Former Green On Red enfant
terrible with final part of his literary trilogy.
Dan Stuart, for those of you who don’t know him, was front
man and main songwriter with 80’s roots rockers Green On Red.
GOR were a band who, due to an unfortunate sense of timing, ended up lumped in with that whole Californian Paisley Underground scene. Despite being something a journalistic-dreamt-up fantasy, that scene actually produced some really good bands- Long Ryders, Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade and others who were only really loosely associated due to a love (Love?) of 60’s garage rock and psychedelia.
GOR were a band who, due to an unfortunate sense of timing, ended up lumped in with that whole Californian Paisley Underground scene. Despite being something a journalistic-dreamt-up fantasy, that scene actually produced some really good bands- Long Ryders, Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade and others who were only really loosely associated due to a love (Love?) of 60’s garage rock and psychedelia.
Green On Red were always the odd band out; marrying a punk
rock snarl to a rootsy Americana saw them beloved of music fans but literally
unable to be neatly pigeon-holed by the then all-powerful music press.
Of course, they made their own problems too; Stuart and
co-conspirator Chuck Prophet (possibly one of the greatest guitarists of his
generation) saw their dream crumble in record company machinations, poor
decisions and drug ensnarement that nearly killed Stuart after the band
dissolved.
A reunion tour in 2005 saw the band firing on all cylinders but a long-term resolution was never likely.
Stuart had collaborated with Steve Wynn from Dream Syndicate
on their Danny and Dusty side project for a tour and a couple of albums but it
seemed that things were on the perpetual downslide from that period on.
Releasing his first book, the “false memoir” The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings in
2014, Stuart unleashed an accompanying album of the same name with a press
release that rather alarmingly alluded to Stuart’s planned suicide following
him splitting with his wife and “breaking out of a psychiatric facility” and
heading to Mexico
How much of this is fanciful is open to debate but given the
bleakness of that album, it certainly has a ring of truth to it. The memoir was
a barely disguised journey through the life and death of Green On Red (with
some laugh out loud tales- see the account of a hotel room in Edinburgh with a
U.K. Subs roadie for a flavour) and our hero’s personal journey.
2016 saw “Marlowe’s Revenge” released which was a rollicking take on love, loss murder and revenge backed by The Twin Tones, a young Mexican band.
Stuart has a way with a phrase, a word. He always has done,
even back in the days of Green On Red; a world-weary, cynical, blackly humorous
tone that has a morbid self- sufficiency about it. Dan Stuart doesn’t really
care whether you or I like him; that’s not the point…
The Unfortunate Demise….is the final part in the trilogy and Stuart asserts that it’ll be the last record he releases. Given the previous alarm raised by his first “
The album is a much more personal sounding record than
anything that he’s released before- there’s an aching vulnerability about this
‘un that’s often been shielded in previous releases.
“Last Century Blues” comes on like a modern Sympathy For The
Devil without the Jagger self-mythologizing. Stuart is, if you like, a bit of a
post-punk Hemingway-if old Ernie had
anything of a sense of humour which he seemingly didn’t- he enjoys a bit of
legend-making and allegory and his songs often paint a real aching picture with
the barest of musical backing and his sometimes monologue drawl. The record is
a dark, almost-travelogue through places real and imagined and the instrumental
“In Transit” has a bit of the Ry Cooder dusty blues about it.
As mentioned, there’s a personal touch; “Upon A Father’s
Death” and “Here Comes My Boy” are reflections on fatherhood, parenthood and
death. “the Day William Holden Died” is seemingly about the youthful Stuart and
there are a couple of songs (“You Were the Flower” and “Why I Ever Married
You”) that are clearly his Blood On the Tracks moments.
“The Disappeared” is a lament to lost souls in South America and “Love And Danger” is simply beautiful
in its simplicity.
As Dan Stuart puts it himself, “At the end of the day, it’s
the end of the day.”
Joe Whyte
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