European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Rolling with the heartland Rock band stories by Jon Pareles new York times he music is Basic Izreo chords and a Back boat. The Lone is Earnest Plain spoken just folks. The verses Are Short stories orse sketches of characters trying to get by. And the choruses ready made for sing along Are about hard Timos this is heartland Rock. From maw Jersey to los Angeles from Nashville to Austin to Bloomington iii., Rock songwriters have taken up factories and arms As worthier subjects than penthouses and limousines they re turning up their noses at synthesize a and cranking up Ihler guitars aiming far authenticity rather than Sale of the Art sound. And As they invoke Woody Guthrie and the rolling stones. Walker Evans and Raymond Carver hey lace Tho paradoxes of the late 1980s. This week heartland Rock rests in the top 10 with John Mellencamp s the lonesome Jubilee. The album has songs about unemployment shrinking economic expectations and Lough Hick set to three chord Rock laced with mandolin and accordion one of its sloping choruses declares it s hard limes Lor an hones Man very very very hard under his How Taus nets Moniker John Cougar now dropped the 1985 album scarecrow and the 1984 us huh were credited to John Cougar Mellenkamp Mellencamp had a healthy career with songs about cutting Loose. But As he s gotten older Mellencamp s self chosen Persona the Small town Rowdy from the Midwest has apparently led him to think about what s happening to the Lowns and farming communities around him. With scarecrow he shifted direction its cell earpiece was a song about a Arm foreclosure and the old Cougar cockiness was gone. The Way Mellencamp s albums have changed tone suggests that like Many other 1980s rockers he s kept an ear on Bruce Springsteen Springsteen got the heartland Rock bandwagon rolling Wilh tha River in 1930, and its Bleak 1962 successor Nebraska. With those albums he started to write stripped Down songs about people who had lost their jobs or simply lost Hope victims of hard limes. Amid the escapist Glamour of most Earty-19809 Rock those albums were anomalies their popularity seemed to be a result of Springsteen s Charisma rather than what he was singing. A few other groups look up similar themes but albums Tike the Bla stars Fine non fiction. Release j in 1983, reached a much smaller audience. Spingsteen established heartland Rock s main topics unemployment Small town decline disillusionment limited Opportunity bitter nostalgia. And with the overwhelming Success of his i9b4 album bom in the us a., which sold 1 f .5 million copies in the United Stales alone the style became a full hedged movement one that Mellencamp joined in 1985 with scarecrow. Since then Mellencamp s lean guitar driven band has become As much a Model Fot heartland Rock As Springsteen s e Street band Wilh ils Rich keyboard entered arrangements and sometimes ponderous tempos. A new Springsteen album Tunnel of love released in the United states ocl 5, will show whether he can stay ahead of his own groundswell. Of course hard times songs arc a Staple of blues and country end the surge of heartland Rock is connected with the latest revivals of Down Home american music. Flock recycles itself constantly and every burst of pop escapism or technological wizardry brings a Back to tools reaction. The excesses of psychedelia in the late 1960s, for instance made Way Lor the band whose second album particularly songs like King Harvest showed songwriters How much could happen in a Lew verses. Current rockers Are once again listening to Hank Williams and Elmore James to Merle Haggard who s always stuck to a working class perspective and Muddy Waters. Old style Rock also pays off. Commercial Rock radio station have become increasingly conservative they re looking for songs that won t sound out of place next to Early-1970s classic Rock from the rolling stones or Lynyrd sky nerd so there s a powerful incentive for bands to take up three chord blues Rock. After years on the blues circuit such performers As Robert Cray Mason Ruffner and the fabulous thunderbird have recently garnered a National audience precisely because they sound a Little old fashioned. But heartland Rock in t exactly revivalist in a surprisingly Short Lime it has turned into a circumscribed Stylo for both music and lyrics. Tho music refers to blues rhythm n blues country and rockabilly but stands apart from them. Heartland Rock in t traditional it s Neo traditional self conscious about seeking roots it s nol a local Homegrown style but one that wishes it were while its Slor Yelling lyrics Stem irom Lolk and country music and its Back beat from Rock and rhythm n blues its sound and its Altitude Are strictly from the 1960s scruffy but respectable. The bail heartland Rock sound is National or perhaps All american Mellencamp in Bloomington Sieve Earle in Nashville and such groups As the beat Farmers in los Angeles All share a Basic stomp hat Connoles Good old roadhouse Rock. While there s nothing to prevent hard times songs irom being Sung Over synthesizers or Doc Wop Harmony it just in t done heartland rockers want a sound that signals Back country America. But it heartland Rock claims country roots then the most important country hands for the 1980s Are he rolling stones and credence Clearwater revival at least half the bongs on the lonesome Jubilee and Earle s current album exit Lowe their kick to the stones Honky ton women. It s Rock made for radios instead of roadhouse the twangy guitars Are cleanly recorded and always in tune. And the lyrics Are usually As even handed a a politician s stump speech they convey sincere concern while trying not to offend anybody Mellencamp s we Are the people a song on his