They were the best of times and the worst of times, my cheese-eating highschool years. As anyone worth their Kurt Cobain signature sneakers knows, 1992-96 saw the release of quite a few “very important” culture-shifting albums. During this same period the alternative rock radio format was aglitter with all manner of nifty, memorable singles. However, the flipside to this wealth of important radio rock was a sinister coat-tailing crop of soundalikes (Dishwalla, Silverchair, Local H, Stabbing Westward) and novelty singles. Novelty-singles-wise, I’m thinking specifically of stuff like “Detachable Penis” and that three little pigs song and that Geggy Tah song about changing lanes. Of course some of the novelty acts were actually “real bands.” For instance, the Flaming Lips who hit the mainstream with that “Vaseline” song and then lingered in relative underground obscurity until the Soft Bulletin made them late career superstars.
And then there are bands like Sacramento’s Cake. Their ability to consistently generate novel, semi-quirky singles have provided them with something like a real show-biz career. Being the proper sort of rock listener, I mostly eschewed novelty rock. However, I dug “Rock and Roll Lifestyle” enough to hunt down the band’s first record back when the single was all over Q101. I wound up liking the record enough that I replaced it after losing my first copy. Anyway, enough preamble. On to my two favorite songs on the record.
05. “Jolene”
From a lyrical perspective, this track is a masterful bit of mood-setting done without providing any kind of real information. It’s all surface details. Jolene unlocks the door. She smooths “her “dark hair in the mirror.” She folds her towel. There’s a certain routine simplicity in Jolene’s actions. Of course, the speaker talks of pulling her into bed and recalls how she smells of “cream rinse and tobacco smoke.” I suppose this could be a simple stalker song. The “sickly scent” being “always, always there” and all.
Still there’s the matter of the “something more” in the second verse — and let’s not forget the faint singing in the forest. I’ve never been quite sure what to make of that step into the night. Perhaps it’s the total lack of narrative resolution — or maybe it’s the track’s relentless, driving faux-funk — but I’ve always found this song a bit menacing. It sounds like the first few pages of a chilling tale. A sort of thumbnail version of Something Iffy Outside Lurks.
Maybe I’m just over-reading this song based on the jokey ritual satanic abuse song “Pentagram” that precedes it — the track sequence leading me to a spooky “reading.” Additionally, I might be drawn to this song because it shares a name with a supergreat Dolly Parton song. (I first became aware of that “Jolene” through a cover — no, not by the White Stripes — done by the Geraldine Fibbers.)
MP3: The Geraldine Fibbers, “Jolene”
I suppose that the Parton song and the Cake song both share a certain menacing vagueness. They’re both haunting, edgey songs.
From Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him just because you can
Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene
He talks about you in his sleep
There’s nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene
Both songs seem to be about bewitchment, about the pull of these Jolenes. I suppose my fondness for “girl songs” is showing here. And of course most girl songs aren’t so much about real women as they are about naming the speaker’s angst and jealousies and longings. Perhaps that disconnectedness is why both Jolenes seem somewhat unreal and their songs a bit uneasy.
10. “Rock’n'Roll Lifestyle”
Per previous prattlings, ’90s alternarock was often concerned with exposing the absurdity of rock and roll as a going concern. Nothing quite illustrates my point like the radio-hitness of this track. In short, “Rock’n'Roll Lifestyle” is an indictment of the conformity and consumerism that drives rock fandom.
The repeated rhetorical question of “How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?” is about more than the financial workings of rock fandom in the land of red, white, and blue soda cans. It seems to me that this song is asking what exactly it is we’re wagering in our search of big kicks and new sounds. The refrain of “Excess ain’t rebellion” is really an anti-consumerist critique of rock and roll as a lifestyle brand – and quite a challenging one.
As someone who’s CD collection is, in fact, shiny and costly and who has also spent many a night drinking at clubs listening to bands that I hadn’t even heard of, this song cuts close to home. Hipsterism is mostly about borrowing against authenticity and real engagement in favor of pastiche and trend-hopping. From my experience, it’s easy to get over-involved in staying up late and being in the right places. In the end, you get a bit numb and disconnected from the whole supposedly-enjoyable process of listening to records and watching bands. I guess that I see this song not as a mere novelty jab at rock hypocrisy, but as a personal challenge to maintain honesty and not simply get caught up in the superficial gloss of rebelliousness while the wheels of commercial culture churn ever onward without concern for why it is all us little rock and rollers keep forking over our cash.
You’re drinking what they’re selling.
Your self-destruction doesn’t hurt them.
Your chaos won’t convert them.
They’re so happy to rebuild it.
You’ll never really kill it.
Yeah, excess ain’t rebellion.
