Cathy's Clown was the biggest hit of the Everly Brothers' career, spending five weeks at Number One in the US, seven weeks at Number One in the UK, and selling over 8 million copies worldwide.
Phil and Don argued over who wrote it, though the tune was allegedly nicked from a section of The Grand Canyon Suite by American composer Ferde Grofé. I had a listen and couldn't hear any similarity myself. The Everly's close harmony singing style was particularly influential on The Beatles (who iffypedia says "once toyed with the idea of calling themselves The Foreverly Brothers", but I'm not sure I believe that). There's certainly a similarity between Cathy's Clown and The Beatles' debut single...
All of which brings us to a man who also named himself after a song: John Wesley Hardin. Here he is in 1990 with his own sequel to the Everly Brothers' smash...
I called this series Self-Help For Cynics because I've always been very cynical about most kinds of Self-Help. The dictionary tells me...
The words misanthropic and pessimistic are common synonyms of cynical. While all three words mean "deeply distrustful," cynical implies having a sneering disbelief in sincerity or integrity.
I reckon I'm all three of those, but I'm trying to change... and writing this series is a big step towards doing that.
That said, I'm willing to accept that my cynicism has taken a bit of a back seat in recent editions of this feature. In fact, beyond the odd "that might not work for you, but it could be worth a try" sort of comment, I've pretty much gone along with everything I've read.
Today though, we cover an idea that has me raising an eyebrow like Roger Moore and scrunching up my face like Les Dawson. You might argue it's not possible to do both at the same time, but in my head at least, that's what I'm doing.
In the last few nail-biting editions of SHFC, we've discussed how it's best to confront your emotions head on rather than avoiding them, bottling them up or trying to distract yourself from them. The more I read, the more I see this advice given as a way of rewiring our amygdala / monkey brain, teaching it not to panic or feel anxiety in certain situations and gradually becoming a lot more chilled in the process.
"Feel the fear and do it anyway!" was the mantra that I rebuffed in my younger days. Now I'm grudgingly having to accept there might be something to it. However, there's a school of thought that takes this idea one step further and suggests we take time to actively welcome negative emotions. Monkey Brain Guru Dr. Jennifer Shannon explains...
When you experience fight-or-flight sensations but there is no immediate threat, it is a false alarm. Regardless of how urgent these sensations seem, resisting them will only prolong them. Pointless as they seem to be, uncomfortable sensations, like negative emotions, are necessary. The more we can welcome them, the more easily they will metabolise.
At best, this sounds to me like wallowing. At worst? Could it be a form of sadomasochism? Not according to the New York Times...
...researchers found that people who habitually judge negative feelings — such as sadness, fear and anger — as bad or inappropriate have more anxiety and depression symptoms and feel less satisfied with their lives than people who generally perceive their negative emotions in a positive or neutral light.
I took a moment to think about this in terms of music, and I wondered about famously "miserable" lyricists like Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt or The Pope Of Mope himself, Stephen Patrick M-Word... were they actually happier because they "welcomed" their negative emotions? Although if that's really the case, welcoming didn't work for Nick Drake, Elliott Smith or Kurt Cobain, did it?
What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
...and I thought... I thought... actually, maybe this provides an answer to that conundrum. Why do I like miserable music? Because it allows me to welcome negative emotions, thereby lessening their hold on me.
Look! I found a website called "HAPPIFY"! Pour your cynicism on that, fellow misanthropes! But first, let's hear their advice...
When you feel out of sorts, centre yourself with a few deep breaths and connect inward to the emotion you're experiencing. Give it a name, and allow it the space to simply be. Say, "Hello, sadness" if that's what you're feeling, and let it roam freely until it's ready to leave—because emotions are fleeting by their very nature.
Scientists have done a variety of studies to back this up, because that's what scientists do. One involved getting volunteers to dip their hands into an ice water bath. Half the group were told to try to ignore or deny the uncomfortable sensations they felt, while the other half were told to accept the discomfort of the freezing cold. Guess who managed to keep their hands in the bath the longest?
You might argue that actively seeking to accept or even prolong uncomfortable feelings could be rather counter-productive... or even self-destructive... but not according to that New York Times article I mentioned earlier.
“What one resists, persists,” said Amanda Shallcross, a naturopathic physician who studies emotion regulation at the Cleveland Clinic. When you avoid your emotions, “you’re bound to experience longer-term negative mental and physical health.”
Dr. Jennifer Shannon calls negative feelings "necessary feelings" and invites us not only to welcome them, but to provoke them. She suggests practicing by welcoming everyday anxiety-causing situations such as arriving late, listening to someone complain about you, or being in a long queue. I actually tried this final one last week when I was stuck on the M1 for an hour on my way to work. I sat there and I paid attention to what I was feeling, how my body was handling the anxiety... and I can honestly say that it did help, I didn't get as wound up as I normally would. It didn't stop me badly needing a wee though.
