Interview with Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde
By Matt Parks
You just finished a series of dates on the East Coast. How did that
go and what are your future plans?
- As soon as I remember my name I'll tell you! Well I'm a little rubbery but
I'm very pleased that there were people there. Highlights are many, namely The
Twinemen, who are opening for us, a couple of the guys from Morphine and psychedelic
saxes and a very talented singer/guitarist who happens to share my gender. Martha
Davis, of The Motels, sat in with us in New York, and that was magic. Two little
girls in Atlanta who wanted to hear 'Lullabye', which I didn't remember, so
they just came up and sang it. Brought the house down. Sitting on a stoop in
the French Quarter in New Orleans and trying to help a very drunk deliveryman
find the truck he'd lost. Losing my temper, which I'm not proud of, but it happens.
A chick in the audience in New Orleans wearing a wedding dress and crown of
condoms. Two 20 year old girls in Atlanta who were Marines and lost respect
for me for being anti-war. Thought Einstein was 'just an author' and one author's
opinion doesn't matter much. Jesus, who needs drugs, already?
You’ve said of the reunion that produced Group Therapy that "something
truly cosmic threw us together again." You’ve also said that the question of
whether or not you’d go back into the studio and do another album (as Concrete
Blonde) was up in the air. Now that the live album is out, has your thinking
on the band’s future changed at all?
-No. As a matter of fact, I've just worked out how to get a few of the new tracks
out quickly...we have so much new stuff recorded it'll take a few months to
sort out how we want to record it. I'm going to work on an acoustic album, so
there's plenty to do. We have to get back to Australia and Brazil, and would
like to get to Chile and Mexico. We'll also probably get to Japan when we go
back to Australia. We've never been there.
If you had to put together a "best of" collection of Concrete Blonde’s
work, what songs would you include?
- That would take a lot of time to answer, I'd have to go over every album and
remember everything we've done. 'Little Wing' would certainly be on it, I've
always loved that version. I also like 'Souvenir' from the Pretty & Twisted
album, although that's not Concrete Blonde. 'True', also.
My favorite among your albums right now is the non-album collection
Still in Hollywood—"It’ll Chew You Up and Spit You Out," "Roses Grow," "100
Games of Solitaire"—great songs.
- We just pulled out 'Solitaire' for the live set, and it's one of my favorite
songs to play live.
My two favorite vocal performances by you are "Joey" and "Hurting Each
Other" (with Marc Moreland) from the Carpenters’ tribute album.
-Oh, I can't believe 'Hurting Each Other'. We recorded that in a studio where
the Carpenters actually did record, and the lights kept going on and off. .
.There was a lot of magic surrounding that session. . . Marc wasn't just a guitarist,
he was a shaman. I mean, the fucker could bend time when he played.
There will never, ever be another like Marc. Singing that song was a lot more
work than I thought it would be. Karen had the most amazing texture, and the
success of the harmonies depended entirely on texture. But I love harmonies
and the beauty of those (the 'Pretty' part) went up against Marc's weird-ass
raw, kinetic guitar (the 'Twisted' part) and if you'd had been there . . .he
went on for something like 10 more minutes on that jam. It was amazing to watch,
and hear.
For me, one of the most striking things about your music has been your use of influences from other cultures—the use of other languages in songs like "Les Ceours Jumeaux."and "Bajo la Lune Mexicana," bringing flamenco artists and a Butoh artist on tour with you. I’m going to phrase this poorly, but—talk about your hopes for what these elements bring to your music.
-I don't know. I just get so tired of the same old rock thing. There's a whole world of art out there that we don't get exposed to. I really think rock and roll dumbs us down, which is pretty much what America wants to do to us. I mean, if I see 4 more whiny white kids busting up their guitars and trying to be the Stones or whatever I'll puke. I know it's what I do, but I'm inspired by other musics and artists, and I consider myself a citizen of the planet, and I've DONE the rock thing, you know? Show me something else. Music to other cultures is essential and sometimes the only preservation of the history of a people or culture. I'm interested in that and want to turn people on to what turns ME on.
You: "rock journalists never want to hear much about Flamenco . .
. that’s a shame because it’s the shit." Tell me about Flamenco.
- Flamenco is to European music what blues is to American. Basically the gypsies
have been a very persecuted people since time began, and still are. In the vineyards,
in prisons, they'd basically sing out their pain and history with nothing more
than a voice, hands (palmas) and feet (baile) and then, a guitar. Martinetes
are one of the oldest forms of singing (cante) which is nothing but a voice
and anvil, sung by the blacksmiths. The emotion is so deep and so raw, and no
one gave a shit until Franco's Spain, when they finally discovered this was
something that was distinctly Spanish, although the gypsy route comes up through
the East and North Africa. So, Flamenco today, that is generally what you see,
is a lot more theatrical and choreographed than Gypsy Flamenco, which is very
raw and intense and spontaneous. It's very much about being in the moment, and
it's taken years to capture it in any recorded medium the way it really goes
down. It's an oral history of a people who have been and are still being persecuted.
And when the singer and dancer and guitarist all come together, the power will
simply knock you over. You can have a stack of Marshalls
and never touch them. Do not fuck with the gypsies!
Concrete Blonde has also recorded some terrific renditions of other people’s songs, from Thin Lizzy to Bob Dylan, from Hendrix to Leonard Cohen, James Brown to Nick Cave. What led you to these songs?
Leonard Cohen's 'Everybody Knows' was an assignment for the 'Pump Up The Volume'
film, so the only credit we can take for that is I think it's a very good arrangement.
