"Ah," Mr. Compson said. "Years ago we in the South made our women into ladies. Then the War came and made our ladies into ghosts."
In the 1930's short story "A Rose For Emily," William Faulkner obtained his first national publication from a tale that is largely tragedy. His protagonist Emily Grierson has weathered several changes since the war's end. She was not allowed to marry by her father, who passed away when Emily was 30. In addition, the number of men in Jefferson dwindled as well. Still, Emily refused to let go of her father - leading her own ghostly existence outside of giving a few art lessons until she was 40. While far more macabre events follow, Emily is not just an eccentric Southern spinster, she is emblematic of women everywhere who were cloistered in the past and without power.
Six years later in what he deemed his greatest work ever, "Absalom! Absalom!" actually writes of "Nothusband" and "undefeat." By co-opting these words as his own, Faulkner is making what was in the past modern. Miss Rosa Coldfield (her name, again serving as highly influential in her description) tells the story of how Thomas Sutpen settled in the thicket-rich, muddy land of Yoknapatawpha County to build his own version of paradise, Sutpen's Hundred. Sutpen married Rosa's older sister Ellen to find his "happiness." While she lives in the shadow of Sutpen, Ellen is allowed to play "the part written for herself."
Sutpen is portrayed as "savage" in Rosa's retelling. He and Ellen's father tussled over their wedding. Ellen's father wanted a small ceremony, and Sutpen wanted 100 people there for a grand affair. While Sutpen wins out, only 10 people show up while Sutpen and his new bride are covered in dirt and compost after their nuptials. Ironically, Ellen will die giving birth and Mr. Coldfield kills himself in protest of the war, leaving Rosa in the care of the same spinster aunt who advised Sutpen to demand a large wedding.
The Coldfield/Sutpen story is actually told from three different perspectives. While there are many who think that Rosa has tempered her retelling with spite and vitriol due to her loss and invisibility, Rosa and the scholar Quentin Compson find Ellen is "disappearing" with each yearly visit to Sutpen's Hundred. Without Ellen or her father (or her mother for that matter who died while giving birth to Rosa) she is like Emily Grierson a permanent outsider.
The question is "Should Rosa be the narrator?" Emily Grierson led a solitary apparition-like existence between the walls of her house. We see everything she does. We assign a value to her actions. Rosa only has her history as a point of connection to gather sympathy and understanding. This is not just her struggle, but that of all women in the South. While Rosa is not taking "power" in the same macabre ways as Emily Grierson, her "power" is functioning as the true possessor of the story of Thomas Sutpen and the, as Rosa dubbed it, "suitably demonic" haunted house that was once his dream. If Sutpen ruined her life and her family, perhaps her continued existence insures that the bitter reality is there to hear and learn from.
The second question is "Does Rosa actually possess the facts?" As the primary source of this story, Rosa is again taking "power" from her role in it. As the tale is told in 1909, Rosa is bitter but also, like Emily Grierson, becomes somewhat of an "institution." Her importance is as the possessor of this story. In fact, given the bad luck of all the people in her closest circle, their no one to challenge her. The tragedies of her life only lend implied credence to her knowing "tragedy" when she sees it. As a survivor of a "destroyed" family, her once ghostly existence is over because of the story and what she endured.
"Absalom! Absalom!" is Faulkner's framework for the history of the South. Rosa's story is the basis of his storytelling. In his eyes, she sees everything but remains largely unseen. For example, the spinster Aunt, who is her caretaker, elopes abandoning Rosa with her family. Strangely, Rosa's caustic storytelling prevents you from becoming too sympathetic to her, thus keeping the real story in Faulkner's hands. Later as Quentin uses his version to illustrate just what the South is like to his Harvard roommate, changes and alterations are quickly made reflecting not only Rosa's primary view, but Quentin and Faulkner's appraisal of the South and its longstanding traditions of family, morality, and honor - as well as just who truly holds the power.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New This Week
HARRY STYLES - Harry's House [LP/CD/CS](Columbia)
Like all blockbuster albums, "Harry's House" is really Fort Knox. Behind those bars, is what he calls his most personal record yet. So far, the singles and leaks point to this one also being his most varied yet. Will there be another track as inescapable as "Watermelon Sugar" or "Sign of the Times?" Looks like Harry wants us to all find out together.
MAVIS STAPLES AND LEVON HELM - Carry Me Home [LP/CD](ANTI/Epitaph/AMPED)
Two legends. Two bands. One record made live in Levon's barn in the Summer of 2011. A rockin' rollicking mess of Blues, Country, Folk, and even Gospel. Mavis returns Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Got To Move" to its spiritual roots. "I Wish I Knew How It Was To Be Free" becomes a brassy celebration of how far we have come. "Carry Me Home" is about faith and music as well as music restoring faith.
