The masterful lyricist is gone but not forgotten
James K. | 11/10/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
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Mark Heard was the greatest songwriter who ever lived, period the end. That is including other masterful lyricist like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bono, Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist (Over the Rhine) and Bill Mallonee. There simply has never been another artist that has had the ability to consistently craft the feelings one has being a Christian in a fallen world, though Mallonee and Detweiler are pretty close.
Between 1990 and 1992 Heard made three albums "Dry Bones Dance, "Second Hand" and "Satellite Sky"that simply cannot, and have not ever been matched by any artist. Ah, if only he had lived longer! A heart attack took Heard on to heaven in the summer of 1992, just after the release of "Satellite Sky." He was only 40 years old, which made his death even more shocking for his growing number of fans and supporters.
Now, more than 10 years after his death, Paste records has done us the honor of releasing 9 previously unreleased songs written and recorded between 1987-1989 during the period in which Heard had no recording contract. The album also contains two demos of songs released on Heard's final trio of albums, plus 6 songs that were released on various mail order compilations over the years. All of these songs were recorded and mixed in Heard's home studio, which he built in the back of his garage. This has always made his music much more special to me, because the quality of the music was superb, yet the thought of Heard recording and mixing the music in his garage has always made the music that much more intimate somehow.
"Season of Words" opens the album with one of Heard's finest songs, as he reflects on the broken human condition of living in a fallen world:
"Souls will come and souls will go
And trying to get ourselves used to the flow
We say goodbye
And say hello
And anything else that might help us to cope
I might've felt the rain
I might've seen the sun
But the curtains are drawn
And it's safe to be lonely"
Indeed it is safe to be lonely, because you can't be hurt by someone when you're alone.
"I Hang My Head" takes us back to Heard's sythesizer/techno-guitar rock days of the "Tribal Opera" album. The song is a song about failing to tell a girl you love her before it is too late, and shows a little bit of Heard's witty humor that rarely surfaced in the past.
"I Might Have Felt That Way" lives on as a simple demo featuring Heard backed by an acoustic guitar and bass, both played by him, as he speaks of trying to bridge the generation gap.
"Hold Me Closer" is one of Heard's finest love songs ever, as he sings for his wife to:
"Hold me closer
Closer than a closest friend
Hold me closer
Disregard the violins
Hold me closer
Closer than an August night
Closer than close
In a fight that only two can win"
In his marriage, Heard was very close with his wife Janet, often refusing to tour without her, and it shows through in this song especially!
"I Always Do" was a song Heard wrote for Phil Keaggy, who released it on his "Sunday's Child" album back in 1988. On this CD we get to hear Heard's own version for the first time, and it doesn't disappoint. Once again the song is only a demo, but it gains new life in this stripped down version in the voice of its author as he sings:
"I take the chance I catch your sudden eye
One glance I realize I've got no words
But if you'd listen to me, if you'd listen to me
If you'd listen you might hear me
Fencing with the windmills of my deepest fears
Jousting with this armor that I've riveted on
And if I'd listen to you, if I'd listen to you
If I'd listen I'd be a bit softer than stone"
I've always interpreted this song as a conversation between God and man, but I leave it open for you to interpret it your own way.
"Backstreets" is another one of Heard's finest songs. This one particularly shows his unmatched ability to craft social consciousness into his lyrics:
"Beneath the palm trees
See them wave like flags in the warm breeze
They paved up the promised land
And gave us the backstreets
Breathe in the bus fumes
Aphrodisiac -a gift from the tycoons
Who Cadillac through the human boomtown
Here in the backstreets
Ain't no ignorant bliss and no one expects it
This ain't easy street yet and no one forgets it"
"Your World Or Mine," again takes us back to the "Tribal Opera" with its electric drums and sythesizers, in a song about a close friendship in which the characters are both opposites in everyway, yet they are still best friends anyway!
The rest of the album is previously released material thrown in here as bonus tracks. However, there are some great songs worth hearing, especially if you don't own any of Heard"s previous catalog.
Two notable ones are: "Everything is Alright" which is a demo version of a song released originally on "Dry Bones Dance." However, since it is a demo we get a much more toned down introspective version of the song as he sings:
"Everything is alright
That's the way it goes babe
Everything is alright
We'll cope and keep close babe
Everything is alright
What will be will be babe
Everything is alright
When it's only you and me babe"
Indeed another gorgeous love song written with Janet in mind.
And last but not least "We Have Let Freedom Ring" which reminds us of how scary the world at large is:
"We can see anything we want to see no matter what is there
We can find any fault we want to find as long as love is blind
You can tell any lie you want to tell as long as it's not true
Imagination
You can hurt anyone you want to hurt as long as it's not you
Imagination"
In conclusion let me say that this album serves as both a final glimpse as to what Heard was working right up to his masterpieces, and a way of introducing a new generation to the brilliant and complex mind Mark Heard had! The only thing better would be for you to acquire copies of his final trilogy, other than that this album is a posthumous masterpiece!
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Track Listings (17) - Disc #1