[Punkrockmonday #8] P.J. Harvey - When Under Ether; White Chalk; Broken Harp

Great music sometimes is so personal and raw that in ends up being painful and compelling in almost equal measure. These three songs are so far along the painful end of the spectrum that they are sometimes unlistenable to me. But I love them all the more for that.

When P.J. Harvey's 2007 album White Chalk came out I found it astonishing how an incarnate rock divinity like Harvey could succeed so well at something so minimalist. There is barely an instrumentation on the tracks other than Harvey playing a few piano notes at a time. Sometimes just those notes and Harvey's falsetto. And what is there is odd and unsettling, like Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombone is on a stand in the middle of the studio glaring at everybody, threatening to start playing itself.

I was so excited about this album that I compulsively read reviews of it in 2007. And the weirdest thing is that none of the ones I read at the time betrayed any awareness that the narrator is clearly singing about the afftereffects of a D& C (the content could either be about miscarriage or abortion) in the three main songs in the middle of the album. I think maybe most rock journalists almost constitutively confuse narrator with author, so maybe it seemed too personal to inquire into what the song's narrator is singing about? Or maybe they didn't want to antagonize anyone politically by even bringing up the issue (some youtube commentors, who get what the songs are about, attack them from the right; though I could see somebody equally stupid attacking them from the left as well). I don't know. 

In any case, these are some of the most haunting songs in the popular canon now.

First, When Under Ether (lyrics below)

 

[The ceiling is moving // Moving in time // Like a conveyor belt // Above my eyes // // When under ether // The mind comes alive // But conscious of nothing // But the will to survive // //  I lay on the bed // Waist down undressed // Look up at the ceiling // Feeling happiness // // Human kindness // // The woman beside me // Is holding my hand // I point at the ceiling //She smiles, so kind // // Something's inside me // Unborn and unblessed // Disappears in the ether // This world to the next // Disappears in the ether // One world to the next // // Human kindness]

Then, right after that, the album's title track, with the invocation of Mary and stigma imagery and the mention of unborn life cutting through the lyrical and musical sparseness:

[White chalk hills are all I've known // White chalk hills will rot my bones // White chalk sticking to my shoes // White chalk playing as a child with you // // White chalk sat against time // White chalk cutting down the sea line // I know Mary's by the surf // On a path cut 1500 years ago // // And I know these chalk hills will rot my bones // //  Dorset's cliffs meet at the sea // Where I walked // (Our unborn child in me) // White chalk // (Poor scattered land) Scratch my palms // There's blood on my hands ]

And finally, completing the trilogy, Broken Harp. Somehow the non-specificity of the lyrics make the song even more haunting. Who is the narrator forgiving? Who is she asking to forgive her? The only youtube version I could find with decent quality audio has somewhat inexplicably been patched over video of what's become of a former Disney child laborer. I don't know if it's appropriate or not, but it is really a testament to the power of the song that the surface incongruity may be non-incongruous in a deeper, much sadder, way.

[Please don't reproach me // For, for how empty // My life has become // // I don't what really happened // I watched your disappointment // At being misunderstood // // I forgive you // // Oh // Something metal // Tearing my stomach out // If you think ill of me // // Can you // Can you // Forgive me // Forgive me // Can you // Can you // Forgive me // Too // // Too // // I tried to learn your language // But fell asleep half undressed // Unrecognizable to myself]

I'll do another punkrockmonday featuring P.J. Harvey lighting up the rock and roll heavens with all of the punk rock sonic firepower she's managed to seize from an uncaring world. But who would have thought during the grunge era (and her three piece band during that period is right up there with anybody) that she would ever do something this haunting and evocative? The muses sing through her.

1. [Punkrockmonday #1] The White Stripes - Jack the Ripper (orig. Screaming Lord Sutch), Black Math, and the Big Three Killed My Baby]
2. [Punkrockmonday #2] Roy Cook - Saint Paul Cathedral, Minneapolis Capitol Building, Aayla Secura Mosaic, and Firefly Class Spaceship
3. [Punkrockmonday #3] El Général- Rais Le Bled (President, Your Country)
4. [Punkrockmonday #4] Charlie Patton -High Water Everywhere, Part 2
5. [Punkrockmonday #5] Henry Rollins- What Am I Doing Here; Willie Nelson- Me and Paul; Rainbow Connection (orig. Kermit the Frog)
6. [Punkrockmonday #6] Philip Larkin - Church Going
7. [Punkrockmonday #7] David Bowie - Time