Carl’s Rock Songbook #84: The Allah-Las, “Busman’s Holiday”

Fall is here, arguably the best time for listening to classical music . . . But “the season” of my Rock Songbook remains in the Spring of folk-rock, the 63’-67’ era of proto-hippie expectancy. The last post, if you missed it, gave you my favorite post-1960s folk-rock songs , the final one of which was by the Allah-La’s, a contemporary band I feel obliged to say a little more about, for their overall significance, but most of all for the fact that I love ‘em.

I suppose the first thing you notice about “Busman’s Holiday” is the deliberate evocation, through the video and the sound, of “California-ness.” I’m always a sucker for that.

But listen again . . . I think you’ll hear why I place them on the edges of the folk-rock sound, belonging as much, or even more, to the garage-y sound/stance of the Rolling Stones, Pretty Things, Animals, and a 1,001 unknown bands from the era, and why I connect that to a certain toughness , one reflected in their daring to have adopted the name they did, and in this particular song’s lyrics:

Spent two years of my life in a foreign land.
Came home to my young wife, as a different man.
Saw fifteen souls and bodies lying on the ground . . .

This alters in a repeat verse:

Spent two years of my life in a foreign land.
Came home to find my life, still stuck in the sand.
Did things I never thought that I could do;
I had to tell myself, it was all for you.

So by the time we get to the chorus lines, Oh, it shows, on the faces of those who know . . . we realize what we’re dealing with: this is an Iraq (or Afghan) War Veteran Song. Somebody in the band was there, or has talked closely with someone who was. Back in Songbook #22 , about contemporary folk-singer Joe Pug, I asked if anyone knew of any archetypal anti-war songs for the Iraq-War generation, and came up dry. I’m sure there’s a few out there, but here, at least, is one solid Skeptical Veteran’s Song for the millennials.

Despite one quick mention of “gold” as a war-cause, there is little facile blaming or solution offered in the song, but rather, a fatalistic view:

Life ain’t just what it seems,
still run by ancient schemes.

The war, the veteran now knows, was never what it initially seemed to the recruit. It was in some way corrupt, or manipulated. As is life. And the ancient schemes that did the manipulating? What might those be? The default leftist answer of “old men sending young men to war for gold and such,” is probably meant as one perennial scheme, but some others might be . . . . . . well, several ancient religions , and as far as Iraq and Afghanistan go, one in particular. I said these guys were tough ones. The Allah-Las could also mean that events in Iraq or Afghanistan were actually ruled by ancient tribal and sectarian dynamics that no amount of U.S. organization, firepower, and heroics could overcome. And that U.S. policy was ruled by similar dynamics from our own culture. C/c the way Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto portrayed the Mayan King, the devious manipulator of religion and patriotism, as a symbol of what might lie at the heart of every “civilization.” Ancient schemes indeed.

I’m not saying the quality of these lyrics is up there with those of a Dylan, a Bowie, a Curtis, etc., but they nonetheless seem to me artful, and most of all, honest. The songwriter hasn’t arranged his thoughts in some approved boomer-liberal manner, for example, one that would refrain from alluding to the fact of Islam.

In any case, it appears that one of the most lyrically honest-to-our-time songs about the Iraq/Afghanistan military experience, a (less-catchy) “Run through the Jungle” for our era, has been given to us by a band that musically speaking, would appear to be one of the most deliberately out of tune with our times. As I’ve argued, I have no fundamental problem with Retro or Recyclement , and think they can help us finally admit the basic limitations the main rock forms have had from the beginning. I do not see why anyone should criticize the Allah-Las for trying to travel back to a 1966 musical niche, especially one left somewhat less than fully developed. Again, I do not really see why groups like Crystal Castles or The Chromatics, who are travelling back to the synthy 80s, albeit in an overtly ironic or arty way, or why chart-busting dance-club acts like Bruno Mars or Daft Punk, who raked it in this summer by not-at-all ironically revisiting the 70s disco sound, deserve to be considered “contemporary” any more than the Allah-Las do. The age of recyclement is here, most everyone is doing it to a degree, and just because these guys do it in a more purist retro key, they should not be dismissed as non-contemporary.

P.S. Allah-La’s, if you ever read this, I’ll just say, hey, I know you stole those “Night of the Phantom” and “Slave Girl” riffs, but it’s all right, do keep carryin’ on, and remember that even California kids need more than just floatin’ out on a “Catamaran” . . . . . . that is, sometimes, they also need to dance . As way of gently prodding you to do more of your part in that way, here’s a link to an impossibly rare Tell-Tale Hearts song . You might like how I go on about them and other San Diego 80s Garage Bands here . And if want to dig into the roots of my overall theory, see What Martha Bayles Said .