Ran into Brandy Clark last night. Well, not on the sidewalk or at the grocery, but on the Internet, as I was thinking and listening hard to a bunch of songs by Loretta Lynn. Then something or other happened in that way the world of links works, and suddenly, here was this youngish (43) singer-songwriter hailing from rural Washington, saying hello via the dozen songs from her 2013 debut album, “12 Stories.”
Talk about an unbidden fall harvest. These are tales of flesh-and-blood people, mostly working-class, often plain beyond imagining, but no less engaged in the struggle to get some type of lasso around their world and bring it to heel. What complicates things is that the lasso is often frayed, as are their reflexes and nerves.
I found myself considering half a dozen or more songs that could have worked for inclusion in this “Brilliant Songs” series. Nothing in the album isn’t worth attention; it really is that good. (“Pray to Jesus,” “Crazy Women,” “Three Kids, No Husband”—yes, yes, and yes…)
But I’ve chosen to focus here on “What’ll Keep Me Out Of Heaven” because of its exquisite quick sketch of an age-old scene: a married woman on the cusp of her first tryst, almost desperate to leave but dying to stay, caught on a fateful precipice that will leave her ravaged in one form or other, perhaps in several, for years to come, guaranteed.
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Clark has an uncanny ability to frame almost ubiquitous situations in music and literature—someone on the brink of an affair, a single mom lonely and frazzled but carrying on with needy children, a fed-up wife nursing fantasies of revenge on a ne’er-do-well husband—and giving them an utterly original tone. She does so in short strokes, economically, like the poet that all great songwriters are.
Two simple lines here frame the situation of our narrator in almost clinical terms, bespeaking worlds:
“There’s so many shades of grey but this is black and white
He’s some stranger’s husband and I’m some stranger’s wife”
Exactly. This marginalization of the betrayed spouses, each unknown to the separate protagonists, amounts to dehumanization, non-existence. Strangers don’t require acknowledgment or concern; they may as well be the man or woman on the moon.
These situations are not foursomes, but only three different one-on-one’s: the protagonists crossing this threshold to each other, then each of them going back home, across another type of threshold, to begin this new chapter with their spouses.
And now the end of that stanza above, no shadows again, just single-minded clarity on the bargain our narrator is negotiating with both her devil and her God:
Ten floors up he’s waiting with champagne and candle light
What’ll keep me out of heaven will take me there tonight
The push, the pull. Agony, ecstasy, or both?
Yes, there will be no free lunch. (Or in this case, champagne…)
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And now comes the moment of truth—the crossing of the threshold, after which this journey is headed toward its agreed upon destination:
“If I step into that elevator, there ain’t no turning around
And I don’t know what scares me most—the ride up or the ride down”
Those are six of the 15 lines (chorus not included) in this compact, lay-it-all-on-the-line slice of life, full lyrics below and a fine audio version of the song following. (You Tube has several others of her live, but the sound quality is subpar.)
There’s an almost too-real edginess to Clark’s oeuvre, laying gut feelings, wobbly situations and the complexities of the human heart out there with neither romance nor cynicism clouding the view. Dilemmas present themselves, people try to address them, fall short, get bruised, keep going. None too steadily or full of spark, but they do.
She gives them neither medals nor scorn for their efforts, but settles for telling their stories, unvarnished, insightful and true.
What’ll Keep Me Out Of Heaven
I know I shouldn’t be here tonight
I hardly know this man
It’s been a long time since I felt as pretty, as he tells me I am
I’ve met him at a coffee shop and I’ve met him in the park
But I’ve never been alone with him in this dress after dark
There’s so many shades of grey but this is black and white
He’s some stranger’s husband and I’m some stranger’s wife
Ten floors up he’s waiting with champagne and candle light
What’ll keep me out of heaven will take me there tonight
The arrow’s on the second floor
The bell’s about to ring
And I have to turn away right now
Or walk into this thing
If I step into that elevator, there ain’t no turning around
And I don’t know what scares me most—the ride up or the ride down
There’s so many shades of grey but this is black and white
He’s some stranger’s husband and I’m some stranger’s wife
Ten floors up he’s waiting with champagne and candle light
What’ll keep me out of heaven will take me there tonight
Ten floors up he’s waiting with champagne and candle light
What’ll keep me out of heaven will take me there tonight
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Check out this blog’s public page on Facebook for 1-minute snippets of wisdom and other musings from the world’s great thinkers and artists, accompanied always by lovely photography. http://www.facebook.com/andrew.hidas/
Deep appreciation to the photographers! Unless otherwise stated, some rights reserved under Creative Commons licensing.
Elizabeth Haslam, whose photos (except for books) grace the rotating banner top of homepage. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhaslam/
Library books by Larry Rose, all rights reserved, contact: larry@rosefoto.com
Brandy Clark by Steve Selwood, Yate, UK https://www.flickr.com/photos/8507625@N02/
Gateway by chiaralily, Melbourne Australia https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiaralily/
For more on Clark: http://www.brandyclarkmusic.com/
I’m trading in this very morning a slight sense of dismay and despair at all the beautiful things right under my nose and all around me that I am unaware of (like Brandy Clark!) and marching straight over to the opposite side of the street, to the place of gratitude and amazement, faith and appreciation.
Such riches! Where oh where would we be without the artists to help us reflect on, revel in and express all.of.this.LIFE?
Great, isn’t she? Glad you enjoyed. I loved it all, really wanted to do “Pray to Jesus” as well–hard call! Maybe a “Brilliant Songs 5A & 5B” would’ve been the answer?
