The Ghosts That Haunt Me is the 1991 debut album by the Canadian folk rock group Crash Test Dummies. It featured their hit “Superman’s Song”.
The artwork featured on the cover, and throughout the liner notes, is by 19th-century illustrator Gustav Doré and is from ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The same painting would later be used for black metal band Judas Iscariot’s final album To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding in 2002.
The artworks on the booklet of the album are by 19th-century illustrator Gustav Doré and are from ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, except “The Flying Man” by French novelist Nicolas Edme Restif de la Bretonne and is from ‘The Discovery of the Austral Continent by a Flying Man’, 1781. (by wikipedia)
My introduction to Crash Test Dummies came on June 12, 1994 when I saw them open for Elvis Costello on his Brutal Youth tour. The extent of their exposure at that time was their sole hit, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” and, to a far lesser extent, “Superman’s Song” off of their debut album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, which was released on this date, April 5, 1991.
Since then, Crash Test Dummies have become a bit of a cult-following type of outfit and I often feel that I’m a cult of one, since I talk to few people who recall them at all (oh, that “Mmm Mmm” song…), much less count themselves among fans. And at this point, even the term “band” is a bit inaccurate, as Brad Roberts is the sole remaining member of a group that debuted 26 years ago. But let’s back up.
Out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, CTD introduced themselves with a college radio-friendly folk-rock number, the aforementioned “Superman’s Song,” a reflection on the lack of humanity in modern-day society (the video plays it as an elegy for Superman, with fellow supers attending the funeral). The song starts with a solo cello intro and flows into a piano-and-strings arrangement that is unlike most of their work. As such, it’s an odd choice for a lead-off single, since it doesn’t give a real feel for the album – or, indeed, the band’s work overall. Ellen Reid (the last member to remain with Brad Roberts as a Crash Test Dummy until she unofficially retired in the new millennium) provides the piano and harmonizing backing vocals. It’s a great song, just not like any other in their oeuvre.
Overall, the album is more upbeat than its lead single, at times featuring a bit of a Celtic lilt to the music, courtesy of Ellen Reid and Benjamin Darvill. Though the lyrics on the record are more straightforward and less idiosyncratic than they would become on future releases, songs like “Comin’ Back Soon” hint at some of Brad’s whimsy with lines like, “I’ve all my wisdom teeth / Two up top and two beneath / And yet I recognize / My mouth says things that aren’t so wise…” The song goes on to sing the praises of his sweetheart, who has left him, and who wasn’t a very nice person to begin with.
Much of the album has a bucolic tilt to it, with tracks like “Here On Earth,” and, even more particularly, “The Country Life” extolling folksy wisdom and downhome sensibilities, crying the benefits of rural living over the sturm und drang of city life. “I would learn to ride on rodeo / I’ll wear shiny boots and a cowboy hat so that nobody’d ever know / We’d once been city folks who owned sporty cars and fancy homes…” The way he sings it and the accompanying music convince me he really believes it.
The Ghosts That Haunt Me is the most traditional album that the Dummies ever made. There’s nothing kitsch or overtly clever about it. Brad is just singing, and while his voice is richly baritone and utterly unmistakable, he isn’t forcing the depth and rumble that would characterize later albums. He wrote all of the songs on the album (with the exception of a cover of The Replacements‘ “Androgynous” and “Thick-Necked Man,” Ben Darvill’s tale of comeuppance) but he wrote them without guile or condescension, something that wouldn’t necessarily hold true on future releases.
I’ve been a big fan of Crash Test Dummies since I first saw them live (I went out the next day and bought both of the albums that were out at the time) though I can certainly understand why the appeal might not be universal. Too, it doesn’t really help that their breakthrough hit (and, thusly, one-hit wonder) was so off-kilter. I remember the first time I saw them and Brad changed the third verse of “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” to something about a kid keeping a tooth or tonsils in a jar. After the song ended, he said (and I’m paraphrasing), “I’ve been told it’s ill-advised to change up a verse in your one big hit, but then I’ve also been told that it’s ill-advised to release a single with no words in the title.”
That mentality, it seems to me, has sort of characterized the Brad Roberts approach. Every album takes on a different musical style – folk followed by pop followed by hard rock followed by electronica followed by country followed by… you get the picture. It hasn’t helped him commercially, but as a longtime fan, I appreciate the adventurous undertaking of each new release and love the fact that, while I never know just what to expect, I know that, at the root of things, it’s going to center on Brad’s voice and lyrics. And that’s what keeps me coming back. (treacherousfriends.blog)
Personnel:
Vince Lambert (drums)
Ellen Reid (keyboards, accordion, tin whistle, background vocals)
Brad Roberts (vocals, guitar)
Dan Roberts (bass)
+
Steve Berlin (percussion)
Benjamin Darvill (mandolin, harmonica)
Bob Doige (recorder on 10.)
Greg Leisz (pedal steel-guitar on 09.)
Garth Reid (banjo on 02.)
Lynn Selwood (cello on 03.)
Bill Zulak (violin on 01., 04. + 10.)
