(A Singular Vision)
sbau and single, Someday, Some
way," are both ascending the chans,
and before long you'll be talking
about favorite records What if," 1
say, posing the classic question, "you
were stuck on a desert island? What
album would you want?"
Crenshaw peers through his tinted
glasses and adjusts the large white
cowboy hat that surmounts his
close-cropped brown hair His grin
is as instantly ready as his answer.
I'd rather have ten singles. Maybe
Vly Generation' by The Who,
"'mon Everybody' by Eddie Coch
an, 'Trapped by a Thing Called
x)ve by Deniece LaSalle, 'Let’s Stay
together’ by Al Green I could
aarne fifty or five hundred of them.
"I really like singles," Crenshaw
expands, shifting in his soft chair at
Warner Bros. Records’ New York
headquarters, where he’s spending a
brief break during a criss-crossing
tour of America. "Singles are what
I'm really about I consider each lit
tle song an entity unto itself and an
album just a collection of ideas, The
format I'm really excited about is EPs
and 12-inch singles."
Marshall Crenshaw is a product
of Detroit's middle-class suburbs,
where he was exposed to a plethora
of musical styles. The Detroit up
bringing left him with "... a gene
ral mania for pop music," Cren
shaw says. "I don't care
how old or new
something is.
My tastes
re di
verse."
Just
I tow
divers*
become:
clear as h<
lets loos*
a stream o
favorites am
influences tha
spans Bootsy Cat
lins. Lefty Frizzel
Iggv and the Stooge:
the Ramones, the Wh<
and, as the TV arts for con
pilation albums say. mud
much more
Clearly, however. Crenshaw
music is mostly reminiscent of tw<
of pop music's greatest influence:
Buddy Holly and the Beatles Wit
brother Robert on drums, and bassl:
Chris Donato, Crenshaw makes hi
use of the trio's harmony singing an
background vocals that recall "Th
Chirping Crickets,” Holly's back u
singers, or the harmonies on Meet
the Beatles.
Yet no one can accuse this music
of being a mere revivalist flash.
Crenshaw's sound is not plagiarism
but progression, an individual style
built on some of the strongest bricks
from the base of pop music. “I’m
proud of the comparisons," Marshall
says in reference to the constantly
recurring mentions of these artists,
later calling his influences "our cul
tural heritage.” But while many cri
tics have described his music as
coming from the Fifties, it is absurd
to think of Crenshaw as anything but
a product of the Eighties.
Marshall began the Seventies in
Detroit, playing guitar for four years
in a local bar band. A series of dif
ferences with band members, as well
as Crenshaw’s knowledge that "if
you're in a hurry (to get established)
and still in Detroit, there’s something
wrong with your mind," was the in
centive behind an unsuccessful 1975
trip to Los Angeles in search of fame
and fortune. Crenshaw landed a
dismal job with a touring Country &
Western band 71-75 before returning
home penniless. On a lark, with
brother Robert’s help, he answered
an ad for Beatlemania try-outs with a
recording of "I Should Have Known
Better." For the next two years, 1976
to 1978, Marshall Crenshaw was John
Lennon, travelling the country in the
role of his one-time hero.
Tire pay was grxxl, but Crenshaw
felt stifled and left the cast in 1978.
He married his high schixrl sweet
heart and moved to New York, a city
he has adopted with fervor. "This is
my town," he says about the Big Ap
pie, before grinning and reminding
himself of his Michigan upbringing
But anyone who listens to "Rockin'
Around in N YC." on the album’s
first side, with its joyous Ramones
like brevity, knows where Marshall's
heart belongs
During the end of his tenure with
Beatlemania, Crenshaw tx'gan com
piling an impressive collection of
songs He recorded a number of
r tlieso on a four track tape deck, and
I passed the demo about to most any
t one who would listen. One person
who took notice was producer
Richard Gottchrcr. looking for mate
rial for the next Robert Gordon al
bum Crenshaw gave Gordon three
songs, and co wrote another with
him. but when Gottrhrrr split with
Gordon, eventually producing the
Go-Go's Health' awl /he Gor
don's album was put on hold Even
tually Are You Ootina lit the One
was released, and it contained
t "Someday, Someway,” a small hit that
I revived Gordon’s s.iggtng career, and
I marked just the Ix-glnning tor the
r song's composer Mat shall Crenshaw
r> Uhi Ann Barton featured Crenshaw's
Brand New Lover" on her debut al
bum, and slowly the word began to
spread.
Warner Bros, got hold of the
word, and sent Marshall into the
studio. In New York, Crenshaw had
begun to build a reputation
throughout the club scene, mixing
handfuls of lesser-known gems of
the past with originals of equal mer
it, and had already released a 12
inch single on Shake Records. The
band entered the Record Plant
Studios in hope of capturing the
sound that had taken them this far,
but soon found themselves bogged
down. ‘The freshness was gone,"
Marshall recalls, “and there was no
way for me to detach myself to look
at it." Re-enter Richard Gottehrer,
the objective eye that helped the trio
complete twelve tracks in six weeks
It is difficult to describe the
energetic simplicity and exuberant
beauty that permeates Crenshaw's
debut album. Each song stands as an
affirmation of rock and roll’s ability
to thrill the listener. "She Can't
Dance" celebrates the pop music fan,
Mary Anne" is a tribute to a female
of the Eighties much as "Peggy Sue"
remains the ideal of the Fifties
‘Cynical Girl” is arguably the album s
peak, a jingle jangle tune that seems
to sum up our times, with the song's
hero "going out looking for a cynical
girl, who's got no use for the real
world." l.ike the Eighties, "Cynical
Girl” is a little funny and a little
skeptical.
If there's a problem with Cren
shaws debut album it's that it fails to
capture all of the energy that comes
through in his live shows Marshall Is
aware of this, saying that "it s some
thing we re going to try to get next
time. As time goes on that’s what
were going to lx- trying to accont
plish " Is it that the raw sound in
concert packs more |>ower than the
refined studio renditions? “There's
going to lx- a lot less over tracking
and less dubbing," Marshall says,
hoping that the follow up album, al
ready in the mental planning stages,
will he truer to the full sounding
versions that concert goers have
heard But Crenshaw realizes that
there's more to creating memorable
music than finding the right mix in
tfie studio In great recording of the
past, Marshall finds "some personal
ity or human spirit that ainies across
in those records," and hopes that he
too can communicate such vitality
Particularly, Crenshaw loves the
Immediacy of impact of a good
single "! have only about a five sec
ond attention span," he confesses
"That's why all the exaggerated as
pects of a single appeal to me And, if
an artist is lucky, maybe there s
something of lasting value there, too.
The good stuff tends to stay around"