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Stephen Stills "Thoroughfare Gap" (1978)
You Can't Dance Alone/Thoroughfare Gap/We Will Go On/Beaucoup
Yumbo/What's The Game?//Midnight Rider/Woman Lleva/Lowdown/Not Fade Away/Can't
Get No Booty
I read an interesting article yesterday about the
'twenty Disney characters most in need of a hug'. While I dallied with writing
an AAA version for our top ten (which basically came down to deciding whether
Roger Waters or David Gilmour would most benefit from a hug during Pink Floyd's
most difficult years), I thought people might get the wrong idea. Not to
mention there's too many obvious candidates who might have to be left out
including one very obvious musician having a particularly bad time in his life
and career. Poor Stephen Stills. No sooner had life seemed to have worked out
at last after a decade of occasional ups and severe downs (see our review of
the mature family man record 'Stills', one of his greatest achievements with or
without CSNY) then it all came unravelled again - suddenly and unexpectedly by the sound of the music Stills
made at the time. Taking on board the sad outcome of the will they won't they
relationship with American singer Judy Collins (she didn't), Stills decided to
go for greater committal with his second significant other French singer
Veronique Sanson and proposes early on in their relationship, doing his best to
avoid the 'mistakes' of years past. In Still's eyes the relationship was
perfect, his newborn children were perfect and - shock horror - even Stills
suddenly seemed to be perfect, with career-high songs about life with the
family after years on the road and how blissful life could be when understood
properly by Stills as an older, wiser human being. After so many years (and
albums) of unhappiness, any fan with any empathy at all is rooting for Stills
to finally get the happiness he deserves. But no - the 'Stills' album ended ominously with Sisyphus forever doomed to
overcome the same emotional hurdles in his life every time he hurls a rock up a
mountain and follow-up records 'Illegal Stills' and 'Thoroughfare Gap' trace
the rock's sad journey downwards just as success and happiness looked
inevitable. Even by Stills' standards 'Thoroughfare Gap' is one of his most painfully
honest and heartbreaking records about the disintegration of that longed for
marriage and Stills' discovery that he hasn't 'come of age' after all as he
once promised us. So why isn't 'Thoroughfare Gap' held up as a masterpiece in
his canon, as an epic of singer-songwriter doom or an example of why Stills can
pack an emotional punch like no other writer?
Because 'Thoroughfare Gap' also happens to be
Stills' disco album. Yep that's right - the genre that more than other seemed
designed to be empty and artificial and which every other songwriter had given
up dabbling with once 'Saturday Night Fever' fell off the charts in 1978 (and
'Grease' took over). The genre that would be the most toothless of rock and
roll's extended family, were it not for the fact that most of the people who
recorded disco songs had so many teeth (it wasn't just the medallions that
people copied when The Bee Gees suddenly became hip again). Never one to do
things by halves, Stills even took the no doubt expensive step of hiring arranger
Mike Lewis (who worked on the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack) and younger
Bee Gee brother Andy Gibb. You're probably backing away right now - either in
horror or to find where you've stored away your platform boots and mirror ball,
depending how you feel. As a result 'Thoroughfare Gap' has been laughed at even
some of the most committed CSN fans who think 'American Dream' was a positive
listening experience and is generally considered as a bit of a mistake, a sad
case of a pioneer riding other people's bandwagons (riding is a key theme of
this record, as we'll see), as the nadir of Stills canon. But 'Thoroughfare
Gap' isn't like any other disco album I've ever heard - hard as it tries to be
energetic and intoxicating the 'disco' parts of this album are absolutely
integral, the still hopeful side of Stills' nature relishing in being single
all over again - even though it doesn't take an awful lot of digging through
this album's lyrics to prove that he'd rather be anything but single again
right now. What's more disco isn't an alien a landscape to Stills as it was to
so many other musicians of the 1970s: his 'latin' songs feature similar
emphasis on rattled percussion and sweeping strings and Stills had written a
song about 'dancing' before (even if 'Change Partners' is actually about
Victorian ball-rooms not John Travolta posing). 'Thoroughfare Gap' is easily my
favourite of all the AAA disco albums, not that that's much of a caveat and not
that there's all that many (it's a bit like saying that George Bush Senior is
the more intelligent of the two or that 'Forever' is the best single the Spice
Girls ever released - most people have stopped caring long before you reach the
end of the sentence). Released at just the wrong time - when like anything that
starts off being 'hip' and 'trendy' with youngsters disco suddenly started
being recorded by lots of people who should know better - 'Thoroughfare Gap'
was always going to struggle in the record market of 1978 and was slaughtered
by record critics who wanted to have a go at bashing prog rockers.
Not for the first or last time, they were wrong.
