You Are Here: Disease as Performance: Politics & Music: FUBAR, Live at Top Of the Park, June 28, 2008

“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.” -- John Kenneth Galbraith, 1969

POLITICS

As Bob Dylan, or Abe Lincoln, or somebody said, you can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I say bull. We have the surgical and technological know-how to rectify our polarities and redeem our nation. Hence, I am proposing a revolutionary ticket that involves going back…errr…forward to a one party system. We could use the money saved on campaigning to win the war and save the world. Rather than have voters go to the polls we could simply have the talking heads make up their own vote counts and bloviate accordingly (that’s a big word that everyone's using now). Race, gender, and ignorance will be equally represented. So here’s the ticket: to the left, the president (on motorcycle), to the right, the vice-president.

MUSIC

Let’s start with a poem:

SLOW DRAG BLUES

I don’t believe in sex

After marriage
My wife does, just

Not with me.
I plead the Fifth

of whiskey. I am close

to perfecting a theory
of forgettability.

Grief a dog
That keeps dogging me---

Good Grief,
I say. It’s me

He’s teaching to beg---

My next anniversary
is newspaper, yesterday’s---

lining my cage---
Tomorrow the day

I hope to learn to stay.

-- Kevin Young

Next Saturday night, June 28, at 7PM, FUBAR takes the stage at Ann Arbor’s Top Of the Park, they will be followed by Lady Sunshine and the X band, a very cool soul group. Whenever I see Slick Rick and Lady, I request Tyrone Davis’ “Can I Change My Mind.” The guitar riff in this is sick-boss (my word).

As a way of describing what FUBAR’s about, I thought I’d take you through the set we’ll be playing next Saturday. Mike Betzold, writing in the Ann Arbor Observer, had this to say about our lead singer, “Out front is the unprepossessing Sophia Hanifi, formerly of Map of the World, who doesn’t look or act as if she has the kind of tart, tangy, soulful voice that can jolt your heart. The contrast between her almost evanescent stage presence and the power of her interpretations is disconcerting.”

We’ll start the set with an Andy Adamson original, “You & I.” Since you’ll recognize most of the covers we play, I’ll save the descriptions for them. Regarding the originals, I’ll use quotes from reviews as a way of suggesting their interest. Betzold liked “You & I” so much he mistook it for a song by a group that’s been a major influence on me: “When FUBAR covers songs from well-known groups such as the Byrds, it’s likely to be something obscure like “You and I” rather than “Mr. Tambourine Man.”" Reviewing FUBAR’s disc, “Suddenly,” Roger Lelievre of the Ann Arbor News wrote, "Noteworthy originals include Andy Adamson’s "You and I.""

Next up is “Article of Faith (R. Tessier),” another FUBAR original. The hook in this one is the words, or lack thereof. My intention was to have the title reflect the chorale intent of the song. The melody is sung, but has no lyrics. If the singing so compels you, you will integrate a sonic, rather than lyric, narrative in your head. It’ll be on our next disc.

Wanda Jackson’s frenetic “Let’s have a Party” follows. Think of Little Richard rave-ups, like Tutti Frutti” or “Rip It Up,” as sung by a woman, and you’ve got it. It’s a song, where, as Betzold puts it, “Hanifi is belting out the half-crazed lyrics and the band is at full tilt.”

For our only slow song of the evening we’ve selected The Cardinals' beautiful 1950s love ballad, “The Door Is Still Open.” Never heard of it?” It’s no accident. We try to be obscure, eclectic, and too cute. Again. Betzold, “Apart from some highly compelling original material, most of their numbers are covers—but not of the standards that oldies stations have played to death.” Lelievre describes Sophia’s singing this way: “Listen closely to the dynamic, soulful vocalist Sophia Hanifi. This one is pure ear candy.” Reviewing this song for Current Magazine, Sandor Slomovitz writes, "Dave Cavender's soulful harmonica and trumpet along with Andy Adamson's varied keyboard sounds shine in well-deserved moments on this one."

Then comes “A House Is Not a Motel," a song by the 1966 group, “Love.” Betzold writes: "Most remarkably, FUBAR tackles the 1960’s San Francisco cult group ‘Love.’ Spinning out energetic, inventive covers of two of that enigmatic group’s most complex songs.” The other one’s “Alone Again, Or.”

Stephen Stills’ always relevant, unfortunate as it may be, “For What It’s Worth,” fills this slot. I can’t think of a cooler protest song. It takes no sides, and no prisoners. Anybody that needs a copy of our version, I’ll be glad to send you one FREE. Commenting on FUBAR's political commitment, Slomovitz writes, "Then the subject was Vietnam, now it's the current conflict, spelled out in Tessier's acid comments."

At number seven comes Bill Withers’ “Use Me Up.” Key to this song is the relentless bottom Oni Werth and Jim Carey provide. Describing Oni and Jim’s groove, Betzold writes, “They play with energy and skill that would be the envy of far-better-known bands.” To my mind (of course, I’m biased), Betzold is on target when he describes Oni’s playing as having a “surging power,” and the band as being anchored by “the driving beat of Jim Carey.” Slomovitz writes, "the rhythm section of bassist Oni Werth and drummer Jim Carey does exactly what's needed." Check out Dave Cavender’s Freddie Hubbard stylings (“First Light” CTI) on this. Betzold called Cavender, a “musician’s musician.” You have my promise, on this one I’ll try to live up to Betzold’s review, “Tessier is a wild man—like a caged animal shaking his cell bars.” Praise God!

Let’s get the duet going here. “Jackson” (Leiber/Wheeler), recorded by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, as well as Johnny Cash and June Carter, is next. We follow the Carter, Cash version.

At this point in the evening we’ll bring up a horn section. A baritone, saxophone, and trombone, will join Dave to take us out in a Soul Tsunami. We’ve dubbed them “The Valves of Houston” (Google it [hint] it’s an anatomical destination).

I’ll let Betzold introduce this one: "This six-piece ensemble is equally adept at reinvigorating catchy but little-heard R&B tunes, such as Maxine Brown’s infectious 'Oh, No. Not My Baby.'”

Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher?” OK, so we do one that’s “been played to death.”

The Foundations' “Build Me Up Buttercup.” FUBAR magic is in the house. Presto chango! Repeat after us: Kitsch, camp, cool; kitsch, camp, cool…don’t worry, we’re renaming ourselves the “Panderer Bears.”

For the grand finale, it’s sing along with Mitch time. Follow the bouncing ball….yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…You got it, Sly & the Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song,” try a little do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do…

I’ll sign off with a final quote from Betzold: “The combination of Hanifi’s sassy vocals, Tessier's rebel-rock attitude, and the rest of the band’s talent and verve restores the heart and soul and unrepentant energy that rock used to have before it was hijacked by self-obsessed ironists.”