As I make my way through my vinyl after finally getting a turntable, I'm working from A to Z while also working back from Z to A, so this afternoon, I pulled Suzanne Vega's eponymous debut from 1985. This is the LP from which her 'breakout' tune, "Marlene On The Wall" comes. It didn't really chart in the US, but did become a hit in the UK and other European countries. However, it did get some solid airplay on MTV and some alternative and college radio stations, so it ended up on my turntable.
I'm writing today though because the amazing songwriter-guitarist Frank Christian appears on three of the cuts and seeing his name brought up so many memories and emotions. In the early 90s, I tended bar at the famous Ear Inn on Spring Street. It was a well-frequented bar for musicians, often they'd come in after gigs. In this way, among others, I served Laurie Anderson, Stevie Winwood, Joey Ramone, Stuffy Shmitt, Suzanne Vega, and many others. One of the regulars was Frank Christian, who would also sometimes play there at the bar, either solo or with some other locals.
His playing and original songs moved me deeply. And he and I became, if not friends, more than acquaintances and certainly more than a simply customer/bartender relationship. This included some heartfelt conversations over time and there were a few times we drank together. He had a low-key charm, dry wit, and could be a bit of a curmudgeon as I can be. Yet, at no time did he put on any airs. I had to learn slowly and mostly through others that he was a well-respected musician, one of those musicians loved and respected by other musicians, more than ever becoming a popularly recognized name outside the folk and blues community.
In fact, chances are if you never heard of Frank Christian, you've heard his music. Nanci Griffith recorded his "Three Flights Up" on her Grammy winning 1992 release, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Besides his work on Suzanne Vega's LP, Christian played on dozens of LPs by people like John Gorka, Jack Hardy, The Smithereens, and Dave Van Ronk among others.
Christian also recorded four solo LPs. In 1992, he gifted me a copy of his second album, Where Were You Last Night since he knew I loved the song after hearing him perform it at The Ear Inn. That was the year he turned 40. I stopped tending bar by 1995 and lost touch with the scene and with Frank. It was a sad day when I learned that he died from pneumonia on Christmas Eve, 2012 at the young age of 60.
"Where Were You Last Night" captures a lonely, in my mind, rain-drenched noir atmosphere. In fact, after hearing Frank play this at the Ear, I asked him a day or two later for the name of the "noir-like song" and he immediately knew which I meant. It begins with an exquisite 1:30 second acoustic guitar intro that sounds a bit like a Spanish classical lute vibe. Then a jazz-tinged vibraphone, and soft brushed drum comes in. Frank's vocal comes in, with the cinematic image straight from a classic film noir like Sam Fuller's Underworld USA: "Cigarettes and coffee black on a rainy Tuesday morn...."
and it continues with imagery that is as stark as the black and white of the great films noir:
- Tolling bells and brief farewells
Newspapers stuck on thorns
A winding breeze 'round crippled trees
Tossing notes of light
Where were you last night?
The moonlight like a dagger shines
Through Venetian blinds
Showing yearning shadows
Starting to unwind
partly eclipsed the quiet traffic
Scars the asphalt with tatoos
And I sit and think of you
But now I only stare through windows
Scratched with veils of rain
And I see a sky bleached white
And I wonder will I ever forget the pain
That you were a lie
I remember your smile
Elastic on your face
Put me in a viscious sweat
I grasp you in the haze
And your eyes so soft and warm
You delighting in your harm
Maybe pour yourself a wee dram of bourbon or rye, dim the lights, and give this a listen:
