Chadbourne, Eugene - There'll Be No Tears Tonight (expanded) (mini-lp sleeve)
SKU
CvsD CD030
One of the greatest, most damaged albums ever. In any genre or category. Period. The only album that sounds like this one is this one.
"One of the absolute essentials of Chadbourne's oeuvre, what he described as "free improvised country & western bebop," featuring his frantic, skewed interpretations of classic songs such as Merle Haggard's "Swingin' Doors," Roger Miller's "The Last Word in Lonesome is Me," and Willie Nelson's "Mr. Record Man," There'll Be No Tears Tonight was recorded in Spring of 1980. It's lineup includes Chadbourne on acoustic and electric guitar and voice, Tom Cora on cello, John Zorn on saxophones, clarinet, and birdcalls, David Licht on percussion, with another set of songs featuring Doctor Chad on electric dobro and singing, with Scott Manring on lap steel and lap dobro, Robbie Link on acoustic bass, Dennis Licht on percussion, and David Licht on drum set. For the guitarist's solo Johnny Paycheck medley alone, this would be worth the price of admission, but the whole show is built on lightning fast juxtaposition and hilarious interjection. Though it was reissued on CD, it's been out of print for years, and here is given the royal treatment, with facsimile repro cover, new photos from the sessions, remastered from original tapes, and an additional 26-minute track titled "Richmond Dobro Massacre." In this deluxe reissue, Tears remains one of the best free song outings ever made and is an absolute must for every home."
"In 1980 guitarist Eugene Chadbourne dropped a record that would forever distinguish him from his peers in the pantheon of free improvisation, setting him on the twisted path he's followed more or less ever since. At the time, he was an adherent of the non-idiomatic playing pioneered by British guitarist Derek Bailey—he collaborated regularly with the likes of John Zorn, Tom Cora, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, and Toshinori Kondo. But with There'll Be No Tears Tonight (originally issued on Parachute, a label he formed with Zorn), Chadbourne found an ingenious, funny, and authentic approach to the music closest to his heart. He loved much more than just hard-core free improvisation, and on this mind-melting record he brought it all together. Last fall There'll Be No Tears Tonight got an overdue reissue on compact disc (accompanied by some patience-testing bonus tracks) from Corbett vs. Dempsey.
The back of the album bears the description "Free Improvised Country & Western Bebop," which does the job as well as any five words ever could. Chadbourne drew its repertoire primarily from 60s and 70s country, favoring material with a dark, somewhat absurd tone; he includes songs by Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, and Bobby Bare, among others. He clearly loves them all, but like Dutch drummer Han Bennink—with whom he's often worked—he's a natural prankster who loves jamming a stick into the spokes of a wheel just to see what might happen. He derails what initially might seem like straight readings of the Carl Perkins rockabilly classic "Honey, Don't!" and Miller's "Dang Me," spinning out into controlled chaos. Sometimes he destroys the tempo, sometimes he unleashes a gnarled, dissonant blast on his acoustic guitar, and sometimes he pushes his run-of-the-mill voice into a needling, nasal parody of itself, balancing goofy humor and masterful musicianship.
Three songs feature superb accompaniment from saxophonist Zorn, cellist Cora, and percussionist David Licht, who went on to play with Chadbourne's wild trio Shockabilly and later cofounded the Klezmatics. A few others employ different backing musicians, and Chadbourne devotes other tracks entirely to wiggy solos. The CD reissue adds a solo version of Ernest Tubb's "Set Up Two Glasses, Joe" and a 26-minute blast of calculated outrage called "Richmond Dobro Massacre," where Chadbourne indulges his fondness for noise and chaos—this is the guy who invented the electric rake, after all."-Chicago Reader