Far Out There: Character Soundtrack - Hanes (Patreon)

Well, we covered the redhead half of this couple in the previous blog, so it only stands to reason that the green fishbowl would follow right after. Yes, just in case you missed the explanation last time, the half of Xeselgrox & Hanes that has a green tentacle face is NOT the one called "Xeselgrox", and how dare you make that assumption? Anyway, as weird, freaky alien-looking dude with green skin and tentacles for a mouth, it only stands to reason that Hanes’ musical genre of choice would be Country! …No really.  What, you think that’s me being sarcastic? Why can’t a guy enjoy Country music just because he has green skin? WHY ARE YOU SO RACIST?

No, but seriously, I’m using the term “Country Music” pretty loosely here, as most of the songs we’re about to talk about are more “Country and Folk influenced Classic Rock.” I mean, it is ME picking these songs, after all. Honestly, Country is one of those genres I have trouble with, similar to Jazz.. and that’s the only time you’ll EVER hear anybody say that about Country and Jazz in the same sentence. I went over this in the Jazz context back in the soundtrack for The Kid, but it bears repeating here: I know for a fact that there are songs within the Country genre that I like, and there’s even more songs I like that are officially categorized as “Rock” but draw heavily from the afore-mentioned genre. Logically, then, I should be able to find multiple songs and artists and at least a few whole subgenres within that style that I enjoy… but I have no idea what the subgenres ARE. Like, I’ve lived and breathed Rock for decades, I know the scenes and trends and sub-sub-subgenres well enough that it’s pretty darn easy for me to trace one song I like back to a family of other songs that sound similar.  More often than not I can just look at the cover art and have a good idea what the music will sound like.  And knowing all that is important, too, because the term “Rock” is ridiculously broad. King Crimson, Buddy Holly, The Electric Light Orchestra, Devo, Burzum, Papa Roach, Tom Petty, Man or Astro-man?, Nickelback, and Cannibal Corpse all technically fall under that same category, and somebody blindly deciding to “listen to some Rock music” is NOT going to like them all equally. Country’s not QUITE as drastically broad, but I still know there’s Country and then there’s Country, and for every song I like there’s a lot more that I don’t. Alas, because all my musical education is Rock-centric, I don’t know how to tell the difference.  In short every time I try to broaden my horizons and find hew rootsy acoustic tunes I like, I end up crashing into a wall of twangy redneck crap I absolutely HATE and lose interest.

All that to say, most of the songs in Hanes’ soundtrack have a "laidback drunk Friday night" Country feel, but are very much from Rock artists. It may be Southern Rock or Blues Rock or Psychedelic Rock or even some Stadium Rockers in a more mellow moment, but there’s little to nothing here that’s “Pure” Country, because I just don’t know enough of those songs to fill out a whole playlist properly. Also, since the blog for Xeselgrox’s soundtrack laid the songs out in the exact order of the playlist, I figure I might as well do the same with Hanes’ too. I mean, I’m not sure how many ways I can break up these songs beyond “Rock that sounds like Country” and “Rock that sounds like Blues,” so I might as well just plow right on ahead.

First off, we open with “Lay Me Down” by Crosby & Nash, and right away I realize how badly I’ve misled you all by talking up the Country aspect of Hanes’ soundtrack. Yes, this is a heavily acoustic song, and the finger-picking lead guitar is flanked by some slide guitar accents that could be taken as vaguely Country-ish, but this is clearly more Singer/Songwriter Folk than anything you’d think of when you hear me use the C word. Also, "Lay Me Down" reminds me that Crosby Stills Nash & Young, either together or divvied up, are easily the most dominant musical force on this playlist.  For crying out loud, they’re a bunch of dirty hippies and two of ‘em ain’t even American! But remember that Hanes’ whole soundtrack was originally meant to compliment Xeselgrox’s in being really laid back and lazy, and this hauntingly harmonious tune by Crosby’s son James Raymond makes for a nice relaxing statement of purpose. It’s got enough rootsy elements to justify all that stuff I said about Country, but it’s also got enough hippy dippy weirdness to prepare you for some of the more… esoteric selections to come.

In the meantime, though, we have Classic Rock staple “Melissa” by The Allman Brothers. It’s funny, you’d think giving all the elements of a Country ballad to a Rock band would make it more raucous, but “Melissa” is silky smooth in a way that 98% percent of Country songs I’ve heard could never hope to be.  I mean, this song is just plain beautiful.  I've got plenty of respect for the more famous jam songs like "Whipping Post," but I'm pretty sure that "Melissa" is my all-time favorite Allman Brothers track.  It’s also making me realize that Hanes’ soundtrack is probably got some of the most high profile, oft-discussed names of any of these character soundtracks, to the point that I’ll probably struggle to come up with anything new to say about them. So… Hey, did you know that a few seconds of “Melissa” was played in an episode of MST3k? Go watch Quest of the Delta Knights and see!

