Customer Reviews

The Use of Ashes

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

 

 

...not these songs. They are, each and every one of them, jewels of the art - and they will endure. Tom Rapp refers to jewels in the lyrics of three of them - `The jeweler', `Rocket man' and `The old man' - and his compositions are indeed jewel-like, both lyrically and melodically so far ahead of their time that it's no surprise that he never achieved commercial success. His work was always critically acclaimed - but the albums released originally by Warner subsidiary Reprise (of which this was the second) were allowed, shamefully, to languish out-of-print for too many years. Released as a four-cd boxed set in 2003, they are available individually, as of today - to which I for one am most grateful to the San Francisco-based Water label. This album was one of my favorite recordings of the 70s - I remember wearing out more than one copy of the LP. It's been too many years since I've heard it - I've listened to it all the way through 3-4 times today, and it hasn't lost one iota of the charm with which it held me rapt (or should that be `Rapp'ed'...? [sorry...]) through so many listenings all those years ago.

The first track, `The jeweler', is one of the most beautifully poetic, moving lyrics I've ever heard. Rapp's portrait of the old man who, after closing his shop, sits up late in the dark, lovingly polishing old coins with `...spit and cloth and ashes' is a poignant one. His imagery is absolutely perfect and beautiful - `...he makes them shine with ashes, he knows the use of ashes, he worships God with ashes.' The booklet notes (by Edwin Pouncey) lean toward the interpretation that the implication is that the jeweler `...must suffer for the adoration of money' - the song seems to speak to me more of the old man's love for beautiful things, of his attempts to restore them to their former beauty. He can shine the coins, removing `the thumbprints from so many ages' - he cannot remove the scratches. Most of the time, he is conscious of this limitation - but all the same, he works on them into the night: `...both his hands will blister badly, they will open painfully, and the blood flows from his hands...he wishes he could cure the scars...when he forgets, he sometimes cries.'

Jewels are mentioned again in the third track, `Rocket man' (NOT the same as the song by the same title written by Elton John) - in this case, as a double image: the jewels of a mother's tears, the jewels of the father's imagination being the stars themselves. The song (inspired by a story by sci-fi great Ray Bradbury) is sung from the perspective of the son of a `rocket man', an astronaut. The boy and his mother are all too aware of the dangers inherent in the father's work - it seems that they do not speak of it, but rather acknowledge it silently: `...and on my mother's face, as lonely as the world in space, I could read the silent cry: that if my father fell into a star, we must not look upon that star again.' Thus, when the father's ship is swallowed by a solar flare, the mother and son go out when `...the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out, or to escape the pain we only went out when it rained.'

The quality of the songwriting is repeated in every track - even the short instrumental `From the movie of the same name' is quite lovely. Rapp addresses issues of the day: man's inhumanity to man (`Tell my why'), the horrors of war (`Margery', `Riegel', and `When the war began'), as well as love and loneliness (`God save the child', `Song about a rose') - and songs that are simply (an appropriate/inappropriate word here) about the human condition, and life (the two mentioned above, plus `The old man'). His songs, while dealing with issues and feelings that are modern, have a medieval mood to them - and this can be attributed to both his lyrics and his music. The use of orchestral instruments in the arrangements here (and in his other albums as well) enhances the mood of the pieces nicely, elevating them above the level of `pop music' - which is one reason, perhaps, that the Pearls Before Swine albums never realized a wider audience. It's a pity - but it's too often the case.

This album is a treasure - a shining moment from the 1970s that's every bit as beautiful and vital today. It's aged extremely gracefully - pass it up at your peril.

The other comment on this album says most of what I could ever want to say about this album, but I'd like to add a few points.

First off, David Bowie's constantly referenced Pearls Before Swine as an influence on him, and his sound on the "Space Oddity" album is very much derived from the Pearls Before Swine sound. Obviously, big-time Bowie fans will have an interest in this--as my dad pointed out, Rapp's "Rocket Man" was one of a few wierd rock/pop takes on space travel (Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Elton John's "Rocket Man") that were out at essentially the same time.
Also, be sure to check out the stunning cover of "The Jeweller" on This Mortal Coil's second album, "Filigree and Shadow." It's a stunning re-work of the original that is a sincere tribute to Rapp's composition and lyricism.

The Jeweler is one of my favorite songs of all time and very close is Rocket Man. Such eerie music and lyrics - this is art using words. Just beautiful and amazing.
The songs are all out of order and need to be renamed in this order:
The Jeweler
From The Movie Of The Same Name
Rocket Man
God Save The Child
Song About A Rose
Tell Me Why
Margery
The Old Man
Riegal
When The War Began
This was a major confusion and I hope I helped some others out with the labeling.

I bought this because I had heard it when I was a youngster and it led me to the music and works of Leonard Cohen. It has some of that darkness-in-a-minor-key, but I think it is the most "pleasant" of their albums. Takes a particular ear to enjoy it, but I do.

I first got this album as a 4th grader on a cassette from Radio Shack. I always thought it rather trippy, and once the the cassette died and I learned what "out of print." meant. After buying this one again, it is a pretty amazing record, especially from singer/songwriter Tom Rapp, who hails Bottineau, ND, a small town near the Turtle Mountains near the Canadian border. Rapp basically is Pearls Before Swine.

Though somewhat dated in sound, what saves the record are the songs. They are incredibly well crafted and melodic, with the only clunker being being "Tell Me Why" which is a meandering mess quite unsuited to Tom Rapp's quivering voice, which is a cross between Glenn Yarbrough and an in tune Bob Dylan. "The Jeweler," "Margery," and "Song About A Rose" are enchanting and haunting.

My copy of the CD is a handsome reissue that sounds beautiful, and has a nice insert with some history on Rapp and the album as well as all of the lyrics. Rapp has, I understand, been recording and doing limited performances again. He is now a civil rights lawyer on the East Coast.

This is not the original album. I have the LP purchased in the 70's. The songs have different running lengths from my LP, AND there are lyrics sung in Rocket Man. This version is much shorter and just has Rapp humming to the instrumental track of Rocket Man.

The songs have a similar feel and sound to Nick Drake's second album, Bryter Layter. However, one thing that really distracts me is the apparent lisp that is present in quite a few of the songs (such as God Save The Child). If not for that lisp, this would be a 5 star album for me. After many listens, I still can't help but brace myself for it, as the vocals are pushed forward in the mix.

Do note that, as of this writing, the tracks are mislabelled in the MP3 album download - the tracks appear in the normal running order, however the titles are one track early (ie the real Rocket Man is titled God Save The Child, etc.).