new album manages to jump within one verse from if you Are one of the homeless May our thoughts be with you to if you Are one of the fortunate ones we All know it s lonely up in heartland Rock the personal is apolitical songs Tell their stories matter of factly they re More like Case histories or journalism than protest songs. On Clito Earle simply notes Ever since i Glass Plant closed Down things round Here Ain t never been the Woody Guthrie whose this land is your land waa included on Springsteen s live 1975-85, Drew political Springsteen facing his fears head or Bruce Springsteen does t Trust a decade his songs have been whittling Way at the notion that the America Birthright s unlimited Opportunity and rising expectations. Now with the new Tunnel of love released in the United states ocl. 5he s confronting another illusion the myth of love As perfect Bliss and Panacea. On Tunnel of love Springsteen turns irom populist Arena Rock anthems to psychological reflections. It s a smart Good hearted Way to Deal Wilh the rising expectations directed at Springsteen himself not a sequel to the 1984 blockbuster born in ins ., which sold 18 million copies worldwide but a deliberate shift of direction and a scaling Down. Where born in the Shouted its messages Tunnel of love is conversational even intimate yet no less resonant. It makes Springsteen approachable again. Through the 1970s and 80s, Springsteen came to embody one american myth the self made Man. Rock n Roll division. Working his Way irom clubs to stadiums avoiding flashy pop Star Ben Axx still showing up in clubs on the Jersey Shore he s the working class kid who hit the big time yet never forgot where he came from bom in the us. A. Put him Over the top hit singles the stadium circuit and the commercial momentum to release a five up live set that zoomed to no. 1. Vat line us mid-1970s, he has been saying things the Rock audience supposedly does t want to hear in its quest for escapist fun. His Early songs swaggered with Lusty Seh Confidence ready to burst like a As he Sang on the 1973 album greetings from Asbury Park. New Jersey when his popularity did explode though it weighed on Springsteen and made him think twice about everything he wrote trying to be a Force Lor Good. From 1975 s born to run and 1978 s darkness on the dec fool town Onward his songs have insisted thai most people Are at the mercy of a brutal late and an arbitrary Economy that dreams get crushed and upward mobility is a Mirage. One by one he examined adolescent exuberance male budding and honest work and found them wanting his songs As liv&-1975 55 shows grew More deliberate Springsteen s singing changed from a Rush of words to carefully placed phrases in a voice edged with despair. In a Way Springsteen s tidings could be comforting they suggest that failure in t a sin a word he has probably used More often than any other Rock songwriter or a character Haw rebutting America s unexamined social darwinism. Yet As a songwriter steeped in popular music he recently said that when he made bom in be ., he wanted to Combine Floy Orbison Bob Dylan and Phil Spector Springsteen did allow one utopian possibility love. In Mot pop Long True love Means happiness Ever alter come on songs Promise it la last a lifetime breakup songs look Back to a state of edenic Bliss. Love conquers All. Fills every need provides satisfaction and certainty even in Springsteen s crumbling factory towns hold me in your arms let s let our love Blind us Springsteen Sang in cover me in 1984. Of course it s never that simple not on this plane but the conventions of everything Tram classical comedies which end with marriages to dance records present love As an ecstatic Refuge. Springsteen who married Julianne Phillips a Model in 19b5. Wants pop to reconsider love he s decided does t drive away uncertainty it raises new questions and new ears. Amid gleaming keyboards and screams recorded Al a Jersey Shore roller coaster the album s title song spells it out Wilh prepositions to Page 14 the stars and stripes spare you be go to learn to live Wilh what you can t Rise above if you want to ride on Down Down in through this Tunnel of on his 1980 album the River Springsteen wrote from a different Angle about love growing cold. The music on. Tunnel of love echoes songs from that album especially fade away in the new All thai heaven will allow and the River walk like a Man and when you re alone. This time though Spryn Sleen is doing most of the playing himself dispensing Early 1960s style fuzz Lone guitar and a perfect Organ line in two faces playing a Bluesy guitar Solo in spare Paris creating a spacious country Waltz reminiscent of Rickie Lee Jones last1 Cnance Texaco in Valentine s Day. Members of his e Street band appear As occasional sidemen Clarence Clemons saxophone an e Street trademark never shows up Back in 1960, Springsteen wrote about beginnings and endings of romances i ongoing ones and he was thinking about How hard times put pressure on couples. With Tunnel of love economic woes recede. The Alburn opens Wilh Ain t got you a stripped Down to Didd Tey style bit of hyperbole with autobiographical overtones perhaps been paid a King s Ransom Tor Doire what comes naturally about a Rich Man who can t gel the woman he wants other songs use More typical working class Springsteen characters but the pressures on them usually come from the heart not the Wallet. Tunnel of love has a Loose Story line boy meets girl marries Girt loses Girt misses girl at a time when popular culture not jus songs but movies and television relentlessly proselytize for monogamy and marriage Tunnel of love seems to fit fight in. But Springsteen does t treat Standard situations in Standard ways in his new songs monogamy Means monday o
