Fables - Joe Innes and the Cavalcade

Joe Innes

What can I say? A good song can change your life. No, perhaps I went too far there. But it can do so many things: evoke an atmosphere that enthrals you; affect you emotionally; intrigue you; make a point (see my Protest Songs blog); be so rousing and rambunctious that it lifts your spirits; take you on a journey; make you want to get up and dance; involve you in something greater than yourself (or make you feel as if you are); restore your faith in the power of an infectious tune and some insightful, witty lyrics. There’s a theory that sometimes when you express something particular, personal and unique, it somehow becomes universal, something that everyone can identify with. And a great song does all of the above. And Fables is a great song.

Like the first time that you heard Babies by Pulp. You feel like you’re freewheeling your bike down a hill, without ever having had the arduous task of crawling up it. A free ride. First the intro, the impression it gives me is of starting in clear mono, then switching to fuzzy stereo, then the song, as it gathers instruments, gathers power, grabs ahold of you - it reminds me of a daytrip I went on with friends, en route we kept collecting people, on station platforms, on the street  and so on - then it picks you up and the sheer energy of it carries you along. For one fantastic instant, you cease longing and start belonging.

You just can't beat some intelligent, postmodern lyrics, full of cultural allusions like an episode of Buffy and a Sinatraesque swing, a rolling quality to lines like: 
And it all starts spinning like a ferris wheel/The Jesus hounds hot upon our heels/How the hell does it make you feel/To be loved? 
that always alters my mood for the better.

Then: But I will live forever now/Just like the kids out of Fame/When I shoot the man who shot, the man who shot, the man who shot Jesse James 

God, it's so incredibly uplifting. A song to make your heart soar. I like the inclusion of a a line from the Irene Cara title song, Fame from the TV series: Remember my name, fame/I'm gonna live forever/I'm gonna learn how to fly ...
and the nod to Jesse James ,* the outlaw (as legend (or fable) has it, 'killed by the coward Robert Ford').

Sometimes you hear a tune and it seems so natural, organic, that it feels almost inevitable, as if it's always existed. And this is like that.

Semi-gratuitous picture of Tyrone Power, for my Mum

*Incidentally, I just watched Jesse James, the one with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda. I tried to video it a few months ago (yes I still have a video) partly because of the glorious colour but only the sound came out (my video is temperamental)) and I figured it would be like listening to Wimbledon on the radio (which some people actually do). Pointless. On Jesse James, see Glenn Frey: Cowboy Casanova.

For more on passions in music, see I'm on Fire, Doll by Doll, Gordon Gano.

I hope to publish this simultaneously (doesn't this sound grand? 'publish simultaneously') with a review of the Joe Innes gig at The Harrison, which you can find here: https://sshh-sshh.blogspot.com/.

Sister's poetry on Pulp/Jarvis Cocker is here.