If you were trying to describe the proverbial hell on earth, you would be hard-pressed to find a more naturally terrifying situation that Graham Greene describes in his fictional version of the Mexican state of Tabasco in the Twenties.
He knew the extent of their abandonment - the ten hours down-river to the port, the forty-two hours on the Gulf to Vera Cruz - that was one way out. To the north the swamps and rivers petering out against mountains which divided them from the next state. And on the other side no roads - only mule-tracks and an occasional unreliable plane.
Congratulations. To quote Bob Dylan, “You ain't goin' nowhere.”
English writer Graham Greene always carried a significant interest in telling the story of the Cristero War in Mexico (1926-1929,) when Catholicism was outlawed in several parts of Mexico because of anticlerical amendments that had been attached to their constitution back in 1857 - but never enforced until 1917. Skirmishes broke out and priests were not only outlawed but murdered. Caught between peasants who sought better opportunity through land reform, and no general support for the rebellion, many states decided their standing and enforcement on this issue for themselves.
Graham Greene's fictional state (unnamed in the work, but likely Tabasco due to the fact he visited there from January to May 1938) is one of the most astringent. In turn, the residents you encounter in “The Power and the Glory” are often pictures of confusion living in a land of near Cormac McCarthy-esque lawlessness. Greene was fascinated by this level of persecution likely because it had not been experienced on Earth since the days of Queen Elizabeth I.
These towns are a portrait of life both at a standstill (They all have nowhere to go. Mr. Tench, the English dentist who came to work for five years, saw the peso drop to near worthlessness and now cannot depart) coming to grips with the past (in his most ascetic style of life, the Lieutenant who was damaged by religion wants “to be left alone without any memories at all. Life began five years ago.”) While priests are encouraged to get married, Greene reveals that even the violation of long-instructed tenets actually empowers some (“the power he still had of turning the wafer into the flesh and blood of God.”)
There is perhaps no more unpredictable character here than Greene's unnamed protagonist, only known as “the whisky priest.” Like Clint Eastwood's “The Man With No Name” from Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns of the Sixties, the priest has returned to town a wanted man. When he quietly enters as “a small man dressed in a shabby dark city suit, carrying a small attache case,” we do not know what to think of him. Soon enough, we learn that he has redemption in mind. After discovering that he has an illegitimate daughter, his mission is to do anything to save her. In turn, this will hopefully act as repentance for his past.
While beer and liquor (once outlawed) are being unloaded in large numbers, we quietly unearth that religious books are also being smuggled in. Those with positive memories of religion in their past, can still cherish those memories and even pray in private without being caught. (Secretly, even the Lieutenant has “an hour of prayer.”) The whisky priest wants to believe, especially as he clandestinely administers to the agrarian families living just above poverty, yet he cannot.
Without anything to believe in and being pursued for possible crimes in the States (bank robbery and murdering two G-Men,) the whisky priest can only try to get through the treacherous mountains. Greene's cinematic descriptions of their lives are detailed and revealed like the slow pan of a camera. The environment they endure of heat, dust, mosquitoes, and humidity is already too much to bear. Add to it, characters that only take refuge (or be spiritually lost) in their memories and you have life portrayed as nearly unbearable. However, that is simply not the point. This is real for a reason. The inhabitants despite their poverty, impoverished way of life, and living under constant threat - never stop believing that first and foremost, they can survive. While they may not understand that a small faction of anti-government sentiment led the entire nation into this conflict, they feel the consequences of both economic stagnation and iron-fisted leadership. Despite the gears of daily life grinding to a halt, they cannot stop believing.
