The Roches

During the before times, I played my own songs, in front of people, throughout greater New England. The last show that I got to experience was at a shared house in Holyoke, there was a glowing plastic goose, and everyone was squeezed into this little room, on the floor, in doorways, in a back porch. We sang without microphones and I got home around midnight, exhausted but satisfied with the work. Now a couple of years ago, we were doing some shows with State Champion, slayers from Louisville, Chicago, and Nashville (and I’m amazed that it was that long ago, but I remember that because my favorite album of 2018 was their sublimely perfect Send Flowers, and it has remained my favorite album of the year ever since). Their van broke down outside of Burlington VT, so the remainder of the trip relied on jamming lots of people and gear into a variety of vehicles to finish the regional criss cross. At one point, I was rolling through Vermont with their drummer Sal in shotgun; he’s a wild genius gameshow host with a heart of gold. He put on this Roches album, which I had avoided for absolutely no reason hence far in my life. It was charming at first, but then track two, “The Hammond Song” came on and it shot me into space. Each of their voices are beams of uninterrupted light and the sound they conjure together feels like an Arctic summer. I can still remember the first time I heard it; all I wanted to do was to keep hearing it, hear everything about it, know everything about it. And with each subsequent listen, my desire has not abated; I want it to be in my life until the end.

It has struck me lately just how twisted up people on the right are; they are saying a simpler version of what folks on the left are saying, but for some reason, not able to pick up on the similarities or that they’re being used. First, I’d like to start by saying that the qualities of these two sides are not communicative, as in, you can’t equate their validity or apply the same protections to them; they aren’t both “opinions” that folks should be free to have and use out in the world as they see fit. The left is concerned with helping people; with righting wrongs that have been systematically perpetuated in the way this country was founded, built, and managed. The facts to support this premise are legion: you can dive into declassified government documents, scholarship (both liberal and conservative) regarding America’s inception and history, plus a litany of narratives from people who were there at various points in the timeline. It all leads to the same conclusion: this place was built on a rotten foundation. The left wants to change it. The right is much more insidious and dangerous because they know that these things happened, but they seek to change the narrative for their followers because a divided populace is much easier to control. Democratic policies will help so many people who are avowed Trump voters, while the Republican Party’s own platform does nothing but disenfranchise the middle and working classes; so why do these white folks vote Republican? They vote that way because the conservatives have sold them an identity, a group to belong to that is easy to see, and they speak in the coded racism of the previous generations. The strange thing is that this nuance, which is undetectable to a person not looking for it, is precisely the kind of detail that this same group is missing from some of the contemporary arguments. “All Lives Matter” is LITERALLY what Black Lives Matter means, the emphasis is on Black lives because of what we see every day in this country is an extension of Jim Crow throughout every system that exists; that racism is so ingrained in the blood of America that it can actually become invisible. Blue lives matter already, to the extent that our tax money goes to pay for the police (which is, incidentally, a form of Socialism), as well as there are many laws that increase punishment for pretty much any action against a police officer. Also, the police have a vast network of support and myriad options if their lives are in any way disrupted by consequences of their own actions. So when you are saying “Blue Lives Matter”, you are creating an argument that doesn’t make any sense; you are merely revealing that the idea of valuing Black life is so strange and foreign to you, that rather than listening to other people who may have a different experience than you, your first instinct is to jump up and shout a non-sequitur. So why has the Republican Party championed these slogans? Because they increase the tribalism of the white folks already under their sway. Rather than relying on facts and empathy to get their message across, the right has consistently (and under Trump, flagrantly) championed unproven and insane conspiracy theories, and constantly lied to the public, often while also using scare tactics that again, have no basis in truth. The party of “family values” has a leader who is being sued for rape (a judge has recently moved that the case can go forward after Trump tried to have it shut down); he’s also embroiled in a scandal which has many news desks, including his beloved Fox, confirming that he called people who went into the military “suckers” and “losers”. You don’t need me to list all of the horrible things he has admitted to or been credibly accused of, however, his supporters will continually chime in with, “he tells it like it is”, which is also, completely false. He tells it like it isn’t, and he is exactly the leader that the Republicans deserve, after clinging to their white fright schemes and coded racism to divide America. 

Now folks, I have to tell you, I’ve got to get back to the Roches because writing that disgusting man’s name that many times has left me in need of a palate cleanser. I wanted to tell you that after hearing this album with Sal, I immediately looked for a booking contact for the group, hoping to find that they were still around, somewhat near to Peterborough. If you didn’t know, the only thing you really need to start booking shows is the brass to reach out to people you don’t know out of the blue. I found a contact email and wrote and was replied to by none other than Suzzy Roche herself; though I should have done a little more research because Maggie had passed away two years before. Suzzy was gracious and sweet and understanding, and did still end up coming to Peterborough with her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche, which was a whole wonderful thing. They didn’t play “The Hammond Song” and how could they? People together can possess a calculus that seems impossible. Those three sisters were magical, their voices capable of both a light touch and a crushing blow, and this 1979 album is the jewel of their catalogue (oh and how could I forget that Robert Fripp produced, and is shredding on that tune as well!). There are a lot of memories and feelings that I have decanted as songs and albums. Some are my own, but a lot are a combination of subject and time; this song reminds me of this particular thing or person; this song is a certain time period or moment perfectly captured in amber (and yes I am thinking of the mosquito in Jurassic Park). Sometimes a song has the power to reach back in time as well as to herald new possibilities. “The Hammond Song” became my best friend and I, circa 1994, putting cigarettes and matches into a ziplock bag, and swimming out to the dock on Lake Monomonac in the middle of the night. We’d lie out there smoking until we had seen the moon move through the sky a bit and we’d become completely dry. We reveled in the uncertainty of the future, and eventually would dive back into that cool water, emerging on the shore, new again, our exhalations moving like songs through time and space. I’m happy to send this song, and album, back in time to my younger self, and in turn, send the lake and my dreams into the future, and to you.

The Roches - The Roches

Saturday September 12th 2020, 7pm

Just put it on at your house using a stereo or the internet or whatever you want.

Eric Gagne

Nova Arts