Tracklist:
01. Winter Song (B.Roberts) 4.01
02. Comin’ Back Soon (The Bereft Man’s Song) (B.Roberts) 4.28
03. Superman’s Song (B.Roberts) 4.31
04. The Country Life (B.Roberts) 4.02
05. Here On Earth (I’ll Have My Cake) (B.Roberts) 3.04
06. The Ghosts That Haunt Me (B.Roberts) 3.45
07. Thick-Necked Man (Darvill) 3.20
08. Androgynous (Westerberg) 2.37
09. The Voyage (B.Roberts) 3.14
10. At My Funeral (B.Roberts) 4.03
Winter Song:
I can’t say that I miss my old dog much
And I’ve never looked back since I left home long ago
But I hoped a trip into the country
Would help remind me all the things I used to know
That’s what I came for
That’s what I hoped for
There once was good blood in the breeze here
We rode across the lake each new year
What have I remembered
What did this used to be
The ice, it used to shine upon our river
It was a mirror that the cold dark water ran way deep beneath
And here were many years of winter drownings
I kept track of these things as they were told to me
And that’s what I came for
That’s what I hoped for
There once was good blood in the breeze here
We rode across the lake each new year
What have I remembered
What did this used to be
The changes of the year were once a blessing
Well this year they’re the seasons of my discontent
But I cannot rewrite my old diaries
I can only recall all the things that came and went
In 1968, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sang about two old friends at 70 ”sharing a park bench silently.” Simon and Garfunkel, now both 62, opened a sold-out three-night stand at Madison Square Garden last night, singing ”Old Friends.” They are on a reunion tour — doing their first shows together since 1993 — that’s likely to sell more than $50 million worth of tickets.
while he made a point of calling Mr. Simon’s songwriting a gift, he still seems to have trouble believing he’s the second banana. When he had a foreground part in a song, he sustained it to the point of dragging the tempo; ”I Am a Rock” and ”The Boxer” were nearly transformed from folk-rockers to dirges. When Mr. Garfunkel had a high note in the background, he often pushed it, perhaps because he now has to strain to reach it.
‘The Sound of Silence,” which was released during the 1960’s in an acoustic guitar version but became a hit after as a folk-rock remake, segued between both versions. The band also added touches of Mr. Simon’s more recent delvings into world music. ”The 59th Street Bridge Song” included a slide version of a didgeridoo, an Australian wooden trumpet.
In early 1978, three of the founding members of the Byrds – Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman – were touring the West Coast with a show in which they each played short solo sets before concluding the show as a trio, performing a handful of Byrds classics. The shows were so well received that the trio would later land a record deal and record a pair of new albums, but on February 9, 1978, fans who came to see McGuinn, Clark & Hillman at the Boarding House in San Francisco got a special surprise.
Scorpions is a rock band from Hannover, Germany that was formed in 1965. Internationally acclaimed for their 1984 rock anthem “Rock You Like a Hurricane” as well as other popular singles such as “Big City Nights”, “No One Like You”, “Send Me an Angel”, “Still Loving You”, and “Wind of Change”, the band has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Along with metal contemporaries such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Whitesnake, and others, Scorpions is one of the most successful acts in heavy metal and hard rock in history as well as, by far, the most successful German rock band in the U.K. and the U.S.
A fine swing-oriented tenor saxophonist, Ventura is best-remembered for his attempt at popularizing bebop during the tail end of the music’s mid- to late-’40s heyday. Born Charles Venturo, he came from a large, musically inclined family. His first instrument was C-melody sax. He switched to alto before eventually settling on tenor. Ventura left his day job at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1942 to join Gene Krupa’s band. He became a featured soloist with Krupa, playing with the drummer from 1942-1943 and 1944-1946 (working in the interim with guitarist/bandleader Teddy Powell). Ventura achieved considerable popularity while with Krupa, winning a Down Beat magazine award as best tenor saxophonist in 1945. He started his own big band in 1946 with middling results. He had more success fronting a small band, one version of which included trumpeter Conte Candoli, trombonist Bennie Green, alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli, drummer Ed Shaughnessy, and vocalists Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. Ventura recorded for small labels before getting signed to RCA Victor, which at the time wanted to capitalize on the emergence of bebop.
(December 2, 1916 – January 17, 1992)
Cremaine Booker (alias “That Cello Guy”) is a cellist from Dallas, TX. He has made appearances with the Sewanee Symphony, Roy “Futureman” Wooten’s Black Mozart Ensemble, Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra and Jackson Symphony. He was the recipient of the Holy Cross BachFest Scholarship, Nashville Symphony Orchestra League Thor Johnson Scholarship Finalist, and was invited to the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Cremaine has performed masterclasses with teachers such as Julia Tanner, Eric Kutz, Peter Sheppard, and Yo-Yo Ma. Cremaine completed his undergraduate studies at the Middle Tennessee State University.
Released almost exactly three years after the first, tremendously successful Crossroads DVD, this double-disc documents the 2007 benefit concert for Clapton’s Crossroads Center substance abuse facility. “Guitar” is the operative word here, since all the participants are six-string players. As in the last show, the genres include country (Willie Nelson, Vince Gill), gospel (Robert Randolph), Latin rock (Los Lobos), pop (Sheryl Crow, John Mayer), jazz fusion (John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck) and lots of blues (everyone else). Some performers such as Randolph, Mayer, B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, and of course Clapton return from the 2004 lineup. That was a two-day event held in Dallas, TX. This was a one day — a very long day — show moved to the home of the blues, a stadium just outside of Chicago, and features a very funny Bill Murray introducing the acts.
