One of these days I’ll get around to compiling a list of my favorite albums, and I’ll make it a long list… 50 or so. Maybe a hundred. Because here I am 97 songs into this Song of the Day series and I keep stumbling upon not just songs but albums that absolutely floor me.
Yesterday it was Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Recent weeks have highlighted songs from such great albums as Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lucinda Williams’ self-titled debut and Beck’s Sea Change. All completely different, all completely great.
Today I turn the spotlight on k.d. lang’s masterpiece, Absolute Torch and Twang.
I didn’t know much about k.d. lang prior to picking up this album. I’d heard ‘Constant Craving’ but she was mostly unknown to me. But I had heard this was a special album so I grabbed it cheap at a used CD shop.
The album is perfectly titled because it is indeed a blend of country ditties and gorgeous ballads, all of which lang delivers in that distinctive voice. There has been a lot of discussion about country music on this blog recently, and as somebody who has come to embrace the genre after blindly dismissing it for years, I can thank albums like this one for the conversion.
‘Pullin’ Back the Reins’ is a highlight of the album. It’s a grand cowboy love song with a chorus tailor-made for lang’s powerful pipes. To borrow a phrase from frequent commenter Dana, it’s definitely country-plus.
Meet Me In Montauk 
At the risk of saying something that offends anybody in any way, I’m going to conjecture that it’s not the traditional country music – but the perception of the traditional country fans – from which Dana wants to distance himself. The pickup driving, shotgun toting, homophobia spewing “redneck” who loves country, flag, and Lee Greenwood. Luckily, an artist as brave k.d. lang demands that we look past the stereotypes and listen to the music. If she’s willing to embrace the country music genre despite the fact that many of its fans would likely run her out of town, then there must be more to it than is immediately apparent. Something about the form that speaks to artists as diverse, talented and liberal as Lyle Lovett and k.d. lang. That, as much as the postive reviews of this or that album, may be what makes a person such as you or me ultimately pick up Absolute Torch and Twang. It shatters the stereotype.
I don’t dislike pure country because of its “redneck” audience. I simply find traditional country music a bit simple and predictable. Arguably, the same could be said for certain aspects of other genres. I’ve never been big on the rock power ballad that seemed to take hold in the 80’s with its major power chords, basic 4/4 beat and cliche lyrics. Never been big on the Euro sound either, which is derivative of rock, pop and disco, but usually can be mocked by repeatedly hitting a single note on a casio keyboard. For me,. these are simply aural distinctions–the ear likes what the ear likes.
Now onto Lang. First of all, this song is NOT pure country. It’s arguably not even country, save for Lang’s voice. It is a blues song—one that could be sung by BB King or even Clapton. Now, I know that the intersection of musical genres is not always easy to detect and that is part of what makes the labeling of artists and songs so difficult. And the best artists, including Lang, Lovette, Costello, borrow from the genres and create something fresh, new and interesting. I appreciate Lang’s tremendous talent and I like this song. I haven’t heard the whole album, but will certainly check it out given the high praise from my tobacco chewing brother-in-law. (Okay, maybe Amy’s right about me after all:))
I guess the broader question is what exactly do you consider pure country music? If you happen to like something, does that mean it’s not really a country song by definition?
I’d say this track is definitely a country song… just listen to those first few guitar notes. Twang, indeed! And the lyrics use riding a horse as a metaphor for a relationship, so it’s literally a country song in its content.
I tend to reject the stereotypical popular country music, but I also reject most stereotypical popular rock, pop and rap music too.
Certainly, this song is country tinged–the intro guitar, her voice and the lyrical metaphor. But, from a structural musical standpoint, it is more akin to a blues song. Pure country is probably more accurately called traditional country. It usually has a fairly simple chord structure (usually in the key of F). Stand By Your Man comes to mind as a good example. On the Road Again might be another. I’m sure you can hear the musical difference between those tunes and this one. That song you featured the other day from that Sugar band (that drew huge reaction from Heather:) was fairly traditional country.
Now, it is, of course, true that country has its facets…there is bluegrass, creole (zydeko), etc. There are arguably as many types of country music as there are bbq sauces throughout the South. And some I like more than others. bluegrass can, at times, be fun and interesting as can that Louisiana sound. So, no, I don’t dismiss all country or all country arists. But to the extent I find the artist playing traditional country, it does little for me. And even with artists I love like Lyle, I will gravitate to the blues and jazz stuff, and then, to a lesser extent, the countrry tinged stuff. But the truth is that a song like Don’t Touch My Hat is simply fun, even though it is certainly a traditional counry song at root.
Well, I can’t really argue the simple chord structure, key-of-F debate because I don’t have the musical chops to know what that means. To my ear, both this song and the Sugarland song from the other day are different from ‘Stand By Your Man,’ but ‘Stand By Your Man’ is similar (in feel) to songs I don’t consider country.
How is Stand By Your Man similar to songs you don’t consider country?
Well, I see it as a very simple ballad, and those are certainly common across most musical genres. I bet a version played straight on a piano wouldn’t feel very country, as opposed to the traditional country treatment we’re used to hearing (slide guitar, plodding bass, etc.).
Just found this version by Elton John on YouTube:
Well, you can give a country treatment to any song, or a pop/rock treatment to a country song. The Elton version is still country in essence. It would take a lot to de-countryize that song, though the country core can certainly be masked by heavy metal guitars in a hard rock version or a synthesizer in a euro-pop version. It is a bit like pouring tons of ketchup over eggs. You might alter the taste, but you are still eating eggs. Musically, if you have a song with a 1-4-5 chord structure (like D-G-A), it is going to be a blues structure, though that structure has morphed into many a rock song (since, of course, rock is built upon rhythm and blues). Country music also often borrows from blues, which is why artists like Lyle can move so comfortably across those lines.
