The first song St. Vincent remembers hearing
St. Vincent is a contemporary enigma. She refuses to be defined by genre, and it is somewhat easier to merely describe her as being in the realm of genius. Born Anne Clark, St. Vincent’s elaborate arrangements and proficiency across a wide range of instruments have led her to be considered one of the most well-respected musicians among her contemporaries.
The first song St. Vincent remembers hearing is John Denver’s ‘Life Is So Good’, in which Denver indeed negates the harsh realities of life in favour of the proclamation that everything is going well in his life. However, for St. Vincent, this just seemed to piss her off, even though she was a young girl. She said: “I was probably four or five, and it would send me into a violent rage: I was just a tiny nihilist, a tiny goth. I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re full of shit, John Denver’.”
Detailing further, she added: “It was my mum who put it on with her girls, driving around thinking, ‘This will calm them down; this will be a nice thing we can all sing along to’. But it drove me crazy. Even then, I was like, ‘If your life is so good, first of all, the lady doth protest too much. Also, I’m not really sure that’s a subject for a song. Keep that to yourself, John Denver’.”
However, from there, St. Vincent did find a profound love for music, and interestingly enough, it also looks to have occurred during another road trip. This time around, it was for The Doors’ magnificent ‘Riders on the Storm’, a track taken from their final album with Jim Morrison, LA Woman. Describing her experience with the perfect driving song, St. Vincent said: “I first heard it on a long car trip through the American Southwest. It starts with the sound of the rain: I have vivid memories of driving through New Mexico with it raining outside, listening to ‘Riders On The Storm’ and lightning striking in the distance, and seeing the silhouette of the plateaus. That was probably a terrifying memory. That’s probably why it’s kind of lodged in there, because of the adrenaline.”
And for the first album that St. Vincent ever bought? It was I Am An Elastic Firecracker by Tripping Daisy. “I bought it with my own money at the Sound Warehouse when I was 13,” she remembers. “Someone must have given me the money, but I remember going, ‘I bought this; this is mine’. Tripping Daisy were from Dallas.”
St. Vincent continued: “They were like hometown heroes, and this was their first big national debut record. It’s hard to know if it got special attention and love on Dallas radio or if it was a national hit, but there are some great songs on there. Prophetically, I ended up playing with members of Tripping Daisy when I was in The Polyphonic Spree.”