WEIRD NIGHTMARE [LP/CD](SubPop)
Pittsburgh's METZ is generally one long blast of uncontrolled energy and noise. (Try eight minutes of thirty seconds of the cathartic "A Boat To Drown In" from 2020's "Atlas Vending" for more) Singer/guitarist Alex Edkins steps out of Metz for a Pop/Punk-meets Power Pop series of songs that honestly sound nothing like his band. "Searching For You" is a Wavves-ian rager that comes closest to their force. However, with his Eighties-ian chord jangle hanging underneath and the classic Glam Rock banging tom thrust - it could be a single. "Wrecked" is more like Eighties Sonic Youth as channeled by Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub.
REISSUES THIS WEEK
THE CLASH - Combat Rock [LP/CD](Legacy/Epic)
The Clash was always a band poised to break through. As we discussed before their exponential expansion, in the beginning, was enough to leave singles as seeds for future growth. "White Riot" was true Punk. "Clash City Rockers" brought out their clarion call lead guitar. Their cover of "I Fought The Law" made it their song. Where the underrated "Give 'Em Enough Rope" underwhelmed, their Guy Stevens-produced album "London Calling" made them worldwide stars with nary a Top 10 track. As the Eighties dawned, the Do-It-Yourself approach to "Sandinista" was a crystal ball of the future where R&B, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Dub, Pop, Dance, and yes...Punk interlocked into one sprawling triple album. However, it was the faubles of "Sandinista" that set up the commercial reach of 1982's "Combat Rock." With the band firmly in "you better score a hit" mode, "Combat Rock" is the first true vision of the Clash in conflict. Outside of the two major singles they scored (still classics "Rock The Casbah" and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go,") "Combat Rock" remains a puzzling statement on American culture. "Know Your Rights" was a first-album screed reformulated for the initial attack. "Car Jamming" was an audacious Urban jam that still feels a little less enjoyable than the ride they took while writing it. "Red Angel Dragnet" neatly continues their "Guns of Brixton" style mastery of Reggae even as it lauds vigilante justice with DeNiro samples from "Taxi Driver."
If The Clash were in conflict with each other, it really comes through on the second side of "Combat Rock."Overpowered By Funk" remains dwarfed by the massive single-only release "This Is Radio Clash" "Atom Tan" features some great lyrics from Joe Strummer. "Sean Flynn" begins a new sequence of moody Post-Punk meditations on the Vietnam War that culminates in the album's standout "Straight To Hell." Not famous until M.I.A. famously sampled it in "Paper Planes." Recorded furiously at the end of the "Combat Rock" sessions in 1981, it marks a breakthrough for the whole band. If The Clash (as a band) sounded a bit uninspired behind Strummer and Allen Ginsberg on the modern Beat odyssey "Ghetto Defendant," they snapped into a true groove on "Straight To Hell." Thrilling dramatic in its quiet fury, "Straight To Hell" plays like a hazy war dream. This is the aftermath of war. Industry shutting down. Unemployment rampant. The human cost of immigration worldwide from the shores of Vietnam to the boroughs of New York City. Everything crystallizes in these five-and-a-half minutes (cut down from seven.) When they appeared on Saturday Night Live on October 9, 1982, they had enough power to play it as their new single. Four days later, they would give the American audience their peak live Clash shows ever playing with The Who at Shea Stadium. Management changes led to discord. Drug use ushered drummer Topper Headon out and furthered animus. Lineup shifts and dissatisfaction got them through most of 1983 (including standing up the US Festival promoters over their exorbitant ticket prices.) In September 1983, Mick Jones was fired by Strummer and Simonon. The glory days were over in a flash.
While we can still analyze everything from March 1977's "White Riot" (when they were already billed as the most important band in the world) to their protest of Iranian products "Rock The Casbah" worldwide Top 10 standings for the song and "Combat Rock," there is no doubt that if The Clash could have harnessed that final song on the album - they would have kept on going.
ONE LAST WORD
KENDRICK LAMAR - Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers (Aftermath)
By now, there is a torrent of talk and millions of opinions on the latest from Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar. First of all, listen for yourself. My opinion is that Kendrick has long been the best rapper because of his literate use of lyrics. "Mr. Morale" sees much of the music stripped down and his rhyming delivered in a variety of different voices. This is a massive statement about fatherhood and its perils. The opening round of "United In Grief," "N95" and "Worldwide Steppers" might be both his most beguiling and most original tracks ever. Elsewhere, Lamar finds his hook with Sampha on "Father Time," and creates a tense one-act play with actress Taylour Paige on "We Cry Together." To me, it sags in the middle - but with such a broad palette of social, interfamily, and societal issues on the plate, it is ambitious overreach - not filler. However, the ending (which everyone will be talking about the most) is one of the most transformative series of songs in the history of Hip-Hop. Lamar asks so many questions of himself, his family, his industry, the media, and more that it becomes a dizzying array of information hurling by you all at once. I maintain that these are the most important songs on "Mr. Morale." They demand numerous listens and thought about the feelings they provoke. "Mr. Morale" says so much in its short time here, that it feels exhausting when it concludes. However, this is not either another vaunted zeitgeist moment or album that fulfills your weekly search for an album high. It asks for you to examine it as well as your connection to the strata of real life.
