We here in Portland last saw Craig Finn in October at The Wonder Ballroom with his excellent band The Hold Steady.
Here are a bunch of videos I shot at The Hold Steady Wonder Ballroom show last October...
Then we heard he was doing a solo album but don't worry, The Hold Steady are just on a break, not breaking up. The solo album and tour, with a band he picked up in Austin (where the solo album was recorded), was meant to allow Craig to perform this song series, something a little different than The Hold Steady - more mellow, more subdued, more pensive and reflective...
But listening to the album, you had to notice there are a few rockers, some with a country, Americana twang (thanks pedal steel guitar), along with the mellower songs. Still, it wasn't just Craig solo with a guitar. The band still had several guitarists (up to 3), a bass and drum, and during the first song, Apollo Bay, the familiar gestures and stagecraft of Craig came through loud and clear, so this show was a lot more Hold Steady-ish than many of us expected.
Of course there were a few drunks hootin' and hollerin' as if it were a Hold Steady show (and who were those bastards talking so loud at the bar during the quiet songs?!???! Fucking rude assholes!!! Don't you guys know that Craig Finn is one of the most important artists in America today??? Show some respect, motherfuckers.....), even calling for Hold Steady songs to be played (as if....). We had to be content with whooping it up to New Friend Jesus and Save Me Jesus....
Speaking of Jesus..... Jesus, Craig.... if you love Jesus so much, why don't you freakin' marry him.... oh, i forgot, Catholic guys can't marry guys... but what if they're dead guys? And I would think Jesus could pretty much do whatever the fuck he wanted to in his own religion...
Oh, if you didn't notice, Craig talks about Jesus a whole lot. That's cool. Jesus is just alright. The premise is quite compelling... Craig getting drunk as a skunk on Saturday night, singing in a bar band and howling at the moon... only to rise from the dead (much like Jesus) on Sunday morning to go to church (every Sunday) at home in Brooklyn...
Although I haven't met Craig, I'm going to go ahead and assume that he is not the kind of Catholic, like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich (sad to think these losers are America's best known Catholics at the moment...), who want to take away the rights of women and gays, and is more in the grand tradition of Catholic intellectuals like Simone Weil... I went to Catholic school for 12 years. I like their art, but that's about it at this point. It is a little hard for me to take someone seriously who is both smart and Catholic, but on the other hand, hey, whatever gets you through the night, bro... And using a Catholic idiom to express themes of sin, salvation, desperation, redemption, hope... well, there's a tradition associated with that obviously, too...
They got sisters and brothers fighting with one another
They got dreams and schemes and war machines to try to outdo one another
They got children that are starving but that don’t bother them
They’re all too busy getting rich to worry about the little children.
Save me, Jesus! Save me, Jesus!
Save me, Jesus, Jesus save me…
From this God-forsaken place
They got satellites and spaceships flying 'cross the universe
They killed before and they'll kill again, just so they can say they were the first
They build monuments and churches and things I ain't seen yet
And they've signed them all with their autograph in case you might forget
Save me, Jesus! Save me, Jesus!
Save me, Jesus, Jesus save me…
From this God-forsaken place
And, Lord, when it's all over, they’ll tell you should be proud
And they'll be a few who'll offer you anything for your job
So when you take me, Jesus, please put me among friends
Don't put me back with these power-crazy money-lovers again
Save me, Jesus! Save me, Jesus!
Save me, Jesus, Jesus save me…
From this God-forsaken place
Save me, Jesus! Save me, Jesus!
Save me, Jesus, Jesus save me…
From this God-forsaken place
Save me, Jesus! Save me, Jesus!
Save me, Jesus, Jesus save me…
From this God-forsaken place
Save Me Jesus (1972) by Bobby Charles (1938 - 2010). Best known for writing See You Later Alligator and Walking to New Orleans (for Fats Domino). He also appeared in The Band's The Last Waltz.
P.S. My idea of a good American Catholic is Billie Holiday...
ReplyDeleteP.S.S. ... and my idea of a good Latin American Catholic is Oscar Romero.... Presente! Dammit, Craig! Now you've got me wishing that Jesus would swoop down and save us all from this godforsaken place.... but then what would happen to Free Will? maybe that's why we're left here in The Dark.... it's a cosmic comic game of Hide and Go Seek and we don't know where the hell we're going....
ReplyDeleteI think I would like Catholics and Protestants more (sorry, I will never like freakin' Mormons...) if more of them would criticize greedy capitalists, war, and the priorities of a society that allows kids to starve while they waste money on all kinds of other bullshit. Everything Jesus said was cool. It was all those other people that came after him and claimed to speak in his name that fucked everything up... Once Christianity became the Official Religion of The "Holy" Roman Empire... well, it was all downhill after that....
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