'Thoroughfare Gap' isn't close to Stills' best work from earlier in the decade
(what is?), but I find a lot of depth and a lot of heart in this album that
other people just don't seem to see. Maybe it's my funny ears - or maybe it's
the disco lights blinding everybody to the truth. You see, 'Thoroughfare Gap'
is the fascinating sound of a musician in denial. Having built most of his
career on songs moping how things never seem to turn out, Stills is desperate
for things to turn out differently this time, that there will be a happy ending
somehow, as much for himself as for his audience. I get the sense that across
this album Stills is desperate to pour out his heart to his old audience, but
he doesn't quite want to admit to himself just yet how desperate things really
are just three years after that positive 'it'll be like this for the rest of my
life' statement on 'Stills' (a case of - pardon the CSN pun - déjà vu for him
and us both). No doubt record company pressure on Stills to come up with
something faintly 'commercial' after the disappointing sales for 'Illegal
Stills' have something to do with this album too. As a result, 'Thoroughfare
Gap' is a particularly fascinating record because it tries so hard to be
'happy' when in its heart is anything but. Sometimes the facade works: 'You
Can't Dance Alone' is a thrilling opening, all whoops and disco lights and Andy
Gibb vocals (the sound of 1978, along with his Bee Gees brothers) and it's only
afterwards you realise how much of that energy has come from the backing and
not from Stills at all. A second disco song 'We Will Go On' features Stills
singing about his broken heart while a disco goes on in the background, as if trying
to distract our ears from what's going on. The rest of the record doesn't try
quite so hard, but it's interesting quite how different this record seems if
you get to know it from the lyric sheet first instead of the music: perhaps the
biggest case of 'denial' in the AAA canon (we weren't kidding when we told you
about that hug).
Unable to believe that what inspired such great
songs about stability has turned out to be a deeply unsettling and shaky
experience, Stills picks and chooses his moments to let us peak into his heart
on this album, but when he does it's more of a shock than on earlier albums:
how was such a positive force who made expressions like 'carry on, love is
coming to us all' a rallying cry for a generation reduced to writing the morose
and bitter 'Lowdown'? How did Stills come to re-write 'Not Fade Away', of all
songs, as a vehicle for how desperately he feels over the death of something
that seemed so permanent? How did the playboy of America's West Coast (after
Crosby and Nash anyway, who both set new records) end up sighing 'I Can't Get
No Booty'? The result is a schizophrenic record that bounces between energetic
enthusiasm and hopeless lethargy, making for a much more believable glimpse of
Stills' confused state of mind than any full on confessional or all out disco
record could have been. There's a 'Thoroughfare Gap' between the two sides if
you will that whether by intention or by lucky accident seems to be pitting the
highs of the 'chase' of a romance and the 'lows' of mundane reality once the
chase is over that actually makes the record sound a lot deeper than everyone
suspected at the time (at least to my ears). Notably the one song from this
album that made it to last year's Stills compilation 'Carry On' was 'Lowdown',
one of the few songs from this album to truly tell it like is and is easily the
most depressing song Stills ever wrote (although 'In The Way' from 'Stills' and
the 'Deja Vu' classic '4+20' do cut it close).
The 'real' heart of this album - the key lines
around which the whole record revolves - are even sung in Spanish, as if to
make sure that as few fans worked out what was going on as possible and as if
even their creator can't cope with the magnitude of what he's trying to
say (a trick Stills has been using ever
since Judy Collins made Stills go all Cuban at the end of 'Suite: Judy Blue
Eyes'). While it would be a mistake to assume every character in song is a real
person, who else can 'Woman Lleva' be
but Sanson herself, a mysterious exotic foreign lady who blows hot and cold
throughout a tempestuous relationship and the song's middle eight - translated
into Spanish by Stills and back into English turns out to be "This woman has lied to
me, as a woman you're a girl, lives in a world without
walls , Inocentemiento not you
think dear". No I don't know what
'inocentemiento' means either (innocent?) but look at how Stills has also given
us his personal 'stamp' here with his most used and most quoted line 'without
walls' (a favourite of many a Stills song), as if to prove how personal this
line is. Back in the days when google translators only existed only in Asimov
novels, you had to be able to speak Spanish or know someone who did to work out
what Stills is saying (equally most of his love songs for Sanson - on 'Illegal Stills' especially - are
written in her native tongue French, as if they're too personal for our ears;
just in case you think Stills is simply making his ex out to be a monster
Veronique is also probably the 'bayou woman' who 'treats me nice and makes good
gumbo' in 'Beaucoup Yumbo'). The key album line that a majority of Stills fans
can actually understand? 'To forget about loving you at all is beyond me, I
cannot understand'. Lines like that are what hugs were made for. Hidden as it
is by glitter and glamour, betrayal is the real theme of this record and props
up in the unlikeliest places - a middle eight here, a line there - only
rewarding you if you're paying full attention. 'Thoroughfare Gap' may not be the best Stills record - it lacks
the verve of 'Stephen Stills', the intelligence of 'Stephen Stills II' and the
eclectic consistency of 'Manassas' - but there's a case to be made that, far
from a nonsense album stuffed with disco, 'Thoroughfare Gap' is actually the
most multi-layered of Stills solo albums.
