À La Recherche Du Tits Perdu

Memory, sweet memory.  How to capture the sensation, the process, the feel of memory has always been one of the great challenges of all branches of art.  Marcel Proust famously spent his life wrestling the past onto the page in uncompromising detail.  Sadly for Marcel, handy with a pen he might have been, but he was certainly no Dan Baird when it came to writing about remembrances of things past:

Been a couple of years gone down
Chiquita took off for parts unknown
But every now & then, me & my one-eyed friend
We remember yesterday      (Shake That Thing)

Welcome to Georgia Satellites In The Land Of Salvation And Sin, a bit of a lost gem in my, not remotely humble opinion.  The Georgia Satellites hit the bigtime with their debut LP and failed to maintain the trajectory on their second LP.  This their third album has a certain air of, ‘fuck it, shove it all on there‘; which is its’ strength and weakness.

First up, 57 minutes is too long, a good cull is needed here and I’m just the kind of desperado to wield the cultural chainsaw.  Opener ‘I Dunno’ goes, for not being striking enough, as does the promisingly-titled-but-strident side 2 opener ‘Bring Down The Hammer’ and the last three tracks on the same side.  You’re left with a far better LP as a result, it all has a bit more room to breathe.

Since I’m assuming control of the Solar Federation here I’d promote the rip-snorting rocker ‘Slaughterhouse’ to LP opener – Rick Richards is just jaw-droppingly amped on this one, then I would promote their excellent cover of Joe South’s ‘Games People Play’ to gently huff the lid off the second side (some awesome slide git from, I think, Mr Baird).  Job done.

In the Land Of salvation And Sin, comes on like the lost child of George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Black Crowes and something softer, more front porch-y.  I really like the way the band switch it around from the rockers, to the mopers and back to the rockers again.  The mopers do win out though in the end, the overall feel is a comfortable melancholy by the time you’ve drained the last drops from the LP and let it slide from your fingers, remembering Her and what could have been.

You up for the highlights reel?

• Bottle O’ Tears: a great belligerent, unhurried rocker. Man, she did him wrong.
• Shake That Thing:  we’re touching on funky and western here.  Trust me.
• Six Years Gone: in which the Sats come on like the best bar band in the world, ever.  Unsubtle, tuneful and loud.
• Another Chance: sweetness and harmony personified.  Great change of instrumentation too.
• Stellazine Blues: if you can’t get your Jagger strut going to this one then there’s no helping you, my friend.  Brilliant track.

For me one track reigns over everything else here though, the bitter biter of ‘All Over But the Cryin”.  God, I love me a mean ballad and this is up there with Junkyard’s finest*.  ‘All Over …’ is the kind of song you yearn to howl into the wind, tears streaming down your face, feeling justified to.  Dan Baird really excels himself here the lyrics, tune and performance.  This is ‘Keep Your Hands To Yourself’ on negative polarity.  True story.

Georgia Satellites always seem to get a bit lost in the shuffle, pegged as a bit of a novelty band for their hits and never really being full-blown rockers either seems to have hobbled them in the popular consensus.  Great tunes and reputedly ferocious live shows should have seen them break on through, but never quite did.  Our loss.  The band really smoke on In the Land Of Salvation And Sin, the drummer Mauro Magellan really takes my notice, hitting hard and true.  Ian McLagan also plays somewhere on here, it doesn’t really say whereabouts though.

It is a flawed record but I would really recommend In The Land Of Salvation And Sin to anyone out there who needs some thinkin’, drinkin’ music with a twist of regret.

It's always been here waitin'
Down at the end of the line
White table cloth two empty glasses
Filled with tears and a bottle of wine.   (Bottle O' Tears)

Plus, even if the music were pants, In The Land Of Salvation And Sin would be well worth your attention just for the great cover art, seemingly swiped from a plethora of pulp sources and matchbook art.

975 Down.

*an average studio band but superb at the old bitter stuff, ‘Clean The Dirt’ and ‘Hands Off’ … man.