This may well be the truest to the spirit of rock and roll rock and roll record ever made. Here’s how it worked: revered indie band walked into listener-supported independent radio station studio, listeners called in requests for covers in exchange for pledges, and revered indie band attempted to play said covers on the spot, despite never having played them before in their lives.
The radio station was East Orange, NJ’s WFMU, the band was Yo La Tengo (joined by pal Bruce Bennett of the A-Bones) and between the years 1996 and 2003 Hoboken, New Jersey’s finest gamely did their best to play songs ranging from Yes’ “Roundabout” to the New York Mets theme song. Yo La Tengo (Spanish for “I got it”) famously took their name from a very funny Mets anecdote, and the record itself is a comedy of errors, dropped balls everywhere, but they walk away with an impossible victory. It’s a miracle win, sort of like Dock Ellis’ 1970 no-hitter on acid.
And what’s more it was an act of insane bravery, and a challenge that most serious bands would say no way to because they’d be afraid they’d make fools of themselves. When, as any young band of semi-incompetents getting on stage for the first time will tell you, making a fool of yourself is the only real risk that matters. It’s literally what rock and roll is all about. Facing humiliation and disdain! As the folks at WFMU themselves noted, “Were they ever afraid of falling on their faces by not knowing the chords to ‘Rock the Boat’ or ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’? Hell no.” Yo La Tengo stared into the void and laughed!
And the results, which you can hear on 2006’s Yo Lo Tengo Is Murdering the Classics, range from the ramshackle daring to the clumsy sublime. Yo La Tengo bravely take on some thirty songs (or forty if you count the final medley), and I’m here to tell you that (despite what some joker at Pitchfork had to say) this is NOT a comedy record. It’s a very funny record, at times it’s a hilarious record, but it’s also a naively charming record and more importantly it’s a love letter and Valentine’s card in one to rock and roll itself.
Yo La Tengo may mangle some of the classics on this record, but what shines through is their abiding love for the songs they play. There isn’t a single callow punk putdown along the lines of, say, the Circle Jerks’ contemptuous treatment of songs like “Afternoon Delight” and “Love Will Keep Us Together.” What Yo La Tengo do to Paper Lace’s “The Night Chicago Died” will make you laugh (they remember the melody, the lyrics are a different story) but you get the sense they actually love the song. They approach every song with a lighthearted gusto, but mockery isn’t on the agenda. They’re fans, not haters.
One of the things that amazes me most about Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics is the band’s seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of rock music. Most people could bang out a cover of “Sea Cruise” or “Downtown” or “Route 66″ or “Roadrunner” or “My Sharona.” But NRBQ’s “Captain Lou”? The truly obscure “Baseball Altamont” by the Nightmares? The Bonzo Dog Band’s “Mr. Apollo”? The theme song from the 1960 Jules Dassin film Never on Sunday? “Never on Sunday” is not “The Hokey Pokey,” people, although you should hear what Yo La Tengo does with “The Hokey Pokey,” namely turn it into a cool country shuffle. I love the part where Ira Kaplin (who wants the band to join in) shouts, “Everybody!” Pause. “I SAID EVERYBODY!”
Some of the requests fall right into Yo La Tengo’s wheelhouse, and the band must have been glad to get them. The Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner,” for instance, which they turn into a feedback-laced guitar freakout, and on which Ira Kaplan free associates on the lyrics, although he must have known them. And they do a wham-bam raw version of “Raw Power.” And sons of daughters of the Velvet Underground that they are, they do a ragged but lovely cover of Loaded’s “Oh, Sweet Nuthin’,” with Ira and Georgia Hubley harmonizing wonderfully on vocals. And their take on Brian Eno’s “Baby’s on Fire,” while rough, is a total art rock meltdown, all guitar feedback and weird synth noise. It’s one of my faves.
And that’s what this album comes down to—picking favorites, special moments on which the band either flails transcendently or comes through with moments of spontaneous grace. I’ll share a few of mine, you can share a few of yours, but wait—you can’t! You’ll have to buy the album and share your favorites with your friends, who depending on their attitude towards a band totally winging it will either love them or write you off as nuts.
Yes’ “Roundabout” is special because whoever made the request must have been a real prankster who knew that Yo La Tengo was no better prepared than the Ramones to take on a diabolically complex English progressive rock opus. The results are hilarious; Kaplan plays the delicate (and instantly recognizable) guitar intro just fine, but his vocals are atrocious, and the chaotic synthesizer that comes in is a mere placeholder for the real thing.
They turn Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” into a Velvet Underground jangle rocker, and once again Kaplan butchers the vocals, but the backing vocals are great and as a BTO fan I totally approve. They play a very sweet version of “Downtown,” with some nice vocal harmonies—a little practice, and this one could easily fit on one of their albums.
“The Night Chicago Died” is a wonderful disaster, but Yo La Tengo certainly gives it the old college radio try—vocals; atrocious, guitars; deliberately out of sync, and they obviously didn’t have the lyric sheet. It’s beautiful. They’re obviously familiar with the obscure “Baseball Altamont,” and they deliver a frenetic version that does the Nightmares proud. Pure punk! Their take on the Eurhythmics “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” is surprisingly respectable, catchy even—and Georgia Hubley makes a great retiring Annie Lennox.
Yo La Tengo’s take on Archie Bell & the Drells’ “Tighten Up” is a triumph—Kaplan plays ringleader starting with a great “Hi everybody.” He then puts the band through their paces, funky Archie Drell style, and there is so much joy in this number (by the end everyone’s shouting) that it makes me want to shed tears of sheer happiness.
Even better is their take on “Route 66,” for the simple reason that a very young girl handles lead vocals—I’m guessing over the phone. It’s the sweetest moment on the album; Kaplan gently tells the girl when to come in, and her vocals are naively wonderful. And she knows all the words!
The medley that takes the album out crams ten songs into less than six minutes; it opens with a fuzzed-out “Shotgun,” then the band vamps through the rest, basically using the same riff and injecting lyrics from the remaining songs, which include everything from “My Sharona” to “God Only Knows” (“Give it up to God!” shouts Kaplan) to Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia” to the Dead Boys’s “Sonic Reducer” and further weirdwards (the title song to the Dudley Moore flick Bedazzled). It ends with “Wichita Lineman,” although you’ll be excused if you miss it.
There are lots of other songs on the album, ranging from Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right” to T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy” to Yoko Ono’s “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow),” and they all have primo entertainment value. Sun Ra’s “Interplanetary Music” even shows up—connected at the hip to the brilliant Brian Wilson/Roger McGuinn throwaway “Ding Dang” no less. Never let it be said that the good listeners of WFMU have narrow tastes.
Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics isn’t for everybody. I suspect it’s for hardly anybody. But if you have a sense of humor and love Pussy Galore’s beyond shambolic “re-do” of the Rolling Stone’s Exile on Main Street or The Replacements’ When the Shit Hits the Fans or every inept cover you’ve heard bands launch into at live shows it could just be your Holy Grail. And talk about good fortune—in 2016 Yo La Tengo released a follow-up, Murder in the Second Degree. “Emotional Rescue” anybody?
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