In other ways, though, 'Thoroughfare Gap' is also
the boozy young teenage record the teenage Stills never got the chance to make
(even his earliest songs for the Springfield sound like a man wiser than his
years). Like Lennon on his lost weekend, the loss of a stable family life in a
world where nothing else makes sense and the example of David Crosby's
increasingly out of control drug habit seems to have made Stills turn his back
on the mature reflections he made just three years earlier and admit that he
hasn't quite grown up yet. Heck Stills even works with Andy Gibb (then aged 20)
across this album, the latest in a long line of Stills protégés who cut their
teeth on his records and who seem to be getting younger by every LP. The song
'Can't Get No Booty' is unique in Stills' canon: a silly, boozing, drunken
rambling track that pricks it's author's king-size ego when he realises that
none of the 'chicks' surrounding him at the local disco are attracted to him
despite all the great 'moves' he's made - and 'what a waste' it all is (it's
the earthy yin to 'Anything At All's philosophical yang, the David Crosby song
from a year earlier that appeared on 'CSN' - the one on the boat as fans the
world over know it - that equally made fun of Crosby's ego now sales are slow
and the one-time biggest band in the world have been forgotten). The result is
a bit like hearing Cat Stevens' 'Father and Son' - Stills has tried the 'mature
dad' bit on 'Stills' and when that relationship didn't work out tries to undo
it as best he can with a younger view on this record, with only the title track
(which had been written a few years earlier) sounding like the Stills of old.
Although betrayal is this album's key theme if you
scratch the surface, most fans heard three things: disco lights, dancing and
riding. The disco bit we've explained, but the other two links are more
interesting. 'Dancing' had only appeared once in Stills' catalogue as part of
the delightful but rather stiff and proper 'Change Partners', which made ballroom
dancing hip 30 years before 'Strictly'. Stills revisits his lyrics here across
the album - most obviously on 'You Can't Dance Alone' - as if desperately looking for future
partners. In a way it's as if Stills has sped up the messy matter of falling in
love by condensing it into a thrilling four minute dance - and then moving on
(note how a good half of that songs plays on without Stills providing a single
note in voice or guitar, with a whole energetic coda that leaves the 'ending'
unsaid before finally, limply, fading out with the narrator apparently a
wreck). On 'Can't Get No Booty' for one, the posing fails and Stills' narrator
goes home empty handed (oh alright then - one last hug!) without any partners
to 'change' to. If 'dancing' is one central theme to this record then another
is 'riding'. The striking sleeve for 'Thoroughfare Gap' features Stills riding
one of his beloved horses, Major, at full gallop and wearing a rather fetching
bobble hat - he's clearly trying his best to look like a jockey. Stills has
since admitted that horses were his 'escape' when life was getting too tough
both at home and in his career ('Major' fulfilling pretty much the same purpose
as Crosby's boat The Mayan) and it is perhaps significant that the horse
appears on the front of this album rather than any other. Gregg Allman's
'Midnight Rider', though, is probably closer to the truth, featuring a shadowy
narrator whose clearly on the run from life and vows not to get caught (Stills
probably learnt it from a cover his good friend Buddy Miles recorded in 1971,
although he did add in a 2009 special on which the Allman Brothers appeared
that he was around when the band first recorded it in 1970 and always loved the
song). 'Thoroughfare Gap' even sounds like a horse's gallop, although it's
actually a song that features Stills comparing himself to a steam train and
navigating the chasms around him.
I've made my argument, then, that 'Thoroughfare Gap'
isn't the low point of the Stills canon (that's 'Manassas Down The Road' in
terms of missed opportunity and a fight between 'Stills Alone' and 'Man Alive'
for both being depressingly average). But even I can't argue that 'Thoroughfare
Gap' came at a time of great ideas and is in many ways the beginning of the end
for the great man's career. This is the last time Stills appears on a studio
record until 1982 (with only the CSN reunion on the 'No Nukes!' concert album
in between). Four years seems nothing now (it wouldn't surprise me at all if
Adele's next record was titled '40'), but for 'Captain Manyhands' Stills -
who'd been ridiculously prolific across the first half of the 1970s - this
seems like a 'Thoroughfare Gap' indeed. Only six years ago Stills was releasing
'Manassas' as a double set, having been part of no less than seven albums in
the previous four years. Notably Stills receives only co-writing credits for
two of this album's songs (the first time this had happened since the Manassas
days) and the album contains two covers (albeit one with new words added to
it). Was the creative well drying up? Sadly yes. Is 'Thoroughfare Gap'
responsible as people say? Yes, but for all the wrong reasons - it's not the
'disco' that did Stills so much harm in the long run but the nagging feeling on
this record that Stills has been through so much heartbreak already in his
early career he's rather written himself out and is in danger of repeating
himself. The few attempts to do something different on this album either only
work for this album (mainly the disco songs that turn sour when you bite into
them) or turn out to be dead-ends. It's interesting (well to me anyway - you've
probably all got homes to go to so I'll keep this short) that a good half of
all the 'decent' Stills songs to come ('Southern Cross' 'Grey to Green' '50/50'
'Haven't We Lost Enough?' 'Only Waiting For You') have learnt something from
this record's honesty, feeling of 'deja vu' or the fact that happiness comes
round so infrequently that you have to seize the moment. 'Southern Cross' would
not have existed without this album - as indeed 'Thoroughfare Gap' wouldn't
have sounded half as good had Stills not got there first with 'Myth Of
Sisyphus', his pained 'final' song about the Judy Collins years. I still want
to give him that hug, by the way.
