Customer Reviews

Dog Boy Van

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have not encountered such intense devotion to bare-naked emotional poetic lyrics ever. The music is a cross between early James Taylor, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan and the lyrics are straight out of a delusional, schizophrenic genious poet's notebook. The words are not fancy, but they comprise unexpectedly insightful ideas about how we think in such an estranged era. The music is simply Dan's voice and Dan's guitar. And his harmonica sometimes. This is plenty to take you right out of your life and look at the world with a nonsequitur bent. This music grows on you like a weed- a fragrant, muppety, strangely beautiful weed.

A single CD can only contain so much greatness, thats why only six tracks. "oklahoma" and "live another day" are effectively poingnant. "Kurt" is mortality satire. "Jeruselm" wanders in and out of a love song. "Talkin,Alien abduction blues" is sci-fi satire. "Hannibal" Im still working on this one, but I suppose its about narrow minded biggots. I always play the whole CD, and sometimes once isnt enough. what can I say, Dan's the Man

Dan Bern showed up in Corpus Christi split our heads open and ate the insides. When I heard Jerusalem for the first time, I knew this guy was too warped to be forgotten. I was so taken with that song, I played to a group of college students. Judging from their blank expressions, it was a bit esoteric for them. I suppose if he changed his name to Electric Frog Toast, they might have gotten it. In any case, this CD rocks!

Dan's first official release came after spending many years roaming the L.A. coffeehouse/ bar scene. It begins with his most famous song (famous in a relative way) the hilarious over-the-top "Jerusalem" and ends with the heart-wrenching account of the Ok. City bombings "Oklaholma."
Dan has a way of powerfully binding the most ridiculous with the most profound in a way that does not leave you feeling like he is the least bit insincere.
This may be the place to begin to quench curiosity about him.
He switches back and forth from the confident "Jerusalem" to the touching ode to "Kurt" and Mr. Cobain's young confused "little girls who cried like rain." From the questioning of life found in "live another day" to the silly playful "talkin' alien abduction blues."
He would go on and make more ambitious work, but this is a snapshot of an artist ready to take on the world.

Absolute perfection. Spare, but solid production THE best officialy released Bern CD. Powerful, brooding, hilarious, and expansive. This one has it all (with no clunkers or missteps). If you haven't heard Dan Bern before, this is the one to check out. If you're already a fan, why don't you already own this?

Dan Bern is great, he can sing, some and he has wonderfull [lyrics!!!] I say Dan Bern Live and it was beyon words! I'm hoping to see him next time he comes to Anchorage. *crosses fingers*

If you are new to Dan Bern, I'd recommend his self-titled commercial debut, or (my favorite) Smartie Mine, or...well, there are a lot of great releases. In fact, you pretty much could get everything available (there's one CD available on iTunes that isn't here), as I have, and still think of everything as "pure freaking genius."

Some CDs have more intensity than others. For instance, I love the song Marilyn, which is on his debut release. It's also the opener on Divine and Conquer, but the energy level on Divine and Conquer is just THROUGH THE ROOF!

Jerusalem opened his comercial debut, and the version here is slightly different, but in a good way. Dan has several versions of the same songs on various releases, which I enjoy as much as I enjoy "alternate takes" when a CD is remastered with bonus material added.

That said, dog boy van is eminently and quintessential Dan Bern! The music is great, the lyrics are a blend of sarcasm, insight, silliness, and poetic insight. Is it his masterpiece. No. I think that is still to come, though his catalog to date (all of which I have), is a very, very impressive body of work.

In addition to this, go to www.archive.org and search "all artists with shows on Live Music Archive." There are several A+ quality soundboard recordings you can download in 64 kbs mp3 or variable-bit rate mp3 (roughly 200-320 kbs mp3, depending on how much is going on sonically). The downloads are free, as long as you agree not to burn 'em to CD and try and sell them as bootlegs. There are also some great audience recordings available. In all, there are about 30-40 shows available for free download, but the two best quality shows are soundboards from Europe and one from 2004.

So, get dog boy van, get everything you can, and download some of his live music to get a feel for how he interacts with an audience. (I know, I know, a couple of commercial releases, but the shows on www.archive.org are not edited, as are the commercial releases.)

In short: IT'S ALL GREAT!

This EP covers some of the best things about Dan Bern - his clever writing (Jerusalem), political commentary (Oklahoma), tongue-in-cheek pop culture references (Kurt Cobain), and his ability to poke at himself and those who compare him to Bob Dylan and other classic folksters (Talkin' Alien Abduction Blues). Just all around good stuff.