Do Miss America February 6, 2009

I mentioned this in the post about “Wish You Were Here”, but I feel the need to say it again.  For some reason, I think Ryan Adams is brilliant when he’s writing rude songs.  While “Do Miss America” doesn’t feature lyrics that are gloriously vulgar like “Wish You Were Here”, there’s a really cool arrogance and attitude that can’t be found on many of his other songs.  It’s like Billy Idol…  You know, if Billy Idol was cooler and had constant bedhead instead of those bleached spikes…

I think the song’s lyrics are about how everyone loves to watch a trainwreck.  Look at how the media goes wild about Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Courtney Love, and, to a lesser extent, Ryan Adams whenever they make a big scene at a gas station, awards show, or Ryman Auditorium.  People love to watch freakouts, and it’s almost like they’re egging them on.  These lyrics have a fierce sarcasm, like they’re laughing at the person’s problems. (“So, tell me how you feel without your medicine?/Hold your head, feeling paranoid/Sweet sixteen for a schizoid”) 

Then comes the chorus, where he encourages everyone to get their shots in while the person is at their all-time low.  (“Hey!/C’mon! Everybody do Miss America/Hey!/You know that when she goes down, it’s hysterical”)  The end result of this constant harassment isn’t a good one, as the closing line of the last verse is changed to “sweet black smoke from a crooked gun.” 

A really cool song that gets overlooked far too often…

Sweet Black Magic February 4, 2009

God, I love it when Ryan Adams gets folky.  This is right up there with “Pearls On A String” for my favorite folk/bluegrass style song of his.  I think one of the reasons I like this one so much is because it breaks one of the major rules of bluegrass.  While a lot of songs refer to simpler times in the Southeastern/Midwestern rural U.S., he goes ahead and modernizes it with references to Los Angeles and drugs…  Not exactly “Keep On The Sunny Side”…

There are bouncy banjos, warm acoustic guitars deep in the background, and some backup singers who make this song sound like it could have been recorded during the Great Depression.  (You know, if they don’t pay any attention to the lyrics)  This is one of the few songs on the bonus disc that I feel wouldn’t have fit on Gold that well, but I’m definitely glad they included it.  It’s a fun listen and a really good song to drive to, as I discovered recently.

Anybody Wanna Take Me Home? January 3, 2009

There’s something that’s really nice about this dysfunctional song.  It stumbles along with a nice right guitar part Peter Buck would be proud of and lyrics that are bratty, desperate and shameful.  “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home?” is the perfect for this point in Ryan Adams’ life.  That’s probably why it was featured on both Rock n Roll and Love Is Hell.  While the albums are pretty different, this song fits remarkably well with each set of songs.

The first line sets up the story perfectly: “I am in the twilight of my youth/Not that I’m going to remember.”  The narrator is at that age where he anything in the world is possible.  While this should be a good time, he’s just wasting it by drinking himself into a stupor (or a coma, as the lyrics say).  Besides the fact that he’s just wasting opportunities, he sees everyone else around him having a great time.  (“They seem happy/But I am sad/I’m still dancing in the coma of the drinks I just had”) 

Life just isn’t doing it for him anymore.  That’s why he asks for someone to “recommend an education or drugs/Because I’m bored with you already.”  He needs something to fill that open time so he can’t be self-destructive.  Maybe if he’s with someone, he won’t be dangerous to himself while he’s alone?  That’s why he’s desperately calling out: “Does anybody wanna take me home?/Take me to your house and I’ll leave you alone”

Now, if that line looks a little familiar (besides this song), it’s because a very similar lyric is featured in the song “Two” on 2007’s Easy Tiger.  “If you take me back/Back to your place/I’ll try not to bother you”  Just an interesting observation…

Nightbirds December 30, 2008

Ever since my post on “The Sadness” the other day, I’ve been listening to 29 like crazy.  It’s my least favorite Ryan Adams album, but the strong tracks on it are among my favorites.  One of these is a song that gives a startling look at what it’s like to be Ryan Adams during the extremely turbulent times during his mid-to-late 20s.  This verse, for me, says it all:

The people here inside me
They are loud, and in the night
The scream and smash the windows
When they fight

The lyrics on the album are, at times, disturbingly personal.  This song, which I was fortunate enough to hear live in 2007, features a lot of this writing.  The Night Birds in the song are supposed to be bringing something positive, but everything is empty.  While things are supposed to be improving, all the narrator does is sink lower and lower into his problems.  While he looks back and is fully aware that things aren’t right, he still isn’t able to fix it. 