So is 'Thoroughfare Gap' worth buying? A definite
yes but you have to be a listener with emotional investment in Stills. This
isn't quite the CSN equivalent of 'Lennon Plastic Ono Band' but you have to
approach 'Thoroughfare Gap' in the right autobiographical sense to make the
most out of it - otherwise it is just going to sound like an occasionally silly
disco record padded out with a couple of covers. Give it time, though (and
maybe buy the other Stills albums first - or make sure you listen to this one
last if you own it as a three-album set with 'Stills' and 'Illegal Stills') and
there's much to admire: the high octane whirlwind pursuit of 'You Can't Dance
Alone' , the sadness so thinly coated in artificial happiness of 'We Will Go
On', the lyrics to 'Thoroughfare Gap' that aren't a patch on 'Helplessly
Hoping' but offer a similarly posh and poetic wordplay, the heartbreak of
'Lowdown', the demented vocal on 'Midnight Rider', the ever inventive
re-casting of 'Not Fade Away' to sound contemporary and the sheer self-effacing
silliness of 'Can't Get No Booty'. There's not much here you'd want on a single
CD Stills best-of, but there's nothing awful on this album either - which is by
itself more than you can say about any other disco album released between 1977
and 1978. Yes 'Thoroughfare Gap' needs a couple of songs with the stature and
gravitas of 'Daylight Again' or 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' to be truly essential,
but compared to 'Manassas Down The Road' and parts of 'Illegal Stills' Stephen
is back to putting his all into his music and is in full charge of his destiny,
releasing an album on a major record label fully on his terms for more or less
the last time. Forget where the journey ends up, however - for now it's about
the distance and the ride.
Some fans say
that 'Thoroughfare Gap' is an album lacking in energy, which is true for the
most part but opening song 'You Can't Dance Alone' rattles out the blocks like
RedRum on rollerskates. My candidate for album highlight, it knocks spots off
anything the Bee Gees came up with for 'Saturday Night Fever, with Mike Lewis'
strings and horns swooping around Stills' earthy double-tracked vocals for a
backing track that's easily one of CSN's most sultry and sexy. Lyrically this
song is a less stately, more modern version of 'Change Partners', Stills'
narrator out for a night on the town and falling in love. The title hints at
the famous line 'it takes two to tango' even though, technically, everyone can
dance alone - it takes skill to dance with someone else (as I know from
experience - I have a rhythm all of my own and dancing is easier lying down
anyway, as Grace Slick will tell you). Restricted to short sharp staccato
lyrics to fit the disco tune, Stills strips away much of the poetry from his
work for a set of words that are big on erotica rather than romance and sound
as if they've been written for the '50 Shades of Grey' film: 'fingertips,
electricity flowing, rollin' hips moving to me slowly, lips touch lips - you
can't dance alone!' Just to prove he hasn't lost his touch, however, listen out
for the very Stills line that promises the un-named dancing partner everything
she's missing in life: 'sunshine and a smile'. Best of all comes in the second
half of the song when Stills stops chatting his girl up and swoops the girl
into his arms for an extended dance and all that built-up energy and tension
finally gets a release from easily Mike Lewis' greatest arrangement. Most
instrumentals come in the middle of songs for variety's sake, but it was a
masterstroke putting it at the end here, with wave after wave of romantic
strings and parping horns bringing the song to an exhausting close (although
it's a shame the end itself is a rather limp fade rather than a full on
ending). Unusually Stills doesn't appear to play on his own songs, the stars of
which are the orchestra and the rhythm section of old hands George Perry (who
adds some very McCartney-esque bass riffs which never go where you expect them
to) and Joe Vitale (whose 'Latin-style' drums recall the Manassas albums). If
the soundtrack of 'Saturday Night Fever' had sounded more like this I might
have actually enjoyed the film (Andy Gibb's backing vocals mean this song would
have slotted in there nicely). Too many fans have dismissed this song simply
for jumping on the disco bandwagon, but to my ears they're missing the point:
Stills was never afraid to tackle a new genre (there wasn't a genre invented by
1972 that Manassas didn't cover) and the guitarist's ability to master them all
is rarely displayed better than here. How so many people dismissed this
genuinely exciting and energetic song I'll never know, but then again
stylistically in October 1978 - a full year after 'Saturday Night Fever' -
Stills couldn't have made a worse choice; had this record come up during the
first half of the year. however, I sense it would have been a very different
story.
'Thoroughfare Gap' itself is the only song on the
album that sounds very much like a traditional Stills song, which is arguably
because it was written as early as 1972 (Chris Hillman remembers working on an
early version for the first Manassas album that Stills was never happy with).
