Sometimes you just have to get down and dirty to cleanse the palate or mind of the shit that is spewing forth.
Dan Stuart and Chuck Prophet were in the grip of some serious problems when Al Kooper took a deep breath and decided to produce Scapegoats. At the time Green on Red was just Chuck and Dan, the other members of the band over the years had been shed as things got harder and darker and more dangerous.
It’s an album that keep it light for the first two songs and then heads for the gutter. It’s the type of alcohol and drug fueled honky tonk boogie woogie music the great Orangoutang in charge never got with. The world may be a better place if the chief hunchmeister had hefted a six pack of Miller Lite and got down and dirty with Chuck and Dan.
So take a deep breath and head into the hinterlands of Chuck and Dans dark world of roosters, guns, graveyards, tears and dying lovers. There are tender moments here, and deep down you truly understand that when things are good that is the moment they will inevitably get darker. That love story will end up with the lover cleaning vomit and blood off the bathroom tiles eventually.
This is simultaneously a terrifying and comfortable record. It has the country vibe that is so familiar however the lyrics are dark, at times making Tonights the Night sound like nursery rhymes. This is a disquieting record, it’ll keep you awake at night, it’s drive you to play it again and live with it daily, it is cautionary and deep down we all wanted that rock and roll life.
All the way through it is Al Koopers organ holding things together as the main protagonists whirl out of control.
Baby loves her gun
for a little fun
she likes to drive nude at night,
shootin’ out street lights
baby loves her gun
It’s just a little one