THE 2006 TOURNAMENT OF TUNES
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Note: At this late stage in the competition, everything about the remaining songs’ merits has pretty much already been said. Given this, along with the fact that this competition is dragging on far longer than I ever anticipated, I’ll be as succinct as I can. Beyond some point, words can no longer convey what makes a song truly great—and there’s no denying that these are great songs. Read my brief thoughts, and take them or leave them. But you owe it to yourself to track down each one of these songs, adopt them and make them as major a part of your lives that they are to mine. You won’t be disappointed, I assure you.
Ted Leo -
Loyal to My Sorrowful Country
[mp3]
vs.
Morphine –
Whisper [RealAudio]
Each of
these songs is wonderfully emblematic of the artist’s body of work and creative
ethos. “Loyalty to My Sorrowful Country” is simple, direct, passionate,
guitar-based, punk in attitude if not necessarily in execution, overtly yet
tactfully political. “Whisper” is slow, moody, sultry, mysterious, seductive, a
mesmerizing come-on of a song. Both songs share the authenticity and
genuineness that I look for in all of my art; there’s absolutely nothing fake
here. Further, through these songs I feel like I know Ted Leo and Mark Sandman
personally, while I’ve never actually been so honored.
So which is
the greater song? Depends on which moment in time you happen to ask me. If I’m
angry, disgruntled, frustrated, wanting this country and the world to be so
much more than they currently are, and wanting to shout out lyrics in defiance
of the status quo and to just cathartically blow off steam, then it’s “Loyal to
My Sorrowful Country.” If I’m more calm, placid, happier with my place in the
universe, feeling a bit playful and pretending to be the ultra-confident flirt
that I’ve never been (it’s true—just ask my wife), then it’s “Whisper.”
This one is
clearly a toss-up. Yet “Whisper”, in all of its subdued, slow-burning
sultriness, lacks just a tiny bit of the fire that fuels Ted Leo’s art. It
saddens me to send Morphine packing, as they will forever remain one of my
favorite bands, but on the merits of just these individual songs, I’m going
with “Loyal to My Sorrowful Country.”
Winner: Ted Leo - Loyal to My Sorrowful Country
The Pixies
- Debaser [RealAudio]
vs.
Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts [RealAudio]
Once again,
two great songs. “Debaser” is a visceral thrill ride, with its brisk tempo,
Frank Black’s near-hysterical singing, the shouts of “Chien!” in the chorus,
the bouncing bass, the crisp drumming. “Sweethearts” is much more subtle (now
there’s a rarity—CvB being called subtle!) with its moderate tempo, restrained
vocals and vaguely allusive lyrics.
What
separates the two is the degrees of emotional attachment each song, as well as the
artist, has to me. While I can’t help but admire the Pixies’ greatness, I do so
from a considerable distance. I’ve never felt compelled to buy any of their
albums, being content to own just a cassette copy of Doolittle. Their
public persona, particularly that of Frank Black, always felt somewhat staged
to me; they seemed cartoonish, and never quite real. Not that being cartoonish
is necessarily a bad thing—if the shtick is good enough, I can easily be won
over. And I can’t deny being won over by “Debaser.” But still, the band never
quite connected with me, for reasons I can’t really explain.
In
contrast, I’ve loved Camper Van Beethoven from virtually the first time I ever
heard them—which, if I recall correctly, was hearing “One Of These Days” on the
radio. My attachment to the band is so strong that I can remember exactly where
I was when I heard specific songs of theirs—“One Of These Days” playing over
the loudspeaker in the men’s room of a bar during a wild office going-away
party; “When I Win the Lottery” in a Radio Shack; “Take the Skinheads Bowling”
covered by a solo acoustic dude in a club in Champaign, my recognizing of which
amazed my non-indie buddies. The band and I have a long history—my ardor for
CvB compelled me to hunt down the first two albums, on vinyl, at
Reckless Records in Chicago and the third, eponymous album at Newbury Comics in
Cambridge, Mass. And when I longed to upgrade the first album to CD but
couldn’t justify the expenditure to myself, I managed to convince my now-wife
(whom I had just started dating at the time) to buy the CD during our first
visit to a record store, somehow knowing it would be ours to share for the long
haul. (Blissfully, I was correct—and not just about the CD.) “Sweethearts”,
with its gentle putdown of the Reagan worldview, came to me at a special moment
in time, when I was just becoming aware that my initial youthful conservative
leanings were not who I really was. During those early adult years, Reagan had
me fooled, too—just, as the song implies, he had fooled himself.
“Debaser”,
a great song that I admire from a distance. “Sweethearts”, a great song that
says a lot about the person I’ve become. It’s Camper Van Beethoven—no contest.
Winner: Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts