DANGEROUS MAN

DWIGHT YOAKHAM

 

In his career Dwight Yoakham has sold 25 million CDs. That is a lot of whatever they use to make CDs. For those who are curious it is polycarbonate plastic. It has to come from somewhere. Dwight Yoakham is the type of country singer who might worry about what the production of his CDs has done to the environment. When he first appeared in the UK, Yoakham did an interview with the Guardian newspaper. He astonished the British journalist by insisting that country music had left wing roots.   His music, Yoakham claimed, would include social protest. He was sympathetic to ordinary people and their plight. He understood that society was unfair and loaded. As the years and the millions of CDs have passed by, the politics of Yoakham have either changed or been avoided. The guitars on his records also became louder. The albums of Dwight Yoakham honoured Buck Owens but also had enough rockabilly to provide jukebox hits. Mixing country music with rock and roll was important. In a strange way the approach of Yoakham has ensured that the legacy of Elvis Presley has continued in modern country music.

If There Was A Way was the title of the fourth album by Dwight Yoakham.  More than the previous three albums from Yoakham it revealed the influence of Elvis. It also suggested similar ambition. The country music roots are obvious on several tracks but the slick engineering ensures a distance from the past. The rockabilly that complements the polished country music is almost hard rock. There is nothing wrong with this. Yoakham covers various bases and spreads his appeal. Elvis did the same on his album Elvis Is Back.   Amidst the variety Yoakham honours and remembers his true hero, Buck Owens. The track Turn It On, Turn Me Up and Turn Me Loose is a worthwhile and effective tribute.  The surprise on the album is Nothing’s Changed Here, which evokes the easy on the ear country tunes and ‘rockaballads’ that Elvis did in the sixties. An obvious comparison with Nothing’s Changed Here is the Elvis interpretation of the Don Robertson song What Now, What Next, Where To. The smooth ‘rockaballads’ of Elvis have never been popular with rock critics.   It did not, though, deter Dwight Yoakham. On If There Was A Way he may strengthen the beat but he acknowledges what some Elvis fans prefer to forget.

The last two songs of the album If There Was A Way differ from the rest because they can be interpreted as political. Let’s Work Together began life as a rhythm and blues single by Afro-American musician Wilbert Harrison yet Yoakham includes it on a country album. The political message is not laboured and can be ignored by those not inclined to ponder left wing politics but a blues song sung by a country musician implies a belief in racial integration. The title implies cooperation rather than competition, American individualism it is not. Dangerous Man has the same lyrical flexibility as Let’s Work Together. It has political intent that can be sidestepped. Yoakham restricting his political concerns to the last two songs on If There Was A Way invites comparison again with the album Elvis Is Back. Despite the  pitch for wider appeal Elvis used the last two tracks to remind his audience that he was still committed to the blues. This was a deliberate ploy because he tried to do the same on his next album. The intention was compromised, and one of the blues tracks was removed and replaced by a film song. Today the intention of Elvis feels like a failed attempt at integrity. Yoakham may have been attempting something similar with the last two tracks of his fourth album and he may have also been remembering Elvis.

If There Was A Way was released in 1990.   Dangerous Man is the penultimate track. The song exists as a warning about someone. The words suggest more than they explain. The first two lines tell us that this person is dangerous and has ‘blood in his plans’. We also discover that most people do not realise this. This dangerous man acts like a friend but ‘it’s just pretend’. Yoakham could be talking about deceitful lovers or rabble-rousing politicians.  The dangerous man in the song has the ability to convince others that they think the same as him. But Yoakham understands this ability only exists because the dangerous man ‘runs a crooked game.’ This is an important assertion. Bad people acquire power and have the ability to be popular and persuade and seduce others. The argument is supported with detail. This dangerous man will pretend to be ‘your friend’. Yoakham refers to the vain words and empty promises of the dangerous man.   This leads the listener to the best lines in the song. We are told that the message from the dangerous man is loud but ‘it ain’t meant to be clear’. This dangerous man hides his past. Although his hands are stained with unsavoury deeds the dangerous man will ‘wash them with your tears’. Dangerous Man was not selected as a standout track from the album If There Was A Way. The track was not released as a single but then neither were the blues tracks from Elvis Is Back. Earning a living and letting people know what you think are different ambitions.

In 1990, when Dangerous Man was recorded, the Republican Party was pursuing neoliberal economics and preaching neoconservative values. These two aims are, of course, incompatible. Neoliberalism promises constant change and that denies adherence to the tradition espoused by neoconservatives. Because neoliberals are often neoconservatives, this contradiction may have been what Yoakham was referring to in Dangerous Man. ‘His message is loud but it ain’t meant to be clear.’ Yoakham appeared alert to the inconsistencies of the dangerous and powerful. What was happening to politics in 1990 felt chilly to many people, and the song appeals to those who feel their paranoia is justified. The President of the USA in 1990 was George H Bush. We all knew that he was on the side of the rich and powerful but he lacked the qualifications to qualify as the dangerous man in the song. He rode the train of neoliberalism. He was not the engine driver. By the time George H Bush arrived the train was unstoppable. In 1990 the song by Yoakham was interpreted as a general slur against many men. Since then we have witnessed the success of Donald Trump. The song Dangerous Man has become personal. Whatever Dwight Yoakham feels about his personal career, and success usually leaves some self-hatred, he should not hesitate to give himself full marks for farsightedness. Move over Woody Guthrie. Dangerous Man may just be the most prescient song in country music. As a character description of Donald Trump, and as an analysis of the phenomenon Trumpism, the song is word perfect.

Dangerous Man describes what has been happening since 1979, the lies that have been told to ordinary people. Since then the rich have become richer. Money has been transferred to them from those who are not rich. American voters were deceived by powerful men and women who pretended that they thought the same as ordinary people. The rich lied that they wanted to be friends. Working people struggle on less and they are now facing terrifying futures. The electorate of the USA has responded to hardship and plumped for Trump. They think he is different.   Mixing half-truths about enemies and friends the new leader of the American people has told ‘the right things about the wrong people’ and vice versa.  Yoakham argued that this was how dangerous men operate. He is right, of course. Racism has allowed the powerful to tell the right things about the wrong people, to confuse virtue with privilege.

At the moment many Europeans are not sympathetic to Americans. They see a narcissistic clown able to persuade a multitude of idiots. Rather than condemn Americans we Europeans need to be sympathetic. All nations are built on myths. The United States suffers because its myths are only recently established and have not had time to be filtered and refined by history. They were also developed at the same time as modern media became powerful. National myths fed by movies and glamour are bound to be hysterical.  The myths behind the nations states of Europe have been purified by history, a few wars and some dull films. Although the majority of the British population somehow believe in both equal opportunities and the Royal family our absurdities are not so obvious.

Even the dangerous man is entitled to some sympathy. Donald Trump is a man shaped by his privileged role in commerce and the market. He has operated in a world that lacks any sense of reality. Financial markets value companies without understanding whether they are profitable or not. Because growth is important to debt-laden economies and profit margins, rich businessmen dismiss the destruction of the only hospitable planet in the Universe with a mere shrug. No wonder Donald Trump is unable to utter an articulate sentence or read from an autocue screen without making the prepared text sound like gibberish. They are all crazy in his world. Dwight Yoakham was right; this man is dangerous. Yoakham is entitled to plaudits for prescience, and right now it would help if Yoakham could write a follow-up and make it a hit. The truth, though, is that Donald Trump is not the only dangerous man. They existed before him. And from the world that spawned him more are already being groomed on how to tell lies and pretend.

Howard Jackson has had six books published by Red Rattle Books including Horror Pickers a collection of film criticism. His latest novel Choke Bay is available here. If you are interested in original horror and crime fiction and want information about the books of Howard Jackson and the other great titles at Red Rattle Books, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The conqueror adrift causes dismay or glee.  Elvis was eminent in one decade but hapless in another. Those he had previously vanquished insisted that he had been lucky and not talented. Elvis reacted by making different music but his inclusive aspirations did not suit a confrontational and ideological age.

Less than six months ago, Brenda Rodgers was voted Manager Of The Year. His team had scored a record number of goals. Now, when faced by opponents with grit and organisation, his Liverpool team crumbles. Like Elvis in the 70s, Rodgers searches for a formula that will resist the opposition of others.

Elvis was unlucky with history because the worst thing that can happen to a man who conquers the world is for it to change.  Rodgers lost Suarez and Sturridge, and the instincts that enabled him to convert gifted attackers into the most dangerous forward line in the world are now redundant.  Pace has not disappeared from the team as some say.  There is none in the forward line but the squad has several light fast footballers.  Elvis lost youthful energy.  Having more than anyone, his reaction to loss was extreme. He overlooked the edge that made him so successful with the blues and decided to sing ballads.  Rodgers ignores attacking midfielders and plays defensive football.

Simultaneously simple and complex, the formulae of football and rock and roll are irresistible.  They also share the same capacity for deceit. What we watch or hear is always distorted by conspiracy. Rodgers has been called stubborn for persisting with the 4-2-3-1 team formation.  Elvis turned away from rockabilly and was thought pig headed.  We assumed that all a rock and roll star had to do was make great records.  We did not know that the situation was complicated by the demands of his record company, Vegas, Hollywood and Parker. The people who fund big money always leave fingerprints on what they have bought.  Borini has not been picked instead of the lumbering and tiring Lambert but the owners or Rodgers may want to drive the player out of the club and secure funds to buy a striker with pace and energy.  We cannot understand the situation with Elvis and we have no idea what is happening at Anfield.  Rodgers may not be being paid his ridiculous wages to manage a football team but to handle the situation until Borini is sold and Sturridge is fit.  Elvis was a mystery for most of his life because he was managed by an incompetent who was an expert in self-serving propaganda.  The activities of a football club are as transparent as decision making in a totalitarian regime.  Rodgers could be a genius who is in a bad situation or a mediocre talent once flattered by explosive and exceptional strikers.  We cannot know.  Unable to escape his situation, Elvis said he was tired of being Elvis Presley. If Rodgers fails, he will find another situation.  History might reveal enough for proper evaluation. Elvis was not that lucky.

Howard Jackson has had three books published by Liverpool publishers, Red Rattle Books.  His book Treat Me Nice compares Elvis to the Creature in Frankenstein.  His next book, Nightmares Ahead, will be published by Red Rattle Books in Spring 2015.  If you want to read more about Elvis and American culture click here.