Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie (1989)

Dan:

As the 80s came to a close, I realized that more often than not, Steve was telling me about rock bands and albums that I had never heard of. This reciprocity is the theme of our entire blog as we passed through different periods of discovery. Steve would tell me facts about the bands, such as Camper Van Beethoven was a California band that eventually spun off into the Monks of Doom and Cracker. I was cautious when it came to sampling indie college bands, but sometimes I ended up with some great discoveries like Key Lime Pie, which was one of CVB's later albums and the only one I have spent much time with. 

I love the opening songs on side 1 of Key Lime Pie. After a brief and somewhat dissonant instrumental intro featuring violin, the band rocks into "Jack Ruby," named for the infamous Dallas nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Certainly an odd choice but the song seems to mock our fascination with evil historical characters and their outlandish crimes. I love the tension and dynamics of this track.

"Jack Ruby" is followed by another unusual choice, "Sweethearts," one of my favorite rock songs. It's got an old-timey lilt to it and some mean slide guitar licks. The song nostalgically references an episode set in 1949 about an air squadron on a bombing mission over China, obviously another oddity to ponder. The song title refers to pilots' practices of painting their sweethearts' names near the cockpits of their aircraft.

Angels' wings are icing over

McDonnell Douglas olive drab

They bear the names of our sweethearts

And the captain smiles, as we crash

The next verse takes a swipe at former President Reagan: 

'Cause in the mind of Ronald Reagan

Wheels they turn and gears they grind

Buildings collapse in slow motion

And trains collide, everything is fine

Everything is fine

Everything is fine

My head conjures images of the B-movies following World War II - "sitting at the fountain at the five and dime" - where I literally spent some quality time as a boy.

Then comes "When I Win the Lottery," which is sung by a tough troublemaker living on the margin of society who gives no respect to flag-waving "Mr. Red White & Blue." Whatever he earns, he spends on lottery tickets. When he wins, or so he fantasizes, he'll buy the girls on his block color TVs and French perfume. And while it may seem unfair for such a scoundrel to win the lottery instead of more deserving pious citizens, our protagonist argues:

When the end comes to this old world

The righteous will cry and the rest will curl up

And God won't take the time to sort your asses from mine.

Interesting philosophical stance, eh?

Steve:

Easily my favorite Camper Van Beethoven album, Key Lime Pie was also the band's last album before breaking up (they reformed for a couple of reunion albums years later), making a good case for knowing the right time to quit. The band had already shown signs to splintering apart - the lead guitarist, bassist and drummer had already formed their own side project Monks of Doom (amazing band, by the way), and Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar) had left the band a couple of years before. Following CVB's well-received major label debut, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1987), Segel put out a surprisingly proggy solo double concept album, Storytelling, on Camper's label.  

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is Camper Van Beethoven's Abbey Road. Made at the end of their career, with an uneasy peace maintained within the band about to break up, in order to produce a work that stands apart in their discography for a maturity, clarity and power unlike any of their prior work. When the slide guitar solos enter on "Jack Ruby", piling on top of all the tension that had built up in the track thus far, it's like Camper have entered a new dimension with their music. Say what you will about major-label sellouts, sometimes a major-label budget can do wonders if used wisely. The band was rewarded for its efforts with a #1 hit on Billboard's Modern Rock Track chart for their cover of the old Status Quo song "Pictures of Matchstick Men", which has the same great, thick sound typical of the rest of the album.

Dan already spoke in some detail about two of my favorite tracks, "Sweethearts" (oh my.. those guitars) and "When I Win the Lottery". Another favorite track of mine, hiding in the middle of side 2, is "The Humid Press of Days". This song proceeds at a plodding, almost comical (mocking?) pace implying a weary trudge through the mud, with rising guitar arpeggios on weird chords signifying rising tension. The lyrics seem to question the value of drug abuse (or is it stardom?):

What did it mean to fly?

A tremor in your soul

To resist the dull insistence of gravity

This urge to "fly" is followed by a near-catatonic "down" period, sung in a quiet, nearly whispered bridge:

Now afternoons you seldom move

Grounded to a little bit of earth

And after all, time barely crawls

Unoccupied, between each breath it sticks

I first encountered Key Lime Pie as it sat on the racks in my college's student-run radio station, which had a brief, unsuccessful, but nonetheless fun run while I was a student. I wanted to sample the album on the air, and "The Humid Press of Days" was the track I chose at random to play. I bought my own CD copy of the album soon thereafter, and it has been in regular rotation ever since. 

Camper Van Beethoven may have gained its initial notoriety for its goofy ska/world music forgeries with satiric lyrics, but by the time of Key Lime Pie, the band had clearly grown up (albeit also grown apart), and it's to their credit that they were able to complete what turned out to be a wonderful last hurrah.