No right angles

Josh Ritter's The Curse

It shouldn’t work, let alone be as absurdly affecting as it is. However Josh Ritter’s The Curse, which describes the unlikely relationship between an Egyptian mummy and the woman scientist who discovers him, is a beautifully written audit of moments we can all relate to. To me it is the best track and cornerstone of his new album, So Runs The World Away.

What makes the song so great? The melody rolls along at a stately pace, with a glorious spaciousness. It is one of those melodies that frames a lyric without distracting from the story being told. And what a lyric.  Josh Ritter has always been a songwriter who is able to bring a narrative to life but here he excels himself with a lightness of touch that is unusual in song writing. Take the wonderful first verse: 

He opens his eyes falls in love at first sight

With the girl in the doorway

What beautiful lines and how full of life

After thousands of years what a face to wake up to

He holds back a sigh as she touches his arm

She dusts off the bed where 'til now he's been sleeping

And under miles of stone, the dried fig of his heart

Under scarab and bone starts back to it's beating

It is a pretty big deal to ask us to sign up to the scenario it describes – mummy wakes up after thousands of years, sees a girl, falls in love – but the writing is so close and intimate it transform the song into capturing moments we’ll all felt. I love the ‘dried fig of his heart’ line, and the one about ‘beautiful lines’ as well, but there is a better one in verse two – ‘The first time he moves it's her hair that he touches’. I just think that is great writing.

However, what makes the Curse such a compelling song is not how beautifully it renders the first moments of a new relationship but how it describes its unravelling as the two characters move beyond their intimacy into the world – the big theme of the entire album. The surrealism of the song cranks up a gear – the mummy pretends to be dead as he is exhibited in a museum, then at night roams the halls with the scientist. Then everything changes: 

..one day it's too much he decides to get up

And as chaos ensues he walks outside to find her

She's using a cane and her face looks too pale

But she's happy to see him as they walk he supports her

She asks, "Are you cursed?" but his answer's obscured

In a sandstorm of flashbulbs and rowdy reporters 

Again it is Josh’s lightness of touch what makes this absurd, surreal picture affecting. It is the cane, the pale face, the support he gives her, and that lovely expression 'a sandstorm of flashbulbs' which gives the verse its power. The inevitable growing apart follows with more great descriptive writing but the killer punch is in the last verse: 

Long ago in the ship she asked, "Why pyramids?"

He said, "Think of them as an immense invitation"

She asked, "Are you cursed?" He said, "I think that I'm cured"

Then he kissed her and hoped that she'd forget that question

An immense invitation. That is what just about every intimate relationship promises, then the second couplet balances it with ambiguity and truths withheld – and the song once again becomes very real and very touching, echoing the album’s big themes. 

There are two versions of The Curse available. The album version is piano led and I’d recommend it wholeheartedly. The rest of the album is great as well. Josh has also recorded a version on guitar as part of a Daytrotter session and you can listen to it here. Josh's website is here

Terry Reid's River and Seed of Memory

When the UK magazine Q selected its top 100 vocalists Robert Plant was in the number eight slot while the man who was Jimmy Page’s first choice for Led Zeppelin’s lead singer was not even listed. Terry Reid turned down the job (as he also did a while later when Deep Purple were looking for a replacement for Rod Evans), put Jimmy in touch with Robert, then headed off to California to follow his own particular muse. He emerged with two extraordinary albums – 1973’s River and 1976’s Seed of Memory – both of which slipped under the critical radar of the time, yet now sound as powerful, as individual and as compelling as Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks or John Martyn’s Solid Air.

River is a good starting point. It is an album of two parts, both driven by Reid’s sublime vocals. Side one is electric, full of striking lyricism and David Lindley’s signature slide guitar, so familiar from Jackson Browne’s early records. It is wild, restless music conceived in the English countryside by a band made up of Lindley, Conrad Isadore (drums), and Lee Miles (bass), road tested over three years and recorded in California where the band finally decamped. The first two songs – Dean and Avenue – sound improvised, off-the-cuff yet defined by Terry Reid’s remarkable vocals, while the third track – Things to Try - starts conventionally enough but then also drifts into another fluid improvisation. The side finishes with Live Life featuring another haunting Reid vocal, full of risks and unexpected twists. 

If the first side of River sounds like it was conceived to hold the attention of wayward audiences, to grab them by the scruff of the neck with its invention, side two is a different beast together. Here the band unplug (David Lindley is completely absent) and give Reid to room to breathe and bring in the tropicalismo influences he picked up from his friend, Gilberto Gil. It kicks off with River – a song with some beautiful acoustic guitar and the most tender of vocals. Dreams is another Latin influenced song with a questioning, yearning quality that Reid pulls from the singer/songwriter scene around him and is topped by that amazing soul voice. The original album ends with the ethereal and breathtaking Milestones, which starts with a whistle and ends with the most intimate of vocals. Search for the expanded reissue and you get two additional acoustic tracks – Anyway and Funny – which are just as wonderful as the rest of River.

River was recorded for Atlantic Records, however, the company seemed perplexed at how to market such an indefinable record and released Reid from his contract after the album’s release. Reid continued to tour and write, then urged on by another famous friend, Graham Nash - who promised both to produce and find him a record deal – went back into the studio in 1976 to record Seed of Memory.

Seed of Memory is perhaps a more realised album than River. It is a warm, welcoming record, full of generosity and grace. David Lindley is back on board, as is Lee Miles, while the drums are handled by Soko Richardson and James Gadson. Neil Young associate Ben Keith shares the pedal steel with Al Perkins and the other instrumentalists – playing cello, flute, saxophone, horns and balalaika give a sense of how much wider a palette Seed of Memory occupies compared with River. If River is album of someone on a journey, probing their limits, not quite sure of what they can or can’t pull off, Seed of Memory is the work of someone who has arrived. It is fully formed, and gloriously complete.

The key is Graham Nash’s empathic production. Reed is recorded up close, surrounded by warm harmonies that support his vocal flights without smothering them. Seed of Memory starts with the upbeat Faith To Arise – it has the Latin inflections first explored on River but combines them with pedal steel and a chorus that is pure soul. Next up is the plaintive Seed of Memory, where Reid’s singing is counter scored by a flute, David Lindley’s slide and some honeyed CSN & Y styled harmonies. Brave Awakening follows, a gorgeous redemptive song with a subtle, almost elastic Reid vocal that is a particular favourite of mine. The mood is continued with To Be Treated Rite, another song where Nash’s production allows Reid the space he needs to nail his expansive vocal lines. 

Up to that point Seed of Memory could be extension of side two of River but then the album shifts into another realm. Ooh baby is the most joyful of soul songs with a great horn section, while The Way You Walk is a dirty blues with more powerful Lindley slide and Reid as his R&B best – hollering, imploring, pleading. The Frame is another fabulous soul track, slower than Ooh baby but with just as effective horns and another fantastic Reid vocal performance. Seed of Memory ends for one of Reid’s finest recorded vocals. Fooling You is simple but beautiful soul track that is transformed by Reid into a song of extraordinary yearning. It is a marvellous way to end a marvellous record. 

ABC Records, who released Seed of Memory, folded two weeks after its release and the album never had the exposure it deserved. By 1976 the world was moving on. Television, Talking Heads and the Ramones were taking New York by storm, while in Reed’s homeland the punk revolution with the Sex Pistols, the Clash and any number of DIY bands had begun. The shaggy haired Reed smiling beatifically from the cover of Seed of Memory must have seemed out of place and time. Perhaps Seed of Memory simply came too late. www.terryreid.net