Sunday, March 19, 2023

Take the quiz: are you the Groovy Uncle?

By Henry Lipput

Wouldn’t you like to be the groovy uncle? Wouldn’t you like to be the kind of uncle who shows up at a family gathering knowing about all the coolest new music and movies and knows who that was hosting last weekend’s Saturday Night Live? (For the record, that’s not me.)

Well, you can’t be the groovy uncle because Glenn Pragnell is already.  Glenn has been recording under the name Groovy Uncle since 2011 and No Man’s An Island (Trouserphonic Records) is his 10th and latest release. Last year he was part of the musical partnership The Vague Ideas and their Lennon-inspired New York Letters album.



On New York Letters (one of my 2022 favorites) Pragnell channeled Lennon’s vocal and musical stylings and some of this bleeds on to a few of the songs on the new album. It’s a fun thing to hear since most of the music I listen to is inspired by McCartney.

The opening and title track on the album, “No Man’s An Island,” is one of those songs. It’s a groovy, tuneful song like “Nobody Told Me” from Milk and Honey. The press notes describe the album as dealing with “feelings of isolation, bewilderment, loss, and frustration but ultimately forward looking, optimistic, and uplifting.”

The lyrics for “No Man’s An Island” are all about the bewilderment and frustration of modern life: “Every day you hide away/You need a break/Just because the world requires/You give, they take.” So what’s the answer? “No man’s an island/Set yourself free/You’re been too long by yourself/But like the sun/You keep on shining.”

“Beneath” sounds like a missing early Kinks song sung by Dave Davies with lyrics that could have been on his song “Rats:” “Beneath an existential sun/Dividing each and everyone/Reaching for a helping hand/They’ll crush you down into the sand.”  The solution is not to take it personally because you’re not the problem (“It’s not you”) but you might actually have the answer if you look hard enough: “There’s much ado and much to see/Beneath our blind reality.”

“When I Get Back on My Feet Again” is Pragnell’s prescription on how to put yourself back together: “It won’t be easy, ain’t gonna lie” he sings. The best way is to not cut yourself to others who mean something in your life: “Another rain check from me to you/Let’s say hello and not goodbye.”

If I had assembled the track listing for No Man’s An Island I would have ended with the album with the sad and beautiful “We Had Holidays” (the Lennon influence is here too). Yes, it’s about a relationship that has ended but it was a positive experience: “Once or twice or maybe more/I recalled the ways/You were there to reassure/We had holidays. “

 


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