“It's off with the jeans, the jacket and the shirt
How'd I end up feeling so bad?” – Ryan Adams
What does everybody think of Ryan Adams?
The first song of his I heard was, “When the Stars Go Blue”, a few years back on a cd my ex-girlfriend made for me. It’s a lazy, melodic, melancholy love song, which seems to be Ryan’s style. A lot of his music is tortured and somewhat depressing. Aye, just what I like, Ryan.
There’s no doubt he has plenty of nasty emotional experiences to draw from, some self-inflicted and some imposed upon him. His dad left when he was 9 years old, so he was basically raised by his mother and grandmother. He dropped out of school at 16. He’s also a bit of a drunk and invokes the self-destructive artist image often. Maybe it’s not an image, as I get the feeling the guy is a little bit raw, if not temperamental and emotional in nature.
He’s been accused by critics as being manic in his drive to create. In 2005, he released 3 cds with all new material. Who does that? The guy seems to draw from an endless pool of inspiration. Plus, he’s a Scorpio, which means he will approach most activities in an extremely focused driven manner. He likes to work it, and honey, I don’t have a problem with that.
His newest album, Easy Tiger, was released in 2007. The only track I’ve listened closely to so far is “Two”. In the song, he talks about wanting to go home and being fractured from the fall. Ryan is insinuating or allowing the listener to draw on a much deeper image than presented on the surface, in true Scorpio fashion. The fall, meaning incarnating on Earth, and the disillusionment one faces while here- having a physical body and what not. In Two, he sings, “It takes Two when it used to take One”, which implies that once we get here, we have to depend on others for our survival. Talk about a lesson in surrendering.
It reminds me of when an old boyfriend, who was usually the sober responsible one, got out-of-his mind drunk, curled up in the back of his car, floated in and out of consciousness and then started mumbling about wanting to go home. Return to the primordial soup from which you came, earthling!
My all-time favorite song of Adam’s is from his cd “Gold” released in 2001 called “La Cienega Just Smiled.” Romantic, haunting, and lovely...reminds me of a boy I used to know....
1 comment:
Too mellow for me, I'm afraid - singer/songwritery stuff isn't really my thing. I can only think of one such artist that I like, and that's mostly because he's a killer acoustic guitar player.
Adams sort of strikes me as a male Liz Phair, what with the introspection and the sexy lyrics. He's prettier, though.
Wow, that was shallow. I'll be off now!
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