THE WALKABOUTS
Ended up a stranger
CD, Glitterhouse
I
was sceptical at first. I mean, this is one of the bands that were with me
for a major part of my life, the last fifteen years, ever since
“Scavenger”, and this is there, I don’t know, maybe thirteenth record
(including thos Chris & Carla releases, but not counting
live-recordings) and some of those belong to my all time favourites still.
That makes things very hard to compare, to keep a measured eye on any new
releases. Also, their excursion onto a major-label wasn’t so fruitfull,
actually rather boring in comparison to their earlier stuff, and I
couldn’t really relate to “the train leaves at eight”, where they
covered all these european songs. Because the Walkabouts are a truly
american band in the best sense of the world (maybe that is why they are so
successful in Europe?) So I listened to “Ended up a stranger” once, then
again and after a few days pause I listened to it again some more times. And
now I know: this is a damn good record, maybe an important milestone in the
development of this band. It is what they were trying to do on the major
labels, but couldn’t (of course). See, if you take your time and wait
things out, it will all come together somehow. “Ended up a stranger”
ties some important knots together.
The
Walkabouts are no guitar- or rock-band anymore. Say goodbye to these heavy
rocking tracks (the ones that always ended up in Neil Young’s “Like a
Hurricane” and no band covered that song better than the Walkabouts). It
is all about feelings, about dark epic cinemascope feelings of life, of the
trials and tribulations, of the bloodred sundown and the birthlike mornings
and the traveling in between. Even though lots of the songs on “Ended up a
stranger” draw from experiences the protagonists have made in Europe,
because Europe has become an important part of the lives of the members of
the Walkabouts, these are still basically very american songs. No doubt
about it. The major-minor-chord-changes, the wailing guitar-solos in the
background (Neil Young again!), the slowly grooving rhythms, the Hammond
Organ and the dark atmosphere and the way Chris Eckman turns more and more
into Leonard Cohen – this comes from the dark but beautiful heart of
America.
I
saw “Con Air” on TV last night again and I thought to myself, that maybe
the worst thing about prison is, when you realise that you have wasted your
life, and that you only have one chance at it. So this was it. You’re
done. Well, some people just tell themselves “Fuck it” and go on like
that, but that is what makes a criminal mind, maybe. The complete dispair of
knowing how badly you fucked up struck me deeply, and usually there is a lot
of that dispair in the songs of the Walkabouts as well. (The movie itself is
pretty stupid, actually. Who would hire a mentally disturbed prison inmate
to free a drug baron? Buying some prison guards is the common way. After
all, it’s just a Hollywood-Action-movie, so forget it, enjoy the
explosions!) There is also a lot of uncertainty, of not knowing what the
future will bring, of not knowing if you are ready to really face the
future, but knowing that it will come anyway. Do we have to call that
existentialism? Does that make the Walkabouts into a philosophical
Country-band? Or maybe just one of these constantes to be counted upon?
“Ended up a stranger” won me back (again), and I will go on coming back
to the band, maybe growing old together. Let’s whish the best.
