Can we talk about how Bill Callahan is one of the best song writers alive?

[Chet]

I'll give you Faith/Void

but

Hangman Blues
Left Only With Love
Permanent Smile
Let Me See The Colts

but really, my claim is based mostly on Let Me See The Colts

[Good Intentions]

Point taken.

[milly balgeary]

dude is alright i guess. heard better.

[Chet]

shut up man i will cut you like a sour dough roll

[milly balgeary]

naw naw you didn't say that, you didn't. your mom, my ass.

[mountmccabe]

I would like some sourdough too,  please.

[fishjim]

Man, each time I've listened to that album, about a half a minute into "America" I was thinking "damn, this sounds like it'd be everyone's favourite song on this record, but it's just so grating. I should really listen to it carefully because it might be the sort of thing that turns from terrible to terrific if you just find the switch for seeing its brilliance".

That's exactly what happens at around 2 min! When the guitar solo tears everything apart.

Then again, maybe it's just me hating my country so much.

Just re-listened, and aside from the guitar solo, if that's what you call the guitar effects in the 2nd half, it's these lines that slam the song into greatness:

Captain Kristofferson, Buck Sergeant Newbury, Leatherneck Jones, Sergeant Cash. What an army! What an air force!

I never served my country...

[Chet]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

I lay on the bed in the dark. Laughing at things i think of. Getting off on the pornography of my past.

[Chet]

FUCK ALL Y'ALL

[peacocks]

naw man I'm with you

[Chet]

I was just reciting lyrics from The Well.

[fishjim]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

I lay on the bed in the dark. Laughing at things i think of. Getting off on the pornography of my past.

xpost from Tattoo thread:

Not to be a purist, Chet, but if you tattoo an image from an album on your arm - doesn't that album win?  

Seriously, though, that brain tree image is an icon. I love that you picked up on it, consciously or not.

[narlus]

I was just reciting lyrics from The Well.

better that than _The Wall_

[Chet]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

I lay on the bed in the dark. Laughing at things i think of. Getting off on the pornography of my past.

xpost from Tattoo thread:

Not to be a purist, Chet, but if you tattoo an image from an album on your arm - doesn't that album win?  

Seriously, though, that brain tree image is an icon. I love that you picked up on it, consciously or not.

I sort of read the tree in Too Many Birds to be sort of a metaphor for the mind. But yeah, I think those two songs are probably related anyway.

[narlus]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

I lay on the bed in the dark. Laughing at things i think of. Getting off on the pornography of my past.

xpost from Tattoo thread:

Not to be a purist, Chet, but if you tattoo an image from an album on your arm - doesn't that album win?  

Seriously, though, that brain tree image is an icon. I love that you picked up on it, consciously or not.

I sort of read the tree in Too Many Birds to be sort of a metaphor for the mind. But yeah, I think those two songs are probably related anyway.

"all thoughts are prey to some beast" has a pretty direct tree/brain metaphor.

[Antero]

What with it saying "THIS TREE!  IS A BRAIN!" and all.

[Chet]

Yes, we've already been through this in the tattoo fred

[reebty]

River is a goddamn motherfucking masterpiece.

[dieblucasdie]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

Yeah, absolute co-sign. 

[kyle]

Love Bill Callahan, never heard Smog. This album rules, last album ruled.

What Smog Album should I dig?

[peacocks]

Conclusion: A River Ain't Too Much To Love is the best Smog/Bill Callahan record.

Yeah, absolute co-sign. 

this one.

knock knock is really good too.

[jm]

Knock Knock has River Guard and No Dancing, right? I love that album. I don't actually know any non-Smog Callahan.

[peacocks]

Correct.

[Chet]

A River Ain't Too Much To Love
Knock Knock
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Dongs of Sevotion
Red Apple Falls
Apocalypse
Supper
The Doctor Came At Dawn
Wild Love
Julius Ceaser
Woke Up on a Whaleheart
Rain on Lens
Forgotten Foundation/Sewn To The Sky

[howardfinkel]

Seeing him live for the Woke up on a Whaleheart tour was one of my favorite shows (opener was sir Richard bishop). His voice stretches out words and syllables a lot more live than on record. I wonder what his earlier lo fi era smog shows were like, anyone see him in the 90s?