There is something I have to mention about this song.  While I love the lyrics and feel like it’s one of his best, I can’t stand the delay effect they used on his vocals during the “Into the ocean…” line.  Let’s hear your thoughts…

Cold Roses December 23, 2008

There are a lot of songs in Ryan Adams’ catalog that deal with questionable decisions.  Some of them are about enjoying these decisions, others are about the damage they do…  This one, “Cold Roses”, features a narrator looking at a female acquaintance and how these decisions impact her life.  Whatever it is she’s doing is causing some serious physical and emotional damage to her, and he’s watching it all.

The opening verse is “Mirrors in the room go black and blue/On a Sunday morning in her Saturday shoes/We don’t choose who we love/We don’t choose.”  This friend (?) of his went out and did some things (or people…) she didn’t want to.  Maybe her judgment was a little clouded from drugs/alcohol the night before.  She’s had a rough night and when she looks in the mirror, she sees just how damaged she is.  ”Sunday morning in her Saturday shoes” means she hasn’t caught up with real-life yet, which is really troubling.  I love this line the most, just because I think it’s really, really clever.

The second verse is more of the same, really.  He sings “Lights over the Midway melt on the street/In her Sunday shoes on her Saturday feet/She don’t choose who she love/She don’t need what she use.”  She’s out and about on Sunday even though she’s still coming down from whatever she was doing the night before.  My guess is that she isn’t feeling too well and realizes that whatever she does isn’t good for her, but feels like she doesn’t control it.  Then comes the chorus: “Daylight comes and exposes/Saturday’s bruises and cold roses.”  She realizes how bad things are when she’s sober, which is the day after she goes out and raises all kinds of hell.  That’s when she can see “Saturday’s bruises.” 

 The narrator says “Nothing but the sunlight can help you grow/From underneath your bed, you can’t see the window.”  She has to realize she has a problem before she can grow out of it.  If she doesn’t recognize this by lying to herself (hiding “underneath [her] bed”), she’s doing herself a disservice by keeping herself from getting healthy.  He says she’s “Fortunate and angry, just like a child/All this money buys you medicine it can’t buy you time”, which is a pretty harsh truth.  Maybe by calling her out like this, he’ll make her realize something’s wrong.

You never find out what happens, so you can go ahead and make your own ending.  I like to think she sees her mistakes and recovers, but that’s just me…

Wish You Were Here December 16, 2008

Ryan Adams has done a lot of songs that could be categorized as “love songs”, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be “Wish You Were Here.”  With lyrics like “It’s totally fucked up/I’m totally fucked up/Wish you were here”, what girl could resist?  The lyrics are dirty, filthy, and sometimes kind of stupid, but they manage to be embarrassingly charming…

The lyrics, at least to me, seem to be a criticism of himself and the girl he’s singing to.  “Cotton candy and a rotten mouth/You know you’re so fucked up” targets her, but he quickly adds “You know I couldn’t help but have it for you.”  So while he knows she’s pretty awful, he’s a part of the problem, too.  He follows that by explaining that “Everybody knows the way I walk/And knows the way I talk/And knows the way I feel about you.”  Everyone understands that he’s trouble, so it’s no surprise that he would be attracted to her.  Right about now he’s running the risk of saying too much, so he dismisses it as “all a bunch of shit.”  But he hints back at wanting her by saying “There’s nothing to do around here…” and then coming out and admitting that he wishes she was there with him. 

The second verse is about how lonely he feels in the city without her.  Suddenly, he goes right back into his explanation about how he feels about her (and how everyone knows about it.)  But after that verse, he launches into a new section: “If I could have my way/We’d take some drugs/And we’d smile/But not tonight/My dear.”  This gives me the impression that the narrator, while he still wishes the girl was there to go wild with him, knows that it’s a bad idea and doesn’t act on his impulses.

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