Comfortably numb
By Doug Thompson
A country version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” surprised me a bit.
I listen to lots of broadcast radio while driving between Little Rock and Fayetteville almost every weekend. I don’t get surprised that often.
A Canadian country band called Luther Wright and the Wrongs covered “Numb” in 2001. They re-recorded the entire Pink Floyd album “The Wall” as “Rebuild the Wall.” I assume that’s the source of what I heard Friday night.
The surprise came from how little difference there was. Just a bit of twang and poorer playing transformed a progressive rock masterpiece into a decent
country song.

No meaningful difference remains between pop and country. The one possible exception is political: Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks. They were right, and much of the conservative country fan base still resents it. Grammy statuettes don’t soothe grudges.

I think it was Dwight Yoakum who said in an interview years ago that there are no real country signers any more, and there are very few professional mule drivers either. Time passed both by.

I remember hearing Ray Price in an interview about six or seven years ago.
He talked about how all the producers in Nashville wanted their groups to sound like the Beatles. I like the Beatles, he said, but when I want to listen to the Beatles, I play Beatles records. There was a pause and then he
said, as a country gentleman would, “That was hateful. I’m sorry.”

A couple of years before that, George Jones complained that everybody celebrates his legacy but nobody plays his records, not the new ones anyway.
It’s not all Garth Brooks fault. Cruelly, it was because those men’s records didn’t sound as good of a commercial bet as their early work. Johnny Cash was right to rail against this, where everything in Nashville is judged on whether it might win the platinum-selling lottery. Recorded music has become
a vast collective memory that can pronounce a sentence of “Been there, done that better” even upon the living. It’s hard to be original or rip somebody off and pass as original when you can download the same, better work of some long-dead singer or player.

Making a rock song into a country one is enough to pass for originality now. It’s safe. If you can’t revolutionize or startle, then tweak. That’s a shame. I don’t like stuck-up posing about “real” this or “real” that. I know what “real” country music is, though.

Country is blues for white people. “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday” and “It Ain’t Love, but It Ain’t Bad” are songs badly needed by people who are having a bad night. Even those of us who are doing pretty good need reminding that what we have can be lost if we don’t work at it.

Weirdly, misery has fled to rock and turned into self pity. The genre is polluted with whiners. Johnny Cash had every right to sing “Hurt.” Very few others should try.

Country tells straight, heavy truths with a candor and the wise echoing of experience that pop chart glee never achieves and rare, great bands like Pink Floyd completely pass by.

Consider this lyric sung by Elvis Presley: “Well since my baby left me, I’ve found a new place to dwell. I take a walk down lonely street to Heartbreak Hotel.”

That’s a good lyric, a fine lyric, even a great lyric.

Now consider this one by Paul McCartney: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. Oh I believe, in yesterday.” That’s another outstanding lyric.

Now consider this: “… but I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Now when I hear that lonesome whistle I hang my head and cry.”

In a few lines, Cash describes a man so tough that he killed a man for fun and who now is brought to tears by the sound of a train whistle, which represents the freedom he threw away.

That’s why my auto-scanning car radio gets its stop button pushed more often for one classic country station out of Fort Smith or thereabouts than for anyplace else, even though my favorite band is still Yes. Stations don’t play “Close to the Edge” anymore, in a lot of ways.

Daddy Warbucks
And the walls came tumblin’ down
Never, never, Daddy W. says, underestimate the power of public attention to motivate those who hold the power. Months ago, Fayetteville historic preservationist Paula Marinoni began pointing out the historical importance of the Edward Durrell Stone designed Carlson Terrace apartment buildings on the UA campus. Some of the buildings in the complex were torn down not too long ago to make way for the rent-by-the-foot Razorback tailgating park. Now the UA wants the rest of them torn down for a new, improved women’s softball field. As the drumbeat of Marinoni’s drum got louder and louder, the UA Board moved faster and faster. Now suddenly the proposed 2010 deadline to tear down the rest of the Carlson Terrace got moved up to tear down immediately as a sudden “failure” in either the water or sewer system for the complex doomed them. So out the students go. The UA will destroy all these units – quickly – and another Fayetteville landmark (designed on a low budget by a world-famous architect and Arkansas son) will be but a memory. Remember this. Even the UA can move fast when the drum beat of public sentiment is rising.