Stills' first overtly country song for some time, 'Gap' features yet more
strings but here played in a 'country hoe-down style' rather than disco. In
stark contrast to 'Dance Alone' the lyrics are some of Stills' most poetic (and
pretentious!), comparing the journey of
his life to a steam locomotive soon doomed to be obsolete but chugging along
dependably even so. The best lyrics come from the second verse, with Stills
wondering about 'what lies beyond?' which sound genuinely inspired (Stills
considered this his best ever lyric at the time) and could easily have become a
19th century romantic poem. However the song has nowhere to go by verse three
and sadly turns into a travelogue full of rivers and forests, while the idea of
the 'Thoroughfare Gap' the narrator sees behind him as his early life
disappears from view is a lovely idea that's never quite fully explored. The
end comes rather suddenly too, cutting the train off in its tracks, although
Stills gets full marks for his closing remarks summing up what life is about:
'It's not the distance, it's the ride'. Musically, too, this song has some good
ideas and it's nice to hear Stills doing something different (the layers of percussion
added to make the musicians sound like a
train is the best use of this on an AAA song since The Who on '5:15'), but
there's sadly little variety here with four very long and static verses and no
middle eight or even a chorus to shake things up. Dare I say it, 'Thoroughfare
Gap' comes dangerously close to being boring for a Still song even if you have
to applaud Stills' attempts to grow as a writer and a reminder that he started
his musical career at high school, setting poems he had to study to music
('Helplessly Hoping' was inspired by similar memories).
'We Will Go On' is the album's second disco song but
one that cuts a bit deeper than 'Dance Alone'. This sounds like the first real
statement from Stills on the album, revealing his pain and confusion over this
sad passage in his life in the verses that are tremendously affecting, with a
'future that grows darker every day' (listen to the way a 'second' Stills adds
a sad 'ye-ah' to the line 'To forget about you at all is beyond me, I cannot understand',
which adds much pathos to the opening of the song). The sudden unexpected
switch to the major key takes us straight back into disco (Andy Gibb, horns,
strings, rattled percussion - you name it!) but the effect isn't as jarring as
it sounds on paper - this is a narrator who, despite his grief, vows to 'go on'
and find happiness with someone else (although he's too broken-hearted to know
quite how just yet). I'd be intrigued, though, to know whether the 'disco' part
was there on Stills' demo or earliest takes because the sentiments on the
chorus are every bit as real ('It may be my naiveté but life is real and not a
game, together we will go on'). Best of all, though, might be the middle eight
which charges out of nowhere and slows the song down to a crawl, pleading with
someone (almost certainly Sanson) that he still loves her: 'It is good, can you
feel it? It is strong, cannot defeat it'. Stills then adds one of his few
guitar solos on this album, one of his loudest and angriest sounding of his career,
although sadly it gets very little space to do anything before apparently
causing a musical avalanche and causing the whole lot of musicians to come
crumbling down in one peal of wonderfully chaotic noise. An unusual track, 'We
Will Go On' is Stills trying to reconcile his breaking heart with his
commercial responsibilities and while 'We Will Go On' isn't one of his very
best songs it does cleverly manage to sound both catchy and heartfelt - not an
easy task.
'Beaucoup Yumbo' is another interesting track
co-written with percussionist Joe Vitale that sounds like it dates from a
happier period in Stills' relationship with Sanson. A slow burning bluesy
ballad, it combines a very American setting (references to a 'Bayou woman', a
'gumbo' stew originated in Lousiana made up of stock, meat and vegetables and
the 'Yumbo' half of the title, a city just North of California) with French
(the 'beaucoup' half of the title, which means 'many' and the line c'est ma
femme je t'aime' - Stills often sang to his wife Veronique in her native
French, especially on 'Illegal Stills'). Reflecting on the peace and harmony of
this more peaceful way of life, Stills sounds contented and at home, enjoying
the slower way of life and even giving us the audacious rhyme of 'Yumbo' and
'gumbo' (which must surely be unique amongst song lyrics!) This song would have
made a nice addition to the 'Stills' album which is full of warm songs about
family life like this, although given lyrics across the rest of the album it's
also rather sad to hear an audibly pained Stills singing 'when I'm with my
woman makes me sure and more together' now that they're apart. Good on Stills
for keeping his song whole, though, despite the painful changes in his life -
the line 'she'll lead the way once you know where you are going' is one of his
most romantic lines and tells us more about the pair's relationship than any
number of hokey love lyrics. Unfortunately this is another strong lyric given
to us as a pair with a melody that simply doesn't cut it: to stand up to a
tempo this slow and laidback a melody has to be really strong and too often it
sounds as if Stills is simply singing a poem to whatever music comes into his
head. A ramshackle performance doesn't help matters much either, although Mike
Finnigan's first appearance on a CSN album on the honky tonk piano part (he'll
be a key member of their sound into the 1990s, especially Stills') is certainly
memorable, if a little busy. A poor recording of a sweet song, it's a shame
that 'Beaucoup Yumbo' wasn't saved for a later album when Stills might have
been able to distance himself more from his clearly painful memories; then
again with sluggish solo sales and another CSN split Stills may have been
recording this song for posterity in case he never got another chance (indeed
there isn't one till 'Daylight Again' in 1982!)