Jumping ahead several decades but still sticking to much better known artists than I usually pick, we next have The White Stripes with “I’m Bound To Pack It Up.” Despite originating from the peak of their minimalist Indie days, “I’m Bound To Pack It Up” is a comparatively lush ballad with a prominent fiddle thorough. It’s one of the most purely Classic Rock-sounding songs in the whole White Stripes catalogue, which is ironic since it’s also one of the LEAST Rock-sounding songs in that catalogue.

And speaking songs that ironically don’t sound like they’re by Rock bands from Detroit, we next have “A Long Way Down From Mobile” by The Frost. This is one of the most pure Country-sounding tracks on the whole list, which once again is REALLY funny coming from an Acid Rock band best known for being the group where Alice Cooper’s guitarist cut his teeth. But I guess we’re rapidly learning that I prefer my Country tropes employed by artists with a background that stretches far beyond those bounds.

Case in point, our next pick is “Can’t Find My Way Home” by Blind Faith, better known as that blip of a supergroup that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood were in for, like, five minutes. Actually, this song sounds an awful like the aforementioned “I’m Bound To Pack It Up,” only a hundred times more intricate and haunting. I’m a bit surprised by the fact that this song DOESN’T have a fiddle on it, though.

Jumping ahead a couple decades again, next up we have Pearl Jam with “Yellow Ledbetter,” a.k.a. That One Jimi Hendrix-Sounding Song Where The Lyrics Are Even Harder To Make Out Than MOST Pearl Jam Songs. Back when Hanes and Xeselgrox were supposed to share a single soundtrack, I think I was planning on having “Yellow Ledbetter” be the transitional point between Hanes’ older songs and the 90s stuff in Xeselgrox’s half. It stands out a bit more now that it's not leading into Lenny Kravitz and Stone Temple Pilots, but it still works out in terms of mood.

Back to the old stuff, we have another Classic Rock staple: “Can’t You See” by The Marshall Tucker Band. It’s another mellow, laidback, Country/Blues-tinged song that, honestly, I’m having trouble thinking of anything say about that I didn’t already say about “Melissa.” So instead, I’ll just use this space to point out that there never was any “Marshall Tucker” in The Marshall Tucker Band. They just thought it sounded cool. And looking at the names in the original line-up, I’ll certainly grant that Marshall Tucker sounds better than “The Toy Caldwell Band” or “The George McCorkle Band.”

Sticking with Classic Rock but leaning WAY harder on the Rock half of that equation, we next have “Albuquerque” by Neil Young. What’s funny is, noisy rock performance aside, “Albuquerque” is one of the most straight-Country-sounding songs on Hanes’ whole soundtrack. It’s amazing what the presence of one pedal steel guitar can do to a song. While it feels wrong to refer to any track off of Tonight’s The Night as “relaxing,” there’s no doubt that “Albuquerque” has a lazy road trip vibe to it that still fits in well with the mood of both Hanes and Xeselgrox’s soundtracks.  And if you want more Neil Young, well, you can always hop over to Skye's soundtrack.

So, the thought occurs that I’ve overlooked another reason why my talking up Hanes’ soundtrack as being “Country” was kinda dumb: it really downplays the Blues influence throughout. And I mean really OLD Blues, from back in the days when the lines between it and Folk and Country were fuzzy at best. Case in point, we have “2:10 Train” by The Rising Sons, a short-lived project that, retrospectively, has been regarded as a supergroup thanks to the presence of Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder. An extremely mellow, almost coffeehouse vibe permeates this one, and leads us into an especially quiet, sparse stretch of Hanes’ soundtrack.

Case in point, our next track is “Treetop Flyer” by Steven Stills, off of the aptly-titled Stills Alone album. Just a solo vocal and single guitar accompaniment, this Bluesy tune updates the Old West idea of a bandit on horseback to a Vietnam vet smuggler in a helicopter with surprising ease. “Treetop Flyer” really shouldn’t be able to rival the one Neil Young song as being the darkest one here, but it somehow does.

The mood lightens considerably with “8:02”by Moby Grape, which inexplicably also means that there’s more than one earthy, acoustic jam by a San Francisco band with a time-based title on this soundtrack… and they’re only one track removed from each other. Not sure how that worked out. Also, for a subculture that so loved to posture as the eternal enemy of rednecks, there sure where a lot of West Coast bands who loved to dropping the occasional Country ballad into their sets.

Just in case you doubted, our next song sees Steven Stills return, this time with David Crosby and Graham Nash in tow, for “Helplessly Hoping.” While Stills’ sparse solo guitar gives this tune another Folksy coffeehouse vibe, it’s really only a few banjos and steel guitars away from being a full-on Country weepy.

Oh, and did you think that this of all character soundtracks would be hard pressed to find a token Japanese song to slip in somewhere? Well, how DARE you forget that the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack is a thing? Yep, Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts rock up with “Spokey Dokey,” a mostly bluesy instrumental with harmonica and acoustic guitar. Of course, then some really weird synthesizers fly in right the heck out of nowhere and make the bridge especially weird. You’d think that’d break the mood of this soundtrack, but it actually serves as a very nice segue into the TRULY odd selections on tap.

