DAVID ACKLES - Self Titled - (Elektra) - 1968, comment, review.

There will be a lot of referring to earlier comments here as I have waxed lyrical about Ackles before.

Ackles made four albums over a five year period and his vision is clear and runs through all his albums. He is, pretty clearly, a musical auteur. Similar themes and stories crop up from album to album and the mood is sustained over the five year period. You might say this was just his style and that may be the case but a more consistent style would be hard to find. You could almost throw all the albums together and have one long song cycle.

This small body of work is so undervalued that it is criminal.

Back in what is Frank Listening to #128 I said: If I didn't already know who Ackles was ( I have "American Gothic" (1972) and I commented on "Five & Dime"(1973) back in what Frank is listening to #91) I would still have picked this album up as it's on the Elektra label – home of The Doors, Tim Buckley, Love, Stooges, MC5, Phil Ochs etc. Just about everything they released in the late 60s /early 70s was interesting.

a brief bio from Allmusic: Born on February 20, 1937 (in Illinois) , he was working in vaudeville by age four and in the mid-'40s played a character named Tucky Worden in Columbia's Rusty the Dog film series. His co-star was Dwayne Hickman, who would later go on to play Dobie Gillis on television. He attended the University of Southern California and took a year to go to school in Edinburgh, where he studied literature. He eventually got a degree in film studies, though he was proficient in the theatre, ballet, and choreography. He held several odd jobs after school and was eventually hired as a songwriter by Elektra. He managed to parlay that assignment into a multi-record deal …

Back in what is Frank Listening to #91 I said: I have Ackles' "American Gothic" (1972) which is generally regarded as his best album … and it certainly is a good 'un. Ackles is, simply put, magnificent. His small body of work contains some of the highlights of the "singer songwriter" genre. Though these grandiose statements of mine are not without qualifications. If you like your music straight ahead, not to complicated, and more tune based rather than character or story based then give him a wide birth ( but, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with "straight ahead" and "uncomplicated"). Likewise if you think John Lennon or Harry Chapin are the heights of 70s singer songwriters then steer clear. And, finally, if you don't like musical theatre you wont make it past the first song.

He recorded 4 albums over a 5 year period between 1968 and 1973 …they sold nothing ("American Gothic" is the only record he had that charted – #167) . Ackles died of lung cancer on March 2, 1999, at the age of 62. He is however ( and had been) extremely influential on many ( and many minor) artists like Elvis Costello, Phil Collins, Bernie Taupin and Elton John. Don't let those names put you off …..I can see only the obvious story song aspects of Ackles in them – with the exception of Costello who seems hell bent on re-reading the "American Songbook" and maybe Bernie Taupin.

Ackles is of the singer-songwriter genre from the late 60s and early 70s. The genre is much heralded, though it should also be much maligned as anyone who puts pen to paper and plays a guitar or piano is considered a "singer songwriter"… but most of them do not rise above a catchy hook and some lines that rhyme. Ackles however (especially on this LP) encroaches on musical theatre territory though I hasten to add that he is from the "rock" paddock as opposed to the "popular" music field (Sinatra, Crosby, Mitchell et al), though he does blur the lines.

In what is Frank Listening to #128 I said: This album, his 2nd, is a hyper emotional, brutally honest (which is unusual as the older I get the more I realise that not everyone has insight though I thought everyone did) and quite eccentric. I'm not sure who Ackles thought his audience was in1970 but if there ever was a time for experimentation it was the late 60s /early 70s. Despite the fact he does not draw on the "great American songbook" as much as he does on "Five & Dime" what he does draw on is American art, tin pan alley, and the avant guard which really culminated in his 3rd album, "American Gothic" . This is glorious music and quite visual in it's structure… in mood he comes across as a more frantic aural version of a Edward Hopper painting from the 40s.

I stick by that.

This first album from 1968 has touches of musical theatre and Brecht / Weill. It also has touches of Tim Buckley and Leonard Cohen. It is his most "rock" album though. The men backing him were various Elektra records session musicians most of whom would form the band Rhinoceros though there are past or future members of Daily Flash, Buffalo Springfield and Iron Butterfly.

After this Ackles never made the same concessions to popular music and withdrew further and further into the fringe. Arguably this set would have benefited from a sparse sound like his future albums but as it stands it still is very left of centre and quirky, and the songwriting cuts like the well used proverbial knife.

