Rant of the Week

Opium Dreams of Susan Jacks

 

This bus is awful cold,
We've gone so many miles...

"That's Where I Went Wrong" by The Poppy Family was already a throw-back when it hit the charts in 1969.  A cute girl-- you can tell by her voice that she's cute-- is riding on a cold bus to some unknown place, boring a stranger with the details of how her boyfriend cheated on her.  She says

I know it's not his fault
I've known it all along
I was the one who trusted him
That's where I went wrong.

That's where she went wrong!

Someone -- probably her husband (at the time), Terry Jacks-- had the horrible idea of adding some kind of weird percussive slapping noises to the song, that I don't remember noticing in the era in which we heard all songs on car radios.

I'm kidding about the "cute girl" comment, though one can safely assume that any woman in the business of performing pop songs is photogenic, at least.  But the voice is compelling.  It has this clear, crystalline sheen to it-- it sounds young and innocent, and insistent.  Madonna used to have a bit of this quality to her voice, in "La Isle Bonita", for example.  So did Jackie Ralph of "The Bells".   Stevie Nicks had it. 

But the coolest of the cool was Jennifer Warnes - her voice on "First We Take Manhattan"-- I don't have a name for that quality. 

"Stay Awhile" by Jackie Ralph with "The Bells" was quite possibly the hottest song on AM radio in its day.  Yes, because the romantic couple in the song actually, delicately, go to bed together.  We were all shocked and titillated.  Some radio stations, so we heard, banned the song.  Did they really?  That's really bizarre, when you think about it.

It's hard to describe that voice.  I've always liked it, though I also always found the Poppy Family's music to be a bit cheesy, calculated, and coy.  Often, Susan's voice is doubled for effect  with a pleasing result  

You are my whole day
My heart and my soul babe..

and sounds like she means it. 

The Poppy Family featured a drummer called Satwan Singh-- I'll bet there's an interesting story behind that.  He played the tabla initially, but there's a full drum set on most later Poppy Family recordings.

Terry Jacks did not like touring or performing live, and that's why he became a producer.  Apparently, he even worked with the Beach Boys.  He became aware of a song called "Seasons in the Sun" which the Beach Boys heard but decided to pass on.  Jacks recorded it himself and it became one of the biggest hits of the decade and makes my list of the worst 10 singles of all time.

Goodbye Michelle, it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky.

Yes, Terry-- it's easier to die when all the birds are singing on the ground.  Or maybe singing on the hills that were just "seasons out of time", whatever the hell that means.

I'm adding to this.  I just reread some old newsgroup posts and there is some acquaintances on the Leonard Cohen newsgroup insisting that "Seasons in the Sun" is a deep song.  

Goodbye Michelle, my little one,
You gave me love and helped me find the sun.

Okay.    "Find the sun" isn't the most shockingly original metaphor I've heard-- not great, but not too bad yet.  Well, yes it is.  But wait for it:

And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground

Now, is that or is that not the lamest description of friendship you've ever heard?  And don't forget:

but the stars that we could reach
were just starfish on the beach

So the starfish join the birds, imaginatively located right where Dr. Seuss said you would find them.

"Which Way you Going Billy" has a few strange twists in it.  Billy's leaving and she wants to go with him, but Billy doesn't want to tell her which way he's going.  She could get lost and would have to get onto a bus and become the character in "That's Where I Went Wrong". She admits that now he's "free" at last, though you would think she'd prefer to convince him he could be just as free if he stayed with her.  No, she admits it: she's a ball and chain.

It's only in the third verse that we find out

I won't forget you, Billy
For all my life
I'll always love you, Billy,
I'll stay your wife.

Until then, I had thought they were simply going together.  Didn't know they were actually man and wife.   The song is deeper for it.  Thank god Rod McKuen didn't write this lyric, or she would stay "your wife in your house", in the "dark, where the sun it never shines".

 

All contents © 2006 Bill Van Dyk