After American cultural ascension following WWII, The 1950s were the age of “peace and prosperity.” With J.D Salinger’s success at wrapping recent history in the guise of a bildungsroman (and several short stories and novellas - as previously discussed), writers of all stripes followed using Modernist techniques that were still cloaked in the scent of a classic Victorian novel.
When Salinger reflects upon his past through the lens of the Glass family, it leads to multiple trains of thought that remain applicable today. (Hear me out. Was Seymour Glass so brilliant that he could enter Columbia at 15, and then become a professor at 20 and therefore be completely unable to forget anything or stop his fervent brain from analyzing the horrors of war? Add to this. Margaret Salinger recounts hearing her father once say “You never really get the scent of burning flesh out of your nostrils, no matter how long you live.”)
Canadian-American writer Saul Bellow begins his 1953 work “The Adventures of Augie March” with “I am an American, Chicago-born—Chicago, that somber city.” Bellow is announcing his lifelong dream as the opening line. This is what Bellow thought his life was, only to discover that it was not. His true birthplace, Lachine, Quebec was named by explorers who thought they had found China. Bellow was brought into this world by Lithuanian-Jewish parents with Russian heritage in Lachine. In “Augie March,” he even briefly skirts the subject of “smuggling immigrants from Canada,” but has no need to acknowledge it.
Bellow’s family moved to the South Side of Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood (also where Sandra Cisneros will write about her life in “The House on Mango Street”) when he was nine (Augie says early on, “It was true enough for them, and at the age of nine I could appreciate this perfectly,”) coincidentally about the age we meet his protagonist Augie March. To further complicate matters, Bellow’s father worked a series of odd jobs including baker, coal delivery, and even a bootlegger. In “Augie March,” Augie’s father is absent, and Augie’s education (and subsequently this slice of lower-class American history) is told through the strings of occupations that Bellow lays out like Twainian adventures.
One question surfaces immediately “Is Augie March our hero?” Bellow’s prose is free association tied together with distinct links. So, his story through Augie March is being told through large slices of writing that tend to be composed after the fact and much Literary education (again, like Salinger). Still, his portrait of family life with brothers Simon and Georgie, his mother, and the matriarchal Dickensian creation, Grandma Lausch, is alive with colorful language and references to a life where honor (Simon), and survival do not necessarily share the same Venn diagram.
With his mother going blind and doing all that can be done to manage three sons on her own, the work of raising Augie falls upon Grandma Lausch. Mother’s “object lessons” are no comparison to Grandma Lausch’s constant manipulation of opportunity. She has clearly led an admirable life but somehow landed here in Chicago running a house of non-relatives. Grandma Lausch sees Augie as the one child who can learn the art of survival. She charges Augie with telling just the right story at the dispensary so they can get his mother’s glasses for free. He watches her outwit the caseworker Lubin who enters with what appears as patience in endless supply only to leave without landing a single suggestion to her. However, when Augie gets in a scuffle with Moonya Staplanski fresh out of reform school, and one of his longtime pals Stashu Kopecs, Grandma Lausch sternly says “You are to blame” and offers no comfort. In this instant, we see how much of Augie’s mother is still in him and how Grandma Lausch is working to extract it.
Opportunity comes to Augie in strange ways. First, in the usual mischievous little kid ways of petty theft and misrepresentation. However, Bellow represents Augie’s younger brother Georgie as having neverending love for Grandma Lausch and older brother Simon as drawing all the knowledge he can about the life he wants to live from his books. So Augie is “farmed out.” First, to hand out handbills for Sylvester’s Star Theatre, where surprisingly his knowledge of being watched by Sylvester (whom Grandma Lausch calls “the Baker” because of his white outfits) earns him trust and a glimpse into his true home life. Next, it’s the summer job with the Coblins on the North Side delivering newspapers every morning.
Minus the overarching influence of Grandma Lausch, Bellow begins to tell the story in a much neater frame. In his steady stream of Joyceian detail, we wind up learning more about Friedl, Anna, Hyman, and the jocular Five Properties (Anna’s giant brother whom Augie sometimes helps on his milkman route). than his own family. In turn, we also learn more about Augie beginning to figure out the world around him. Hyman being a bit of a newspaper man speaks about the gangland activity that is bubbling up in Chicago (Bellow actually mentions “Colossimo and Capone in Cicero”) as well as his own unplanned “object lesson” in hidden urges. However, the most fascinating factor in Augie’s time on the North Side is in this very different household money is always around - but Augie never feels compelled to steal it.
Whether at home on the hardscrabble South Side or visiting for the week in the more affluent North Side, Augie is quickly learning from his surroundings and the people who are guided into his orbit. Finally, like Saul Bellow himself, Augie March is learning that most important and truly American lesson, self-reliance. That Emersonian essence ties “Augie March” back to early Transcendentalism, even if Augie exists in a world where not all people are good or even there to contribute to the greater good. Nonetheless, Bellow’s lessons here are echoing the works of Emerson, Thoreau, and even Hawthorne, even as those works were not designed to rummage through the past for anything. This is America alive with its melting pot of cultures (also documented earlier in Richard Wright and 1952’s “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison) and ready to trade the Horatio Alger-style tale of uplift for the longer-standing gaze into pragmatism.
Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold one thing down you hold down the adjoining.
—
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
JEFF ROSENSTOCK - HELLMODE [LP/CD](Polyvinyl/Secretly/AMPED)
California Punk/Pop had its heyday once, but Jeff Rosenstock only has it in his blood to say what he wants. So at his Blink-182 poignant pulse, on “Doubt” he encourages listeners to “Speak/Even if it’s hard to/Even if hurts to” at a time when that message offers no commercial potential. “HELLMODE” is Rosenstock’s continuing reclamation of Punk/Pop back from the wretched mall excesses of the early 2000s as part of the ongoing reframing of Nineties Alt. Punk (Fiddlehead, Turnstile, Militarie Gun, and our own MSPAINT.) Like those artists, Rosenstock is only recording because he has something to say.
FRANKIE AND THE WITCH FINGERS - Data Doom [LP/CD](Greenway/RAS/The Orchard)
After a few steps forward (2020’s fevered “Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters,”) Bloomington-to-Los Angeles garage rockers fall prey to their King Gizzard and Osees comparisons by steering away from the polyrhythmic rush of “Monsters.” While they admirably revive wham-bam Seventies Rock on “Mild Davis,” "Empire" and “Futurephobic” may have stripped down their sound to be too familiar.
SLOWDIVE - Everything Is Alive [LP/CD](Dead Oceans/Secretly/AMPED)
In the thirty-two years since their debut (1991’s “Just For A Day,”) Slowdive’s embrace of Shoegazer has gone from timely to unfashionable (1993’s misunderstood and still brilliant “Souvlaki”) to omnipresent. Today the debate rages over Slowdive’s commitment to Shoegaze. With so many artists following in their path of droning, chorused guitar, low haunting vocals and easy almost-machine beats, “Everything” has everything going for it to make it both Shoegaze (the very Souvlaki “Skin In The Game”) and Modern Pop (the glowing “Kisses” is one of the year’s best singles.)
SPEEDY ORTIZ - Rabbit Rabbit [LP/CD/CS](Wax Nine/Carpark/Redeye)
Sadie Dupuis and her band have always been waiting for ten years to seize the moment. Their last album, 2018's "Twerp Verse" was actually the result of scrapping an entire album because Dupuis said, "They did not mean anything to me anymore." "Rabbit Rabbit" sets the bar very high. Dupuis, guitarist Andy Molholt, and her new band members Audrey Zee Whitesides and Joey Doubek are out to capture a very live sound and push every song to its limit (all the squirrelly sounds on "You SO2.") "Rabbit Rabbit" is Speedy Ortiz as a Rock band turning the blustery Pop of "Ghostwriter" into a galloping Nineties Alt. Rock fist-pumper. However, it is the curious "Plus One" that surprises the most with its odd-time riff, BIG chorus, and weird stops. While these are generally not the stuff of commercial singles, Dupuis and the band may just carve out a space for this one and more.
REISSUE: WILLIE NELSON - Phases and Stages [LP](Atlantic)
In 1970, Willie's success as a songwriter and a singer (the Sixties RCA years with Chet Atkins produced enough chart singles to earn him three Country Top 10 albums,) earned royalties that did not translate into profit. In addition, Willie was hampered by divorce, and his ranch in Ridgetop, Tennessee was lost to fire. So to start 1971, Willie moved to Austin, TX, and squeaked out a Top 30 single. However, RCA wanted Willie to renew his contract ahead of schedule. Willie knowing the implications of that binding agreement over his current recordings could mean they would not even release them, announced his retirement from music.
In Austin, Nelson dove into the vibrant Hippie scene where his blend of Country, Folk, and even a little Jazz influence caught on quickly. When the Dripping Springs Reunion failed to make the promoters money, Willie rebranded it to his Fourth of July Picnic. After finding a new performance home at Armadillo World Headquarters, Willie returned to music signing with Atlantic Records. The legendary Jerry Wexler was a fan and gave Willie the latitude to do whatever he wanted. As the first Country artist signed to Atlantic, the production of Wexler and Arif Mardin (John Prine) sent Willie everywhere. While his debut, "Shotgun Willie" was not a commercial success, it revitalized his writing.
Armed with a concept now, "Phases and Stages" was composed with divorce in mind presenting the woman's side first and the man's story on the flip. The songs that Willie put together needed to be cut to tape fast so they would not lose their immediacy. So, with Wexler as producer, Willie and his band joined members of the legendary Swampers at Muscle Shoals Sound for a fevered two-day session. Side one has the woman fed up with domestic chores hitting the road one night ("Walkin' is better than runnin' away, and crawlin' ain't no good at all.") Willie follows her move home, a brief period of healing and the eventual social rebirth (the thrilling "Sister's Comin' Home/Down At The Beer Joint.") Side two ignites with "Bloody Mary Morning" and how even after all the freedom opens up the door to non-stop partying the quiet hours of sunrise are where memories haunt him. The next phase is where the man has to learn to live again, but at the same time learn to live with the memories of what was lost. When the purists and the Nashville brass questioned just why Willie would record outside of Nashville with an R&B producer, Willie booked his band into a Tennessee studio and did it again. When word hit Wexler (no one notified him,) he was furious and demanded that legendary Tom Dowd oversee the final mix.
