JOHNNY WENDELL, AN ANIMAL Y LOS LOBOS... AND 77% OF AMERICANS HATE CONGRESS

On Heroes, Disconnection and the Dislocation Blues
-by Johnny Wendell

"It's a hard world to get a break in", sang Eric Burdon way back when LBJ was the shot-caller and AM was not just the shizzle, but the universal ear-bomb. 40 plus years gone and no real change (other than AM being but one of a million conduits), but why would that be a surprise, it was a hard world to get a break in 40 years prior to "It's My Life", and will be 40 from today.

I met the self-proclaimed "long-haired gnome" Mr. Burdon this Monday at lunch and what a moment it was, staring at the face of a childhood icon for one of the few moments. I told him how much my 4 year old loves "When I Was Young" and he was most pleased. I confess, I have no heroes now; they all reside in memories. Heroes aren't merely created to be knocked down by a vicious media, the desire to surf atop the consciousness zeitgeist exposes most of our icons as attention-starved fools. But as someone whose day came and went over 30 years ago, the aged Animal seemed to be bemused and serene, as if he'd seen everything and not much could alter his perception now, having attempted that through lysergic chemistry so many years ago.

I don't want to have to make and lose millions to get to the point he's at. But I feel as disconnected and not a part of as I ever have, his ease and my unease might be because my brainpan's gears are still engaged. When we read that 77% of the people don't want Congress to remain as is (courtesy of Truthout) and that 66% of the nation believe something's seriously wrong, we know that the feeling of "aloneness" and the reality that we aren't is dissonant. We're all on the same leaking, listing vessel. Amazing to me that Eric Burdon is so sanguine-seeming with the city that made his fame in ruins and not looking to be rebuilt anytime soon, and me in perpetual gut-knots with L.A. (temporarily, anyway) intact. Makes no sense at all, as a latter day poet said.

The soundtracks of my youth, sung by Burdon, or James Brown, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon or Mick Jagger just don't resound anymore as anything but fleetingly comforting placebos. They're just too neat and familiar and the revolution they portended fell flat on its face and led to the reactionary nightmare of today, so frankly, fuck 'em.

Therefore, I'm asking, no, telling, DEMANDING that you prick up your ears to the new one from Los Lobos. They, like me, are disgruntled Angelenos, me because no figurehead ensconced in power speaks in my tongue, them, judging by the content of The Town And The City feel like there just isn't a place for them anymore, certainly not on the blessed radio. Check this astounding thing out-- if you loved their side thing "Latin Playboys" ten years back, they pick up where they left off right here. This is overheard, found music, with simple electronic rhythm patterns beneath guitar-based sound scapes. Not neat little tunes about chicks or "surviving wolves" or Richie Valens covers-- this is fragmented, uneasy, edgy shit of the highest degree.

Overdriven, busted out guitars crumble out of blown speakers a la Neil Young, but minus that kind of elephantine grandeur. Muted, soft, loving mother's voice vocalizing, pushing ever onward, this is insistent and pastoral at the same time. These are songs that have been disassembled and rebuilt as impressions, not zingy hits. They match my "standin' on shaky ground" mood. This is a soundtrack for me.

Eric Burdon's uplift (even if it was written for him by Carole King, John Lee Hooker, Wayne Cochran or Leadbelly) spoke to a time when all seemed possible. This new Lobos disc is about a period of acceptance and adjusting until the door opens a little and we can try again, or our kids can. If you're flagging and flailing and oldies don't hit the dendrites and hip-hop and all in between just reeks of corruption, this is your tonic. Get it and swim in it and let that loneliness fade into whatever dark canopy is above you.

 
(Johnny Wendell is on KTLK-AM1150, in LA, Saturdays and Sundays, 10A-12, PCT. He has been a punk rock musician, columnist, actor, TV talking head on CNN and Court TV and playwright, too, as "Johnny Angel"--one day, he'll have to get a real job).