Everything else, well, I just like the songs. We do 'As Tears Go By' now, it's
a beautiful song for a 12-string. Also a couple BeeGees
songs. A great song is a great song; you don't have to plumb your own guts,
you can just enjoy the ride.
You’ve been quite vocal about your opinion of President Bush. It seems that now we’ve replaced a repressive government in Iraq with, well, nothing, and at great loss of life. You’ve also said, "I find American culture to be a bit anemic . . . I think people are starved for meaning and content. Go figure." Neo-colonialism is one way to create meaning, I guess. . . not a very good one, though.
I've never been 'political' until this. We simply must call it what it is, and I'm old enough to pull rank. There were a couple of 20-somethings that came to the show in Atlanta, both girls, one with a 4 month old daughter, and they were in the military and were trying to tell me what this was all about, and it was one of the silliest conversations I'd say I ever had if it wasn't so fucking tragic. I don't think people listen to music for political content, and I'm not often moved to write inspired by such things, more from human emotions. But for the first time I am so emotionally affected by what is happening here, I have no choice, and if I have a little corner of the media to myself I am certainly not going to waste it promoting myself and my, my, my career. Obviously I do what I do, but I feel it is my responsibility to counter the complete and utter bullshit that is being thrown at people every day. The only TV I see is when I'm on the road, maybe on the bus or when I have a hotel room. The mass manipulation of consciousness is nothing less than evil. The cultivation of national ignorance and illusion of superiority is even more evil. The division of us as a country is very sad, and as we all know, a house divided falls, so whatever those bastards think they're doing, and you can fool some of the people some of the time, we're suffering in ways they never counted on. And we will, for a very long time.
You mentioned that working on an acoustic album is among your plans. Can you tell me some more about what that’s going to be like?
I won't really know until I start it, but I'm starting to turn things over in my mind.. I'm hoping to spend some time in June outside by a fire with an acoustic guitar and see what surfaces.
I read an interview with Henry Rollins from a while back when Rise Above (the Black Flag tribute album to benefit the West Memphis Three) was released. He mentioned that he would have liked to have been able to have you do a song for that album? Were you actually contacted about recording something?
Why didn't he just ask, for Pete's sake?
I wanted to ask you for some impressions of some of your other co-writers. How did you end up co-writing a song with Janis Joplin?
- A friend of mine worked for Warner-Chappell music in France. She had access to some unpublished & unrecorded lyrics. I was thrilled, and recorded 2 versions of 'Come Away With Me'. Her family had to approve it, they didn't like the first version, so I did another, the one that wound up on the record. They didn't like that either, and completely went back on their agreement with the publishing split—which I thought was prety shitty—but whatever. I didn't want to do something Janis would have done 20 years ago. If Janis were alive I think she would be very much in touch with modern soul, hip-hop and r&b. I couldn't go in and do a screamy hard-ass blues thing: it wouldn't have fit on the record, and I didn't want to repeat Janis' past. I think that the family though my version was depressing. I don't, I think it's quietly peaceful and beautiful, so I used it anyway, I was very proud of that.
You did a duet with Paul Westerberg on the last Replacements album on a song called "My Little Problem." You also wrote "Stranger" with him. How did those collaborations come about and what were the recording experiences like?
Paul called me to do 'Little Problem' and it was a lot of fun, really crazy
and wild. Then he gave me all this shit about how I was the only woman to be
on a Replacements album, like, 'wow, lucky me!' I mean, please! With 'Stranger'
I had the music, but no words, and it was meant to be in some soundtrack, but
I can't remember what now. They never used it . . . Paul liked the music and
came up with the words pretty quick, as I knew he would. I have a lot of words
I have no music for. . . I really liked it, he got it immediately, and it sounds
like a timeless Irish drinking song, which is exactly what I wanted it to sound
like.
Steve Wynn?
. . . is a long time dear friend and I admire him tremendously. He's extremely talented and has a great voice. His output is incredible. I think years from now when we're all dust people will look back an say 'this Steve Wynn, what a genius'.
You’ve said that you’re a fan of hip-hop. Particularly women in hip-hop. Have you considered doing a Linda Perry-type writer/producer thing?
I'd co-write if the right situation came up, and I have . . . but producing is hard work and people wind up fighting with you and hating you, and that's why they get the big bucks. I'd rather record people I like and say, 'go do something with it, 50/50'. I prefer to work one on one with an artist, I have no patience for band politics at all, I'd rather play the tracks myself.
What’s your take on the whole "artist’s rights" movement that being championed by Don Henley and Sheryl Crow?
I have mixed feelings about it, and unfortunately in the PR sense I don't think people like Sheryl Crow and Don Henley are the people to speak about it. The public doesn't think us artists work very hard anyway: you're making more money in one night than people make in a year, they simply cannot relate to these issues, and I don't blame them. This has never, ever been a nice business and it never will be at that level. As far as causes, there are much bigger fish to fry, and some rock star moaning about how they're getting screwed is at the bottom of the list somewhere.
Do you think there?s any way to fix what?s wrong with the music industry at the major label level these days . . . or is it something that should just die out and be reborn as . . . something else?
Either they'll be able to work with what's going on now or they won't. Things are very good now for artists who just want to make a simple living making music. If you want limos and a Mercedes and 16 stylists and all that shit, you're gonna have to play a certain game and gamble that your shit will happen . . . and it only happens with a whole lot of money behind it, if you want to work at that level. I've seen artists just as greedy as anyone else. The same thing happened in the early 80's and everything opened up for indie labels like Epitaph. I think the climate is very much the same now...little things grow and become big things and swallowed up and the whole thing starts all over again.