Taking this one step further, Dr. Shannon suggests "actually triggering your own negative feelings to welcome". Here are some of her suggestions...
Listen to a political candidate you dislike (to be fair, that could be any of them, but Trump's imminent return is enough to cause any sane person sleepless nights)
Watch a movie you know you won't like (life's too short for Tom Hanks, I'm sorry)
No. I'm sorry. This is too hard. Why would I want to do this again?
You are getting good at feeling bad.
Ah. Well, in that case...
Watching those three videos - welcoming the music of U2, you might say - did enable me to properly understand my reaction to this band. I realised it's not so much the music that causes me an unpleasant reaction... it's just Bono's smug, supremely punchable face. And that's useful, because as this series has proven time and time again, the more we understand our emotions and reactions, the easier they are to accept.
Here's something nice to wash that unpleasant taste out of your ears: Norwegian Americana hero Harald Thune, doing his own bit of welcoming...
Imagine all the people who can't work out the answers to Saturday Snapshots! How Do You Sleep when there's one you just can't get?
A pretty even spread of marks this week, with lots of you working together to piece together the clues. Charity Chic won with 3 whole points, but well done to Walter, Chris, Alyson, Rigid Digit and C for sterling efforts - and a welcome return from George, who christened the Christians.
Of course, I did goof pretty badly on the photo for clue 2. More on that below. Hang my head in shame. Oh, Nobody Told Me there'd be days like these... we better get some answers!
10. Neneh's spirit adds to division.
Neneh Cherry.
Spirit = ghost.
Adding & division are basic things you do in Mathematics.
To explain how I ended up posting the wrong image for this clue... and bizarrely ended up posting a second picture of Wolf Alice, here's the google image search I used...
My lesson here is to never trust the NME. That bottom left pic - as C rightly identified - is another picture of Wolf Alice... even though the New Musical Morons have labelled it as a band from 20 earlier.
Despite all that, nobody got my clue (or at least, not as I type this). Hopefully it'll be self-explanatory now...
Pretty gruesome subject matter this week... but real life murderers have often inspired some fine pop songs as their legacy. Rap and metal are full of tributes to serial killers and mass murderers, but here's ten more mainstream tunes inspired by macabre murderers...
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Mark Kozelek is obsessed with true crime stories. Later, in the song Stranger Than Paradise, he even checks into a hotel where Richard Ramirez stays and starts creeping around like a shoddy detective.
David Berkowitz shot a number of people in New York City, 1977, taunting the police with letters while he did it. Some believe he was also the inspiration for Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads, though apparently David Byrne has denied this.
Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, in direct reprisal to the goverment for the way they handled The Waco Siege two years earlier. All of which is retold in blistering satirical fashion in the Indelicates' 2011 musical David Koresh Superstar, featuring guest contributions from (among others) Carter USM singer Jim Bob.
Brenda Spencer. Killed two people and injured 9 more at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting in January 1979. When a reporter asked her why she did it, she replied, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate inspired the movies Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. They also led to one of Bruce's darkest moments...
I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world
1. The Smiths - Suffer Little Children
Myra Hindley & Ian Brady. Where I come from, just a stone's throw from Saddleworth Moor, their crimes will never be forgotten. They had a pretty big impact on Morrissey too... but at least he cheers himself up with the idea that the ghosts of their victims will haunt the Moors Murderers forever.
Oh, find me...find me, nothing more
We are on a sullen misty moor
We may be dead and we may be gone
But we will be, we will be, we will be, right by your side
Until the day you die
This is no easy ride
We will haunt you when you laugh
Yes, you could say we're a team
You might sleep
You might sleep
You might sleep
But you will never dream...
The world would definitely have been a better place without the evil, loathsome individuals described above. But would it have been a better place without these ten tunes? When life gives us lemons, the least we can do is try to make some lemonade...
Eddie Argos: a less L.A. rock star it would be hard to find. And yet...
When I get off that plane
The first thing I'm gonna do is
Strip naked to the waist
And ride my Harley Davidson
Up and down Sunset Strip
Hmm, I might even get a tattoo
My problems are never gonna find me
I'm not sending one letter or even a postcard back
I'm drinking Hennessy with Morrissey
On a beach out of reach somewhere very far away
Post Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf has released some pretty duff records, even I can't argue with that. However, every now and then he brings out something like this that, while not in the Jim leagues, still brings a huge smile to my face. I love rockstars who don't take themselves too seriously. I like to think that if Elvis was still alive, he'd be releasing stuff like this... even at 77.
