Twilight Singers "Forty Dollars"
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Since forming the Twilight Singers in the wake of the sort-of demise of the still-not-fully-appreciated Afghan Whigs, Greg Dulli has carved a deep, dark niche for himself as the chain-smoking, leather-and-velvet impresario of elegant sleaze-rock. The irresistable trip-hop encrusted debut Twilight as Played by the Twilight Singers set a high bar—one that Dulli almost matched with its proper follow-up Blackberry Belle, and yet again with the slightly better new one, Powder Burns, the standout from which is “Forty Dollars” (mp3). It starts with a sinister, bulbous piano lead suggesting a menacing Joe Jackson soundtracking an evening of tails and significant amounts of patent leather. Glamour is always only one small slip away from dirty decadence, however, and once the all-too familiar but still not tiresome Greg Dulli growl makes its appearance, the shadows take over and it’s time to shell out the cash for the true (interactive) entertainment located downstairs. Dulli’s lyrical style, tough to decipher at first, proves as interesting and singular as his persona, with lines like “we’re throwin’ down, so come on by, I’ll be around” and “I got 3-6-9, another dollar makes a dime, y’all in double dutch again, notify your next of kin” resonating like prime verse material for any number of current rappers. Dulli stubs them out like a butt, though, making his way toward the song’s climax.
To anyone more than passingly familiar with Dulli, or especially who has seen the Twilight Singers perform live, it’s a prerequisite to expect intertextual references to other songs and unique cover versions as part of their appeal. I saw him transmute “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into a dirge on the tenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, and his take on “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” from a 2003 EP is stunning. So, back to “Forty Dollars.” After dispensing with the remotest notion that love is anything other than a saleable commodity, Dulli twists the chorus of “All You Need Is Love” from a universal peace sentiment into a siren call to those already unable to tame their basest desires. It translates as: “All you neeed is love, pal. It’s all you need. Come in, I’ll prove it to you. Forty bucks.” Then he continues, now with the chorus from “She Loves You,” just like Paul at the end of the live Our World broadcast for which “All You Need” was written, but here describing a physical act. The music even drops out for a second to allow Dulli to blow his smoke in your face to underline his point. It’s part of the same cough-bracketed porno-pitch, only now he’s not taking no for an answer.
Buy Powder Burns here.
nice post! love the whigs and twilight singers…here are some pics i took in austin of them june 9th
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott
spy/sets/72157594163036874/
i thought powder burns was a dissapointment. the music is there, but the lyrics are embarassing. since the whigs’ “1965″, dulli seems to be writing the choruses and then slacking off on the verse. it sounds great on first listen but doesn’t stand up. and this is coming from a longtime dulli enthusiast…
a dissapointment? The lyrics on this album are amazing. It may be “same old” Dulli in a way, but he’s writing what he knows about. This is real stuff…not the drug-induced babble that you try to wrap your head around of Cobain, Weiland, and Beck. Fantastic piece of work. This album brought me back to the work of the Whigs and Dulli after losing touch after Gentleman.
The lyrics on ‘My Time Has Come’ are his worst ever. Making love to the snake inside my head, on the floor like a beautiful whore…
It’s like he’s taken a sleaze rhyming dictionary and gone hogwild. By his standards poor. The rest of the album’s a corker though
Love is a New Orleans slang term for cocaine. That’s what the “3-6-9, another dollar makes a dime” and “love is all you need” about. It’s from the perspective of an addict. Dulli always writes drugs songs in his own code. Fountain and Fairfax is the address (or was) of an AA facilty in LA.