog entries with a series covering my relationship to the music and songwriting of Hoosier musician Dale Lawrence and his various performing outfits over the years. This Saturday sees the release of Wide Awake, a compilation of mostly previously released tracks from Dale’s current and long-running project, the Vulgar Boatmen.

Today, dear friends, I present a blow-by-blow walk-through of my mind as I listen to that forthcoming Vulgar Boatmen release. I heard it on a preview kindly supplied to me by a singer-songwriter who shall remain genteelly hidden behind a scrim in this paragraph. First, a few tidbits, and yes, these are confirmed facts insofar as they apply to the preview disc I’m writing about here. If the tracklisting or order has changed between then and now, your mileage may vary.

If you would prefer to hear the music without reading about it first, STOP READING NOW.

First, there are two brand-new releases among the tracks, which are otherwise drawn from the out-of-print prior releases Please Panic, You and Your Sister, and the import-only Opposite Sex. According to current bassist Jake Smith, the only song he appears on is Wide Awake, which my notes indicate is from Opposite Sex. The never-previously-released tracks are a live performance of one of Dale’s oldest numbers, Cry Real Tears, and an alternate studio performance of Mary Jane which my notes describe as “acoustic.”

I will work through the songs in order, noting title, running time, original album appearance, and if the song was remixed by Paul Mahern. If I don’t note it as being remixed, it was still remastered. I don’t know of any remixes not by Paul on the disc, and I was also told of Paul’s mixes, which include the remixes. Got that?

I have further taken a stab at identifying who has the primary vocal duties between songwriting partners Dale Lawrence and Robert Ray on each track. It’s not always the easiest task, as both men have similar ranges. It’s interesting to me – and as a fan frustrating – to note that Ray’s lead vocals outnumber Dale’s two-thirds, if my count is correct.

1. Change the World All Around 4:09
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister
Mahern remix

Last night I stood in your driveway calling your name. It was late. I could hear your father.

Last night I drove to your house, right up to your street.

This remix has a lot of punch. I thought it was interesting that the album opens with three of the four longest songs. The performance expresses the angst of the narrator in the punch of the guitar and the atonal touches of the viola. I think the Mahern remix begins to bring some of the stage energy of the band to the recording. This is the first song on the record to mention cars and telephones.

The narrator repeatedly approaches the person addressed but we never are shown the narrator making interpersonal contact with the person addressed.

2. Drive Somewhere 5:59
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister

It seems like you want me to feel like you want me to

Partway through this song the lead vocals do something that reminded me of some things that Ross Danielson did long, long ago, singing with Greg Philips and Frankie Camaro in Moto-X. The performance builds out from the plucked guitar riffs. The first specific geographical locale is mentioned: Morristown.

The narrator drives, although in a relationship, in order to consider or reflect on doubts or discomforts in the relationship.

3. Margaret Says 4:45
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister

I’m supposed to be thinkin’ bout the rest of my life

all these steps I’m takin’ – pictures of your family

The song takes the viewpoint of a partner in a couple. Are they headed for matrimony? Margaret (formerly Morgan when the song was performed by Right to Left) may think so. Our narrator (surprise!) appears to have some doubts. The song also appears to express a mild temporal ambiguity, as the narrator says hello in French and Margaret dons a hat, tilted over her eyes, to go driving.

WDIA and the Germantown road appear, setting the song near Memphis.

I hear a courteous nod of the head in the direction of Lou Reed for both Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll – Margaret/Morgan, Jeannie, and the redoubtable Jane probably all knew one another at Vassar.

4. Mary Jane 3:57
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister

I call you up, and you let it ring – bye bye

The first four songs on the album form a sort of American courtship narrative, from troubled teenage romance to a split, whether before or after marriage is neither germane nor explained.

5. Street Where you Live 4:07
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister

And we’re back on that street. But instead of hearing your father, we see a car. Whose? A rival’s? We never know. The diffident beau of the first four songs may have had a secret competitor, one still more hesitant.

At about 2:54 into the song, the main chord progression from Sweet Jane is quoted once as a descending bridge, followed by the lyrics “Who do you love?”

6. Calling Upstairs 3:27
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence/shared
previously released on Please Panic
Mahern remix

The song opens with Dale’s voice, then on the second verse, Robert leads; on each verse the singers finish together. This is the first train station song and the drum pattern draws some rhythmic elements from train noise. I believe I hear the mighty Hammond B-3.

7. We Can Figure This Out 3:01
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Please Panic

8. Anna 2:45
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence
previously unreleased
Mahern mix

If somethin’ doesn’t happen she’ll be mine
But somethin’ seems to happen all of the time

Anna – lives a half a mile from me
Anna – right around the corner from me
Anna – seven thousand miles from me

A very deep mix. Way in the back of the mix there are a whole bunch of overtones, possibly a reversed track of something stringed. I believe this may be the long-sought two-chord song.

