Now normally we’d be the first leaping to Chuck Prophet’s defence from this terrible accusation that he is in some way pretentious. Trouble is we’re in a quandary since the accusation comes from well known Chuck Prophet expert Chuck Prophet. Yes – this is a self accusation. What days we live in.
The shocking confession comes early on in the new Chuck Prophet Documentary, where the talented guitarist and noted songwriter discusses the staging of his album ‘Temple Beautiful‘ with a string quartet backing the Mission Express right up to the hilt. Initially Chuck Prophet had considered staging the album as a musical, before reflecting on the massive money losing experience that could turn out to be, and then hit on a full rendering of the album with the additional backing. When asked in the documentary of this event if this would be a “front to back – do you go in order of the album?” Chuck Prophet replied “I’m going to do it in sequence, it’s like a novel or something you don’t just pull chapters out” which elicited the response “that’s a good analogy” to which Mr Prophet added “A pretentious one“.
Chuck – we love ya but we have to disagree, it’s the perfect analogy. What can be more annoying than a full album rendition gig which then doesn’t follow the original sequence that we know and love? Well, for full disclosure lots of things can be more annoying – but Chuck that doesn’t mean we don’t think you’re right on this one, straight down the line. Watch that documentary below, then buy that live album out on Yep Roc here.
It’s a great documentary and, yes, albums being played in full should be played in the correct damn order. I had a mini rant the other week on the 10th anniversary of John Cale playing “Paris 1919” live at the Festival Hall. It was a great evening, but he changed the order of the songs, swapping “Macbeth” for “Antarctica Starts Here”. I suppose he wanted to finish with a rousing rocker, but I’ve always loved “Antarctica”‘s whispered ending to the album. Irking…