I’m conscious that we’ve just had one melancholy album and I’m afraid this one is also tinged with melancholy. Hopefully though it’s different enough and less personal so that people won’t be too disheartened. It’s been my planned pick for a while so too late to change it now...
It’s quite possible that if I’d heard any of David Ackles other 3 albums first then I wouldn’t have heard American Gothic. Those albums have their moments but feel a bit leadenly produced and of their time. As it was I most likely heard this courtesy of my brother. He was older than me and avidly music collecting, often following recommendations from the NME Encyclopdia of Rock, a book I also used to enjoy dipping in to
David Ackles was a child actor, appearing in several films and started his musical career as a staff writer for Elektra Records (yeah yeah, I’ve been plundering Wikipedia for the write up) but with none of his songs fitting the bill for Elektra”s artists at the time he was encouraged to record his own work and released two albums to some critical acclaim but limited success. Those two albums reflected his background in vaudeville (whatever that is) but also featured traditional rock instruments.
American Gothic, his third album featured more orchestration and piano featured heavily. It was produced by long time Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin, Ackles had supported John on his American tour and has been cited as an influence by him, Elvis Costello and erm, Phil Collins.
Despite good reviews sales were again disappointing and Ackles only released one more album before essentially disappearing from view. I say good reviews, some were gushing in their praise and more than one critic made comparisons to Sgt Pepper (the Sgt Pepper of folk) although Ackles was apparently somewhat underwhelmed by this hyperbole
Rolling Stone raved about it and their review, along with a few others can be found at this aggregate site.
https://www.superseventies.com/spacklesdavid.html
Allmusic describe American Gothic as a great album waiting to be rediscovered. How many of those are there?
Musically this is hard to categorise. It was recorded in two weeks in England with the help of the London Symphony Orchestra and a Salvation Army choir but Ackles had been working on the arrangements for much longer. The orchestration is generally light. It’s been suggested that Ackles was influenced by the likes of Ives and Copeland as well as comparisons being made to Brecht-Weill (?), Jacques Brel and Randy Newman although I suspect that Ackles was less cynical than the latter.
Lyrically Ackles likes to tell a story. Whoever wrote his Wikipedia page suggested his focus on “societal outcasts” marks him as a precursor to Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earl. Possibly a fair comparison, although I’m not familiar with Steve Earl.
I’ve never seen him mentioned in the same breath as John Steinbeck but it’s an obvious comparison to make for me. Ackles subjects and songs are ordinary people striving to get by, working the land, muddling through. Listen to Another Friday Night and tell me that doesn’t bring to mind Of Mice and Men’s George. Or any number of Steinbeck’s subjects. There’s probably (not) a thesis in there somehow…
There’s a nice mixture of tempos and styles to the songs. I hesitate to describe them as I don’t really know how they should be described. Besides the previously mentioned influences and comparisons I’ve also seen reference to Gilbert and Sullivan and Bob Dylan. I guess you’ll have to make your own minds up. There are a few more standard compositions and of those Love’s Enough is possibly the best love song ever written (well, I like a bit of hyperbole myself. And I'm not really a fan of love songs) while One Night Stand is also a lovely song, all wistful and yearning. The closer and the longest song on the album by contrast Montana Song took me longer to appreciate with it’s more orchestral feel but is worth the effort.
I looked in vain for this album on Larkin’s list of the top 1000 albums. I know none of my previous picks would have been anywhere near it but this I thought might. It does appear in the list of 1001 albums to listen to before you die so anyone who is taking that particular challenge, well here’s one to tick off.
I have no big tale of personal connection in respect of this album save just loving it and wanting to share it. It is close to being my favourite album of all time and feels fresh every time I put it on.