9. Allison Says 2:45
lead vocals: Robert Ray? Possibly Dale Lawrence
previously released on Please Panic

There’s a car down the street where Allison lives

Allison says there’s a reason that you’re not at home
Monday nights there’s a reason that you’re not at home

A well-known element in folk music generally, the blues in particular, and through the blues into rock is the phenomenon of floating couplets, where by many pairs of lines are known to the performers of a given oral tradition and available for use in performance as required by emotional tenor and/or rhythmic need. In many of the Vulgar Boatmen’s songs, the practice appears to have been applied to a body of work penned largely by two men.

10. In a Station 3:20
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Opposite Sex

You’re in a railway station – I’m online

It is so unutterably weird for me to realize that the bulk of the Boatmen’s career has taken place after the advent of the internet.

11. You Don’t Love Me Yet 4:13
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence
previously released on Please Panic

Alternating vocals, again, with Robert leading the second verse.

12. There’s a Family 3:29
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Please Panic

you will always be always the one I love

Another song that evokes the Velvet Underground with a simple rhythmic triplet set against viola.

13. Wide Awake 2:53
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Opposite Sex

I can drive until mornin’ cause I’m wide awake
Tryin to remember what it is that I forgot to say

The overall harmonic mix, mostly in the vocals, evokes strings.

Something about the tone of this song and the landscape it evokes – the drive from Chicago through Indiana to parts unknown – is dead on target.

The road trippers hear both the Boatmen’s own Mary Jane and Berry’s Maybellene on the radio, although there is no Coupe de Ville in the song, and northern Indiana has no hills to catch her on. Still, the rain must do their motor good.

I once noted that the work of the Vulgar Boatmen appears to begin with a programmatic inversion of rock. What could be more punk? Take the basic elements of pop rock. Adhere strictly to the use of cars and girls as the basis of your narratives. But make the car an emblem of frustration, the false promise of escape. Set the girls forever beyond reach. Three chords and the truth, just as they say.

14. I’m Not Stuck On You 2:34
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Please Panic
Mahern remix

15. Fool Me 3:17
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence
previously released on Please Panic

since I fell for you

This is the most radical of the little tales of love and floes on the record as the narrator invites the object of his love to ‘fool me,’ to accept the risk of acknowledging the dangerous self-exposure of being in a relationship. The music makes the invitation into the invitation of Pierrot, however; wounded and lachrymose, it mourns something.

16. Cry Real Tears (live, new) 2:27
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence
previously unreleased performance
Mahern mix

This live performance of the venerable song by Dale retains large portions of the original’s arrangement but features crucially different lyrics. “Well I wish you really loved me but it just can’t be” started life as “Well I wish I really loved you but it just can’t be.”

The song ends with the same flourish of chords it did in 1978.

17. You’re the One 3:26
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Please Panic

The inspiration for the Matrix movies. Not.

18. Decision by the Airport 2:43
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on You and Your Sister

Using “you’re the one” in a line, this song also employs an acoustic steel guitar, and as in You’re the One, a character in the song is named Jeannie.

19. Heartbeat 3:38
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Opposite Sex

With Cry Real Tears one of the oldest songs on the record. As with Tears there have been many changes. One thing that remains from the original is the instrumental emulation of a heartbeat’s pulse, although here it’s a bass and on the oldest recording of it I have it’s a guitar.

The song has also slowed from a frantic speed – nearly hardcore in it’s frenzy – to a dirge, undercutting the message of devotion with mournful sadness.

Again, many lines have changed, a key one in particular:

I love to hear the sound of your heartbeat on my shoulder

Changed from

I love the way you carry a chip on your shoulder

and

I love to hear the sound of your heartbeat not growing older

While I love the song, unlike Cry Real Tears, I have only ever been able to recall the original lyrics, not the changed ones. I am also reminded of the use of the organ on the Clash’s Sandinista!

20. Mary Jane (acoustic, new) 3:44
lead vocals: Dale Lawrence

previously unreleased performance

Another mix with a great deal of clarity and room in it, forgrounding, hooray, Dale’s voice. There’s a great deal going on in this, including more of that swirling VU-style organ.

21. Traveling 3:18
lead vocals: Robert Ray
previously released on Opposite Sex

So there you have it, Boatfans. Hopefully more releases from the current lineup will soon follow, and even more hopefully, maybe there will be a higher-percentage of Dale-sung tracks. It’s certainly possible that I’ve misattributed, and as soon as I know more, I certainly will correct this blog entry, probably with strikeouts.

I hope to get corrections of fact for all of these pieces from a knowledgeable person sometime soon, and intend to incorporate those corrections into a follow-up piece. I hope those of you who were interested in the subject enjoyed this rather longwinded discursion, and I further hope someone buys Wide Awake who otherwise might not have. Chicagoland readers, have fun at the show.