Product Description

Her first and best album--not including the self-released THE TEXAS CAMPFIRE TAPES--1988's SHORT SHARP SHOCKED surprised many on its release. The TEXAS CAMPFIRE TAPES was a deliberate bid for folky authenticity, right down to the poor recording quality and copious background noise, but for her major-label debut, Michelle Shocked went to Nashville to record a fairly slick folk-pop record with noted country hitmaker Pete Anderson.
Not at all unlike K.D. Lang's early albums--or Carole King's TAPESTRY, for that matter--these 11 tracks, including a mild rock version of the first album's "Fogtown" and a cover of folk great Jean Ritchie's "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore", are unabashedly commercial. Shocked was rewarded with a minor hit single, the winsome and catchy "Anchorage", but folk purists never took her seriously again.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. When I Grow Up
2. Hello Hopeville
3. Memories Of East Texas
4. Gladewater
5. Graffiti Limbo
6. If Love Was A Train
7. Anchorage
8. L And N Don't Stop Here Anymore
9. VFD
10. Black Widow
11. Fogtown

Disc 2:

1. When I Grow Up
2. Memories Of East Texas
3. Yamboree Queen
4. Strawberry Jam
5. Graffiti Limbo
6. If Love Was A Train
7. Anchorage
8. L And N Don't Stop Here Anymore
9. VFD
10. Black Widow
11. Leavin' Louisiana In The Broad Daylight
12. Disoriented
13. Lovely Rita
14. Ballad Of Penny Evans
15. Remodeling The Pentagon
16. Fred's Winter Song
17. Prince of Darkness - Shocked, Michelle & The Mekons
18. One Piece At A Time
19. 5am In Amsterdam
20. Campus Crusade
21. Goodnight Irene

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13269 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

Perfection
This Texas troubadours career has been patchy but here on her second album everything is perfect. Mixing country, folk and rock influences it is Michelle's wonderful singing and lyrics that really make this special. Her songs evoke her rural childhood, growing up and away form her home and the politics of urban America. 'Anchorage' and "Memories of East Texas" are wonderful studies of change, "Graffiti Limbo" angry and political, "If Love Was a Train" witty up-tempo and sexy, but there really isn't a weak track on the album

Where do you go...when there ain't no justice?
Michelle Shocked has a tremendous talent. Thankfully, it is hard to categorize in a word or two. Her ability to stretch the boundaries between musical genres (folk, swing, rock, bluegrass) did not sit well with her one-time record company. After a handful of recordings, Shocked's label dropped her due to 'artistic incongruity' or some such nonsense. She hit them back with a lawsuit citing conditions of involuntary servitude. This disrupted her recordings being released for awhile. In the end we all lost, in a way, because such an episode disturbs the natural flow of a career, and interrupts the artistic process. Recordings become harder to find, the relationship between artist and audience is thwarted. Such is life, sometimes.

Short, Sharp, Shocked (1986) was the first of a trilogy of albums recorded for Mercury/Polygram. If Shocked were ever to fit into the quasi-structural mold of singer-songwriter, it would have been with this release. Her folk-pop roots shine in autobiographical songs like "Memories of East Texas" and "Anchorge," and in her effective interpretation of Jean Ritchie's classic "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore."

Shocked is a gifted songwriter. She can write overtly political material that will not hit you over the head with overbearing self-righteousness. She never loses sight of her senses of humor and irony. Note the gracefulness of her lyrics in "When I Grow Up," "Grafitti Limbo," or "Gladewater."

That Shocked never broke out into the into more mainstream success like Suzanne Vega or even Fiona Apple is perplexing. Such a dilemma poses the question: "Where do you go...when there ain't no justice?"

well worth the £6
I'm quite new to michelle's music coming from a gift i had of the texas campfire songs.. bilmy what a CD.
CD1 is great but i though CD2 is a real gem, packed with live recordings (not recorded on a walkman!!). the beatles track 'lovely Rita' is superb but 'the ballad of Penny evans'is outstanding it brought tears to my eyes.

I've come from the stable of the Grateful dead, J.J.Cale and Rainer and Michell Shocked is now a welcome addition. Recomended