Michelle Shocked (was: Shocked Elfs & Portugueseenels etc.)

[Barry Meikle <meikle@utcs.utoronto.ca>]

Vickie (vickie@chinet.chi.il.us) quotes the murderess lyric that leapt
into my mind, too, in response to Boris' question,

>> When was the last time you heard "murderess"?
>
>    Is it the lonliness of night
>    That makes you reach out and bite
>    The unawakened flesh
>    You lady in distress
> 
>    You poor poor suffering murderess
>
>                  "Black Widow" by Michelle Shocked.

This has gradually turned into one of my favourite songs from Short, Sharp,
Shocked.  At first, I didn't like the spider imagery:  trite, tacky, even
a little misogynist...  That'll teach me to _listen_:  that spider's not
an image, it's an arachnid.  I especially like the way the human imagery
clusters around the "tale of the Widow" -- the Marching Black Boot, the
loneliness.  It's a great song because it's centred on the spider, rather
than being another fuzzy spider-metaphor song.

The opening lines actually made no sense to me at first --

      Time is red
      Time is deadly

and it was only when that red hourglass figure finally clicked that the
whole song resolved for me.  

>Anybody know what she's up to?

She just played here in Toronto (with a backing band called Bad Liver), 
but I'm a parent now and I don't go to concerts anymore.  (I really 
appreciate Jonathan Richman's "I hate to tell you this guys, but we're 
playing music that would hurt the ears of little babies" now :-)) 
A local paper's review claims there's a new album recorded and due for 
release in January.

The new album sounds blues-oriented, and she, ahem, appears in blackface
on the album cover.  Something to do with her discovery that Texas folk-
blues were appropriated from black music, and a feeling that she's working
in the tradition of minstrelsy.  This tour, apparently, is to allow her
the chance to explain before the album's release.  I really wish I'd been
there.

And she's getting married -- felicitations & stuff ...

>Vickie
>katefans@chinet.chi.il.us


-- 

Barry Meikle                                   University of Toronto Bookstore
(416) 978-7925                                     meikle@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca