Mike Scott
Still Burning

It's rare for me, when listening to a great song, to imagine it in a different version, in the hands of another artist, and even improved. But there are those who have managed to 'make their own' someone else's composition, though it was already recorded and "perfect as it was", either through interpretive capabilities or thanks to image, substance and why not?, fame of the performer. For example, so it was - in my opinion - with "Like A Rolling Stone", a song perfect until then in the hands and within the ungraceful vocal cords of its genius author, arriving after nearly forty years to its 'inevitable recipients', who managed (and how could they not?) to claim it as if nothing was amiss. Similarly, still speaking of the Rolling Stones, when recently, in her questionable album of covers, Patti Smith took the famous and ultra-covered "Gimme Shelter" from Jagger and company, making it "more faithful to the original than the original itself", more true and authentic than the authentic, and better.

The Rolling Stones and Patti Smith, as we were saying... What would have happened if "My Dark Side", a song by the little-known and celebrated Mike Scott dated 1997 and present on this album, had ended up in the grooves of their works? Everyone would celebrate the "forever young"! Everyone would turn into Mollica at the TG1 to cast our 'hosannas!' into the sky, everyone would be slaughtering lambs in honor of the rock priestess!

There are artists who insist on making little success in their name and putting their face on it, while if they wrote songs for others, they would acquire plenty of copyright and money. Mike Scott is one of those, so "reckless" from a business point of view that in the '90s, he even abandoned his trademark Waterboys to try a career under his own name. I say "in his own name" and not "solo", because Mike has always been a solo artist. The Waterboys, in fact, were never a true band 100% and the compositional process was always and entirely in his hands. A brand: that's what the Waterboys were. And to get rid of a brand, maybe a bit tarnished but still famous, to sign with his own name - by the way, I believe there are roughly seven hundred thousand Mike Scotts in the world, including a beer representative who continuously travels the pubs of the United Kingdom - is a tactically suicidal move.

The fact remains that this man, in need of maximum authenticity, in 1997, gave birth to the second work in his own name. This time, although the homey attitude and the joy of very light production remain, it is no longer an album entirely of folk, prayers, guitar, and voice, but rather a traditional album, in the style of the early records ascribable to his "trademark".

In addition to the aforementioned "My Dark Side", the plain beauty of "Love Anyway" stands out, another masterpiece, a declaration of panicked love among infinite arpeggios of his guitar and clear notes of strings. A brit-pop with the emphasis of American folk rock, on which it's always fun to tear your throat. British and American, Mike, who was also Irish, "when necessary"... The song seems endless, and maybe it would be beautiful if it really was. There is room for other genres, like the gentle folk ballad, slow and light in Bob Seger style for "Open", more "personal" is that of "Personal", a little gem. The final "Everlasting Arms" reprises the themes and spiritual tensions of the previous album, with a prayer all guitars, voice, and good hope. And there's also a hint of California, on the shores of Moray Firth in Scotland, Scott's residence after long wandering: evidenced by "Sunrising", among guitars playing in the interplay of light.

The pop-blues, a weapon Mike wielded mainly in the famous "A Pagan Place" of 1984, resurfaces in the initial "Questions", rhythm and (pop-)blues still in Rolling Stones style with horns as is the tradition, and in "Rare, Precious And Gone", pop-blues of liquid guitar and electric piano-Waterboys. On this instrument and its constant bouncing are based the verses, while for the chorus Mike is radio-friendly like on few other occasions. It really seems, in these songs, to be back in "A Pagan Place", and particularly in "All The Things She Gave Me"... In reality, Mike has never changed tastes, over the years: he has simply chosen, Irish folk period aside, whether to lighten or thicken the sound, whether to add or subtract instruments, whether to plug in or unplug the electric guitars...

And these are on and powerful in "Dark Man Of My Dreams", one of the most violent tracks of his career, which this time echoes the first album of the Waterboys. Thirteen thousand guitars over one drum (all underproduced like the rest of the album) and a hectic finale. And there's still another track, to overwhelm the ears: "Strawberry Man" is born electrified Irish folk; it comes out as an irresistible rock, when Mike screams "stop the world!". But the metamorphoses are not finished: the special is a British march on steroids, and there the strong brit pop takes hold like he has never played before, not even Mr. Weller.

It's not a masterpiece, "Still Burning"; the tracks on which I've dwelt are the ones that merit purchasing the album, as they deserve a great star (or a priestess) who could take them and reassess them, while the rest are clean, good, but don't ignite the flame for which Mike is "Still Burning". There remains the certainty that Scott is a capable man, who knows how to make great music, who is a great author, whose creative vein, although time passes for everyone, is able to rekindle, like a fire when the wind is hot.

Mike Scott isn't finished, musician and composer, nor the namesake of that beer representative encountered years ago in a whimsical and fanatic journey through the most unfortunate areas of the land of Albion, one of those trips that led me to stop referring to England as a Holy Land of forever young when I was a teenager. Mike Scott, musician and composer, wasn't finished in 1997 (as for the other 699,999, I wouldn't know), rather he's still as capable as before, still fiery, the giants upon whose shoulders he has always stood (notice some allusions?) are as solid as ever, but he has grown so much and so well he could augment their production, with his songs. In the hands of another, in the hands of whom I know, many of his songs would have remained immortal. But patience, it matters little to him. Surely, it's not fair they're so overlooked (just like my reviews of him, for that matter)! And so, as something natural, his reconciliation with his creation, with the Waterboys, will come, a few years later, and with a real masterpiece. As often happens, and as in the old days.

Mike Scott, a flame that burns... And burns all the better when it's underwater.