FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
No contest
David Wilcox lays down the pipe and shows a softer, more spiritual sideDavid Wilcox with guests
Friday, June 6
at the Uptown StageChuck Berry had "My Ding-a-Ling," Kiss had "Love Gun," and AC/DC had "Sink the Pink," but perhaps the ignominious honor of the most obvious double entendre in song form goes to Canadian musician David Wilcox's hit from 1987, "Layin' Pipe." The tune included lyrical gems such as: "I put the pipe in / I take it out again." (Actually, it isn't all that obvious to everyone - one unfortunate individual, who happens to work for this very magazine, thought it was about taking a dump.)
But, that was 10 years ago and a lot has changed for (and about) Wilcox. Following a six-year sabbatical from recording, Wilcox returned last year with a plaintive, acoustic-based CD called Thirteen Songs. The resulting press resonated with talk of a more reflective and mature artist. Conversing with Wilcox certainly seems to confirm this: he speaks more like a friendly, articulate New England professor than a slightly looped roadhouse rocker (as conveyed by his young Rodney Dangerfield performance in the "Layin' Pipe" video).
"The scope is bigger," says Wilcox of the music he's making today (some new material will be included on an upcoming greatest hits package). "I was very influenced by the musicians I met when I first started out professionally and I feel that some of what I internalized was somewhat limited. Also, I grew up in what I now consider a very sexist environment and also an environment with a lot of prejudice in it....
"I was taught a very Western viewpoint towards history, philosophy and politics. Now I'm trying to open my mind so that I can see as much of a broad point of view as I can."
Wilcox says his primary goals for creating music now are, in terms he uses repeatedly, to explore, experience and evolve in life. However, for a musician raised in Western celebrity culture, such heady esthetic concerns usually come, if they come at all, only after more than a few years of music business games through which they attempt to realize star trip fantasies. Wilcox is no exception.
"I thought that I'd be bigger than Elvis in this very sick part of myself," he says. "I connected my self-esteem to applause, to being told I was a good musician, and that was a very unhealthy thing to do.
"It's destroying if I let it seduce me, which I have... I bought it. The idea along with celebrity culture is the idea of artists in contest: if you sell more records than someone else, then obviously you're a better artist, and if someone sells more records than you, then obviously they're a better artist. I'm not saying I think like that, but I've been seduced by that kind of thinking and I've felt like that.
"It's hell."
There doesn't seem to be too much hell in Wilcox's life these days though. He says he's happy, healthy and in a good relationship. And, of course, he's making music for all the right reasons.
"The reality is that it isn't a contest. The value isn't in celebrity status or any crap like that, but it's in the ability to express oneself and the spiritual nourishment that art and music bring."
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