Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Janet Jackson's 'Control' turns 35, R.I.P. to The Animals' Hilton Valentine, and surveying the "rotten orchard" that is country music.
Hi, and welcome to the February/Polar Vortex edition of Switchblade.
Book Update
I get a ton of messages and emails asking for book updates, which makes me a) THRILLED that people are excited for it to come out, and b) extremely anxious because I don’t know what to tell them. Things are happening! My editor and I are working on a few more chapters this month—mainly just quadruple-checking chronological details—and I’m finishing up photo licensing, source notes and other grunt work. It’s painstaking, especially when my only real time to work on book stuff is after kid bedtime when I’m already exhausted, but there is progress. As always, this newsletter, plus Bazillion Points’ Instagram, is the best way to find out about pre-orders, pub date, events and everything else book-related when the time comes.
Black Futures Month: Laina Dawes
You may remember that back in November, I participated in a virtual panel for Indigenous Futures Month hosted by Central New Mexico Community College’s School of Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences. It was a blast, and they’re hosting an equally cool event this Wednesday, February 10 at 6 p.m. Mountain Time as part of Black Futures Month. It’s called Black Static: Radical Transformation Through Sound with Laina Dawes. REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM HERE and follow CHSS on Instagram to learn more about these events.
From CHSS: This presentation will view extreme music through the hallmarks of a genre in which Black participation is slim. A review of the musical contributions of contemporary Black musical artists that re-contextualize aggressive sounds and textures through non Black-centric musical forms will be central. This presentation will also explore the ways in which aggression through a Black lens acknowledges and celebrates the release of emotions that have dangerous physical and emotional ramifications to Black life.
In addition to being a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, Laina Dawes also is the author of the book What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, which was put out in 2013 by my publisher, Bazillion Points. She is also the founder of Women CLAPBack, a symposium series for women of color in the alternative music and art scenes in NYC. Her book is a must-read, especially for metal fans. Click here to buy it.
The Facade is Crumbling, Bit by Bit
TW for the below section re: racism and misogyny…
If you, like me, have been spending far too much time glued to music industry news this week, you know about the double whammy of discourse surrounding Marilyn Manson’s unsurprising but now-public violence, abuse and misogyny and the cancer of racism that continues to spread in country music.
Of course I’m livid and disgusted whenever stories like these come to light. There’s also the tiniest glimmer of…not relief, by any means, but some strange fleeting reassurance that for once, someone—especially a wealthy, entitled someone—is reaping an iota of a consequence for their actions, a rarity in entertainment.
While I hate that victims are forced to relive their trauma, I have that same strange fleeting reassuring feeling that they at least have platforms to voice their experiences if they choose. (Oh, except for the fact that those who do are then vilified!)
In my opinion, the absolute barest-ass minimum we can do as music fans/consumers is to listen to and support those who actually bear the brunt of these experiences with our actions, words and dollars. One person I’ve been tuning in to carefully is Mickey Guyton, the first Black female solo artist to receive a Grammy nomination in a country category. Mickey has been open about Nashville’s treatment of Black artists—not an easy thing for her to do, I’m sure.
Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan-Cottom recently discussed Black contributions to country music on their subscription-based podcast Hear to Slay, with guest Rissi Palmer (who hosts the Apple Music show Color Me Country). The LA Times recently ran a thorough story on the women who brought down Burger Records artists’ predatory behavior, and I’ve been appalled at what I’ve learned since following @misogyny_in_music_ on Instagram.
Holly G’s “To Be Black, Queer, and Country—In This Moment” article on Country Queer has been an eye-opener for me. It dives into how, as Holly puts it, “hatred is an heirloom in country music that you can trace back to the very beginning.”
No, what I’ve found most frustrating today is the eagerness to put this behind us. The insistence that this “isn’t Nashville” (I love you Kelsea [Ballerini], but it is.) The idea that this is just one bad apple, when the truth is that it is a spoiled orchard. Country music is rotten to the roots.
‘Control’ Turns 35
Janet Jackson’s third album, the epic and hit-heavy Control, was released this month 35 years ago. (It’s also the 16th anniversary of the Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” debacle, barf.)
I can’t overstate the importance of this album on my own childhood and musical tastes; it was recorded in my hometown of Minneapolis, after all! Gerrick D. Kennedy’s LA Times article commemorating the 30th anniversary sums up why it was such a huge moment for Janet as a person and a musician, not to mention its influence on later music videos and artists such as Beyonce and Rihanna.
Related recommended reading: “Nipplegate Revisted: Why America Owes Janet Jackson a Huge Apology”
Related recommended listening: You’re Wrong About: The Wardrobe Malfunction
R.I.P. Hilton Valentine
The founding guitarist of ‘60s British skiffle-blues-rock pioneers The Animals died a little over a week ago at the age of 77. You probably don’t recognize Hilton’s name, but chances are you recognize his haunting arpeggio at the beginning of The Animals’ version of “House of the Rising Sun”—arguably the most well-known version of this traditional song. (That’s him right behind singer Eric Burdon.)
I have extra attachment to The Animals’ version as my dad played it on his guitar constantly during my childhood. Of course, at the time I would roll my eyes…but now that I’ve barely seen him in a year I pretty much heave-sob whenever I hear Hilton’s melancholy riff. What a difference a pandemic makes.
I had the pleasure of speaking briefly to Hilton a couple years ago for the Link Wray book. Hilton was greatly influenced by Link and had met him on Link’s 2003 tour as he was friendly with members of Link’s opener, Jet City Fix. Here’s what he told me about hearing Link’s iconic instrumental “Rumble” for the first time in the late ‘50s:
My influences at the time were Skiffle and early rock ‘n’ roll like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Elvis and Bill Haley, etc. Then one day I hear BRRRRRNGGGG BRRRRRNGGGG BRRRRRNGGGG! It knocked me off my feet! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! The sound, the sound, the sound! That's all that kept rolling through my head. I couldn't wait to run over to my friend's house and ask him if he'd heard it yet.
Like Link, Hilton was a guitarist ahead of his time. He also was a humble, insanely talented kid who gained initial fame from (and whose career was often overshadowed by) one iconic riff. Also like Link, he saw the concept of having such a legendary place in music history for what it was: utterly bizarre. This quote really stuck with me.
The number of people that tell me they started playing guitar after hearing “House of The Rising Sun,” or that it was the first song they ever learned how to play, just amazes me. I'm just a guy, so when all these people tell me that their life is changed because of something I did, it's hard to process really. It makes me feel good, I know that. But when it was happening, we just knew we were having hit records. It's only through the passage of time that something reveals itself to be iconic. I appreciate my contribution retrospectively, but in 1964 I was just happy knowing I laid down a good track.
When asked about The Animals’ legacy in a 2010 interview for Guitar International, he replied:
The most mismanaged, fucked up band that just got totally taken by their management. [Laughs] Oh, I don’t know. I do think that we were among those responsible for turning on white America to the blues music that was already right in their own backyard, they just didn’t know it. And I guess, of all the British Invasion bands back then that made it over here, we probably had a more authentic delivery of the blues
Did you know that both “House of the Rising Sun” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” were also recorded by Nina Simone? I didn’t, nor did I realize that Don’t Let Me Be Understood” was written for her.
Elvis Gets Poked
In 1956, Elvis got the Polio vaccination backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show to encourage reluctant teenagers to do their part and get vaccinated. Wear your mask(s) and get the shot(s) when you can, people! Let’s all live to see live music together again.
Thanks for reading, and talk to you next month,
Dana