Customer Reviews

Rock N Roll

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am appalled at how many people I have introduced to this astonishing album. How can so many erstwhile music fans not be aware of this masterpiece? Even in 1989, when it came out, few people seemed to know about it, despite accolades from folks like Robert Christgau, the only slightly self-proclaimed dean of American rock critics, who declared in the VILLAGE VOICE that year that they were the greatest rock and roll band in the world--not greatest "unknown" band, but greatest period. And I'm not sure I disagree with him. In 1989 and 1990 and years thereafter, as Mekon leader Jon Langford and drummer Steve Goulding relocated to Chicago, where I live, I saw the band in endless concerts in various venues, most of the time appearing under fake names to avoid attracting crowds too large for the small venues--I saw them once at Lounge Ax where they came onstage and immediately denied that they were the Mekons, but were instead a Mekons cover band. My favorite Mekon concert may have been the week after Bill Clinton was first elected president. Upon introducing the members of the band, Jon Langford, improbably wearing silver lame short shorts introduced himself as Bill Clinton (to whom he actually bears a resemblance, especially in body type, which is why the short shorts were so surprising), Tom Greenhalgh as former president George Bush, and either Sally Timms (she of the floozy visage but angelic voice) or Susie Honeyman (whose fiddle playing sonically sculpts every song) as Ross Perot's daughter. Nothing could illustrate the anarchic spirit of the Mekons more.

But the Mekons are more than anarchistic and rowdy. They are an impeccably gifted and creative rock band, and after over twenty-five years together, they are still producing stunning music. The twin highpoints of their remarkable career has been the phenomenal FEAR AND WHISKY, which single-handedly invented country punk, and ROCK N' ROLL.

The key song on this album is the second, "Club Mekon." The first song, "Memphis, Egypt," is a stunning intro, but as fine as it is, the second is just as great, which immediately cues the listener that this isn't a case of a band putting its only good foot forward. "Club Mekon" is a riveting rock song, but as one looks carefully at the lyrics, it becomes obvious that it is a searing social critique of capitalistic society (there has always been a far leftist edge to their music). The selling and marketing of the basic components of humanity leads to the dark verse that concludes the song ("I live alone and I walk the dark edge / Of the shoplights shadow, / In each display a private hell /Name your price you're up for sale"). The rest of the album lurches irresistibly through a string of amazing diatribes targeted at American consumer culture, where not merely sex is a "commodity to be bought and sold like rock and roll." If FEAR AND WHISKEY was directed more at American foreign policy, ROCK N' ROLL focuses on the role America plays in the commodification of all aspects of life. No wonder the corporate record companies didn't market their albums! But despite the deep political elements in the album, it is never subjugated to the music, nor so far front that one can pay attention to nothing else. That is the joy of this disk: it possesses great intellectual depth that the casual fan might miss, but the music is so extraordinary that one won't get a sense of having missed anything by not picking up on the subversive message.

The album doesn't let up at all until it finally comes to an end. One phenomenal song after another rolls off the disc: "Learning to Live on Your Own," "Only Darkness Has the Power," the blistering "Amnesia," "Echo," and finally to "When Darkness Falls." There really isn't a bad cut on the album, and most of them are great.

If you are a fan of rock and rock (or even rock n' roll), please do yourself a favor by getting this extraordinary album, and then do me a favor and spread the word about it, so that I won't feel any longer that I'm doing it alone.

It defies conventional wisdom that the Mekons are among the sole survivors of the post-punk revolution of the early 1980s. (Well, maybe not... Manchester's New Order is still around) The Mekons' first album in 1979 "Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen" sounded like an amateurish imitation of their heroes and mates in Leeds UK, the Gang of Four. Yet, when the incendiary Gang of Four, whose explosive performances are stuff of legends, abruptly imploded in the mid-Eighties, the Mekons endured. Jon Langford, major Mekon brainiac, never appeared to be dug in for a multi-decade marathon run for the Mekons. It just sorta happened that way.

In the early Eighties, Langford and the Mekons began to develop carefully crafted but ramshackle live signature sound, and devoted cult of followers formed on the basis their rowdy and often drunken live performances. The Mekons made the unlikely decision to relocate from England to Chicago Illinois and to embrace American roots music, most notably country and western. The Mekons introduced new and highly engaging performers, like vocalist Sally Timms and fiddler Suzie Honeyman, into their freewheeling collective which added definition and musical muscle to their sound. At the time when this album, "Rock and Roll" was released the Mekons were 10 years old which probably be around the age of 40 calculated in rockstar years, given the 2 year life expectancy of most rock and roll bands.

The Mekons, at ten years, were still so hopelessly obscure that I had to "special order" this album in 1989 when it was a new release. I didn't live in Podunk either, this was in Boston Massachusetts, folks! The only notoriety the Mekons has achieved in ten years was that they were the darlings of a handful of New York music critics, which is frequently the kiss of death, rather than the springboard to a successful career. The Mekons should have been dead and buried by 1989, according to conventional wisdom....but the Mekons have always defied conventional wisdom and have become the rare rock and roll band that has refused to; either, crash and burn, or, age into a irrelevant, laughable parody of themselves. For this reason the Mekons are arguably the world's greatest rock and roll band and "Rock and Roll" may well be their most artistic album.

