I was texting with my sister last week after her birthday and she was in the process of making a playlist of the worst songs ever written. This was unsurprising, as we are like-minded shitheads, despite her being a formidable and dangerous Scorpio lady. We agreed on a few additions from each camp: her suggestion of a Barenaked Ladies song, her partner’s Jack Johnson entry, and my trio of Rednex’s version of “Cotton-Eye Joe,” “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, and Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” which is a two-fer of terrible because the lyrics were allegedly inspired by the singer imagining himself going to Burning Man. Wanting to spare my soul any further harm from my sister’s horrible little side-gig, I started imagining an opposite playlist of truly great songs. The first that came to mind was Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” And wouldn’t you know it, this column’s Nov. 10 deadline falls on the 50th anniversary of the terrible incident in Lake Superior that took the lives of 29 men and inspired this tune that shuffled them from “the rooms of her ice-water mansion” into the Olympian gallery of eternal elegy. A half century is a long time for the living left behind adrift in grief. Time enough, hopefully, for some to catch a current out of that punishing Sargasso flatness and into less murky waters.
As for the dead, it’s a harsh truth that they never get to hear the words dedicated to their memory. But perhaps, even if they could, they would inspire bitterness and sad reflection. Odysseus, a famous ancient mariner from the prehistory of myth, visited with the shade of Achilles in book 11 of The Odyssey, where he tried to comfort the dead warrior by speaking of his apex reputation among the living, telling him that in death he was revered as a king. Achilles faced that encomium from this living man, who was so desperate to return home, and remarked that he could himself never come back and would rather be the lowliest living servant instead of a universally admired ghost. In a cosmos where the stationary Earth is the center of the universe and Hades is the center of the Earth, a place where all lives must one day converge, this is an extremely depressing story.
Happily, we don’t seem to live in that cosmos and neither did Homer, for that matter. But let no one tell you with certainty about the true nature of reality. That is the purview of a greater force than the human imagination, powerful as it is. For my part, and prefacing this opinion with a frank admission of my own vast ignorance, I suspect some truths about the world do exist in our greatest myths, stories and, especially, songs. Truth is something like plain wisdom married to the undeniable force of beauty, and that’s probably what makes the difference between great songs and the other ones. What are some of your favorites? Maybe we’ll hear a few this week.
Thursday
The possibility of a Beatles reunion was permanently revoked before I was born, and now, people like myself who are fans of those world-changing Liverpudlians yet never shared the planet with them are close to outnumbering those who did. Regardless of your age, it’s a done deal, so we are left with tributes and satellite bands from the two remaining octogenarian members. An act from the former category is playing the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts tonight at 7:30 p.m., so if you are interested in seeing The Fab Four: Tribute to “Help” and the Hits, roll through. Tickets are available online from $19.15-$178.88.
Friday
The Arcata Playhouse is hosting the Writer’s Roundup Songwriter Showcase with Ruby Ruth George, Polimana, James Zeller and Fo Fera. The setup is fashioned after the popular Nashville — and elsewhere — style of rotating performances and storytelling, featuring a whole slew of genres from progfolk to jazz and country. These are some of the best musical raconteurs our county has to offer, and tonight will certainly be a treat to any who feel like hearing a magical collage from the dreammaker’s source at 7 p.m. ($20).
Saturday
Moss Oak Commons is the place to be for another installment of Freq Night by Open Head Records. Tonight’s offering features the avant folk tunes of Olympia, Washington’s Wicking Game, along with local electroclash act Parking Structure, the lovely storytelling digital torch songs of God Z Dog and the drone folks of Mountain Mahogany. This all-ages event starts at 7 p.m., and the entrance fee is a very negotiable $10.
If you are feeling Eureka-bound tonight, you’re still A-OK. Just head over to the Siren’s Song at 8 p.m. for Widdershins, The Uncredible Phin Band and Darren Dunn of Sugar Boys fame. ($5).
Sunday
Clan Dyken returns to town with its Beauty Way Benefit for the indigenous people of Big Mountain, Arizona, to give direct aid in their effort to resist incursion on their ancestral lands by the extractive death’s head of the U.S. government and its affiliate private industry demons. The doors open at the Arcata Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. and admission is donation based, so bring money or dry goods, shovels and other survival supplies.
Monday
Oakland soul and R&B outfit The California Honeydrops keeps on keeping on nearly two decades since its inception, returning to town to fill up the Arcata Theatre Lounge tonight at 8 p.m. If you want to dance to something live and not canned, this is a good option. Tickets start at $45.
Tuesday
I have waited for confirmation on a couple of things, but the time has come to call it off for tonight. No matter — enjoy the eve of tomorrow’s new moon.
Wednesday
Tunisian singer-songwriter Nour Harkati is a master of the Guembri, an ancient three-stringed West African instrument similar to a lute and a banjo. Now living in New York City, the surprisingly young man has put together a fantastic band to showcase his unique sound, which mixes organic bass tones of his instrument with the frenetic pulse of a modern rhythm section. It’s good stuff. You can hear for yourself at the Miniplex tonight at 7:30 p.m. for $20. Support comes from DJ Rhi Marie.
Collin Yeo (he/him) remembers Leonard Cohen — another great Canadian master of song —whose passage to the unknown shore embarked nine years ago last Friday.
This article appears in Green-and-Gold Washing on the Menu?.