'What's The Game?' ends the first album side with
'Thoroughfare Gap's third and final overtly disco song. Stills' best vocal on
the album by some distance (it's the only one on the album not double-tracked),
the high key pushes Stills to his limits and gives this song a nicely rough and
earthy feel that compensates for the most intrusive of the three disco
arrangements. In a prequel of 'Southern Cross' the narrator is 'lost in a
voyage at sea' where it hits him just how much he's losing if a relationship
goes under and how badly he wants his missus back. The line 'I was waiting for
you and me to remember just how it was, so that we can sing together' makes it
clear that this song is about vocalist Sanson again but again Stills keeps his
rage at bay, berating himself as much as her for having taken so long to
realise how much the partnership means to him. Stills tries every trick in the
denial book here to get her back - laughing with her ('When will you realise I
am one of your stronger guys?'), pulling on her heart strings (the tree where
their names are carved together is now 'blackened') and ending in anger ('The
reason for your game is clearly quite insane!'), but you sense he secretly
knows that the relationship is over and that nothing he does or says will work.
Once again the only real disco element of the song comes in the chorus (which
makes you wonder if it was added belatedly), but isn't as obtrusive as it
sounds - on a song about 'playing games' it makes perfect sense that Stills is
covering up his real feelings to make the song catchier and more commercial.
Listen for yet another appearance of Stills' favourite lyrics, with emotions
'hiding behind walls', this time extended into a fun middle eight that like the
narrator sounds like a stuck record, rhyming 'walls' with 'halls', 'called' and
'all' before finally ending on a scream on the word 'insane!' A strong song
with a memorable riff inspires a terrific performance from the backing band
although it's Stills' turbulent screaming guitar solo and his massed falsetto
backing vocals (which sound so much better than the Bee Gees) that steals the
show. One of Stills' most unfairly neglected tracks, 'What's The Game?' sounds
like a hit single (sadly there never was a single taken from this album) but
one that's also open and honest - a tricky feat to pull off.
Side two begins with 'Midnight Rider', the first
non-Neil Young cover on a Stills album since the Manassas days. The most famous
song the Allman Brothers wrote, Stills was apparently there for the original
recording and loved the song from the first (a full three-part harmony version
of this track was allegedly under consideration for the ill-fated CSN 'covers'
project a few years back). Stills' version is a little more 'pompous' than the
original and strangely the main hook of the song isn't performed as well
(although Stills' arranging genius is still clear in the 'ain't gonna let them
catch me, no!' round at the song's end).
It's easy to see why this song about galloping away to goodness knows
where on your only faithful companion - a horse - would have appealed to Stills
in this period and the lyrics are actually very Stillsy ('I've got to run to
keep from hiding' - see 'Know You've Got To Run' - all we need is a mention of
'walls' and this could easily be one of Stephen's lyrics). The lyrics about
being reduced to having nothing (well, 'one more silver dollar' as the lyrics
put it) but a secret joy at having to start again must also have appealed to
Stills. You can't tell this isn't a Stills song though: the melody doesn't have
the range or the variety of Stephen's work and the vocal strains his voice
terribly, while the backing track plods away rather than gallops. Many
commentators at the time called this the best song on the album - actually it's
easily the worst, a one-trick pony without much to say past the opening couple
of verses and the performance here doesn't do even this song the justice it
deserves. One of the album's lesser moments.
'Woman Lleva' is a younger sister of 'Cherokee', the
song of burning passion for Rita Coolidge on the first Stills LP, with the same
charging horns and the same feel of fire and wrath. My guess is that 'Lleva' is
another pseudonym for Sanson, however, and the sudden translation of the middle
of the song into Spanish rather than French isn't fooling anyone: this is
actually Stills' biggest emotional statement on the record. Another curiously
constructed song, 'Lleva' seems to revel in the sort of mind games 'What's The
Game?' hated so much, moving without warning Stills sadly singing about his
girl whose 'lost and gone away' before sighing on the riff 'wo-o-o-man' which
takes the multiply double-tracked backing singer Kitty Pritikin and Stills down
nearly an octave every time they sing it and falling uncomfortably on that
Spanish section: 'This woman has lied to me, as a woman you're
a girl, lives in a world without walls , Inocentemiento not you think dear'. Stills thus goes
from sensitive singer-songwriter to bluesman to cackling demon within the space
of about a minute, before a piano part by Alby Galutin soothes the song down
and let's it spiral off again. Uncomfortable, un-natural and wakwardly angular,
'Woman Lleva' is a difficult song to listen to but it successfully conjures up
the drama of Stills' life in this period. A better guitar solo (this one is too
quiet in one of the album's rare 'mixing mistakes') and a horn arrangement up
to the level of 'Cherokee' might have made this one of Stills' most striking
songs - sadly the effect doesn't quite come off despite all the audible hard
work. According to the sleevenotes Stills also plays 'moog' on this track for
the first time in years although I can't hear it myself (there is an organ part
played by Mike Finnigan mixed very quietly - it might be that people can hear).
