“It’s a heartbreaker”: St. Vincent’s favourite Steely Dan track
A good love song doesn’t always have to be joyful. In fact, often, it’s the more heartwrenching ones that withstand the test of time, with the tales of woeful romanticism cutting deep, way deeper than any upbeat celebration of partnership ever could. St. Vincent knows this better than anybody, and you would only have to delve into the haunting world of All Born Screaming to see it for yourself.
St. Vincent, whose real name is Anne Erin Clark, was injecting authenticity into her work long before her seventh album, but it was All Born Screaming that made her turn up the heat on her sonic palette and create something that was intentionally challenging and unsettling. As she put it, All Born Screaming “is darker and harder and more close to the bone” than anything she had done before.
For this reason and many others, the label “art rock” seems pretty restrictive when it comes to describing Clark’s artistry, but perhaps it’s her own influences that encourage her to venture out, fearless in the face of new musical territories. After all, the artist built her musical world on foundations set out by innovators like David Bowie, so trepidation is likely never an option.
Moreover, although Clark’s preferences are immensely eclectic and can range from jazz to hip-hop and electronica, she also, of course, enjoys a heavy dose of good old American rock. In her mind, these are the artists who know trials like love well and understand the power of presenting them in all their ugly forms, even if the ugliness they are presented as is merely a coating for the beauty that lies beneath.
“It’s stunning,” Clark once said, describing the effortless nature of Eric Clapton’s ‘Layla’. Considering that Clapton was deeply in love with George Harrison’s wife Pattie when he wrote the song, it’s an immensely impassioned song about unattainable affairs, crafted during a time when Clapton was trying his hardest to sneak around without getting caught. He begs, on his knees, for his love to be returned despite having his “whole world upside down.”
The secrets of forbidden love isn’t a new concept, but ‘Layla’ combined Clapton’s agile guitar work with something that everybody knows well, making it a straight-up rock classic that was sure to last the ages. Compare that with another of Clark’s favourites, Steely Dan’s ‘Dirty Work’, and you’ve got exactly the same concept, but from a much more melodramatic and self-critical standpoint.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” Clark explained, noting the ways Donald Fagan would often get session musicians in to sing his lyrics as “he was uncomfortable with his voice.” Still, it hits the spot, and could even be described as “a sister to ‘Layla'”, Clark argues, due to “the way it just pulls at the heartstrings.” There’s an element of tediousness about its subject matter, but that demonstrates its authenticity as vocalist David Palmer explains, “I don’t wanna do your dirty work”.
