03/07/2011

Let's Get Out Of This Country


As seen in previous columns, songs about places can paint a broad picture by bringing the focus down to a particular building. In Coles Corner, Richard Hawley used a long-gone department store in Sheffield to create a nostalgic mood for a bygone time and place. St Etienne’s Mario’s Cafe was equally evocative of an era : “Button up your sheepskin caraway, rainy cafe, Kentish Town, Tuesday...and Eubank wins the fight and did you see the KLF last night?” Nick Cave’s Grief Came Riding put Battersea Bridge at the centre of a study of introspective gloom.

The scope of music is such that the most unlikely places for a pop song can strike a chord. The public library, for example, may in folk memory - if not current reality - be a place where stern-looking librarians go ‘SSSHH’ but it has figured in several songs, like Young Adult Friction ( The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) or Librarian (My Morning Jacket).Even the public toilet has been musically covered: 60’s popsters Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich did an EP entitled The Loos of England, firmly in the Carry On tradition.

Then there is the cathedral, an image of history, holiness, scale and height and a certain timelessness: musically associated with choral and organ music. Yet cathedrals across the world have been the backdrop for a number of songs, often ones in tune with the traditional solemnity of such places. Joan Osborne sang of the cathedrals of New York and Rome in Cathedrals. Death Cab for Cutie chose the architecture of St Peter’s Cathedral for a ‘why are we here’ lyric in St Peter’s Cathedral . Graham Nash, ex of the Hollies, wrote up a religious experience/acid trip on a visit to Winchester Cathedral in Cathedral, on the 1977 CSN album.

Winchester Cathedral, of course was also the subject and title of a more famous song from 1966, by songwriter Geoff Stephens and recorded initially by the New Vaudeville Band, (see column on Finchley Central), with later versions by Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark. The song has gone so much into the public memory that it is difficult now to say 'Winchester Cathedral' without putting the stress on the second syllable of Winchester, as in the song, instead of the first.

 Geoff Stephens could presumably have used Salisbury Cathedral, 25 miles away, in his lyric instead: it scans the same. But he didn’t and the chance of pop immortality slipped away from Salisbury, leaving it to make do with being the home town of the aforementioned Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. ( Drummer Mick, in fact, went back to Salisbury after leaving the group to become a driving instructor and Yellow Pages still show a Mick Wilson School of Driving in Salisbury. Maybe it is too fanciful to imagine him encouraging his learner drivers by saying ‘You make it move’ or ‘Hold tight’.)

Winchester, however, remains largely in my memory not because of the cathedral but because of a childhood disappointment that ranks alongside discovering there was little at Westward Ho! to justify the ! (as described in the column Taking a Trip Up to Abergavenny); or being taken at the age of 4 or 5 to an event at which the Sheriff of Poole was to appear. Instead, however, of a tall, heroic figure with a Stetson, silver badge and holster and a laconic ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ falling from his lips, there was an elderly and rather portly alderman in a waistcoat and suit. En route to Winchester, I had been told that I would see the Round Table at which King Arthur and his knights had gathered . I imagined a huge, imposing thing, possibly with a knight or two still sat at it quaffing mead from goblets .What I saw was a tabletop hanging on a wall that in my mind’s eye has now shrunk to the size of a dart board. If I had then known the Peggy Lee song, Is That All There Is, it would probably have come to mind.

Yet Winchester, Salisbury, Norwich, St Albans and the other UK cities boasting a cathedral do share a certain atmosphere, something captured by the song here from 2006, Lets Get Out of This Country by Scottish indie band, Camera Obscura. In a bittersweet and wistful song about escape, Tracyanne Campbell and the group imagine taking off from the everyday grind to a new life:  "We'll pick berries and recline, Let's hit the road, dear friend of mine .Wave goodbye to our thankless jobs, We'll drive for miles, maybe never turn off. We'll find a cathedral city, you can be handsome, I'll be pretty”. What were they looking for? Escape to a quieter, slower, more romantic way of life perhaps. They could expect to find an area of quiet streets and second-hand bookshops in the shadow of the cathedral, time-warp cafes serving cream teas and lemonade, a walled garden or two where the sound of bells and evensong drift across at dusk. But for some reason –perhaps it is the tourists, or the blend of old and modern – cathedral cities also attract the quirky and out of the ordinary: buskers and street performers, healers and astrologers, vegetarian restaurants.

There is a steam train called the Cathedral Express that aims to take passengers ‘travelling back in time...getting away from it all for the day..to an era long gone”. That is a nostalgic view that the adverts for Cathedral City cheese have milked for all its worth. But it is also not hard to imagine you are in parts of France or Germany as you wander round the streets and markets of some English cathedral towns. A reminder of a shared past and a brief lesson that history and nostalgia aren’t the same thing.

40 comments:

  1. Just saw the new column! We had July 4th over here in the U.S. (major holiday) so I away from my computer. (July 4th is where we celebrate our revolution against the British, hee heee:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The New Vaudeville Band song you posted is pretty funny - thanks Geoff!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Geoff, when I saw you wrote about Geoff Stephens, I had a sudden thought that perhaps you were finally revealing to us your real identity.... Are you Geoff Stephens??