Should we make Clay watch a clip of Kristy Lee Cook’s “Eight Days a Week,” as that horrific version should put this thread of the debate to rest once and for all.
That clip is everything that is fantastic about American Idol….Trainwreck of a performance by smoking hot Kristy Lee..and terrific banter between Simon and Ryan:) And, of course, it illustrates my point perfectly. Thanks, honey!
Love this song, love the beat and love her voice. I need to dig out the one or two lang cd’s I have and start listening
Wow, that was bad! And yes, she is smoking hot!
But if you can turn ‘Eight Days a Week’ into a country song, and a country song into rock-n-roll, aren’t we really defining “country” by the instrumentation and production rather than the actual song structure?
Not really. As Kristy Lee demonstrated, you can’t really turn Eight Days A Week into a country song successfully. You can just torture it with layers of country style instrumentation and vocals. If Pavarotti sang Eight Days a Week a capella, it would not make the song opera–just opera-tized-and awful.
Another interesting example that comes to mind is Billy Joel’s Shameless — the structure of that song was sufficiently maleable that it could work as a rock or country song–so it became a good country fit for Garth Brooks. I doubt, however, that Garth could do the same with Pressure or Just a Fantasy.
To continue my food analogy, some food is sufficiently basic that it can morph into different purposes. A banana can have chocolate on it and be a dessert or can be sliced into cereal for breakfast, or fried as a dinner side. But adding choclate to a fish just won’t work.
This Lang song is basically a blues song–with country layering, but it, of course, works because a blues structure is maleable. But it is the blues elements, at least for me, that draw me to the song more than other Lang songs. Perhaps for you it is the twang:)
“It was like being at some ghastly country fair.” 🙂 Gotta love Simon.
I don’t see where the food analogy came in, but okay… I’m hungry now.
I’m intrigued by the whole discussion because in the end it seems to come down to “if I like it, it isn’t country.” Or “it’s country plus.” So the classification of the song seems more directed by Dana’s appreciation or lack thereof than it does on any intrisic qualities the song might have. I agree with Clay’s observation that its the instumentation and arrangement of the song that most determines how we are likely to categorize it (and whether we are likely to enjoy it). When Garth Brooks covered “Shameless,” it sounds to me like a country artist doing a pop/rock song. When Kristy Lee “covered” “Eight Days a Week” is sounds to me like a wannabe country artist butchering a beloved pop song.
Oh, and I stood thisclose to Matt Damon today 🙂 Just sayin’
I have to say “chocolate on a fish” had me literally laughing out loud. That should be the title of a blog.
Haven’t better American Idol contestants turned pop songs into good country songs? I have a bluegrass version of Elvis Costello’s ‘Everyday I Write the Book’ that I love just about as much as the original.
I do get what you’re saying about basic blues structure, but I don’t know if I agree that there is a basic country structure as well, any more than there is a standard pop structure or a standard heavy metal structure. But I’m not a musician, so I could be completely off base.
I think Amy raises an interesting point. Are there any “traditional” country songs that you do like?
A final observation, and I’m not sure what this says about me: If Lee Greenwood covered a Lyle Lovett country song, I’d probably dislike it, but if Lyle covered a Lee Greenwood country song, I’d probably like it.
And I want to hear the Matt Damon dish!
It says you have impeccable taste in singers.
And there’s not much dish – just that I stood thisclose to him. While Daniel was dressed up as a ninja and marching in a Halloween parade. It was all a bit surreal 😉
i’m not sure there are many traditional country songs I love. There are some i like more than others. As I said earlier, Don’t Touch My Hat is pretty straight up country–but I love the witty lyrics. Amy argued tonight at dinner that the comedic lyrics were the plus, and i suppose that it is possible, but it’s not really what I meant. Then Amy starting singing Mary Chapin Carpenter’s version of The Bug and went into shock when I told her this was a Mark Knopfler song. She, of coruse, suggested that this proved her point and yours. But again, I am simply saying that a song like the Bug has a rock-a-billy type structure that can tilt in a rock or country direction.
i agree with both of you when you say that instrumentation/arrangement can turn a song country, but the root of the song must be sufficiently maleable to do that. Obviously, instrumentation alone won’t do it. You Were Always on My Mind can be played with only an acoustic guitar and we would all know it was country. The fact that the acoustic guitar can play many other styles suggests that there is a basic structure to the song that we would all recognize as country. Elton’s Your Song, on the other hand, could be played with acoustic piano or guitar, and we would hear it a soft rock ballad. Now, one could playfully punk or rock up You Were Always on My Mind, or try to country-tize Your Song, but the result would likely be pretty awful. It would be the musical chocolate on a fish.:)
Of course, the wonderful thing about music is the magic that happens when creative artists (like creative chefs) find ways to build upon basic forms, combine styles, throw a banjo into a rock song, African drumbeats into a pop song, etc.. K D Lang rises above others because she has done that, as has Lyle, Paul Simon, Sting, David Byrne and Costello. So, to me the “plus” is the ability of someone to add that new twist, that new ingredient — to take a format like traditional country that, left on its own, is about as uninspiring to me as white bread, and add the cinnamon, vanilla, pecans and syrup to make some great french toast!
Wow, Amy stood right next to Matt Damon–you can do a video and song about that!