'Lowdown' is even sadder, Stills trapped in a
heavy-sounding riff he can't escape from and with a lyric that borders on the
suicidal. Like 'Cold Cold World' from the 'Stills' record but more so, this is
Stills trying to come to terms with his recent heartbreak but still feeling too
much anger about it to be as sad as the setting demands. 'Feel such misery and I don't know why!' he cries, even though
he seems to know exactly why just a few lines later: 'Guess that's what it's
like when you see different things'. Most of the lines in this song are what
you'd expect from a song with that kind of a title ('Feel so bad I'm surprised
I'm not condemned to die'), but there a few memorable images here: Stills'
narrator imagining himself being hanged from a
tree that's already dying is an unusually graphic ending to this song
and one of the album's best couplets that says so much about Stills' schizophrenia
between commerciality and honesty: 'Sadness and anger only things keeping me
going, tired of nothing but my outsides showing'. Stills brightens up the track
with another wonderfully unhinged guitar solo that, predictably, ends up back
where it started and just as trapped by the time it's over, but sadly the
song's slow tempo and self-indulgent angst prevents this song from getting as
exciting as it ought to be: 'Spirit movin' at a dreadful pace' sings Stills at
one point and he's not wrong. The decision to add a mass choir to this of all
songs is also a strange move: 'Lowdown' should be quiet and broodingly
intimate, not treated like a singalong. However of all the songs on this album
it's the title track and this one people seem to have identified with and
'Lowdown' became a surprise choice as this album's lone representative on the
'Carry On' box set; if this song is all you know from 'Thoroughfare Gap' don't
let it put you off - 'Lowdown' isn't a
bad song but it's a clumsier expression of feelings that Stills expresses much
better elsewhere.
'Not Fade Away' is a fascinating choice to cover for
this LP: one of Buddy Holly's better known songs, Stills' version is like a
pumped up discofied version of the Rolling Stones' 1964 cover. However Stills
adds quite a lot of new lyrics to this song including a whole second verse ('Can't you see that there's a good reason
for being together just to be pleasing? Stomping, shouting, carrying on, you
and me baby we could have more fun!') It's as if Stills desperately wants to
hear the message that his love is 'forever' but he can't bring himself to lie
so instead he 'borrows' one of the most famous musical statements of longevity
and pitches a few of his one lines into the mix to show how 'personal' this
statement is. This cover version predictably riled the few music journalists
who were bothered to listen to this album and most fans have followed suit.
However, Stills is one of the best arrangers of other people's material in the
business (including Crosby's 'Long Time Gone' and Nash's 'Teach Your Children'
which in truth both deserve a Stills co-write) and his adaptation of 'Not Fade
Away' manages to sound both faithful and contemporary. The grungy guitar riff
Stills adds is ear-catching, his slightly more 'normal' bluesy guitar solo spot
on and the presence of a very Manassas like backing (heavy on percussion and
keyboards) maintains the hypnotic rhythmical feel of the original. Yes I'd
rather Stills had written his own song about permanence instead of relying on a
cover, but the guitarist does a good job at making such a renowned song his own
here and the cover does seem to 'belong' to this album about characters who
don't always say what they mean.
'Thoroughfare Gap' then ends with its silliest
moment, 'Can't Get No Booty' (co-written with guitarist Danny Kortchmar,
interestingly, better known for his work on the 1975 and 1976 Crosby-Nash
records). Although featuring the closest to a traditional rock and roll set up
of any song on the album (with Stills himself playing the wonderfully inventive
driving bass part), this song was clearly written with half an ear on the disco
market, Stills spoofing the 'Saturday Night Fever' film and its many copycats
while complaining that posing on the dance-floor doesn't work for the narrator.
It's rare to hear Stills laugh at himself quite this much and the result is a
delight cod-rock and soul song where 'no matter how hard I try to shake my tail
feathers in your face' the girl he's trying to chat up is deeply unimpressed.
The narrator overcomes his bruised ego by blaming everything: his tattoos, his accent, his clothes, his
hair-cream, anything to prove to himself that he's simply 'out of style' and
has still got what it takes to pull the birds. Stills even gets in a rare
risque joke: 'It's not the inches, it's the engineer!' he winks knowingly at
the listener as his partner turns him down in bed. As good a response as any to
punk and the theme of rockstars growing older, there's a real groove behind
'Can't Get No Booty' that would have worked just as well with 'serious' lyrics,
making the joke all the funnier because the narrator isn't knowingly laughing
at himself. A neat bookend with 'You Can't Dance Alone's effortless way with
the ladies, 'Booty' is a clever song that proves that you can dance alone if no
one will dance with you! Yes it's silly and frivolous compared to the true
Stills classics of old (and future - the astonishingly ,mature 'Daylight Again'
is near enough the next Stills song to be released after this one and the
contrast between the two couldn't be bigger) but 'Booty' is a lot of fun and
it's nice to hear Stills stepping so far out of his comfort zone after such an
intense, often painfully serious album.
Overall, then, 'Thorughfare Gap' has much about it
to enjoy, even though in truth it doesn't sound much like the earlier Stills
solo records. The disco and soul trappings, the re-written cover songs and the
references to dancing and 'booty' get in the way, but if you get past those
then 'Thoroughfare Gap' is every bit the same earnest and honest Stills we fans
have always known and loved. On many levels 'Thoroughfare Gap' was a
failure: it killed off any chance in
Stills' solo career (his next record won't be till 1986 and then it's released
on a smaller label) and many a fan was turned off by the disco trappings which were just six
months too soon after the point where the album became 'unhip'. Heard back to
back with 'Stephen Stills One' or 'Two' or the first 'Manassas' album it's
problems are clear: once the most effortless and eclectic of writers, Stills is
now having to keep within the same narrow commercial considerations as everyone
else. However I've never understood why this album is quite as hated as it is
because Stills doesn't ignore his past either, opening his heart to us in
several of his most moving lyrics, adding a couple of fiery guitar solos as
good as any in his past and offering up unusual arrangements that actually make
perfect sense within the context of the songs. While I'd never lay claim to
'Thoroughfare Gap' being Stills' masterpiece, it is still a very good album and
the real thoroughfare gap for this record is the difference between how it was
made and how fans have always perceived it: far from being an empty album 'Gap'
is brimming with honesty, heartbreak and emotion; Stills' biggest mistake on
this album was hiding that so cleverly behind 'walls' of disco lights and party
songs.
A Now Complete List Of CSN/Y and Solo Articles Available To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:
'Crosby, Stills and Nash' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-29-crosby-stills-and-nash-1969.html
'Deja Vu' (CSNY) (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-34-crosby-stills-nash-and-young.html
‘Stephen Stills’ (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stephen-stills-1970.html
'If Only I Could Remember My Name' (Crosby) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-45-david-crosby-if-only-i-could.html
'Songs For Beginners' (Nash) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-46-graham-nash-songs-for.html
'Stephen Stills II' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-48-stephen-stills-ii-1971.html
‘Graham Nash, David
Crosby’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/graham-nash-david-crosby-1972.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Down The Road' (Stephen
Stills/Manassas) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/stephen-stillsmanassas-down-by-road-1973.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Illegal Stills' (Stills)
(1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stephen-stills-illegal-stills-1976.html
'Whistling Down The Wire'
(Crosby-Nash) (1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-crosby-graham-nash-whistling-down.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Thoroughfare Gap'
(Stills) (1978) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/stephen-stills-thoroughfare-gap-1978.html
'Earth and Sky' (Nash)
(1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/graham-nash-earth-and-sky-1980.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Right By You' (Stills)
(1984) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stephen-stills-right-by-you-1984.html
'Innocent Eyes' (Nash)
(1986)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/graham-nash-innocent-eyes-1986.html
'American Dream' (CSNY)
(1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-american.html
'Oh Yes I Can!' (Crosby)
(1989)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/david-crosby-oh-yes-i-can-1989.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Stephen Stills Alone'
(1991)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/stephen-stills-alone-1991.html
'A Thousand Roads'
(Crosby) (1993) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/david-crosby-thousand-roads-1993.html
‘After The Storm’ (CSN)
(1994) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-final-review-crosby-stills-and-nash.html
'CPR' (Crosby Band) (1998)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cpr-david-crosby-band-1998.html
'Looking Forward' (1999) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-looking.html
‘So Like Gravity (CPR,
2001)
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cpr-just-like-gravity-2001.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
'Crosby*Nash' (2004) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-21-crosby.html
‘Man Alive’ (S) (2005) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/stephen-stills-man-alive-2005.html
'Deja Vu Live' (CD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-crosby.html
'Deja Vu Live' (DVD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_21_archive.html
'Reflections' (Graham Nash Box Set) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-graham.html
'Demos' (CSN) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-crosby.html
'Manassas: Pieces' (2010) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-manassas.html
‘Carry On’ (Stephen Stills Box Set) (2013) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stephen-stills-carry-on-box-set-2013.html
'Croz' (Crosby) (2014) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/david-crosby-croz-2014album-review.html
'CSNY 74' (Recorded 1974 Released 2014)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html
'This Path Tonight' (Nash) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/graham-nash-this-path-tonight-2016.html
'Lighthouse' (Crosby)
(2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/david-crosby-lighthouse-2016.html
‘Sky Trails’ (Crosby)
(2017) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/david-crosby-sky-trails-2017.html
‘Here
If You Listen’ (Crosby) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/david-crosby-and-friends-here-if-you.html
The Best Unreleased CSNY
Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csny-best-unreleased-tracks-news-views.html
Surviving TV Appearances (1969-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/csny-surviving-tv-appearances-1969-09.html
Non-Album Recordings (1962-2009)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_6.html
Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums Part One
(1964-1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young.html
Live/Compilations/Rarities
Albums Part Two (1982-2012)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_20.html
Essay: The Superest Of
Super Groups?
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/csny-essay-superest-of-super-groups.html
Five Landmark Concerts and
Three Key Cover Versions
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/csny-five-landmark-concerts-and-three.html