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha ha ha, the Loos of England song made me laugh. Classic male British humour!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the photo Geoff - I recognize that as Bath! A perfect cathedral town.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Quentin Tarantino said that Dave Dee was one of his favourite bands of the sixties.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dave Dee was brilliant all-round band partly rooted in the English Music Hall tradition which relied heavily on lavatorial humour. The pseudo-patriotic words are terrific.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like how self-deprecating feelings make up the bulk of the lyric themes in this album. For instance, in the title track, Campbell sings: "We'll find a cathedral so that you can convince me I am pretty." Notice how she needs "convincing" that she's pretty. And in "I Need All the Friends I Can Get," she says: "You can't see that I'm just the same as all the stupid people you hate. I'm not saying I'm free from them because I need all the friends I can get." There's that resignation again.But it's all about delivery. By swaddling these lyrics in jovial arrangements, Camera Obscura are taking part in a time-honored tradition. I could name a zillion examples of this, from Marty Robbins' "Singing the Blues" to Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown." All of them sing about sadness with a smile. The bigger the smile, the more effective it is at conveying the underlying sadness. Just so with the songs on Let's Get Out of This Country. Even the saddest arrangements belie an undercurrent of happy melancholy. "Country Mile" has a lifting, "keep your chin up" melody. "Tears for Affairs" has a wistfully climbing organ line and cascading response vocals. These combine to demonstrate a sighing, almost clumsy resilience in the face of woeful circumstance.Begrudging self-reliance pervades. This spirit, in part, is what makes Let's Get Out of This Country such an uplifting, comforting listen for people just like you or me, slogging through emotional adversity.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I bought Camera Obscura's first album and I appreciated the biting lyrics and the melodies, but I found it a bit hard to get past the fact that they really wanted to be a girly Belle and Sebastian. We're talking Belle and Sebastian circa 1997-1998, at their twee-pop peak. Their album cover looked like a Belle and Sebastian album cover, the songs sounded like Belle and Sebastian songs. There was a niche to be filled, I suppose, since Belle and Sebastian have been closer to Thin Lizzy than Love recently. On the album Let's Get Out Of This Country, however, Camera Obscura find their own niche. No longer are they a Belle and Sebastian tribute act. They soak their sound in wall-of-sound reverb, filling the sound with organs, accordions, string sections, percussion, the kitchen sink, etc. We're talking Phil Spector and the Ronettes here. But, unlike the cold paranoia of a Phil Spector production, the sound of Let's Get Out Of This Country is lush, brightly colored. It simply sounds beautiful. Over the top of the wall-of-sound floats Tracyann's wispy voice, intimate and warm as she sings biting, self-depreciating lyrics lamenting indie pop love lives.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Camera Obscura are from Glasgow. Shipyards. Car factories. The smokestacks. I'm of the mindset that if you can envision a little of the place, the music will be all the more relevant.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great column! Reminded me how much I adore their whimsical melodies.

    ReplyDelete
  12. They have such a great 60’s girl group vibe!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love Camera Obscura. Lush, kitchen-sink arrangements that lift the song up to the sky but never overwhelm.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is a song for when changing places is what's needed. The contention is when everyone else can't seem to understand why you want out. This song tackles the desire to leave just for the sake of change.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The best idie bands are all from scotland----jesus and mary chain, the pastels, the vaselines, Belle & Sebastian ... that gloomy weather produces some good music!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Camera Obscura are unabashed pop perfection. You're unlikely to hear pop records this good very often.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love Camera Obscura, it’s as simple as that. Ever since I bought Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi in 1999, I’ve had a special place in my heart for this band. Sure they always get lumped in with Belle and Sebastian, and while some of the songs might sound similar and Tracyanne may have dated Stuart, Camera Obscura are just a bit better than Glasgow’s biggest band.

    They are way more personable than B&S could ever hope to be. Having met them in 2004 at Mergefest, I can attest that they are among the nicest Glaswegians I have ever met (and I’ve known and dated a few!). Some of the best musical conversations I ever had were in front of the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill and in Washington DC at the 9:30 Club w/Nigel, John, and Gavin.

    ReplyDelete
  18. One of the greatest bands ever to come out of Scotland. Their last two albums are fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  19. My first Camera Obscura album was Underacheivers Please Try Harder and it changed my life. please give it a listen, the whole album.....

    ReplyDelete
  20. Camera Obscura is like a candy store of shimmering melodies, delicate vocals and catchy choruses. thank you for writing this.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Here are the great lyrics!

