Book Keeping
Or is that one word? And if so, how many other words in non-african, non pacific islander languages can boast a double K? Not many I’ll bet. Bookkeeping. Okay, “chukker” has a double K but it sure isn’t bracketed by a pair of double vowels, now is it? No!
Supposed to be writing checks so it’s obvious why I would get hung up in AKMA’s recent excursion into worst music. I’m with him when he says that the Blender folks’ sense of what’s bad “misses the point of worst-ness by a long chalk. But the interesting point on which my post pivots - at least I hope it seems interesting to you - certainly it is more interesting to me than paying bills - the interesting area for critical assessment lies in the selections of trooly bad stuff by the Dave Barry Corporation.
Dave Barry and AKMA have similar sensibilities when it comes to schlock. So, I was surprised when I read the Barry article to find that he didn’t find Chestnut Mare as truly stupid and nauseating as AKMA does. Hmmm, I thought. Usually my thinking is accompanied by sound effects more like a popcorn popper, and frequently you smell a little electrical fire starting when i’m thinking really hard. Anyway, the “hmmm” thing is a little literary license, since who would believe me if I said “I started thinking (pop-poppa-chachok-pop), so “hmmm” it is until the English language yields another common-place referent that bespeaks the very act of thinkage.
Anyway, I had always thought that the Chestnut Mare was kind of a cartoon… sort of like when Goofy falls off the mountaintop and goes wha-hoo-hoo-hoooo all the way down. The Byrds had followed Gram Parsons of Flying Burrito Brothers fame into the country rock genre, and in fact they legitimized it with their Sweetheart of the Rodeo album. At that point in loud music history a lot of acid heads and dopers were able to connect with their internal pedal steel air guitar player, but I digress.
I think the main reason that Dave Barry ignores Chestnut Mare as one of the stupidest songs of all time is professional courtesy and a desire not to contradict himself. Barry said recently, “McGuinn remained the pivotal member of the band throughout its various incarnations, and some of his best material stems from the late ’60s/early ’70s albums, with tunes like “Chestnut Mare,” “Tiffany Queen,” “Ballad of Easy Rider,” and others.” Or maybe McGuinn said that, but he said it at the web site of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the band he is most recently guilty of inciting toward music.
So in this modern day period, when we’re all full of angst about just what it means to catch that horse and give her your brand, and wouldn’t that hurt and if Rummy did it wouldn’t I be calling for his resignation? You bet I would. At this point in time (he-he, what a great phrase that is) it seems unfair to categorize Chestnut Mare as anything but another brilliant piece of Byrd flyte. Do you get where I’m coming from AKMA?
