Caught in the Carousel

Steve Wynn

By Alex Green

"One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy."
—Sir Richard Burton

Steve Wynn

Somewhere in Slovenia, Steve Wynn drank a cup of coffee.

Or, more specifically, somewhere in Ljubljana, Steve Wynn was searching for a cup of coffee while observing the vendors in the open market flash their goods in big bursts of color and commerce. Far away from his adopted home in New York City, Wynn's mission to find good coffee was secondary to his more pressing mission: to record his new album in a strange and exciting new city, filled with towering castles and cathedrals, sweeping Mesozoic Era mountain ranges and the Dalmatian-designed and Austrian-built Dragon Bridge, whose Art Nouveau style renders the ferocious winged dragon fixed in concrete atop of it, decidedly majestic.

Temporarily taking leave of his New York apartment, the singer/songwriter found himself in Slovenia recording in the studio of his old pal Chris Eckman. A former member of the late, great Walkabouts, Eckman had wanted to produce Wynn for years and when he finally got his chance to work with the former Dream Syndicate frontman, he revealed a master plan that caught even Wynn off guard.

"(He) seemed particularly intent on stripping things down to my voice and my acoustic guitar and then building up another universe from there," Wynn recalls in the Rock Ridge Music press release for his new album Crossing Dragon Bridge.

"No band. No session players (until later). No passing of the baton in this relay race," Wynn continues. "Even Chris would hesitate when I tried to get him to play something. Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals—if I could do it, I had to do it. And that's why Crossing Dragon Bridge sounds different from other records I've done before but also more like the sound inside my head than anything I've done before."

In addition to finding that cup of coffee—a morning ritual he used to think about the impending recording process—Wynn started to fall for the charms of Ljubljana and Crossing Dragon Bridge in many ways reflects his affection for the city. "It has the sound and the mood and the sights and the overall vibe of Ljubljana," Wynn writes. "I swallowed the city whole and then waited for the meal to work itself into a digestive hallucination before spitting it out again each day at Chris' place."

Steve Wynn

And, it should be pointed out, after work, coffee was not what Wynn was after.

"…It was back for a pint of Union beer by the river," he recalls, "before starting all over again."

An astonishing album that has the confessional narrative of Dylan's Love and Theft and the personal streetwise perspective of Lou Reed's Magic And Loss, Crossing Dragon Bridge is as much an album about getting older as it is about trying to sort out one's own history. Gracefully tracing the instances of his life, Wynn confesses during "When We Talk About Forever" that he's, "…gathered myself/From bits and remains," yet instead of trying to decipher a meaning, he decides to hand his findings off to "the world we're making/On this very day."

Although that might seem like an elliptical solution to an even more elliptical question of what becomes not only of us when we die, but our deeds and misdeeds, our triumphs and mistakes, it's here when Wynn realizes that forever is just a wish for a kind of divine history—but like the past, it's really only another distance we have no say in. Not only does it occur to Wynn that the past may be a place that he has no active physical access to, he's also learned that the moment-to-moment stuff is really only his to borrow before it gets relegated to the distant city of memory. All this in mind, what could be a frustrating realization of the lack of control we have in the world, Wynn finds suddenly freeing.

The album opener "Slovenian Rhapsody" has all the ethereal, acoustic finesse of anything off Simon And Garfunkel's Sounds Of Silence; "Love Me Anyway," comes with a swaying, Stonesy backbeat and "Manhattan Faultline" muses on seismology (coincidentally, because of its geographical position in relation to the Eurasian Plate, Slovenia is an active seismic zone, with an estimated sixty major earthquakes in its history), downtown topography and the ongoing feud between the East and West coast, before effortlessly gliding into a number about how one's past and present are inextricably bound to meet "beneath cities of stone."

Steve Wynn

Later, "Believe In Yourself" sounds like a penitent Lou Reed; "Annie & Me" is a spry back alley blast of downtown soul and "Wait Until You Get To Know Me" is a punchy little wiseass of a number, that finds Wynn observing: "Some things just get/Better and better/ Some things don't-whatever."

Bookended by two versions of "Slovenian Rhapsody," the second rendition sheds the airiness of the first and lets Wynn act as his own Greek chorus and address the audience directly. "On my own again," he sings, "haunted by the rain." Moody and philosophical, yes, but by the second half of the number, one can almost hear the sounds of a bar behind him and although he declares the next round is on him, the fact that there's, "Not a dry eye in the house" suggests that the last few rounds have probably been on him as well. Everybody knows if you want an audience, you've got to buy them a few drinks, because nobody wants to hear your dreams if they're not drunk.

Telling his tales of broken hearts and big mistakes and making messes with the pieces he's been given, by album's glorious end, Wynn theorizes that it doesn't matter how deep you've sunk the boat once the boat's been sunk.

In other words you don't have to be in the middle of the ocean to drown.

On tour in Europe, Wynn sent CITC his Consummate Top Ten Great Rock Songs With Strings.

ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN
10 Great Rock Songs With Strings
By Steve Wynn

I've always enjoyed when rock and pop musicians expand their sonic boundaries and ambitions beyond Marshall stacks and Ludwig 5-piece kits. One of the main reasons I was most excited about working with the Walkabouts' Chris Eckman on my latest album Crossing Dragon Bridge was that I knew that he knew his way around a string arrangement. I was not disappointed. Here are some of the songs that may have served as subliminal inspiration on the work we did together.

"Paris 1919"—John Cale
Cale could hardly be called a dilettante. The co-founder of the Velvet Underground was classically trained and on this song he shows some of the affection for repetition and drone that he brought to the Velvets' first two records, but in a much gentler setting.

"Madman Across the Water"—Elton John
Chris and I spent a lot of time talking about our mutual admiration for string arranger Paul Buckmaster and this is one of his best works. I love how the strings rock as hard and ferociously as any guitar solo that might have taken their place.

"Moonlight Mile"—The Rolling Stones
Another great Buckmaster arrangement. We actually considered asking Buckmaster himself to do an arrangement or two on Crossing Dragon Bridge, but I think that Chris did an uncanny job of channeling a lot of his skills and ideas.

"Street Hassle"—Lou Reed
Again, the wonders of minimalism and repetition. An elegant touch to contrast a brutal story.

"The Light Will Stay On"—The Walkabouts
I could choose so many examples of the ways that Chris Eckman has used strings effectively over the years but this is one of my favorites.

"Madame George"—Van Morrison
Broken and fragile and determined to carry on. The violins would tell the story even if you couldn't understand a single word that Van was saying.

"I Am the Walrus"—The Beatles
This was one of the first popular rock songs to use strings as more than syrup and softening. No, rather than softening the touch, these strings bring out the darkness of Lennon's surreal nightmare.

"Rattlesnakes"—Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
I first checked out Cole's music because this debut record was compared to The Dream Syndicate in NME. I had never used strings before on a record but this was one of the songs that planted the seed.

"Stroke It Noel"—Big Star
The strings on Big Star 3rd are a wonderfully elegant counterpart to a doomed, damaged but hopeful collection of songs.

"Black Heart"—Calexico
Great things happen out in Tucson and this might be one of the greatest. Kudos go to Nick Luca who also did the arrangement for "Bring the Magic" on my album.

"Desperados Under the Eaves"—Warren Zevon
Like Cale, Warren Zevon certainly knew his way around a string chart. I like how he turns a down-and-out Hollywood drunkard's tale into something that might have come out of a Civil War tune from the South. Sometimes wars are fought on the battlefield and sometimes they're fought inside your head.

Other Favorites:
"Bittersweet Symphony"—The Verve
"Just Like Fire Would"—The Saints
"#9 Dream"—John Lennon
"Darling Be Home Soon"—Lovin' Spoonful
"Bridge Over Troubled Water"—Simon and Garfunkel
"Alone Again Or"—Love
"Desperado"—Alice Cooper
"See a Little Light"—Bob Mould
"To Love Somebody"—Bee Gees
"New York City Serenade"—Bruce Springsteen
"Dream Police"—Cheap Trick
"Smithers-Jones"—The Jam
"Where The Wild Roses Grow"—Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Discography

Solo
Kerosene Man (1990)
Dazzling Display (1992)
Fluorescent (1994)
Melting in the Dark (1996)
Sweetness and Light (1997)
My Midnight (1999)
Here Come the Miracles (2001)
Static Transmission (2003) (With The Miracle Three)
...tick...tick...tick (2005 Europe, 2006 USA) (With The Miracle Three)
Live Tick (2006) (With The Miracle Three)
Crossing Dragon Bridge (2008)

With The Dream Syndicate
The Dream Syndicate EP (1982)
The Days of Wine and Roses (1982)
Medicine Show (1984)
This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album......Live! (1984)
Out Of The Grey (1986)
Ghost Stories (1988)
Live at Raji's (1989)
Tell Me When It's Over - The Best Of Dream Syndicate 1982-1988 (1992)
3 1/2; The Lost Tapes 1985-1988 (1993)
The Day Before Wine and Roses (1995)
Complete Live At Raji's (2004) 2CD

With Danny and Dusty
The Lost Weekend (1985)
Cast Iron Soul (2007)

With Gutterball
Gutterball (1993)
Weasel (1995)
Turnyor Hedinkov (1995)

With Smack Dab
Smack Dab (2007)

With Australian Blonde
Momento (2000)

With The Baseball Project
Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails (2008)

Compilations
Advertisements for Myself (1998)
The Emusic Singles Collection (2001)
Riding Shotgun (2004)
What I Did After My Band Broke Up / Visitation Rights (2005)
Take Your Flunky and Dangle (1994)
The Suitcase Sessions (1997)
Pick Of The Litter (1999)

Tributes
From a Man of Mysteries: A Steve Wynn Tribute (2004)

Internet: www.stevewynn.net

Steve Wynn

Crossing Dragon Bridge is out now on Rock Ridge Music