Alejandro Escovedo primer re: Sunday's show

Alejandro Escovedo, a woman who might be Penny Buckner (but might be Ms. Escovedo?), Ford Pier, and myself, Folk Fest 2022, by Erik Iversen

This Sunday, July 28th, a man with a fascinating, under-sung history is playing the Pearl: Alejandro Escovedo. I have failed to interview him, despite a couple of attempts -- he was wiped out at the folk fest when I spoke with him in 2022 (and I was under-prepared, having only recently gotten into his music) and when the time came around to pitch a feature on his new album, Echo Dancing, to Big Takeover, someone else was scheduled to write it! (The current issue, with my Art Bergmann and Meat Puppets features, also has an Escovedo feature, but not by me. Some Indigos stock it -- look around?).  

But here are a few reasons why you should play catchup, if you don't know his music:

I have begun to get a shape of his backstory, despite being a relative noob myself. Escovedo's early punk band, the Nuns, played Winterland, opening for the Sex Pistols, alongside the Avengers. He is not on the actual studio album that came out but he's on the "CBS demos 1977" thing and that is much better. Once Escovedo moved on they made changes to the material, nudging it in more "commercial" directions, of course, and... well, some of it's still okay, but I like the demos a ton more. 

Not long after that concert, Escovedo was living in New York in the Chelsea Hotel, with neighbours Sid and Nancy. He wrote one hell of a song about Nancy's death and about life in the Chelsea at that time. He tells the story of the song here, before a live performance; studio version here (this is a fantastic Escovedo album, by the way: Real Animal, from 2008, mixed and produced by Tony Visconti. I think it would be a great starting point if you're new to his catalogue, and it's not hard to find used on CD). 

The lyrics Google provides for the song are VERY wrong -- "come and help with Sid" becomes "come and help us sit;" is this AI-generated or something? This is the correct version, best as I can tell.  

I lived in the Chelsea once

On 7th and 23rd

We came to live inside the myth

Of everything we heard

The poets on their barstools

They just loved it when it rained

They combed their hair in the mirror

And grow addicted to the pain

And it makes no sense

And it makes perfect sense

And it makes no sense

And it makes perfect sense

I saw Neon Leon

Spider and the boys

Just before the cops arrived

And took off with the noise

It was nothing special

Just another bar

The Baptist Kansas City life

Makes everyone a star

It makes no sense (It makes perfect sense)

And it makes perfect sense (And it makes no sense)...

Nancy called up to her rooms

Said c'mon and help with Sid

We went down

And looked around

The dealer let us in

We thought he was hysterical

But not that he was a joke

Don't know if did what he said he did

Nobody really knows

I stood out on the sidewalk

When they busted through the door

In a white tuxedo jacket, cops had him by each arm

You know the show of that thing

Nobody knows for sure

We know they found Nancy

In her black underwear

Dead on the bathroom floor

And it makes no sense...

(Repeat first verse, then final chorus):

So we all moved out

And we all moved on;

So we all moved out

And we all moved on

And on and on...

He must have come west soon after that, because a few years later, he was playing in Rank and File with the Kinmans. Some of Bev's photos from a 1983 show in Vancouver are here, in a blogpost I did about a cool 2004 Vancouver comp of Escovedo's songs, with testimony from very notable Vancouver fans, like John Armstrong... Brian "Wimpy Roy" Goble does lead vocals on an Escovedo song on the comp, too, and a host of other notables, including Ray Condo (his last recording?), Herald Nix, Bughouse 5, Graham Brown, and everyone's pal, the Minimalist Jug Band, who was the first person to tell me to check out Escovedo, back when this album was being recorded (we Als gotta stick together):

It figures that John Armstrong contributed a song to that -- a cover of "By Eleven," as interpreted by the New Modernettes, in what I believe is their only studio release to date -- because Escovedo's next band after Rank and File, True Believers, had done an awesome cover of the Modernettes' "The Rebel Kind" on their 1986 debut album (I'll let you find the studio version of that yourself; he's a live clip from a 2013 reunion). "By Eleven" originally appeared on Escovedo's first solo album, Gravity, which Armstrong picks as his favourite. It's a good one, too, also featuring the song Wimpy picked, "Pyramid of Tears." His version, with Solemn Fist, is not on Youtube, but Lucinda Williams' version is, on an American comp that, like the Vancouver one, was designed to help raise some money to help Escovedo through some health issues. That comp also features the likes of Steve Earle. Lots of people love Alejandro Escovedo. 

Which reminds me: I have heard an eyewitness story about a True Believers show, maybe at the Cruel Elephant, where a very drunk Armstrong and Zippy Pinhead crashed the stage and were so blitzed they got ejected or something! (That would have been a question I'd have asked Alejandro for sure; John can't have a monopoly on ALL the embarrassing stories from his past). Looks like there was at least one other local True Believers gig, at the Town Pump; there's mention that True Believers had shared the stage with Los Lobos on that poster, and if I recall, Escovedo said something from the folk fest main stage, back in 2022, about doing mushrooms with Los Lobos in Victoria? 

That would have been another fun question! He told us a couple times that he really likes it up here, though, and near the end of his set in 2022, told us to tell John he loves him and probably owes him some money...

So Escovedo is a punk turned roots rocker with a long history and great songs, beloved by many. Here's, erm, George W. Bush's favourite, "Castanets" (the story goes that when Escovedo found out that Bush loves that song, Escovedo stopped playing it for a few years). That clip features, you'll note, a couple of Young Fresh Fellows (Kurt Bloch and Scott McCaughey) and Peter Buck -- I think they were kinda the Yep Roc house band, or something, because they also pop up on Robyn Hitchcock records from that time (I think). They're on another favourite Escovedo album of mine, Burn Something Beautiful, too. 

If the presence of the Young Fresh Fellows and Peter Buck supporting Escovedo onstage does not move you, here's Bruce Springsteen backing Escovedo on his song (also off "Real Animal"), "Always a Friend." That's another real grabber. I think if you get to know Gravity, Real Animal, and Burn Something Beautiful before Sunday, you will have a firm footing in Escovedo's catalogue, though there are many other albums besides. You may also want to delve into The Crossing, with exists in both an English-language and Spanish-language version. The song you're most likely to hear off that on Sunday is "Teenage Luggage," I suspect -- he did that here in 2022, in, of course, the English version. 

Alejandro Escovedo talks with Brent Kane (RIP)

But the nice thing is that Escovedo's newest album, Echo Burning, actually has a built-in retrospective quality, with new takes on songs from his long career, my favourite of which is "Last to Know," but he also did "Sensitive Boys" (which I believe he dedicated to the Kinmans) and "The Wave" (which he prefaced with a story about his father's arrival in America) last time he was in Vancouver. The album is a bit more reflective and textured than the roadhouse-ready riffing on Real Animal or Burn Something Beautiful, but I suspect the live show will be much punchier. 

That's where *I'm* gonna be, Sunday, anyhow. 

Official website here, tickets here!