Raw notes for The Godfathers' More Songs About Love & Hate

This is probably a bit self-indulgent on my part, but here are the notes I took when listening to The Godfathers' More Songs About Love & Hate. I thought it might be of some interest to some people (and probably completely boring for 99.9 percent of everyone else), but it's my blog and I'll do whatever I want--so there! So here are my musically uneducated off-the-cuff observations of each song on the album:

"She Gives Me Love"--Poppiest song on the album? Prominent drumming and wah-wah guitar. Good opener.

"Those Days Are Over"--Has an AC/DC "For Those About to Rock" feel with Byrds-y guitar break. Song about dissatisfaction or maybe warfare (either real of metaphorical).

"How Low Is Low"--Title says it all. More dissatisfaction sung over a Rolling Stones groove.

"Pretty Girl"--This could have been on a mid-'60s beat group album. Simple lovelorn lyrics and "yeah, yeah, yeah" vocals on the outro.

"This Is Your Life"--These guys can really write hooks, even when they lyrics are despondent and angry. Ends with the same chord played over and over to reinforce the feeling of pressure, drudgery, etc. (The chord is played 75 times in row, according to Trouser Press review).

"I'm Lost and Then I'm Found"--A chugging bloozy rocker which predicts the emergence of The Black Crowes that same year [Not that The Black Crowes were necessarily listening to these guys].

"I Don't Believe In You"--More "that girl done me wrong" lyrics. Rockin' and catchy, but filler.

"Life Has Passed Us By"--Our boys enter Kinks/Madness territory here. "Terry and Judy" rather than "Terry and Julie" of the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset. [If the previous song predicts The Black Crowes, this one predicts the Britpop of Oasis and Blur a few years in the future].

"Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues"--Need I say this is a fun rockabilly tune. The bit about taking speed is funny, given it was once Cash's drug of choice.

"Halfway Paralyzed"--This could be the Richard Burton/Liz Taylor theme. [Google the lyrics and read them].

"Another You"--A pleasant if inconsequential closer. Twangy and surf-y guitar sound.

Thrift Store Finds, Volume 2: The Godfathers/More Songs About Love & Hate

The following is adapted from and expanded upon an Intagram post I made. There was copy-and-pasting going on, which always seems to irrevocably mess up the font size and font type in Blogger.

I recall loving The Godfathers' song "Birth School Work Death" back in 1988. It was full of piss and vinegar, righteous anger, and in the video, the guys in the band looked like extras from The Long Good Friday. For whatever reason, however, I never bought the album. After finally discovering, 32 years after the fact, the no-frills, Clash-meets-AC/DC rock 'n' roll of More Songs About Love & Hate, I now feel the need to dig into their earlier stuff. And in fact, I have finally ordered Birth, School, Work, Death album a mere 33 years after its release. (Update, the disc arrived yesterday and I love it).

More Songs About Love & Hate (I assume the title is a nod to Leonard Cohen) largely avoids the cheesy production that mars many '80s albums. It might help that, from what I've read, The Godfathers' producer Vic Maile was chosen largely because the band liked what he'd done on Motorhead's Ace of Spades album. (Though I'm sure it didn't hurt that he'd also produced the legendary British band Dr. Feelgood, who are similar to The Godfathers). Vic Maile produced The Godfathers' first three albums, concluding with this one. (Vic Maile died on July 11, 1989, presumably not long after More Songs... was completed).

It's a shame that Epic changed the album cover for the American release. The British cover features an atmospheric photograph of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, while the American release replaces it with a somewhat pedestrian group shot. Apparently Epic thought that American audiences were either too stupid to know about the couple's tumultuous passionate marriage or had never seen Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. That photo of Liz and Richard fits the mood and feel of the songs as well as the title. And by the way, I am merely speculating on Epic's decision to change the album cover. I really have no idea why they did it.

Regardless of the album cover, this is a tremendous record. I know that it is a cliche to claim that an album is an "overlooked gem" or "lost classic," but this applies to More Songs About Love & Hate. "She Gives Me Love" kicks off with frantic drumming and might be the most infectious song on the record, though the album is full of infectious rockers. "Those Days Are Over" combines AC/DC and Byrdsy influences, with a prominent Roger McGuinn-like guitar break. (It definitely sounds like a Rickenbacker guitar on that tune, and that is the only instance of any Godfathers song I've heard to feature anything remotely resembling a Rick). "Life Has Passed Us By" enters Kinks/Madness territory, while the guys dial up the rockabilly on the amusing "Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues" with the funny line "Well I took some speed I thought it was what I'd need." The stylistic range these guys possess is impressive.

My conclusion is that I wish I'd forked over my hard-earned dorm cafeteria employee money for these Godfathers albums back in the late '80s. I would have played them with the fervor I played R.E.M., The Replacements, U2, The Smithereens, and U2. But hey, better late than never, right?

Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

Mark's latest book report:

Arc of Justice, by Kevin Boyle, was published in 2004, won the National Book Award, and I finally got around to reading it (though I took a few breaks along the way). I had the book on my “to read” list for many years.

The book is the painstakingly researched and detailed story of Ossian Sweet, a young, successful Black doctor who bought an attractive brick bungalow on the corner of Charlevoix and Garland in an all-white neighborhood on Detroit’s east side. On the evening after Ossian and his wife moved into the house in September 1925, a white mob gathered outside, and chaos ensued. Stones were thrown at the house and shots were fired from an upstairs window. Two people were struck by bullets, one of whom died. 

What unfolds is a kaleidoscopic view of 1920s Detroit. The city was a rapidly growing industrial metropolis, with thousands of people of all races and nationalities flooding the city to work in auto (and auto-related) factories. At the same time, the Ku Klux Klan had staked out Detroit in its strategy of extending white supremacy in the North. The 1924 mayoral election pitted a candidate (Charles Bowles) supported by the KKK against the progressive Republican John “Johnny” Smith. Smith gathered a coalition of immigrants and Blacks and won the election. 

Still, the city was teeming with racial tension. Segregation, housing discrimination, and intolerance were firmly entrenched in the city. Ossian Sweet’s attempt to move into a white neighborhood, and the ensuing trials, brought to sharp focus a homeowner’s rights to self-defense as well as the white “neighborhood associations” created to reinforce racial discrimination and intimidation.

Boyle does an excellent job in painting a vivid picture of Detroit in the 1920s. There are many colorful characters who make appearances in the book, most notably the flamboyant and eloquent Clarence Darrow—fresh off the Scopes Monkey Trial--who was the Sweets’ defense attorney.

Boyle also spends a significant portion of the book describing who Ossian Sweet was. We learn about his industrious and loving parents, his occasionally harrowing childhood in Bartow, Florida, and his education at both Wilberforce and Howard Universities. Sweet’s life was touched by both professional success and personal tragedies.

In light of the racial hatred that sadly continues in the United States in 2021, Arc of Justice is a reminder of how the “good old days” are “old” but definitely were not “good.” Some improvements have been made in race relations since 1925, but we still have a long way to go.