    Let’s get out of this country
    I’ll admit I am bored with me
    I drowned my sorrows and slept around
    When not in body at least in mind
    We’ll find a cathedral city
    You can convince me I am pretty

    We’ll pick berries and recline
    Let’s hit the road dear friend of mine
    Wave goodbye to our thankless jobs
    We’ll drive for miles maybe never turn off
    We’ll find a cathedral city you can be handsome I’ll be pretty

    What does this city have to offer me
    Everyone else thinks it’s the bee’s knees
    What does this city have to offer me?
    I just can’t see
    I just can’t see

    Let’s get out of this country
    I have been so unhappy
    Smell the Jasmine my head was turned
    I feel like getting confessional
    We’ll find a cathedral city you can convince me I am pretty

    What does this city have to offer me
    Everyone else thinks it’s the bee’s knees
    What does this city have to offer me
    I just can’t see
    I just can’t see

    ReplyDelete
  22. This is the first song I've heard from this band and I already know i love them - thanks Geoff!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Also, I remember the Carry On tradition you mention here.... you taught us about that in an earlier column:)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Here is Death Cab for Cutie, St Peter’s Cathedral in case anyone wants it!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0c4a5uSQXg

    ReplyDelete
  25. No,I'm not Geoff Stephens, Martha! He was a prolific songwriter, writing The Crying Game, Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James and Silver Lady amongst others.
    Yes, it is Bath, Mariana. Strictly speaking it has an Abbey but otherwise it is a perfect cathedral town..

    ReplyDelete
  26. Here is Joan Osborne's Cathedrals - although I have to say that I like the version by Jump Little Children better.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5jtAf8PClY

    ReplyDelete
  27. Had never heard Librarian (My Morning Jacket) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Es1flO_2M - but here it is for others. Very lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Here's Young Adult Friction (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) - best song about a library ever!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4itzHRpltQ

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi and thank you for the shout-out. You and your readers might like my album Little Wild One, which is very much an album about a city (New York City). I was explaining in an interview recently that I certainly don't want to exclude people who don't live in New York or know New York, but it's like reading a novel that's set in a particular place, where you can get the flavor of it and maybe fall in love with that place and say, 'Oh, yeah, that was the part in that song or in that chapter where this thing happened.' The song Cathedrals is on that album. It seemed like it had been written for the record, thematically, the way it evokes New York City. I heard it once and thought, 'We have to do that.' I really like the way it evokes that physical space with the surveillance cameras and the canyons of buildings and all that. It gives you a sense of being just this tiny little person in the midst of this huge structure and how you find your identity in the middle of all that. The 9/11 attacks gave me a new appreciation for my adopted city, gave me new inspiration for the album I wanted to write and inspired me to read works like Walt Whitman's Crossing Brooklyn Ferry for solace. I was not somebody who could sit down and write an album's worth of material after Sept. 11, because it was so overwhelming to me; I couldn't think what to say about it. But what filtered down to me was an appreciation of what the city was and is - an indomitable spirit it has, and also the spiritual nature of all these people living on top of each other from different countries and different faiths and different mindsets and different everything, yet we are able to coexist relatively peacefully.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Well, it was worth a try!:) (to see if you were Geoff Stephens:)

    ReplyDelete
  31. I love how your columns are all tying together (like the references back to Coles Corner and Grief Came Riding. It makes it all the more obvious that this should now become a book!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Poor Geoff! It's such a tragic image, you at about 4 years old, gazing up at what was supposed to be something magnificent, all disappointed - with this soundtrack playing:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9kKf7SHco
    I have to say, your childhood does sound full of disappointments. Tragic stuff, the Westward Ho, Sheriff of Poole and Round Table incidents. Either you were easily disappointed or else you were very imaginative and so too excited to begin with. Or maybe your parents had a tendency to make stuff sound more exciting in advance than it really was:)

    ReplyDelete
  33. I definitely put the stress on the second syllable of Winchester - had no idea that came from hearing songs!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hello there,

    They are actually the Mick Wilson School of Motoring (not Driving). Give em a ring on 01722 327652 to make a reservation. I reckon they do say to learner drivers ‘You make it move’ and ‘Hold tight’. Dunno though. Me, I still drum. We toured in England and Germany last year. And also I deliver meals to the elderly.

    Mick

    ReplyDelete
  35. This advert for Cathedral City is different though - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TNzuaeb2nM - it makes it a working class food, working people enjoying a well-earned break with a slice of cheese.... Not a cathedral in sight.......

    ReplyDelete
  36. I think you're right Geoff - in places like Winchester you can definitely imagine you're in Europe: http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/images.big/winchester18abig.jpg - based on this kind of picture.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Dear Geoff,

    A day out on the ‘Cathedrals Express’ is one to be remembered. The historic carriages, the sound of the engine’s whistle and the smoke drifting past the window evoke memories of a bygone age of the steam train. You and your readers can find out more at our website: http://www.steamdreams.co.uk

    It may also interest you to know that Steam Dreams was the brainchild of steam train enthusiast Marcus Robertson whose mother wrote the Wombles. He says: “As a child I loved steam travel and always felt it had a magic – making travel exciting and fun. In the mid 1990s when I started taking my children on steam trips I realised that there were many people like me looking to re-live the nostalgia of steam travel. My wife, although enjoying the steam travel, was equally keen on finding an attractive destination and it was this that got me thinking – ‘why not combine the two?’"

    Meg

    ReplyDelete
  38. Here's the Nash song, Cathedral
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJQkZXiFNkw

    ReplyDelete
  39. There is also "Cathedral Song" by Tanita Tikaram

    ReplyDelete
  40. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete