speed of dark

For the record, let it be known that this is my first post using my brrrrrrand new, custom-built desktop computadora. I forget just how long it has been since I got my old one, which I once thought was as great as a computer could be, but it has certainly been at least six years, maybe seven. How things change. Hopefully 2 Gigs of memory and a dual-core processor will be able to keep up with the growing size of programs and resource requirements of virus protection for a while. Dang, does it ever zip along! Yeehaw!

I picked up Daniel Lanois's second solo album, For the Beauty of Wynona, in a used CD store primarily because of the cover, which features an extremely thin, naked young woman holding a knife in a menacing manner. It has in large letters across the front "American Version." These words cleverly hide the girl's nipples from excitable U.S. purchasers. Guns and knives are OK with us, but not nipples. Presumably, people in other countries don't have to be shielded from such atrocities.

By 1993 Lanois, who is just a little younger than I am, had produced albums by Brian Eno, Robbie Robertson, and Peter Gabriel, had already won his first Grammy for producing U2's The Joshua Tree (1987), and had worked with Bob Dylan on Oh Mercy (1989) and with the Neville Brothers on Yellow Moon. He also released his first solo album, Acadie in 1989.

For the Beauty of Wynona was recorded during breaks from other projects. Lanois typically leaves his unmistakable mark on other artists' recordings, but he is also influenced by them. Some of the sounds here, as in the title song and "Brother L.A." clearly reflect his work with U2's the Edge. In others ("Indian Red" and "Learning How to Crawl") you hear the New Orleans flavor of the Nevilles.

This is a darker record than his first, partly inspired by the riots in Los Angeles of April the previous year. Both "The Messenger" and "Brother L.A." speak of those dark and violent times.

Fuzzy electric guitars are pared down and used as a foil against the acoustic instruments. Lanois has a huge talent for playing the spaces between the notes, a characteristic shared by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. Listen to the guitar solo in the middle of "The Messenger," for example. The notes come just as you're dying to hear them. The two instrumental tracks, "Waiting" and "Death of a Train" provide more obvious examples. I once put them together seamlessly on a cassette tape, and it was pure heaven.

Lanois continued to work with U2 as well as other artists, notably Emmylou Harris on Wrecking Ball. He won additional Grammy Awards as producer or co-producer in 1992, 1997, 2000, and 2001. Lanois also produced movie soundtracks which include the films Philadelphia (1993), Blown Away (1994), Trainspotting (1996), Sling Blade (1996), and Good Will Hunting (1997).

In 2005 he released his latest solo album, Belladonna as well as Rockets, an attempt at a best-of collection. The problem is, his songs are all so good it's impossible to choose what's better than something else.


Whole Lotta Love To Give

For the Beauty of Wynona

Our prayers don't mean nothin much

To the heart that cannot be won

The Messenger

Got a letter from a messenger

I read it when it came

It said that you were wounded

You were bound in chains

You had loved and you were handled

You were poisoned, you were pained

Oh no, Oh no

You were naked you were shamed

You could almost touch heaven

Right there in front of you

Liberty just slipped away on us

Now there's so much work to do

official website | myspace
Buy at amazon and itunes
Other albums by Daniel Lanois at emusic

Sources: wikipedia, L.A. Times newspaper article, June 1993.