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At the service station of the long American highway that leads from Kerouac's "beat generation" to Barack Obama's new American dream, you might encounter these four American guys, the last dreamers in a land grounded by a decade that was supposed to embody the future but instead turned into one of the worst in USA's history.
"The '59 sound" is a significant title to understand where the New Jersey band's imagination stopped. Before everything happened, when a car, a radio, and the girl sitting in the seat next to you were freedom.
Brian Fallon, the tattooed leader of the Gaslight Anthem, does not hide his influences; on the contrary, in a game of quotes and references, he makes them public. Thus, from the lyrics emerge Miles Davis, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Elvis, Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. However, while they are so mainstream in the lyrics, they are somewhat less so in the sound, which veers toward the punk'n'roll of the Clash of London Calling, the forefathers Social Distortion, the Del Fuegos, and the more urban Springsteen.
Springsteen himself seems to have taken them under his protective wing, showering them with praises and often inviting them to play with him this past year. The lyrics of Meet me by the river's edge"...NO SURRENDER, my BOBBY JEAN. And we been burned by all our fears. Just from GROWING UP round here." seem to speak clearly.
Rock proletariat, road romanticism, and melancholy (the group likes to define themselves as a cross between Springsteen and The Cure) are constants. The Gaslight Anthem knows how to push the punk accelerator in songs like Great expectations, The '59 sound (owing to The River period), The patient Ferris wheel, the clashy Film noir and the nearly rockabilly Casanova, baby!. But they also know how to speak to the heart as in the blues of Even cowgirls get the blues or the ballad Here's looking at you, baby.
This second album by the band, completed by Alex Levine, Benny Horowitz, and Alex Rosamilia, although not the pinnacle of originality in the musical field, has been appreciated for its genuineness and mastery in speaking to new generations with a language that draws from the dawn of rock'n'roll, mixing hope, romanticism, and disillusionment.
When radio stations accompanied long rides on the deserted American roads and 9/11 was still far off. Did the Gaslight Anthem perhaps pick the wrong decade?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 The '59 Sound (03:09)
And I wonder which song they're going to play when we go.
I hope it's something quiet mannered, peaceful, and slow.
When we throw out into the ether.
Into the everlasting arms.
I hope we don't hear Marley's chains before July.
Cause the chains I've been hearing now for most of my life.
And the chains I've been hearing for most of my life.
To hear the '59 sound coming through my Grandfather's radio.
Did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls?
Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over?
Did you hear your favorite song one last time?
And I wonder were you scared when the metal hit the glass.
See I was playing a show down the road when your spirit left your body.
And they told me on the front lawn, I'm sorry I couldn't go.
But I still know the song and the words and the name and the reasons.
And I know cause we were kids and we used to hang.
And I know cause we were kids and we used to hang.
To hear the '59 sound coming through my Grandfather's radio.
Did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls?
Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over?
Did you hear your favorite song one last time?
Young boys........young girls.
Young boys........young girls.
Ain't supposed to die on a saturday nights.
Ain't supposed to die on a saturday.
Well they ain't supposed to die on a saturday night.
Ain't supposed to die on a saturday night.
To hear the '59 sound coming through my Grandfather's radio.
Did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls?
Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over?
Did you hear your favorite song one last time?
Young boys.......young girls.
Young boys.......young girls.
04 High Lonesome (03:05)
So the ambulances came
They took your pulse and packed up your things
And the papers read
Some boys forget what the party brings
And the pounding in the street
Was your heart in four four time
And the taste of defeat
Was was never too far from your mind
And Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
I always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis
And in my head there's all these classic cars
And Alamo cowboy bands
I always kinda sorta wish I'm someone else
So gravity came
And stole the temple that the schoolboys praised
And the crowd shuffled in
You're getting drinks for the same boys
Who once bought you everything
And the patter on the bar
Was just this one time
The patter on the bar
Was just this one night
Only to get by
And Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
I always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis
And in my head there's all these classic cars
And Alamo cowboy bands
I always kinda sorta wish I'm someone else
There were Southern accents
On the radio
As I drove home
And at night I woke up with the sheets soaking wet
It's a pretty good song
Maybe you know the rest
Maybe you know the rest
And Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
Always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis
And in my head there's all these classic cars
And Alamo cowboy bands
I always kinda sorta wish I'm someone else
When our boots they hit the ground
They made a high and lonesome sound
When our boots they hit the ground
They made a high and lonesome sound
When our boots they hit the ground
They made a high and lonesome sound
When our boots they hit the ground
Down from the clouds
They made a high and lonesome sound
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