By Booth Neyscop
Boyce Thompson says his new concept album, Grandapa’s Got a Robot, streaming everywhere, is an attempt to create an alternative “soundtrack of his youth.” Even though he grew up in the Midwest, he sings on the album about youthful events centered around the Mid-Atlantic seaboard. The album references Jockey’s Ridge, Brew-Thru, Peppermints, the Rocket, the Cavalier, and other regional landmarks as if everyone knew them.
Nice try.
I suppose Brian Wilson didn’t write about the life he led, either. But to think that a song like Outer Banks Girls could do for the women of Hatteras what California Girls did for the females of California is preposterous. Similarly, it may be true that many tunes from the ’60s involved potion-makers, mediums, and voodoo. But does that make relevant a song about conjuring up spirits in the infamous Brill Building, where many great songwriters of the 60s labored? Do we care about the ghosts of Gene Pitney and Bobby Darin or writing a hit for Bobby Vee?
Thompson, who wrote all the songs on the album, with help from lyrical collaborator Joe Barks on two, plays most of the instruments except the drums, which Jake Naugle contributed. Eric Harper plays the bass on four tunes, and Chris Voelker contributes guitar on the title track, including an excellent solo. Several other long-time collaborators lend a hand on a track apiece — Connor Vance on fiddle, Cal Rustad on trumpet, Mateusz Pisulak on sax, and Michele Fortunato on trombone.
Once again, the singer-songwriter relies on eclecticivity to carry the release. One must wonder whether tunes this diverse belong on the same album. Blue Balls, the lone disco tune, centers on the myths surrounding teenage romance. Scots-Irish, replete with a compulsory fiddle hook, delves into the root causes of the author’s personality disorder. “Part of him wants to go the the bar/ Part of him refuses to pay.” The artist even tries his hand at a gospel song, Loading Dock of the Love, about the author’s desire to make a return on a girlfriend with too much baggage.
Some songs are more successful than others. Thompson wrote the catchy reggae tune, I’ve Got an Itch, with his wife in his late 30s. The song was originally a folk tune that Thompson recrafted as a reggae tune after his early producer, Wilson Harwood, half-facetiously suggested that he redo all his songs in this manner. A drunken Jan and Dean never did justice to the song “Submarine Races.” Thompson correctly recasts it to be about two Norfolk, Va., youths—military brats—parking at the Cavalier. One can almost hear the hum of the submarine in the song’s lurching rhythm.
Several tunes on the album would be easy to dance to. The rollicking title tune, Grandpa’s Got a Robot, uses a Cajun beat to harken up the early spirits of rock and roll. Thompson says his 5-year-old grandson enjoys dancing to Do the Stork, about a supposed 60s dance craze, ala (Do the) Mashed Potatoes. This tune and Library Woman and Hard Drinkin’ Man will certainly get people out of their chairs and onto the floor. Some tracks might even have found their way onto the Dick Clark show back in the day.
However, one must question in this day and age whether producing an album of dance music is a redeeming consideration. Is this an attempt by the veteran songwriter to achieve a semblance of commercial success? If so, the album may fail miserably in an effort to gain mass-market appeal. No one under 60 dances to tunes like this anymore. Indeed, most old-timers, his presumed target market, can no longer “shake their booty.”
Reprinted from Digital Currents magazine
Leave a Reply