Thanks Andrew! I’ve never heard of Brandy Clark or the town of Morton WA (being a Seattle boy, I had to look it up, off highway 12 South of Mt Rainer) – but she is now clearly on my radar screen. Strikes me as part of the so-called “new country” movement, kind of harkening back to the Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam side of the tracks – while musical categories always seem to fail us when pushed to far, she has a classic voice and yet a modern sensibility – her focus on storytelling (love the idea of everyone being a star in their own soap opera) and as you point out, her clever efficient economy or words/turn of phrase that seem to make her point perfectly… I have been playing her acoustic album “live in LA” all morning – she can be funny, cheeky, sensitive, ironic and more all wrapped up in stories of “everyday” people living their lives in her songs… hope to catch her live one of these days!
Yeah Kevin, not being much of a Country Boy, I don’t much follow all the New/Old Country currents, with their camps, trends, conflicts, shunnings—both overt and implied. All perfectly reflecting the world they are in, of course. Country women, in particular, seem terribly conflicted, going way out of the box ala Lynn (to a degree, for a while…), Clark, and of course the Dixie Chicks with their unintentional self-immolation on the altar of a whole different kind of political correctness. Makes me a little dizzy, which means it’s probably worthy of a lot more reflection, but meanwhile, discovering this kind of music from a whole new source is lovely consolation. Thanks for sharing this!
Once again, Drew, thanks for introducing me to another great song artist. While “Cheatin” has long been a staple of country music from Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” to Hank Williams’ classic “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” this song paints a different picture in that the loneliness of her marriage (stranger husband stranger wife) is at the root of her infidelity. It’s a more realistic analysis of “cheatin'” than Dolly pleading with Jolene, a ravishing redhead, to leave her husband alone or Hank’s admonition that his girl’s cheatin’ heart will tell on her. Thanks as always for those songs that are more gray than black and white.
This is so interesting, Robert, I read that stranger husband-stranger wife from the other point of view. You seem to be suggesting the unfaithful characters at the center of this song—she in particular—are strangers to their own spouses, but I took it to mean that the spouses of each of them at home are strangers to the other person in the cheatin’ duo. In other words, the singer’s husband at home is a stranger to the man she is cheating with (which gives him a reason not to care…`), and the guy’s wife at home is a stranger to the singer. But as I read your interpretation (if I’m indeed interpreting it correctly), that could actually work, too, although I don’t think it’s what Clark meant in that lyric. But there ya go: people can read things all kinds of different ways—deconstructionism come to life at Traversing! :-)
I took a tour thru a whole buncha country music on this one, not my general predilection, but entertaining and informative! And lo & behold: infidelity is a very common theme! Who’d a thunk? Sing it, Dolly! Take it away, Hank! I fielded a question from a commenter elsewhere about whether I was “endorsing” infidelity with this post. Hmmm…if so, most of the country music world has been doing the same for a long, long time!
Drew, as I re-read “What’ll Keep Me Out of Heaven,” I agree with you that both are strangers with each other’s ‘s spouse. I think my affinity for country music and its infatuation with infidelity affected my too rapid interpretation of the song’s lyrics. I stand corrected. However, listen more to country. I really think you’ll love its story-telling quality. Take Marty Robbins’ classic ballad “El Paso.” Void of a refrain, which is unusual for songs, it just tells a great old West story about love, jealousy, gunfight, and death.
But, if you’re going to get serious about Country, start with Hank Williams. While I’m not prone to superlatives, I feel safe saying that Hank is the BEST. Willie Nelson said something like there is no Country music without Hank. Even John Coltrane, the great be-bop saxophonist, felt he was America’s most prolific songwriter. Perhaps Trane’s admiration for Williams was so because he grew up in North Carolina where Country monopolized the airwaves. Just a guess. Nevertheless, the quality and quantity of his songs are remarkable since he didn’t live to see his 30th birthday.
So noted, Robert—I will take a good look at Hammerin’ Hank! (No, wait, that’s another legendary Hank…) Know very little about him, had no idea he didn’t make it to 30—another one of those flaming meteors Jack London was always going on about before becoming a meteor himself (though at least he made it to 40…). Thanks for the nudge!
Kevin mentioned that he would like to see a Brandy Clark if she were playing in the area. Not sure where he lives, but she will be in Sacramento, on Tuesday, Dec. 11th, at the Crest Theater. Her concert tour seems to go to Oregon next and then Washington. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Saw that! Date doesn’t quite work, but I’m following her on Facebook, so will look to another time. And she’s opening for Mark O’Connor, helluva player himself, nice pairing! Happy day to you & yours, pal.
Drew, I join Kevin and Robert in thanks for introducing Brandy Clark. I find her voice and story-telling to be terrific. At first blush I agree with Robert’s first take that the spouses are strangers to one another and thus estranged and susceptible to being special to someone else. Noting that you take a different perspective and that he then re-considered gives me reason to ponder more on this. I think I too will FB follow her. Cheers
For what it’s worth: I have now shifted and believe that the spouses are strangers to one another.
So are you suggesting that the woman in this song feels like a stranger to her own husband, and that’s why she’s contemplating cheating on him? Likewise the man in the hotel room waiting for her feels like a stranger to his own wife? That was Robert’s original take, which was different than mine, and which he then amended. You staying with that interpretation? As I mentioned originally, that could actually work, too, though I don’t hear/read the lines that way, and my bet was that Clark didn’t write them to mean that either. But that’s the beauty of such matters! Fun stuff!!
No, I shifted to your original and Robert’s amended interpretation.