The music is intense and thoughtful without being pretentious. The lyrical imagery is as vivid as anything Dylan ever wrote without the obscurity. The songs are heartfelt and visceral and often the songs sound very like the French chansonniers or a younger Rod McKuen. The lyrical meanings are often dark but never affected, gloomy or self indulgent. The mood is evocative and plays out like a film in your brain. In many ways he could be the Townes Van Zandt of rock pop musical theatre … especially if Townes lived in Europe. (I only use Townes as a reference as people are more likely to have heard of him than Ackles). Jimmy Webb could also serve as a point of favourable comparison.

God pops up in a number of his songs also. Ackles himself was a spiritual, conventionally religious man but his music would suggest that he wasn't fire and brimstone and wasn't a happy clapper. In many ways it seems that he is saying God exists, but life is pain, and God well not intervene on physical or human concerns so you have to find your own path with your wounds and scars. I'm surprised he never lived in Croatia.

Tracks (best in italics)

The The Road Cairo – amazing … intense and musically, probably, the least of the songs here to indicate where Ackles was going … covered by the Julie Driscoll led Brian Auger & Trinity in England.
When Love Is Gone – this is more the Ackles we know …. eaning towards musical theatre.
Sonny Come Home – fully fledged musical theatre with harrowing lyrics and also very much a part of the American avant garde. It's also very dramatic and is the type of song Jacques Brel did and Serge Gainsbourg wishes he could do.

These woods I've been here before

but someone's changed the colour of the leaves

Not leaves not green anymore

What is that hanging in the trees?

Bits of glass broken

bicycle wheels broken

old toys old wounds

broken broken

Blue Ribbons – a smacking of Stephen Sondheim on downers here … mind you that could apply to a number of songs.
What a Happy Day – this is a happy day? Well the lyrics are upbeat but Ackles vocals almost negate the message. His happiness is one always tempered by a concern that there is something bad around the corner. He isn't being morbid just thoughtful and possibly middle aged.
Down River – I don't like the mix on this one – Ackles vocals are too far back.
Laissez Faire – a show tune if there ever was one.
Lotus Man – a existential love song … the lovers either transcend reality or refuse to accept it …

In the night

listening to the city sound

of the people who ignore us

we'll take flight

with the stars ether bound

only galaxies to bore us.

His Name Is Andrew – a non-religious religious epic about a guy called Andrew who works in a canning factory. Through three verses God (or God's existence) is questioned by Andrew. What it all means I let you to decipher with the lyrics as a guide but the focus is "Andrew" not "God'. I think there is enough equivocal detail in the song to keep the sceptics, atheists or those dismayed with organised religion entertained.

            His name is Andrew
            He works at the canning factory
            He doesn't have a friend
            He chooses to wait alone for his life to end

            When Andrew was just a little boy
            He learned all the words to all the hymns of joy
            And he sang them on Sunday
            And he sang them on Monday
            And through April and through May
            And he caught them say
            God is love, God is love
            And he believed them

            This child was Andrew
            He lived in a world of nonsense
            On him the lion grinned
            He sang in the arms of God as he strung along
            When Andrew was tall and twenty-one
            He wandered far from God and wondered what he'd done
            For he still sang on Sunday
            Though he muddled through Monday
            With a silence in his head
            Till in jest it said
            God redeems, God redeems
            And he believed it

            This man was Andrew
            On hearing a voice his thought was stilled,
            Returned to the arms of grace
            He stumbled from the arms of night into a lighted place
            When Andrew returned into the light
            He lifted his voice and sang away the night
            And the preacher from Sunday
            Heard him singing on Monday
            And he stopped him with a word
            From the dark he heard
            God is dead, God is dead
            And he believed it

            My name is Andrew
            I work at the canning factory
            I do not have a friend
            I choose to wait alone for this life to end

Be My Friend – God exists in this song also but this is Ackles the humanist.

This life may not bring much comfort to you

This world may lose its touch of kindness too

and who's to blame?

Why can't you see?

Only you and Me

so if I may

I'd like to say

be my friend.

And …

As I have said before …. Ackles apparently regarded the message from Ecclesiastes as gospel (half pun intended) : "Who gathers knowledge gathers pain." … pretty much sums up his music.

I'm keeping this … brilliant.

I already have Ackles most well known album, "American Gothic" … and I have commented on the other two so this is the last "comment" on Ackles you will be seeing …

Chart Action

As if … anywhere.

Sounds

The The Road Cairo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnp9j6fc9eM

When Love Is Gone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJE2B71EJU&feature=related

Sonny Come Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3frjMVtouH4&feature=related

and attached

Blue Ribbons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3f0BZ_7eFM&feature=related

What a Happy Day