Like, say, “A Pillow of Winds” by Pink Floyd. You know, THAT notoriously Country-influenced band. In all fairness, “A Pillow of Winds” is at the very least an atypically folksy tune for the Floyd, so it still fits in reasonably well. Specifically, it jibes nicely with the frazzled hippy-fied interpretation of rootsy music that seems to be cropping up across this soundtrack. Songs to just lie in a field and be wasted by.  Also, as I write this, "A Pillow of Winds" ranks as my most-played Pink Floyd song on iTunes.  Not "Brain Damage," not "Comfortably Numb," not "The Great Gig in the Sky," but THIS random obscurity.

Oh, and speaking of getting wasted, David Crosby! The last of our CSN&Y-adjacent songs (well, almost) is “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)” off of Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name album. True to its name, “Song With No Words” is lyric-free, but not an instrumental. Rather, Crosby and Graham Nash simply harmonize a lot of “do do dos” over a soundscape of noodling guitars. Again, it’s too space to count as Country, yet the airy mood still fits in nicely with the more explicitly Sourthern-fried tracks.

And let’s get back to those Southern Fried songs, why don’t we? Next up, we’re right back to the Classic Rock staples with “Amie” by The Pure Prairie League. I’m not gonna lie, there’s a part of my brain that still thinks “Amie” and “Can’t You See” are by the same band, even though I know for a fact that Pure Prairie League and Marshall Tucker Band are totally unconnected. “Amie” has more of a Bluegrass influence than the Blues-inspired “Can’t You See” anyway, but my brain still tries to file them away in the same folder.  The Marshall Tucker League, maybe.

Hitting the Classic Rock staple folder even harder, our penultimate track is “Going To California” by Led Zeppelin. One of those songs where it’s easy to forget it’s by a Hard Rock band (or a bunch of Brits, for that matter), “Going To California” is a pretty classic ramblin’ man ditty about that eternal search for a good woman. I mentioned above that “Amie” and “Can’t You See” have Bluegrass and Blues influences respectively, but “Going To California” splits the difference and encompasses the weary, earthy aspects of both.

And speaking of weariness, we have this soundtrack’s final song: “Kind Woman” by Buffalo Springfield. Fittingly for the last song on the last album they released, at a point where they’d basically already broken up, “Kind Woman” is an absolutely worn out, exhausted, “last number before the bar closes” kind of tune. It’s also SORT of the final Crosby Stills Nash & Young-adjacent track here, though Buffalo Springfield was in such a state of disarray that neither Steven Stills nor Neil Young actually appear on the recording.  Richie Furay, singer and songwriter for this one, would soon go on to start Country Rock pioneers Poco after this band’s collapse, and “Kind Woman” absolutely points towards that direction. Easily the most pure Country song in this whole set, “Kind Woman” is also deceptively complicated from a structural standpoint. The chords are that of a traditional cowboy weepy, but the time signature abruptly shifts back and forth between 3/4 and 2/4 without much warning. While it makes the song tricky to sing along to, it ALSO gives it an “about to nod off” feeling that perfectly fits the Last Call ambiance.

And speaking of last calls… that’s it! We’re done! After, gosh, I’m not even sure how many years, the Far Out There Character Soundtrack series is finally… not DONE exactly, but on hold for a while. Make no mistake, I’m still carrying a TON of playlists around in my iPod, but at the moment they’re all for characters who haven’t been officially introduced in the comic yet, or are being held in standby for when the time comes to draw up some new characters and I need some musical inspiration. Rest assured, I’ll be dumping the rest of it on ya’ll SOME day, but for now the series is officially on break.

Crap, now I need to come up with some NEW gimmick for Far Out There blogs…

(Wow, last time I’ll be writing one of these postscripts for a while, huh? Fitting, then, that I’d have one of the weirdest hiccups yet with the YouTube playlist. For the MOST part, the song selection for Hanes was easy to track down on YouTube, but there’s one specific tune I’d MEANT to include that gave me some major trouble. For the obligatory Token Japanese Song, I’d planned to blow everybody’s mind with the Country-tinged indie tune “Little Jane” by Hideo Fukuoka, then do a victory lap at having managed to find a Japanese Country song at all. Alas, when I went to put together the YouTube playlist, the song had totally vanished… which is perplexing because YouTube was the only place I’d ever seen the song in the first place. Waaaay back when I first started scouring YouTube for weeb music, I stumbled onto an amateur music video for “Little Jane” that was apparently just a demo for both the musician and the filmmaker. If I remember the notes correctly, it didn’t sound like “Little Jane” was even set to be officially released, at least not the recording used in the video. So now that those postings of the song seem to be gone, my old rip of the video’s audio is currently the only evidence of that performance I know still exists. Gosh, I probably should have re-posted the audio to YouTube just so it’d be preserved someplace… but I’m too lazy to do that right now, and “Spokey Dokey” actually does fit the flow of the playlist quite nicely. Besides, I’ve got a whole NEW series of blogs to think about now…)

Hanes' YouTube Playlist