One of my original aims here was to illuminate the band’s music by exploring my own influences, and trying to draw metaphors and links between the two. Unfortunately, none of the songs I have been listening to lately have anything to do with Great Big Sea. Of late we have all been busy writing away like maniacs, trying to outdo one and another in the race to the next album. When you have any time for pure listening, it is a good idea to get as far outside the box as possible. Therefore, as it is raining, and my house is unbearably hot, and I do not have the patience to go on and on about some tune no one else even likes, and the last song I finished stunk, I thought I would stick to basics for a change. Or just ramble on. Be warned.

Looking back on all these pieces, it is interesting how many songs I like because they are a bit sad. Perhaps this will give me a new sobriquet in the band - ‘the depressed one’, or better yet, ‘the sad one’. For years fans have accused me of being ‘the quiet one’, because I rarely say anything onstage. In my defense, I saw the White Stripes the other night, and that Gillis fellow hardly said anything either. And his wife or sister or whatever never said a word. No one calls them ‘quiet’. I am also known as the ‘smart one’, mainly because I have an unhealthy ability to recall trivia of little use to anyone, and I rarely watch TV. And unlike everyone else on the Newfoundland music scene, I bothered to figure out how HST worked. It does not take much, sometimes.

 Anyway, here are a couple of really sad songs: ‘No Rain’ by Blind Melon, and ‘All The Small Things’ by Blink 182. Neither song is supposed to be sad, but both are testaments to the vagaries of the rock life style, and both have gained an unhappy tone. Blink 182 broke up in acrimony a couple of years after this song came out. The song’s odd tone of resignation, which always made for an unusual juxtaposition with its Ramones’ groove makes perfect sense now.  I actually feel kind of bad that the band broke up. Their last single, with the unfortunate title ‘I Miss You’, was a massive step forward for the band, and should have been their turning point. Instead, it was their requiem. Blind Melon’s ‘No Rain’ was so good even they could not surpass it. Try to put the silly video out of your mind, and just listen to the explosion of sweet hope in Shannon Hoon’s voice. It could not last, and it didn’t. A heroin o.d. is a particularly pointless way to die, especially since with that one song Hoon proved he had greatness in him.

 In those songs, context puts them into their emotional place. A lot of folk songs are so unhappy context does not even need to come into it. Try and find the Voice Squad’s version of ‘The Brown and the Yellow Ale’. The song is about the discovery of infidelity, and the sort of incomprehension and despair that comes with it. The melody is melancholy without ever becoming a dirge, (which is a fine line to walk), and the lyric pure poetry. My personal favourite from the sad song catalogue is ‘*** of the North’, an obscure Irish song best recorded by Eddie and Finbar Furey. The lyric is a woman’s defense of her love for the town simpleton, and the joy he brings her with his strange, impractical and beauteous vision. Furey sings it as if he was recalling someone he knew all too well, and his voice cracks with emotion in the live version. Whether real or feigned, I have never heard another song like it. In the ‘sad’ department, it is a heads-up winner.

Hmmm. The ‘sad one’. I rather like it. Indeed - I shall grow a drooping moustache, and wear even more black. Instead of trying to think of witty remarks for podcasts, I shall keep a self-indulgent journal full of my musings on diverse and dull topics, and I will paint grayish water-colours of cliffs and dead caplin and abandoned gill nets. I shall write lengthy poems. And drink unpleasant cheap cognacs. I will submit hectoring editorials blaming Canada for all Newfoundland’s problems. The key of ‘Dm’ shall be my default setting.

I am sure it will make for a refreshing change.