ALBUM: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$
This is an important album by an important band. Camper Van Beethoven have something to say.
These California, early indie, alternative songmakers make you work to figure out what they were trying to say. But in the work therein lies the answer, or at least the point. And that point? Something about skewering and deconstructing suburbia, and making fun of popular culture and Patty Hearst. All legit rock angles, for sure.
Whether it was about the Eye of Fatima or figuring it all out, it was well played and it sounded about right.
One of these days
When you figure, figure it all out
Well be sure to let me know
David Lowery’s voice drips rock ‘n roll irony, as guitars get circled by a violin. This is a band whose first real ‘hit,’ if you can call it that, was: “Take the Skinheads Bowling.’
Every day, I get up and pray to Jah And he increases the number of clocks by exactly one
Everybody’s comin’ home for lunch these days
Last night there were skinheads on my lawn
Take the skinheads bowling …
If you like this Camper Van Beethoven album, you might also explore Key Lime Pie, a follow-up album which has that wonderful take on human optimism, ‘When I Win the Lottery.”
Also, I highly recommend a spin-off band, Cracker, which I also have digitally only. Kind off like a more rocking Camper stripped of artsy flourishes (and violin).
Cracker was known for the song that had the line: Cause what the world needs now is another folk singer like I need a hole in my head.
Good stuff. Cracker and Camper. David Lowery is the common key creative force here. He looks at things a little differently.
For example thanking Patty Hearst, the Revolutionary Sweetheart, for making life more interesting.
Oh, my beloved revolutionary sweetheart
I can see your newsprint face turn yellow in the gutter
It makes me sad
How I long for the days when you came to liberate us from boredom
From driving around from the hours between five and seven in the evening
My Beloved Tania
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.