Wendell Gee

We round out Fables with a wispy ballad about a troubled guy named Wendell Gee. Haunting is a word overused when applied to ballads, but I'm unable to come up with a better description. The story, the dream in the story, the resignation of whistling into the breeze, the distant harmonies and counter-melodies, the simple banjo arpeggios - each of these contribute to a sadly beautiful tune, effortless in its execution, relentless in its pull.

And thus the southern rail line that is Fables of the Reconstruction pulls away from the station with a long sigh.

Good Advices

The second-to-last cut on an album is a tough place. Early slots, of course, are usually label or artist favorites, and often the last cut is some kind of "statement" or post-script. The guy before that track is the loser position - a deep cut that neither the artist nor studio is all that excited about.

Case in point: The Saturday Night Fever album opens with "Staying Alive" and closes with "Disco Inferno". Next to last? The disco anthem "K-Jee"... Am I overstating my point? Sure I am, mostly because I've got nothin' to say about "Good Advices". Interesting lyrics (if not necessarily great advice, if you meet a stranger look at their shoes?), but musically it's bland. Sounds like someone fed chords into an REM generator and this tune crapped out.

Ok, confession time. The lame SNF comparison is because in my research, my theory was exposed as a fraud. I looked up second to last tracks on the following albums, and they're all winners:

Beatles - Revolver
Led Zeppelin - IV
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Nirvana - Nevermind
The Who - Who's Next

Look 'em up, all solid tunes. I've now spent more time on "Good Advices" than the band did in creating it.

Auctioneer (Another Engine)

Another train song. I really like the punk rock-style staccato quarter note drum hits on the verses. But just when the song picks up steam (see what I did there?) the chorus goes all Bauhaus on you. Still, for a very deep cut, it's a solid contender in Fables, where it manages to be snappy and gloomy at the same time.

I remember in high school thinking the line "take this penny and make it into a necklace when I leave" was cool, and kinda romantic in an art school dropout sort of way. Now I'm thinking, you're giving your gal a $.01 gift that she's got to make herself? What a cheapskate.