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Rating:
A particular urgency unites some of the most moving pages in the history of music: many of them are the natural offspring of an anxiety for liberation which the artist willingly translates—with more or less heavy use of metaphor—into a dream of escape. Escape from oneself, from the other, from the unsustainability of a feeling; escape from all that—hostile to any form of control—turns into immediate, pressing discomfort. The ticking of the rain on the windows of buildings in Glasgow is not a sweet sound; it is the obsessive rhythm that marks the monotonous symphony of an urban devastation from which it is difficult to escape. Alienation, misery, frustration are the key words of an ordinary madness steeped in smog and rain, a dirty child of a leaden sky that does not open to the slightest gap. Painting such a scenario in terms of a real "storm" is lucid, painful coherence.
Such awareness, that of being "born in a storm," Ricky Ross was certainly not the first to achieve it; he may be, however, the first to have shouted it to the world with a distinct and angry cry, the desperate outburst of one who knows that the dream of a promised land where love reigns—"the very thing"—must be somewhere, it cannot remain the goal of a merely inner journey. "Raintown" (1987) then presents itself as a two-sided medal: on one side, the painful, lucid, disenchanted fresco of a generation of urban antiheroes, new misfits willed by Lady Thatcher ("She offered me belongings / She thought I was the ragman", "Ragman"), forced to curse their roots (the title-track, "Town To Be Blamed"), unable to recognize love ("He calls her the chocolate girl / 'Cause he thinks she melts when he touches her", "Chocolate Girl") or even frightened by it ("Love's Great Fears"); on the other side—unchanged the protagonists—the narrative (not very epic) of the exploits of small heroes who oppose the nightmare of everyday life with a longing for redemption, to be found under the words "love" and, above all, "dignity."
The grandchildren of the famous steelydanian plural merge the two sides of the medal in what is one of the most beautiful, significant, and heartfelt debut albums of the '80s, which unfortunately will not be granted a worthy follow-up (already the subsequent "When The World Knows Your Name", 1989, though valid, will rank several notches below the first attempt). The keyboards take center stage in this mélange that combines energetic pop (noteworthy the rhythm section in "Ragman" and "The Very Thing") with engaging soul ballads ("When Will You"), scraps of country sweetness (the delightful 'slide' of "Chocolate Girl") with fresh and immediate melodies ("He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now", the stunning "Love's Great Fears"), to give the final touch with small masterpieces of song form (the perfection of "Loaded", the impactful intro, and emotional charge in "Dignity"). Rarely have such suffering words been counterpointed by such consoling notes; it is this intimate strength, the greatness of "Raintown". A jewel of melodic-lyrical balance to indulge in and give as a gift, an indisputable testament to an emotional-expressive power that—wherever Ricky Ross is now—will not stop breaking into the hearts of new devotees.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Raintown (03:50)
it's a rain-dirt-town-job hurts, but it don't pay
all these calls they're making me and driving you insane
don't you see don't you understand
waiting for the phone to ring to make me all i am
you're in the suburbs waiting for somewhere to go
i'm down here working on some dumb show
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those tired eyes and tears and frowns
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those days you're not around
it takes a big hearted girl from the north country you can tell
how you payed those bills and went through heaven and hell
and you you cried and you travelled and you spat but you never asked
well how long how long how long is this pain
you're on for three minutes trying hard to say "hello"
i'm down here working on some dumb show
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those tired eyes and tears and frowns
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those days you're not around
sitting at home listening to your radio
listening for your old friend talking on some dumb show
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those tired eyes and tears and frowns
in a raintown raintown rain down
on all those days you're not around
03 Ragman (03:07)
offered her a roof
the rain had made it shine
offered her a song
wasn't really mine
i showed her all my things
she offered me belongings
she thought i was a ragman
she offered me possessions
i tied them in a knot
wrapped it in a note
kept it in my pocket
i showed her all my things
she offered me belongings
she thought i was a ragman
i came to her too soon
she should have had a ragdoll
and wound up with a ragman
wing and kites and wedding rings
all these charms i said i'd bring
i showed her all my things
she offered me belongings
she thought i was a ragman
baby you're a rich man
lost in a small world
looking for a ragdoll
wound up with a ragman
with a ragman
ragman
05 Loaded (04:30)
you sigh, you walk, you talk, you care about nothing
sometimes you feel that life has treated you wrong
i've got a feeling you know what the score is baby
but it's hard when you're sitting here surrounded by friends
i've got a love that i'll cling on to
and i'll stay there stay there till the end
'cause one thing i know is
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
and things are different from there
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
and things are different from there
you walk and you talk
and you sing and you shout
and you justify about anything
and you rant and you rave and you hope and you say nothing
and you eat and you drink and you dress and you live as if
no one else did baby
no one else like you lives out in this world
i've got a love that i'll cling on to
and i'll stay there stay there till the end
'cause one thing i know is
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
and things are different from there
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
and things are different from there
i have found an answer i don't think you don't care
just you laugh 'cause you're loaded
and things are different from there
06 When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring) (05:02)
pale blue eyes
same old house no ties
a little bit older but not so
worldly wise
that i can't see
your light's on me
making me regretfully say
the wonder of it all was you
and underneath it all it wasn't true
i want you in everything
in everything
in anything i do
when will you make my phone ring
and tell me i can't give you anything
anything at all now
tiny steps
from ruthless legs
when you've been walking so long
now don't you rest
from disharmony
from disunity
from anything that isn't you and me
the wonder of it all was you
and underneath it all it wasn't true
i want you in everything
in everything
in anything i do
when will you make my phone ring
and tell me i can't give you anything
anything at all now
tired of chasing old dreams
tired of wasting days
tired of waking mornings
just to wait for you till late
tired of searching high
tired of getting low
tired of listening hard
just to wait for you to know that
i want you in everything
in everything
in anything i do
when will you make my phone ring
and tell me i can't give you anything
anything at all now
08 Dignity (04:00)
there's a man i meet walks up our street
he's a worker for the council
has been twenty years
and he takes no lip off nobody
and litter off the gutter
puts it in a bag
and never seems to mutter
and he packs his lunch in a "sunblest" bag
the children call him "bogie"
he never lets on
but i know 'cause he once told me
he let me know a secret about the money in his kitty
he's gonna buy a dinghy
gonna call her dignity
and i'll sail her up the west coast
through villages and towns
i'll be on my holidays
they'll be doing their rounds
they'll ask me how i got her i'll say "i saved my money"
they'll say isn't she pretty that ship called dignity
and i'm telling this story
in a faraway scene
sipping down raki
and reading maynard keynes
and i'm thinking about home and all that means
and a place in the winter for dignity
and i'll sail her up the west coast
through villages and towns
i'll be on my holidays
they'll be doing their rounds
they'll ask me how i got her i'll say "i saved my money"
they'll say isn't she pretty that ship called dignity
and i'm thinking about home
and i'm thinking about faith
and i'm thinking about work
and i'm thinking about how good it would be
to be here some day
on a ship called dignity
a ship called dignity
that ship
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