Every garage band needs a slow dance in their repertoire. Whether for the purpose of cooling their blistering fingers, exposing their sensitivity to the ladies in the crowd, or letting the fellas pull their gals in a little bit closer, they’ve got to cool it down for a minute.
Best known for their chaotic keyboard rippers, ? & the Mysterians take the chill pill via T-Bone Walker’s “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad).”
The thing about the fast songs is that they tend to hide your mistakes. Folks don’t notice scratches in your car, barreling by them at 100 miles an hour, but on a slow cruise down the strip, every flaw glares like a mirror ball in the sun.
The Mysterians aren’t the most technically proficient band in the world, and that really comes through here. Missed notes, dropped beats and poorly-fingered chords are all here, as is a palpable strain to keep the tempo in check.
The guitar solo goes off the rails, and you can hear the player’s confidence drain and the panic set in, just before the song fades away. The thing is, though, that there isn’t a second of this that doesn’t work perfectly.
Our narrator is shaken, stirred, got-the-blues-so-bad-man-I-wish-I-was-dead depressed, and there’s a slightly above average chance that he’s drunk on fortified wine or bathtub gin, missing the woman who left with his heart.
He’s in no position to do anything all the way correct. If music is supposed to be an extension and reflection of the lyrics, then this is one of the most successful songs in the history of recorded music.
Setting a song of such endearing and obvious honesty alongside juvenile sex-romp macho-postures like “96 Tears” gives them a gravity that they would lack, otherwise.
If they gave out Best Supporting Song Grammy Awards, “Stormy Monday” would’ve won in 1966 by a landslide.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
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