Lena Horne at Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, 1956
This post originally appeared on Star Maker Machine, two weeks before the 2008 presidential election. Given the historical forces at play and SMM’s theme that week (Civics Lessons), a dip into the Thelonious Monster catalog seemed appropriate. With yesterday’s news that Lena Horne passed away at the age of 92, it seemed like a good time to revisit (and reshape) my initial offering. This is especially true given my subsequent move to Los Angeles, not to mention working for a time a few blocks away from the Tiny Naylor’s location pictured below.
Thelonious Monster – Lena Horne Still Sings Stormy Weather
Stormy Weather, 1989
Thelonious Monster – Lena Horne Still Sings Stormy Weather
“They tore down Ships just like they tore down Tiny Naylor’s
They’ll tear down anything in this town
They’ll do just about anything to squeeze an extra dime
They’ll probably even sell their own grandmothers”
One of Bob Forrest’s finest moments as a songwriter and Thelonious Monster’s finest moments as a band, “Lena Horne” is essentially a folk song done as rootsy punk rock. Forrest’s songwriting triumph — especially in the context of both Reagan/Bush and post-punk’s golden age — was in transcending a predictable vitriolic rant against “the system” to produce a compelling song of hope and belief.
“Ah but Lena Horne still sings ‘Stormy Weather’
Yeah things, they’re bad, but they could get better
Yeah things, they’re bad, but they could get better
And I’m just waiting to see which way to go
Yeah, I’m just waiting to see which way to go”
There’s no reason for the protagonist to feel hope, especially against a backdrop of depressing and destructive forward-thinking materialism. After all, two of Los Angeles’ most distinctive googie-style coffeehouses, Ships and Tiny Naylor’s, were torn down because that’s what Los Angeles — and by extension, America, does. We don’t preserve the village green. We raze it and open a Starbucks. We’ll do just about anything to squeeze an extra dime, we’ll probably even sell our own grandmothers.
“They say Jesse Jackson will never be President
But yet, he’s still the man I’d vote for
‘Cause people everywhere, we’re working our ass off
And can’t even afford to pay our bills”
And yet, the song’s message remains one of perseverance. Forrest doesn’t say things are bad and getting worse. He says things are bad, but they could get better. A vote for Jesse Jackson isn’t a pointless and cynical gesture of protest, it’s one man’s emphatic endorsement in the machinery of democracy as a force for change.
“Ah, Lena Horne’s still singing ‘Stormy Weather’
Well things, they’re bad, but they could get better
Well things, they’re bad, but they could get better
And I’m just waiting to see which way to go
Yeah, I’m just waiting to see which way to go
And I’m hoping and a praying and a wishing and giving my all”
Maybe we are working our asses off and can’t afford to pay our bills, maybe Tiny Naylor’s was torn down (pictured above), and maybe there are people who’ll sell their own grandmothers. But, that doesn’t mean things can’t get better. We just have to believe they can get better and hope and pray and wish and give it our all.
I may regret this…
One day Starbucks will be torn down and replaced by “the devil,” and people will mourn the loss of a once great business, with its own distinctive visual/aesthetic, however far-from-Googie, and far from universal appeal; and the Bob Forrests of the world (bless them) will hold out hope for better times and a less painful existence for life's sensitive misfits; and the Jesse Jacksons of the world will go to their graves making unprincipled (I'm being kind) hay of the frustration and despair; and that due in part to a fallacy of composition, consumerism will continue to be mistaken for materialism, the latter being by far the most noxious of the two “isms”. That's not to say things can't get better (T.S. Eliot – “There's no such thing as a lost cause, because there's no such thing as a won one.”…or something like that), or that we shouldn't try in our own way to be a vehicle for moral regeneration (that's what we're talking about here, right?); but even Ray Davies knows that the “Palais” gets torn down, and that the striking of a deeply emotional chord – “Part of my childhood died, just died” – while romantic and beautiful, is by itself woefully inadequate. We can enjoy and celebrate the art; but outside of that, let's take care that our premises don't go un-examined. As for not liking what America “does”…(sigh)…ibidem.
gulp…RV3
I'm not sure its quite fair to judge Bob Forrest by the thoroughness of his philosophical model. It sounds trite, but I think it's just a song about not giving up hope. At least that's what I'm seeing on my side of the wreckage.
And you conveniently forget that the origin of the post was a specific theme (Civics Lessons) that occurred as I was being brainwashed by the socialist Obama campaign and its infernal Soviet-style 'Hope' poster. Cut a brother some slack.