"I feel I could write a post the size of Texas about it"
I appreciate this post, and am still working my way through the music, but my first introduction to Bill Callahan was Gil Scott-Heron's excellent cover of "I'm New Here" the title track from his late in life comeback album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV_astp3BjM
Those are both interesting. For me they lack the emotional punch of the original Gil Scott-Heron performance, but they're an interesting exercise in the way that an artists work ripples out. In both of them you have a sense of the younger musician processing and mulling over the older figure.
Also, I think of "I'm New Here" as the highlight from that album, but I had forgotten how much I like "Where Did The Night Go?" An assured poetry reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbZVdj_d62M
I agree about those versions. I like to look at things from the perspective of the song and what it can become; weirdly, those reworks allow me to do that, probably because they have less a sense of the vulnerability of the human in them. But, if I'm looking for the humanity in the song, the two 'originals' by Callahan and Scott-Heron are where I find it.
Thanks for the reminder of how great 'Where Did The Night Go' is.
Another deep dive that has introduced me to newer material by Callahan I have yet to explore. I will no doubt return to it as I investigate the work you discuss that I am unfamiliar with and this new live LP. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the obvious labor of love this piece has been.
My favorite song by Smog is "Truth Serum" from his 'Supper' album. I love the sense of play, yet there is also a profoundness in the questions he asks throughout the tune. But that is going back now. I haven't kept up with his discography, but the albums I own I really enjoy. I think I told you this before, but I discovered Callahan via an early Flaming Lips EP from 1994 called 'Providing Needles For Your Balloons.' On it, they do a Callahan song called "Chosen One." At the time, I was a big Lips fan, and if they liked Callahan, I needed to check him out.
I also really like your section on rhyme. It made me think of the wonderful song by Love, "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark and Hilldale," where Arthur Lee never mentions the rhyming word but instead leaves it unsaid, allowing our mind to fill in the blanks.
And I completely understand what you mean by voice being a huge part of the experience. Callahan's deep baritone adds a huge texture to his often gentle music (the tracks I listened to in your post were more electric, but his voice still dominates and resonates). I feel the same way about Mark Lanegan's voice that reeks of whisky, cigarettes, pain, and a life filled with trauma and addiction. Lanegan's voice becomes the passport that transports us to his (and our) dark and uncomfortable spaces. I don't know as much about Callahan's life as I do Lanegan's, but I agree it is deep but more gentle and soothing.
Thanks for the detailed comment, Michael, and for recognising that this did, indeed, become a labour of love. I suppose it was only once I'd started writing it that I realised I had quite a bit to say about Bill Callahan and what is now approaching thirty years of listening to his music. Like my response to your Radiohead-on-Later post, I was surprised just how long this music had been in my life and also, I guess, how I hadn't really tried to make sense of it until quite recently.
'Truth Serum' is a great song, and I like that whole album. Its opening track, 'Feather by Feather', sounds now like a template of the kind of slow country burners Callahan would go on to specialise in the later albums, while the rest of the album has a good share of the spikier kind of pieces he often did as Smog. Then again, I guess there were always one or two of those in all the Smog albums, and 'Chosen One' would also fall into that category. Plus: more bird and horse references!
Lanegan's a good comparison and I'm in interested in that tension (if it is one) between a writing/singing voice that ventures into darker territory and one that settles in a seemingly safer space. I mention that because one of the criticisms I've become aware of in online commentary on Callahan's later work (and it's also come up in conversation with friends who are longtime BC/Smog fans) is that he has become less interesting as he has focussed more on telling stories about domesticity, family and settling down. I don't agree with those criticisms, and that's partly why I wanted to write at length about the songcraft rather than focussing only on themes. I had planned t make this more explicit by mentioning the recent critiques in the post, but that would have made it even longer and perhaps more reactionary than I wanted it to be.
Thanks, Frank, for taking the time to write this response. Great to see those moments of serendipity noted: Bill Callahan, Bryan Ferry, fado. I'm a big fan of Carlos Paredes, too, and Dead Combo. Hoping to share some of my thoughts about fado here on Substack, though I've somewhat neglected the genre in recent years while attending to other musical interests. I agree about Van as shaman, and Bill Callahan doesn't quite go there but there was enough in a couple of those live performances to at leats put me in mind of what happens when Van goes after a word or a phrase on search of new insights.