"Rock and Roll" is interesting because we see the Mekons at a juncture in their career that defines their musical direction for the next 15 years. No band that is ten years old is supposed to make an album this good. "Empire of the Senseless" is an angry anthem aimed at the apathy of the Reagan/Elder Bush years. The Mekons steadfastly refused to amend their passionate anti-capitalist stance, even as leftist politics had long been declared DOA by a generation of cynics who viewed political engagement as just another target for fashionably ironic humor. "Amnesia" with it's "I forgot to forget to remember" chorus, uses irony to attack irony, that is, if you forget historical context, you are simply a vacuous apologist for all the misdeeds that you are cynical about. The Mekons are almost too clever for their own good, because few listeners fully connect all the dots to appreciate the sophistication of Jon Langford's political/cultural musings. Sally Timms' plaintive vocal on "Club Mekon" makes it appear, at first, to be a lament about the growing decadence of music club culture, but a closer listening reveals "Club Mekon" to be, not only a thinly veiled attack on consumerism, but on a deeper level, "Club Mekon" is a meditation on America's refusal to "grow-up" and accept the fact that aging is inevitable and no one can stay young forever. "Darkness Has The Power" celebrates William Blake's path of excess to wisdom, but Langford takes it one step further: maybe darkness and light are the same thing, because light does not exist without darkness. Perhaps the Faustian deal with the devil, is actually a transaction with an angel that will save your soul instead of dooming it.

"Rock and Roll" with all of it's musical and philosophical nuances remains, song per song, the Mekon's most cohesive statement as a band. The Mekons still remain well below the radar of the musical mainstream after 25 years of brilliance. I stopped proselytizing and trying to convince my friends to listen to the Mekons, about 10 years ago. Clearly the message of Mekons is lost to most people. I will say it here, where it's most likely that I'm preaching to the choir.....The Mekons are the world's greatest rock and roll band and if you don't "get it" by now, you probably never will.

"Learning to Live on Your Own" is one of my favorite songs. Very moving. I wouldn't call this alt-country, an odious and stupid term I wish they'd get rid of. Unless you are from a place where "country" music implies a critique of consumerism and of populist musical forms themselves. I am from Tennessee and to the best of my recollection that's not what country music is, or rock and roll for that matter. On the other hand, more people should hear this kind of thing. Like the Gang of Four and maybe Pere Ubu, this is unpretentious smart music that isn't too sure of itself, and music in love with death to boot. In that respect it's like the music of that great rich country singer Gram Parsons. Parsons might have appreciated this record. This one and "Fear and Whiskey" are the two great Mekons records.

OK, maybe not the greatest record ever, but pretty close. Politics, sex, drugs, commerce, literary allusions, rock music illusions, and Elvis all wrapped up in one big post-punk package. Multiple writers, multiple singers, multiple perspectives maintain the creative tension and keep it from getting all bogged down. Sally Timms' difficult personality, beautiful voice, and probably Jon Langford's best guitar playing on record. Life embossed on a small laminated disk of metal. Get it.

I like almost everything the Mekons have done, but there's something that makes this album appeal more than others. Better production values (this was their only big label release in the 1980s), dreamy vocalist Sally Timms in rare form (see "Learning to Live on Your Own"), the wild combo of guitar and electric fiddle.
If you only buy one Mekons album-and if you like punk or alt-country, you should-this is it, with the sloppy, beautiful Edge of the World coming in a close second.

The Mekons had been shambling around since 78, going through all sorts of musical styles ranging from the art punk sloganeering of their debut to the alt country inventing "Fear&Whiskey" album but just when it seemed they were getting lost amidst their ecleticism they managed to pull out the most potent record of their career with 89's "Rock n'Roll".

"Rock n'Roll" was everything the Mekons ever were and then some, exponentially heightening all their fortes- here was a folk punk assault unlike anything in the 80's. The word classic barely makes it justice.

This is seriously my favorite album of all time. Sally Timms, Jon Langford and the rest give one of their best in this witty, often satyrical album. I owned this on cassette LP in the early nineties, and had thought never to see it on CD. Apparently, the rights were bought by Collector's Choice Music, in IL, and they re-released this album for disc. If you've never heard of the Mekons - BUY THIS ALBUM! - Only good things can come of it. I promise.

Truly a great album. In some sad sense, it seemed like the last gasp of a real critique of capitalism.

Sadly, the Bush years have made this critique more timely than ever.

More importantly, it just plain rocks, especially Memphis, Egypt and Now They Can Keep It.

How can this be out of print again?! It may not be the greatest album ever released, but it's up there in the first tier, and if you wanted to argue that it was the greatest, I'd sit down and hear you out. And yet it's not available for purchase from the great Universal Behemoth. And you want _MORE_ proof that capitalism doesn't work?? Those starving kids in Africa weren't enough for you, eh? Well there you go.

All the 5* reviews here are right: you--yes, you, over there! put down that espresso/pint/remote/knitting needle and listen!--need to own this album. Save yourself the $30 for the used copy (what traitor would part with his/her copy anyway?). Just find the nearest Mekons show, drive/take the bus/train there, pay the $15 to get in the door, and then after the show buy one from the gang themselves. Last time I saw them they were selling it for $15. You'll thank yourself.

UPDATE: The band don't seem to have any more copies, either. So buying used is probably the best bet, even at these prices.

three fine lead vocalists grace this overlooked album from 1989. jon langford's voice is loose and cocky and full of attitude with a joe strummer-ish swagger. sally timm's vocals are strong and precise and sound full of confidence. tom greenhalgh's singing articulates a superb sense of english-pop phrasing. throughout this recording the guitars dominate the music, dense and powerful, churning out layer upon layer of catchy hooks. "empire of the senseless," is the classic track here, but there are plenty of great moments, including the superb strangeness of "cocaine lil," the clash-like rocker, "amnesia," the powerful anthem "heaven and back," and "echo," with its big drum beat and wall of guitar sound. this cd needs a bigger audience. go ahead and become a part of it.