By ShivSidecar
Let’s put our heroes on pedestals. Let’s cheer them and mark their birthdays with flowers. Let’s smile fondly as we walk past our heroes’ corner of the park, part of childhood memories, eternal and permanent. Perhaps we can forgive those needling revelations that they also had darker moments – the character flaws, the domestic strife, the sexual peccadillos, the exploitation of the defenceless. Perhaps. But perceptions change – sometimes slowly, sometimes overnight. Kick over the statues! And now we need to find new heroes to fill those pedestals.
Randy Newman’s A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country applies the author’s trademark sardonic humour to George W Bush’s America. It’s not so bad, says the narrator, tongue firmly in cheek – Bush was a pussycat compared to the Caesars, the Inquisition, Hitler and Stalin or King Leopold of Belgium (“He owned the Congo and he tore it up too… You know what he left them with? Malaria.”). These lyrics were printed straight as an editorial in the New York Times. An even more scathing deconstruction of a national myth can be found in Brian McNeill’s attack on the tartan culture of mythical Scottish heroes in No Gods And Precious Few Heroes, here given the full force of Dick Gaughan’s inimitable voice on peak form.
King Leopold II of Belgium – slave trader and Hitler equivalent of monstrous crimes in Africa
When playlisting this topic I did consider leaving politicians and presidents out of the mix entirely – they’ve been covered before – but I was intrigued by several songs, and here are three. I knew US President Andrew Jackson was nicknamed “Old Hickory”, but I hadn’t heard the name “Jaksa Chula Harjo” (“Old mad Jackson”), applied by the Cherokee who he displaced from their homelands, and many of who were to die on the Trail of Tears. Jackson was a military hero to many Americans – 10,000 Maniacs put the opposite case. Writing in wartime, Woody Guthrie points the finger at Charles Lindbergh – a national hero for completing the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927, but also an ambitious admirer of Nazi Germany and a strong opponent of American involvement in WW2. As a change from the usual British and US suspects, The Herd (not the Peter Frampton outfit) rejoice in the fall of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, with a joyful lyric which could apply to many similar occasions: “Finally the king is dead, we cried off with his head, everything must change!”
“I’m getting sick of all the history and facts…” note The Wolfgang Press on Louis XIV, correctly identifying their heroes’ glamour and flash as being the factors which make many people identify with them. The Sun King epitomises this trait, revelling in others’ adulation. But uncritical worship breeds complacency. Luke Haines takes a typically skewed view of an unloved contemporary performer who fell with a thud: “Gary Glitter, he’s a bad, bad man… ruining the reputation of The Glitter Band – guilt by association!”
Huge numbers of popular songs depend on broken romance, usually with the wronged party railing against the ex-lover they’d idolised. Here are two instances where the fallen hero gives us their viewpoint. The Impressions can’t rationalise My Deceiving Heart (“I wish that I hadn’t started what has taken your love from me”) – a mighty performance from Curtis Mayfield. Things are even bleaker in Mark Lanegan’s Phantasmagoria Blues, in which he compares himself to a figure from antiquity: “Thought I’d rule like Charlemagne, but I’ve become corrupt… and you’re free, you’re free again – one more time.”
A Who bromance: Jimmy The Mod used to idolise The Ace Face, who led the scooter rallies and rumbles with the rockers in Brighton. “I used to follow you back in ’63…” But his hero has feet of clay: “I work in a hotel, all gilt and flash. Bell Boy…! I’ve gotta get running now, keep my lip buttoned down…” And family will let you down, too – Rufus Wainwright’s fractious relationship with his father Loudon is laid bare in Dinner At Eight, a record of a meal which begins with an attempt at reconciliation and ends with Loudon threatening to kill his son. A low-key song which administers a mighty gut-punch.
For whom the bell tolls. Quadrophenia: Jimmy discovers his hero Ace Face (Sting) isn’t quite what he seems …
In 1970 John Lennon’s ego was on widespread public display via the unrestrained lyrics on his Plastic Ono Band album. The song God was a particular shocker, light years away from the playful songs normally associated with Beatle John. In a lengthy litany Lennon proclaims “I don’t believe in… Jesus… Kennedy… Buddha… Elvis… Zimmerman…” and finally “I don’t believe in Beatles. I just believe in me, Yoko and me, and that’s reality. The dream is over.” And for Fab fans everywhere, it was.
Finally, Paul Kelly gives us a hero we can all look up to: “Shane Warne, bowler of mystery”. But wait…: “Mr Warne on his phone sent a lot of texts, 'cause he liked to have quite a lot of sex. Took a prohibited pill to lose his love handles, said, "Mum gave it to me". It was a terrible scandal…” Well, nobody’s perfect.
A-List Playlist:
Randy Newman – A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country
Dick Gaughan – No Gods And Precious Few Heroes
10,000 Maniacs – Among The Americans
Woody Guthrie – Lindbergh
The Herd – The King Is Dead
Wolfgang Press – Louis XIV
Luke Haines – Bad Reputation (The Glitter Band)
The Impressions – My Deceiving Heart
Mark Lanegan – Phantasmagoria Blues
The Who – Bell Boy
Rufus Wainwright – Dinner At Eight
John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band - God
Paul Kelly – Shane Warne
B-List Playlist
The Redskins – Kick Over The Statues
Willie Nile – They’ll Build A Statue To You
The Bangles – Hero Takes A Fall
Felt – Dismantled King Is Off The Throne
Sonic Youth – Massage The History
Opal – Fell From The Sun
Tahures Zurdos – Dime Que No (Say It Ain’t So, Joe)
Johnny Cash – The Ballad Of Ira Hayes
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog
Ann Peebles – I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down
Teenage Fanclub – He’d Be A Diamond
Mountain Goats – Abandoned Flesh
Microdisney – Singer’s Hampstead Home
XTC – The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth
Guru’s Wildcard Pick:
Ed Banger – Kinnel Tommy
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: You let me down: songs about fallen ‘heroes’. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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