Syd Straw: Pink Velour


It's been twelve years since Syd Straw's last CD of new material, but Pink Velour, long promised and oft delayed, is here at last, and it's good to have it. Released on Syd's own label, Earnester Records, it contains twelve songs (some of them surprisingly long) of which ten are either entirely or collaboratively written by Syd, the other two being covers of Neil Young's “Harvest” and Brian Eno's “By This River.” It can take me months or years to decide what (if anything) I want to say about a record, but since this is a special occasion a quick note is in order.

Born in 1958 and raised in Vermont and California, Syd first earned notice in the mid 1980s as a featured vocalist for the avant-garde rock project known as the Golden Palominos. Her debut solo album, Surprise, in 1989, featured Michael Stipe, Richard Thompson, Van Dyke Parks, and other well-known supporting players; her second, War and Peace, most of which was inspired by an ill-fated marriage, was recorded with a relatively obscure Missouri band called the Skeletons. In between and since then she's been active as a musical collaborator, backup singer, and occasional actress (she played Miss Fingerwood on The Adventures of Pete & Pete), and doing a handful of gigs a year, notably her annual “Heartwreck” performances scheduled to coincide with Valentine's Day. Always a strong, if idiosyncratic, singer, with a impressive interpretive range, she's probably not usually thought of as being a songwriter, but just as some singers are their own best interpreters, Syd is arguably at her best doing her own material, which tends to be fairly personal.

One of the highlights here is the unabashedly sentimental title track, which is addressed to Syd's mother, who relocated the family to California, possibly without her husband or ex-husband (the musical theatre actor Jack Straw). The song perfectly evokes a late '60s or early '70s American childhood, tinged with a mix of optimism and disappointed dreams:

Into the rain, which turned to snow,
modern wagon train, westward ho!
Jump in the back, wear your blue dress,
and pack the pink velour —
we'll save the best for when we get there.
Mama never did say why,
she just said “we have to try.”

In California there's room to spare,
we'll have lemon trees in our back yard there.
But somehow she ran out of luck
and in the middle of it all, we got stuck,
stuck in quicksand.
Please don't take away my pretty dreams,
they are all I have.

I try to honor you, sometimes it's tough.
Could anyone ever love you enough?
And to my mother's deep chagrin
I am my father's girl,
I look so much like him.

Of all the dreams I ever had
my favorite one's the one
where Mom and Dad and my big brother Pete,
my sister Sally and I
rattle down the highway
in our blue Volkswagen bus,
the five of us,
happy together, if only for once.

And I wish for you
when I'm wishing on a star,
and I always check the weather where you are.

You never know
You think you do
Your whole life can fall
and land on you.
It's hard to ask for help
when you really need it
I've loved you all this time
I wonder if you can feel it

Where in the world are you now?
We only see you in movies.
And I wish for you
when I'm wishing on a star,
and I always check the weather where you are.