"I feel I could write a post the size of Texas about it"
I appreciate this post, and am still working my way through the music, but my first introduction to Bill Callahan was Gil Scott-Heron's excellent cover of "I'm New Here" the title track from his late in life comeback album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV_astp3BjM
Thanks. I loved that album when it appeared, and I was really pleased that Gil Scott-Heron made Callahan's song new again. I also enjoyed the reworks by Jamie XX (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm4zJSyxlOQ) and Makaya McCraven (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvp8iKIhTTw) as they show how songs can be renewed and come around again.
Those are both interesting. For me they lack the emotional punch of the original Gil Scott-Heron performance, but they're an interesting exercise in the way that an artists work ripples out. In both of them you have a sense of the younger musician processing and mulling over the older figure.
Also, I think of "I'm New Here" as the highlight from that album, but I had forgotten how much I like "Where Did The Night Go?" An assured poetry reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbZVdj_d62M
I agree about those versions. I like to look at things from the perspective of the song and what it can become; weirdly, those reworks allow me to do that, probably because they have less a sense of the vulnerability of the human in them. But, if I'm looking for the humanity in the song, the two 'originals' by Callahan and Scott-Heron are where I find it.
Thanks for the reminder of how great 'Where Did The Night Go' is.
Another deep dive that has introduced me to newer material by Callahan I have yet to explore. I will no doubt return to it as I investigate the work you discuss that I am unfamiliar with and this new live LP. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the obvious labor of love this piece has been.
My favorite song by Smog is "Truth Serum" from his 'Supper' album. I love the sense of play, yet there is also a profoundness in the questions he asks throughout the tune. But that is going back now. I haven't kept up with his discography, but the albums I own I really enjoy. I think I told you this before, but I discovered Callahan via an early Flaming Lips EP from 1994 called 'Providing Needles For Your Balloons.' On it, they do a Callahan song called "Chosen One." At the time, I was a big Lips fan, and if they liked Callahan, I needed to check him out.
I also really like your section on rhyme. It made me think of the wonderful song by Love, "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark and Hilldale," where Arthur Lee never mentions the rhyming word but instead leaves it unsaid, allowing our mind to fill in the blanks.
And I completely understand what you mean by voice being a huge part of the experience. Callahan's deep baritone adds a huge texture to his often gentle music (the tracks I listened to in your post were more electric, but his voice still dominates and resonates). I feel the same way about Mark Lanegan's voice that reeks of whisky, cigarettes, pain, and a life filled with trauma and addiction. Lanegan's voice becomes the passport that transports us to his (and our) dark and uncomfortable spaces. I don't know as much about Callahan's life as I do Lanegan's, but I agree it is deep but more gentle and soothing.
Thanks for the detailed comment, Michael, and for recognising that this did, indeed, become a labour of love. I suppose it was only once I'd started writing it that I realised I had quite a bit to say about Bill Callahan and what is now approaching thirty years of listening to his music. Like my response to your Radiohead-on-Later post, I was surprised just how long this music had been in my life and also, I guess, how I hadn't really tried to make sense of it until quite recently.
'Truth Serum' is a great song, and I like that whole album. Its opening track, 'Feather by Feather', sounds now like a template of the kind of slow country burners Callahan would go on to specialise in the later albums, while the rest of the album has a good share of the spikier kind of pieces he often did as Smog. Then again, I guess there were always one or two of those in all the Smog albums, and 'Chosen One' would also fall into that category. Plus: more bird and horse references!
Lanegan's a good comparison and I'm in interested in that tension (if it is one) between a writing/singing voice that ventures into darker territory and one that settles in a seemingly safer space. I mention that because one of the criticisms I've become aware of in online commentary on Callahan's later work (and it's also come up in conversation with friends who are longtime BC/Smog fans) is that he has become less interesting as he has focussed more on telling stories about domesticity, family and settling down. I don't agree with those criticisms, and that's partly why I wanted to write at length about the songcraft rather than focussing only on themes. I had planned t make this more explicit by mentioning the recent critiques in the post, but that would have made it even longer and perhaps more reactionary than I wanted it to be.
Thanks, Frank, for taking the time to write this response. Great to see those moments of serendipity noted: Bill Callahan, Bryan Ferry, fado. I'm a big fan of Carlos Paredes, too, and Dead Combo. Hoping to share some of my thoughts about fado here on Substack, though I've somewhat neglected the genre in recent years while attending to other musical interests. I agree about Van as shaman, and Bill Callahan doesn't quite go there but there was enough in a couple of those live performances to at leats put me in mind of what happens when Van goes after a word or a phrase on search of new insights.