Preview
EUGENE RIPPER
Saturday, August 21
Broken City
Old punks never die, they just unplug.
Eugene Ripper, one-time frontman for Toronto punk band Stark Naked and the Fleshtones, first went acoustic back in 1985. And, while he never completely turned his back on the amplified electric six-string – far from it – Ripper has spent much of the last 20 years merging what he calls "the sonic edge" of punk rock with the songwriting craft of folk and roots music.
To anyone steeped too heavily in either punk or folk, it might seem strange to attempt such a synthesis, but Ripper notes that his heroes, The Clash, were first called folk musicians by Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention fame, so he figures the precedent was already set by the time he started kicking out the acoustic jams in the mid-’80s.
"One of my greatest points of inspiration was seeing the London Calling tour with The Clash," he says. "That’s stuck with me all these years. I’ve never seen musicians more wired to their sound and fuelled by conviction of what they were trying to convey as a message."
Ripper’s own convictions may be more personal than political, but that inspiration has served him well, his talents as a songwriter and storyteller continuing to develop with each album he releases. As a solo artist, those include Fast Folk Underground (1993), Faster Than You Think (1997) and, most recently, The Ballad of Black (2004). With songs about lost love, broken hearts, fratricide, betrayal, drug addiction and the fear of death, the new record delves deeply into realms of experience that many lesser artists shy away from.
"Well, without embracing the darkness, the light has no value," Ripper says, philosophically. "Also, I find it a more interesting place to be writing from and writing about. Part of that relates back to the tradition of the folk ballad and how folk music has become a four-letter word and is misunderstood sometimes to be a pratfall sight gag on a Juicy Fruit commercial."
He notes that before mass media, tabloids, broadsheets and even penny dreadfuls, the scandal and the darkness of earlier times would be reported by folk ballads sung by a travelling musician.
"You know, a troubadour," says Ripper. "There were the bards, the court-appointed singers who would tell the court what they wanted to hear – so they were kind of like Fox News. Then there was what was really going on…. So these are topics that I think are universal…. It’s fertile ground for a writer."
Of course, this isn’t to say that all of Ripper’s material is wholly morbid and morose. Instead, he often juxtaposes his most cutting lyrics with happy, upbeat melodies. In "Lines," for example, he sings of times "when everything you hope for is hanging from a thread within a spider’s trace," a metaphor suggesting that it is often only lies and deception that hold disintegrating relationships together. But the vicious lyrical medicine is washed down with a spoonful of sugary psychedelic pop.
"It’s a song about betrayal," he says. "As a writer, it’s kind of hard to say where lines come from but I was searching for a metaphor that might have a bit of teeth to it. You know, this wicked web that we weave. I thought about being caught in a web and especially in dysfunctional situations… but sonically it kind of jingles and jangles in a major key. There was a bit of a paradox in coming out with a very major-key, jangly, easy kind of melody but with a lyrical edge that could draw blood."
If bloodletting isn’t punk rock, I don’t know what is, but given his razor-sharp insights into relationships, one could be forgiven for thinking that Ripper has toned down the guitars to focus primarily on his skills as a wordsmith. He is, after all, one aging punk who aspires to create poetry.
"I spend a lot of time on not only the message but also construction and syntax and how those words sound," he says. "I’m a huge fan of Dylan Thomas because half of it is what he’s saying but the other half is how he’s saying it – just that rhythm and that cadence. Words almost become architecture, and that’s very compelling for me, too. And I like to rock!" |
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