By: Pat O'Brien
Former Rolling Stone reviews editor Greil Marcus began nearly every one of his responses in this way on Friday at The Current’s Fakebook series featuring Marcus and musical guests, punk and alt-country heroes, The Mekons. To be fair, Marcus is, at his core, a critic. He’s gotten paid to like and dislike things, to give his opinion, however harsh or unpopular it might be, and he doesn’t seem like he backs down for much or “just goes along with it” for the sake of keeping everything nice. It was touted as a discussion, and discussion breeds disagreement.
Host and Current DJ Mary Lucia was asking the questions. She asks questions in a way that anticipates a specific “yes” or “no” answer, but Marcus was often on the other side of the expected response. Lucia, a well-known David Bowie fan, was sort of taken aback (as was much of the audience) by Marcus’ assessment that Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust act was tiresome and far too overblown, not the logical pendulum swing back from the free-love ‘60s that most people consider him to be. He is not a rock god to Marcus, just a man who did not know who he was and possibly still does not. Marcus also almost offhandedly mentioned that he was at Altamont, the concert where the Hell’s Angels were on security detail, a concert that ended in the death of a concertgoer at their hands.
Greil Marcus - Photo by David de Young
This led to a discussion about Bob Dylan and much to everyone’s surprise (I assume), it seems Marcus has more respect for his son, Jakob. This stems from the fact that Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind was delayed from release for several months due to the juggernaut that The Wallflowers’ Bringing Down The Horse had become. Nobody could slay the mighty Dylan but the product of his own loins apparently, and amid several boos and catcalls (no surprise from a Minnesota crowd) Marcus held his ground, it was an interesting stance to be sure, but one that must be considered and ultimately agreed with, despite what a large number of folks may think of The Wallflowers, their trite, mid-tempo mostly bland pop songs would have buried Dylan Sr.
Marcus also hates perennial critics darling Lucinda Williams (he made reference to her every spoken word being calculated and therefore false), which was refreshing, to be honest, most critics fall all over themselves to congratulate her, but I find her irritating as well. He vilified Jeff Buckley, basically calling him a fraud. He denounced Loudon Wainwright.
They asked for a critic and a critic is what they got. Marcus didn’t mince words, he didn’t pander to the audience and he has strong, sometimes unpopular feelings about artists and songs. But he also has a deep insight into music and views it in a larger frame (refer back to Dylan vs. Dylan above), he has no desire to decide if an artist is “hip” or “cool” before commenting about them and he doesn’t care what liking or disliking a certain artist may say about him (“I’ve never read anything and had any desire to know more about the author as a person” he said) he just cares if it reaches him and that’s criticism in its purest form. At one point he quoted D.H. Lawrence: “Never trust the artist, trust the tale. The artist always lies.” Marcus may tell you different, but he is an artist, the difference is that he is one to be believed.
The Mekons played a quick four-song set before Marcus came out, a quick preview of what was to come later but it didn't have nearly the fun. When they appeared again, lead singer Jon Langford and vocalist Sally Timms were briefly interviewed by Lucia, with Marcus sitting in as well for a short Q&A about the history of the band and then they really got down to business. I’ll note here that I had never previously seen or heard The Mekons at all. I knew their story a little bit but I was mostly unfamiliar with them. That said it was nice to approach a band in that manner, especially after what I took away from Marcus’ time in the chair. It didn’t matter if they were supposed to be hip or cool or that they were part of the hallowed “Class of ‘77” from the British punk era. They aren’t those people anymore and the great thing about it is that they don’t pretend to be.
The Mekons - Photo by David de Young
Their sound is more alt-country nowadays (and has been for quite some time) and much of the setlist was from their last album, 2007’s Natural. Langford has the quintessential British wit and it was enjoyable to watch their mostly laid-back set unfurl with them all sitting in a large (there were eight of them) half-circle trading banter (and sometimes barbs—it was obvious being in a band for 30 years certainly hasn’t been easy). I was sort of hoping that they would play some songs from the first album, but that just wouldn’t have been right—they’re still a touring band (when Langford and Steve Goulding aren’t touring with The Waco Brothers) but it may have been disappointing, it was more fun just to know where they came from and listen to what they were playing and try to reverse engineer some of it, any of it into punk. It wasn’t as hard as you’d expect, they’re punks at heart, although Langford may be punk’s clown prince. Before “(Give Me) Wine Or Money” Timms joked about Langford making a spectacle of himself by dancing for the audience. He claimed he would and everyone laughed, surely that was not going to happen. Two songs later, however, for nearly the entire length of “Cockermouth,” he danced a jig, danced like he was a hip-hop video hoochie, and basically made an fool of himself, which was the point all along and it got me thinking: I’m not familiar with The Mekons of 1977 but I’m familiar enough with the general mentality of those bands to know that the Jon Langford of 1977 would have been appalled with the Jon Langford of 2008. Luckily, the Langford of ‘77 is long gone and in his place is a man seemingly at peace with himself and with the people around him, comfortable enough to look a bit foolish in front of strangers and secure enough to not care. The same can’t be said for many of his counterparts, he and all of The Mekons should be commended.
Location Info:
Fitzgerald Theater
Artist Info: Greil Marcus, The Mekons
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