Wendy and Lisa [Official Site]

"Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings,
This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings:
Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys
Yet wit ne'er tastes and beauty ne'er enjoys.
So well-bred spaniels civilly delight
In mumbling of the game they dare not bite."

Alexander Pope

As I am somewhat inebriated and currently listening to a selection of music which encourages such rambling as you will all see here, I thought I would try to summate why it is that I hold Wendy and Lisa in such high regard. Not that any of you are obliged to care. This is, I admit most likely an exercise in self effacing guff. It is nonetheless an honest exercise in self effacing guff and that honesty is peculiarly absent in most areas of my life, with the exception of this kind of writing. 

I am, as a person, someone who has been for the duration of his life socially disadvantaged. Mostly due, it must be said, to a completely unoriginal but nonetheless prevalent sense of extremely low self worth due to the old father leaving at an early age. As ol' Neil said on that most atmospheric and incisive of his songs "On the Beach":

"Though my problems are meaningless, that doesn't make them go away."

Music was central in allowing me to break out of a self-imposed exile from society and life in general some years back, ending a six month stay within my house and encouraging the entertaining of thoughts such as: "Life is a pretty good thing sometimes" and "people are interesting creatures and probably worth knowing a bit more". It is an old retread but seeing as this is some kind of cathartic celebration in the honour of Wendy & Lisa, it must be repeated that the music of Messrs. Brian Wilson, Lou Reed and the Fridmann centric groups Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips were integral to this rejuvenation. Another sort who helped greatly in freeing me of the extreme baggage -especially as it relates to physical/sexual/emotional interaction - was Prince.

I bought Sign 'O' The Times off of a shallow desire to be engaged with another artist with a large back catalogue, after finally completing my Beach Boys/Brian Wilson collection. From in and around the tag on Play in the Sunshine, he had won me over. What appealed from the very start was how liberating it was to hear someone who was seemingly so free from all hang-ups, whether they are social, sexual or spiritual. His creativity and desire to express himself was so sure and was so deliberate that it overpowered any of those issues. I quickly bought up all of the 80s/90s albums and began a severe fascination with his career. Dirty Mind and then Around the World in a Day quickly overtook Sign 'O' The Times as my preferred LP, in no small part due to Lisa Coleman first, and then Wendy Melvoin. Pop Life, Paisley Park and Raspberry Beret are, I think, some of the most perfect encapsulations of the kind of music I like, and *why* I like it.

Wendy and Lisa's voices, even apart from all of the other reasons to consider them incredibly important and influential on Prince's music is how their voices complemented his so well, how they reflected a pure pop sensibility (in the very best sense of that word) which I sometimes feel he lost after their departure. Their voices, along with their obvious creative/composing impact on those great songs, whether directly or indirectly, define the fact that for a fairly lengthy stretch of time in the 80s Prince and the Revolution were producing music that was not only funky, catchy and commercial but had tendencies towards expressing the beauty and confusion in love in three minutes, sometimes at strange explicit angles.

Prince appealed in no small part (as I'm sure a lot of people feel) because he seemed fearless. Fearless in the face of social pressure, gender identity, or those who feel solely defined by their heterosexuality/masculinity. He was someone who deliberately skewed that; someone who stood as a "leader" who had the creativity and the power and the position to stand for the things which you may not feel strong enough to do yourself. He certainly gave me more confidence and energy to deal with the particular problems I had at the time, as did the Revolution, both as a concept and as a fantastically aesthetically and musically pleasing group of people.

It is so much more disappointing then to find that an individual so rampantly turns against that perception in ways which are of utmost importance. Your interview in Out Magazine (which was fantastic by the way) touched on the notion that Prince was always someone to control his image in a way so as to benefit him. Although I would prefer to think that he has simply changed as a person, it is perhaps a little more likely that his courting of all of those outsiders, those seen as abnormal either through sexuality or appearance was knowingly cynical in its aims. Which is disappointing. That does not of course change the quality of the music or the call for the subversion of "normality", it does however make one look upon the individual with less forgiving eyes.

What is particularly grating is how he doesn't even have the courage to accept the basic absurdity of his own beliefs as they specifically relate to sexuality. His current and massive hang-up with homosexuality is so beyond ironic that it would lead one to believe that it is perhaps a put-on, if he wasn't so convincing and persistent. Dodging the gay marriage issue and his general aversion to homosexuality and putting it on "God", refusing to accept the implications of trying to hold a position like that in the modern world AND with his fan-base (the ones who *kind of* loved the fact that he wore tight black underwear and knee high boots and jerked off guitars) seems to define his current state. I could at least respect someone for being able to hold a position such as this unashamedly. Putting the core issue on a supernatural creator, rather than face one's own personal prejudices doesn't get any points, I'm afraid.   

Wendy and Lisa, your music (I promise I'll only directly address you once) and your creative expression fortunately did not reach a similar impasse. There is that special spark in listening to White Flags as a whole or Tears of Joy and Stay specifically which reflect the simple, seemingly indefinable quality of sitting on a couch beside a loved one or one who you want to be loved by and noting the certain temperature in the air, the way in which the sound reflects off of the wall, the warmth of flesh over skeleton. Van Morrison did it with Sweet Thing (and all of Astral Weeks), Beach Boys with Don't Talk, Nick Drake with From the Morning, Dylan with Simple Twist of Fate and you have been able to do it on each successive album. That is no small achievement. Compilations -that great democratic creative expression for the masses -  for break-ups or get-togethers are as equally in your debt as those mentioned above.

It is in part, I suppose, the ability to give one the desire to love and to be loved purely off of the back of a song. To get to the heart and the mind before the primal instinct occurs. Songs which you use to persuade someone of a state of mind or which you Or to want to experience a song with someone, rather than on headphones at 4 in the morning. Your work with Neil Finn very much fulfils these conditions.

You both have that ability to find the odd and unusual truth in small moments; artists and performers to aspire to. The joy in undiluted POP, in a great fucking hook and in atmosphere and in the depth which a desire to dance in a stupid fashion brings on. The fact that you are both so open to interacting with your fans on the level of a message board says a hell of a lot.   

Perhaps more so than the lasting quality of your musical output though is the feeling that you have both maintained and encouraged the feeling of inclusion, of music as a communicative, inspirational and progressive force is greatly to your credit. Thank you for not retreating from a position which is often hard to maintain. Thank you for making such great music and thank you for still being the kind of individuals who will give strength to those Outsiders who need it the most. What's more you are the kind of people who I think a lot of people would actually want to meet, not because of fame or reputation but because of a genuine emotional and artistic connection.

To again quote ol' Neil Young:

"Well all those people they think they've got it made
But I wouldn't buy, sell, borrow or trade
Anything I have to be like one of them.
I'd rather start all over again."

At this point in my life, I can say that and mean it. And it is thanks to people like you. So again, thank you. Long May You Run.