Years after its publication, a Catholic instructor gave the book to a Mexican woman who actually lived through this tumultuous period. After reading a portion of it, she found it so real that she began praying for the priest at Mass.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
CHRIS STAPLETON - Higher [BONE LP/CD](Mercury Nashville) • After pursuing his ambitions for three albums, Chris Stapleton has expanded his view of music to return to the Country-based "Traveller"-style writing that kicked his whole career into high gear. With longtime producer Dave Cobb, wife Morgane, and his traveling band, "Higher" is back to basics where the song takes precedence over the style they choose to play it in. "White Horse" is a blazing Country/Rock anthem that carries echoes of Steve Earle crossing into AOR territory. While "I Think I'm In Love With You" coaxes an Al Green-ish beat to inject Soul, before Chris and Morgane match voices on the slow, Waylon-ish ballad "It Takes A Woman."
CAT POWER - Sings Dylan [WHITE 2LP/CD](Domino/Redeye) • For Chan Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, she literally returns to the scene of the crime (kind of.) Over the cries of "Judas!" at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966, Bob Dylan and members of The Band went electric and changed Rock N'Roll whether it was warranted or not. Dylan's tense 1965/1966 tour was his attempt to incorporate his luminous acoustic Folk with the more Bluesy Rock of "Bringing It All Back Home." Marshall and her band reprise both sets to a mostly ecstatic crowd. The real attraction is how well the group captures the sound and how Marshall interprets Dylan with honest inspiration.
æspa - drama [CD](SM Entertainment) • For the K-Pop girl group's fourth EP, they deviate into EDM/SynthPop. This seems to be a better fit as the four can reveal their personalities over the pulsating backdrop and tracks like "Zoom Zoom" can possibly bring them more chart success in the States (after their first English-language single this year "Better Things.")
JIMI HENDRIX - Live at the Hollywood Bowl, August 18, 1967 [2LP/CD](Experience/Legacy) • Recorded over nearly eight months (off and on) between 1966 and 1967, the debut album from Jimi Hendrix Experience was a smash in the UK and Europe. However, in the US, the first single, "Hey Joe" stalled despite his high-profile success at Monterey Pop in June. Eager to release "Experienced" in the US, here is the JHE at the beginning of the second attempt to blast into the charts. Just two days after dropping "Purple Haze/The Wind Cries Mary" to stations coast-to-coast and five days away from the album hitting American stores, the JHE opened at the historic Hollywood Bowl for The Mamas and The Papas. Fortunately, given this was the waning months of the Summer of Love, audiences were shocked but receptive to the 10 songs here - never before released.
REISSUES OF THE WEEK
THE BEATLES - 1962-1966/1967-1970 [3LP/2CD](Apple Corps/Capitol/UME) • To accommodate the recent release of "Now and Then," the last Beatles song, the "Red" and "Blue" albums have been reconfigured to add more highlights for the 50th anniversary. The latest "Red" hits some choice covers ("Roll Over Beethoven,") sentimental faves ("This Boy,") and the first studio-only mastery ("If I Needed Someone" and "Tomorrow Never Knows.") While the "Blue" version digs deeper into George's contributions ("I Me Mine" and "Within You Without You") and pays more deference to 1968's "The Beatles" ("Blackbird.")
NEW ORDER - Substance [BLUE AND RED 2LP/2CD] (Rhino/Warner) • It took losing all their equipment on tour to finally escape the shadow of Ian Curtis and their former incarnation as Joy Division. Once New Order started having club hits (1983's "Blue Monday") it was not long before College Radio followed. "Substance" puts all their early singles together into one surprisingly cohesive package. Why does it hold together so well? First, they actually re-recorded "Temptation" and "Confusion" to match their more Arthur Baker-produced successes. Second, by the time you reach the should-have-been hits "Thieves Like Us" and "The Perfect Kiss," they dish out the only version of the "Pretty In Pink" soundtrack cut "Shellshock." Finally, when you arrive at their best-known song "Bizarre Love Triangle," they unveil a newly recorded bonus cut, "True Faith" - which would become their first US Top 40 hit.
Finally, in the Eighties you could not have a singles package without those impressive B-sides (The Cure's "Standing on A Beach" remains the best use of this format and may have inadverently inspired the separation.) So the second half of "Substance" is mostly deep cuts that did not make it to the album. This "best of both worlds" approach gave New Order their first Platinum record.
