Whatever happened to the ‘common man’?
The ordinary working class man mythologised throughout American history, and never more so than in its music. Of late this working class hero, the men (and women) Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, John Steinbeck and so many fought for, suffered for, hoped for and some even sung for, seem to have fallen from sight.
Are they no more, is it finally their land as Woody promised? According to Vikesh Kapoor’s debut album ‘The Ballad of Willy Robbins’, nothing could be further from the truth.
This beautiful album brings into sharp focus the realities of the modern America, attempting to speak for all those disenfranchised by the cruelties of modern life in a seemingly unsympathetic country. The ghost of Woody Guthrie in particular is felt throughout the album production, with each track having that feeling of ‘authentic’ America, foraging deep into country, folk and blues for its warmth and lustre. But this album is really the spiritual heir to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’. The songs are extremely personal portraits of lives gone awry, exposing the true rotten heart of the United States. Where Guthrie’s songs were a clarion calls to the masses, Kapoor’s tracks, like Springsteen’s, are heartbreakingly personal pleas.
Kapoor’s album in many ways feel like a modern musical re-imagining of The Grapes of Wrath, telling tales of doomed characters trying to fathom what their lives have meant, and why they are doomed to suffer. Characters struggling to find anyone to blame other than themselves, for forces that they could never have controlled. Loosely telling the tale of the tragic figure of Willy Robbins trying to survive the real modern America, in much the same way as Steinbeck’s tragic protagonist Tom Joad struggled through America throughout the great depression.
Each track is a beautiful tableau, introducing ever more tragic figures and showing the impacts these figures woes have upon one another. The achingly plaintive opener, ‘Bottom Of The Ladder’, sets a tone of utter desperation showing a tragic figure who has truly hit rock bottom and cannot see anywhere to go, a theme that is continually returned to throughout the album.
The personal nature of tracks such as ‘I Dreamt Blues’ and ‘Carry Me, Home’ gives a real sense of just how much depth Kapoor has infused these tales with. There is real love in every aspect of his writing, nothing is superficial, he manages to breathe real life into every character, every story. And the music only manages to enhance the resonance of the characters struggle, nothing is unnecessary, with every note essential to telling the story.
The centre-piece of the album being the title track, ‘The Ballad of Willy Robbins’, is a wonderfully desolate and forlorn cry to the heavens that vividly encapsulates the utter desperation of Robbins. Similarly the final track, ‘Forever Gone’, closes the album in the bleakest yet most honest and appropriate way. Anything less would have felt like a betrayal, this tale was one of true tragedy and there never did seem to be any hope of redemption for its main character.
Many have compared the current state of America to the great depression, but Kapoor manages to bring this sad comparison to life. Through songs of vivid beauty and tales of characters truly struggling in today’s world, the utter anguish of the Great Depression is played out once again in modern America. Like Steinbeck, and even Springsteen, rarely has the desperation of the individual been so honestly and beautifully shown.
This is America today, forget what you may have been told elsewhere, this is the real America and its majesty and pride has never been so honestly depicted.
Kapoor’s exceptional debut manages to give so much hope, through stories of such utter woe.
