DAN BERN

Wow, have I ever let this page get out of date. My sister and I went to see Dan when he was in New York just before the presidential election. Dan was on a one-man campaign to educate as many people as possible about their right to vote and why they shouldn't vote for Bush. His Bush Must Be Defeated is infectious and makes a good floor-stomper. Unfortunately our hopes for a Bush-free America have at this point been quashed, but it felt really good to sing the Bush has been defeated lyric that Dan led the crowd in at the end of the song. A lot people were crying, which shows you how much negative feeling there is in this country.

Dan also did his wonderful bid for why he should be President which includes references to having John McEnroe as a cabinet member, and the memorable line "Marry a woman, marry a man / Marry a can of corn, marry a big old rhino and ride that big old horn." Which demonstrates how ridiculous the battle for equal marriage rights has become. On the album, this line is rendered, "Marry a monkey too, marry a big old rhino and visit him in the zoo." which just doesn't have as much sting. I have to say, I hate how we have to fight this battle state by state. Maybe when Dan recovers his energy from the election tour he can do a tour to promote equal marriage rights?

Speaking of albums, I've bought both My Country II and Anthems both of which I'd highly recommend. Dan started the November show with his rendition of Great Historical Bum which I learned from the Chad Mitchell Trio years ago.

I went to see Dan on my birthday this year at Maxwell's club in Hoboken. Unfortunately I missed his free show at South Street Seaport, due to being in Boston for a filk con. The Maxwell's show was good, if short. I think Dan was pretty exhausted. I'm getting used to the band, and I even like them on most of the songs now. Their integration has gotten much better and that really helps. They do still overwhelm Dan's lyric singing quite a bit, but since I know a lot of the songs it doesn't matter as much. Still there are things that haven't been, and maybe shouldn't be put on disc, and for those I'd like to be able to hear the lyrics.

I bought the Swastika EP, which features the title tune, which is a rockabilly pean to reclaiming the Swastika. As a balance, Lithuania is also on the CD. I'm still waiting for Swoosh.

I'm still waiting for Dan's newest album and book to come out. I'm one of those weirdoes who preordered before it was even recorded, so I guess it serves me right. I've got my confirmation number, and faith in Dan, and Dan's got my $25 bucks. Don't you love
the indie music scene?

I went to see Dan on my birthday this year, (which for those of you keeping track is Nov. 17) and I had a really mixed experience. I love Dan as a solo artist, and he was playing with a band not just any band, but a particularly loud band that was drowning him out. Most of the other people at the concert didn't seem to mind, but most of the appeal of Dan's music is in his great lyrics, so when I couldn't understand what he was singing over the deafening chorus of the band, I got a little frustrated. It was kind of cool to hear a bunch of the songs I knew already done with a band backing him, however, the other reason I like going to Dan's shows is to hear him do material that he hasn't recorded elsewhere, so this was a real disappointment.

I ran into some party-hardy people I'd gone to college with, and they just couldn't figure out why some of us were cheering when the band left the stage. As far as they were concerned their dance beat was gone, and what was the point of that?

Not a great show for me. I brought Dan olives too, but he either didn't see them, or he ignored them. Either way, it wasn't a really great experience as a long-time fan.

Not to say that I won't continue supporting Dan and listening to his music, but I'll certainly think twice about going to a show where he's playing with a band. And he's not getting any more olives out of me. Traditional or not. My ex-boyfriend can take over that part of the tradition if he wants to, after all, he was there when it started.

Smartie Mine has both some really excellent material, and some stuff I could live without, but which does grow on you after time. My favorites from this album include Gambling with my Love, Chelsea Hotel (I want a live version! I know it's out there.) Little Russian Girl, Krautmeyer (about the Charles Manson/Marilyn Manson
phenomenon) 'talking woody, bob, bruce & dan blues (a bizarre tribute to Guthrie, Dylan and Springsteen) and of course, True Revolutionaries.

After the last album, I was really hoping for a ghost track or two on this one, but no such luck. Unfortunately, neither Lithuania or Hiroshima made it onto this album, and Swoosh remains a concert favorite, but not a recorded entity.

Meanwhile, David, the other olive person, went to a Dan concert and brought him the Canadian Smarties his album is named for. Since I introduced David to Canadian Smarties, this is again, all my fault.

When I saw Dan at the Khyber Pass in Philadelphia. It was literally standing room only, there were no chairs. Dan did an incredible amount of new material, including a fantastic condemnation of Nike, which spanned everything from the dimensions of Walt Chamberlin's house to the Nazi method of record keeping. Absolutely mindblowing.

As is my custom I did manage to catch Dan on the street before the show and present him with olives (he says I was actually the first person to do this "Other people have threatened, but you're the first one to actually do it." Dan calls my ex-boyfriend and I "The olive people" this time we got him a can of Israeli olives. It was another first. We were the first fans to give him a can opener.

Dan's first professional album "DAN BERN" came out two years ago on Sony's 'Work' label. It's not exactly what you'll hear if you go to a Dan Bern concert, because like many great performers he is better live. Still, it is worth buying if for nothing other than the songs Estelle, Too Late to Die Young, and well, all of them. The only one I'm not wild about is the last track Queen which just doesn't strike me as fitting with the rest of the attitude of the album.

There is another source of Dan's work. There is an active bootleg collection, dating from before Dan's professional recording debut. In fact there is one page which is included below that has a collection of the tapes available for the cost of tape and mailing (I believe, it may have gone up) and this page and the incredible activity behind it have Dan's approval.

Though it's a close race between a lot of his songs, I still like Jerusalem the best. It was the first of Dan's songs that I ever heard. I was listening to NPR and when it came it caught my attention immediately. I was soon rolling on the floor laughing, and at the same time, trying to stifle myself so I could still hear the words. I can't do it justice, even if I transcribed it, my advice is to listen to it before seeking out the lyrics, it's funnier that way.

Dan's second album (or third if you count the 5-song rerelease CD) Dog Boy Van . The new one is called Fifty Eggs, and features some material that Dan Bern fans will have heard in concert, like Tiger Woods and Monica and some others that were familiar to me. My gripe is that Hiroshima doesn't appear on this album, although truth be told, if I could listen to it all the time I think it might (and that's only a might) lose some of it's effectiveness.

The album also features a ghost track, a song not mentioned anywhere on the album notes that pops up about thirty seconds after the last song. So keep an ear out.

If you want lyrics, bootlegs or whatever it is, look no further, here are my Dan Bern links. Many thanks to the people I'm linking to for creating such great pages.

DAN BERN LINKS:

The Dan Bern Homepage
Dan Bern's lyrics
Dan's Official Homepage