Upon its release in March 1974, "Bloody Mary Morning" hit the Country Top 20 and the album peaked on the Country Album chart at #34. However, the critics from across the spectrum hailed it as a masterpiece - some equating it as a concept album to The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper." With his audacious move, Willie won over a mass audience thanks to the huzzahs. However, back at Atlantic, it simply was not enough. By September 1974, Atlantic closed the Country division and Jerry Wexler resigned. However, the success of "Phases and Stages" (400,000 sold) drew interest in Willie from Columbia Records who signed him to a new contract that granted him full creative control. After the October splash of recording the pilot episode for "Austin City Limits," turns out that Willie had another bigger concept album brewing.
FILM AT 11: THE PRE-HAYS MADNESS OF ROWLAND BROWN
Following numerous scandals in Hollywood in the 1920s, a code was imposed about filmmaking that suppressed what could be shown on screen. The effect it had on the art of film is still being felt today. At the time, several filmmakers bucked the system and made movies that took chances - even showing signs of what was to come.
With the Hays code finally decided and published in Variety in February 1930, most state film boards had no personnel or power to verify what could or could not be shown. The Code itself was briefly ignored and even mocked until The Great Depression forced studios to comply because of their flagging business.
Rowland Brown worked his way at Universal from props man in 1925 to credited writer/director on "The Doorway To Hell" in 1930. Its success opened the door for Brown to make a mobster picture for Fox that he and Courtney Terrett had written. Made before the imposition of the Hays Code, "Quick Millions" is a forgotten film that the Los Angeles Times once called "unrelieved, unrelenting...gray, cold and harsh." In turn, audiences avoided its harsh reality and bleak crime drama.
The rumor mill circulated around Brown. The protagonist of "Quick Millions" is named "Bugsy," similar to Bugsy Siegel - a possible friend or connection of Brown. In addition, his possible use of alcohol (during Prohibition) was also said to contribute to his wild swings in behavior. Finally, Brown was thought to be a violent fellow. "Quick Millions" opens with Spencer Tracy as "Bugs" as a lowly truck driver. After running into a limo (Town Car, really,) Bugs is humiliated by a local police officer arriving on the scene. So, naturally, Bugs leaps over the front of the truck to fight the cop.
Despite its abandonment by audiences and loss in the Code confusion, "Quick Millions" is in places as sharp as pre-Film Noir can be. Brown's quick direction and speedy editing give most of the movie the speed of the locomotive from its opening shot. In one of the great cinema illustrations of the passage of time, Brown uses zooms on six car license plates from 1925-1931. In addition, Brown and cinematographer Joseph R. August shoot a mysterious murder that is only seen from an angle underneath a table. After the victim falls into the frame, we only see the assailant with the gun in shadow. While violence might actually pass code after 1934, it truly captures the stark reality of detective movies (Anthony Mann's "T-Men" coming in 1947) and the "implied" violence of Film Noir.
Lost in the "Scarface"-like narrative (which ironically is coming just one year later and even making a star out of George Raft whose first credited appearance is here, and what a dancer,) is an ongoing criticism of "the law" that may or may not be Brown's hidden criticism of the Hays Code. At one point while attempting to woo Marguerite Churchill, Tracy as the gangster says "All the man-made laws in the country were made to protect honest people." Later, when the heads of business (some of whom admit to engaging with Bugs) "testify" before the District Attorney, the DA launches into a tirade about "society based on wealth, instead of intellectual attainment."
Even with his mighty roundhouse swing at racketeering and the corruption of big business, Brown was on to something. Unfortunately, Brown was perhaps too guided by his emotions. Beginning in 1932, Brown "walked off" from a number of films he was making for various disagreements. This behavior possibly culminated in his losing the early shot at "A Star Is Born" entitled "What Price Hollywood?" When that film established George Cukor as a director, Cukor would later decline to direct "A Star is Born" in 1937 over the similarity (although he would return for the 1954 version.) Since Brown had a hand in the creation of that story (with Gene Fowler,) he was given the director's chair. After a disagreement over the script, Brown was rumored to have punched a producer thus ending his career.
Having disappeared in the Hays Code rules after they were finally established in 1934, the films of Brown were largely abandoned. Their success with critics helped save them as properties of museums like the Museum of Modern Art. Fortunately, maverick directors like Martin Scorsese are still around to sing Brown's praises: "a largely forgotten figure, made three tough, sardonic movies in the early '30s, each one very knowledgeable about city politics, corruption, the coziness between cops and criminals."