Barber East?
There are news reports that the Barber Group might find their “high” plans for Nashville, Tenn., to be as displeasing and charged with as much “high drama” as the group’s similar project, The Divinity, here in Fayetteville. But time shall tell. The Barber Group wants to help sagging downtown Nasvhille (around the old Ryman Auditorium) by – that’s right – building some high rise buildings. At first blush, looks like more tough sledding for the development.

Mooooore $$$
Milk producers, those who are left in the dairy business, are feeling the pinch. So much so they have pull on the legislature and are in hopes for a stream of milk supports. We shall see. Farming and price supports it seems go hand in hand these days.

A Quiet Mardi Gras
A couple of downtown merchants knew it was a quiet Mardi Gras this past week. No arrests – zip – non – nadda. Dickson Street bar owners knew it was going to be quiet—too quiet: too cold to get too much into the spirit of fun means too little spirit sales. Well, there is always next year. Save the beads.

Bar decision
Members of the Washington County Judiciary, led by Circuit Judge William Storey and the local bar, led by proxy by Jackson Butt, has said moving all the courts to a location near the new jail in south Fayetteville – while on paper looks good – may not be the best decision. County Judge Jerry Hunton, always on the
lookout to the future, says the matter will be studied. All the while, we see more and more attorneys moving out of downtown. Can this be a move that others
may regret as the available property downtown outpaces the tenants?

Cable Throw Down
Despite the warning, AT&T and Cox Cable’s grudge matches are on. It will be interesting to see how both these “biggies” co-exist in the computer, digital TV and soon to be phone business. The city is selling competition as a good thing, but the city is not really known for helping the little guy – or that’s what some contractors sure keep saying.

Daddy Warbucks

And the walls of Carlson Terrace came tumblin’ down

Never, never, Daddy W. says, underestimate the power of public attention to motivate those who hold the power. Months ago, Fayetteville historic preservationist Paula Marinoni began pointing out the historical importance of the Edward Durrell Stone designed Carlson Terrace apartment buildings on the UA campus. Some of the buildings in the complex were torn down not too long ago to make way for the rent-by-the-foot Razorback tailgating park. Now the UA wants the rest of them torn down for a new, improved women’s softball field. As the drumbeat of Marinoni’s drum got louder and louder, the UA Board moved faster and faster. Now suddenly the proposed 2010 deadline to tear down the rest of the Carlson Terrace got moved up to tear down immediately as a sudden “failure” in either the water or sewer system for the complex doomed them. So out the students go. The UA will destroy all these units – quickly – and another Fayetteville landmark (designed on a low budget by a world-famous architect and Arkansas son) will be but a memory. Remember this. Even the UA can move fast when the drum beat of public sentiment is rising.

Barber East?
There are news reports that the Barber Group might find their “high” plans for Nashville, Tenn., to be as displeasing and charged with as much “high drama” as the group’s similar project, The Divinity, here in Fayetteville. But time shall tell. The Barber Group wants to help sagging downtown Nasvhille (around the old Ryman Auditorium) by – that’s right – building some high rise buildings. At first blush, looks like more tough sledding for the development.

Mooooore $$$
Milk producers, those who are left in the dairy business, are feeling the pinch. So much so they have pull on the legislature and are in hopes for a stream of milk supports. We shall see. Farming and price supports it seems go hand in hand these days.

A Quiet Mardi Gras
A couple of downtown merchants knew it was a quiet Mardi Gras this past week. No arrests – zip – non – nadda. Dickson Street bar owners knew it was going to be quiet—too quiet: too cold to get too much into the spirit of fun means too little spirit sales. Well, there is always next year. Save the beads.

Bar decision
Members of the Washington County Judiciary, led by Circuit Judge William Storey and the local bar, led by proxy by Jackson Butt, has said moving all the courts to a location near the new jail in south Fayetteville – while on paper looks good – may not be the best decision. County Judge Jerry Hunton, always on the
lookout to the future, says the matter will be studied. All the while, we see more and more attorneys moving out of downtown. Can this be a move that others
may regret as the available property downtown outpaces the tenants?

Cable Throw Down
Despite the warning, AT&T and Cox Cable’s grudge matches are on. It will be interesting to see how both these “biggies” co-exist in the computer, digital TV and soon to be phone business. The city is selling competition as a good thing, but the city is not really known for helping the little guy – or that’s what some contractors sure keep saying.