Caleb Nichols: a new album and a fab Christmas mashup

By Henry Lipput

Let’s Look Back

Let’s Look Back (Kill Rock Stars), the new album from poet, singer, and songwriter Caleb Nichols, continues the backwards looking journey he began with last year’s Ramon (one of my favorite albums of 2022).

Ramon is a queer love story (he used #queerthebeatles on the tweeter to promote the album) about a young gay boy growing up in a small town in the 1990s and finding the music of The Beatles as an escape. There’s also a rocky love story about Mean Mr. Mustard and Captain Custard although the names may have been changed to protect the innocent. The album also contained “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day” my new favorite Christmas song.

Following Ramon, Nichols released Chan Says & Other Songs which consisted of both an EP and a book of poems. He described the songs and story being at “the intersection of land/sea, sexuality/gender, and fairy tale/reality” as they tell the story of a young boy born to parents who wanted a girl.

So Let’s Look Back is more like Let’s Look Back Some More. In stark contrast to the warmth of “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day,” the new album starts off with “Christmas, California” and it’s clear the trip back home is not one that's looked forward to. The opening guitar riff recalls the music from a Sergio Leone western (or an overture to a shoot-out at the holiday dinner table).

“Demon Twink” and “Absolute Boy” are the album's pop highlights. The latter is a jangle-pop treasure with a sad message at its core: "The time you clipped my wings." “Albatross” rocks out and offers advice to those who have been hurt in love and not ready to move on yet: “Everything you lost/Wear it like an albatross.”

“The Wires,” the penultimate song on Let’s Look Back, is my favorite and the best song on the album. The song starts slow with a strummed electric guitar and an entreaty to a potential lover: “Hold me tonight/Show me.” The song slowly builds, an acoustic guitar dominates the bridge, and it ends with a majestic orchestral conclusion.

So This Is Crimble

It’s hard to deny Nichols’ Beatles credentials. In addition to the very Beatles-influenced Ramon, he also released the single Double Mantasy with covers of McCartney’s “Waterfalls” and Lennon’s “Watching The Wheels”(and he's made them his own).

The main attraction and centerpiece of the So This Is Crimble  EP (Kill Rock Stars) is “Crimble Medley” in which Nichols creates a wonderful mashup of a song from a Beatles Christmas fanclub disc as well as holiday offerings from three solo Beatles along with Ringo's "Photograph" which fits very nicely in the mix (what's Christmas without photographs?). The EP also includes his two most recent Christmas songs, “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day” from Ramon and “Christmas, California” from Let’s Look Back.

Here’s the video for “Crimble Medley:”

The enduring influence of the Nerk Twins

 By Henry Lipput

Wonderful albums by Caleb Nichols and The Vague Ideas reflect the enduring influence of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Ramon, Caleb Nichols

On Ramon (Kill Rock Stars) the names have been changed to protect the broken-hearted as well as those who break hearts. We have Ramon, Jerome, Mr. Mustard, and Captain Custard in a gay love story.

Drawing on both McCartney and Lennon’s lyrical ideas as well as McCartney’s (and his own) history, Nichols creates a gay love story that he has called #QueeringtheBeatles. Nichols is both gay and a Beatles fan; in the Elliot Smith-influenced opener “Listen to the Beatles” he tells of coming home from Middle School, putting on headphones, and listening to the Beatles as a means of escape.

(A side note: At first listen Ramon was something I could identify with, not because I’m a gay Beatles fan, but because my best friend was. He was the first person I knew who not only had bootlegs, but vinyl bootlegs.)

Ramon is not only the album’s title but also the last name Paul McCartney took when The Beatles had their first real gig in 1960 as the backing band for Johnny Gentle on a tour of Scotland. And when you separate the word into Ram and on, it’s a song on Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 RAM album. On “Ramon,” Nichols borrows the line “Ramon, give your heart to somebody soon” from RAM’s “Ram On.” Nichol’s take is just as lovely and melancholy as McCartney’s.

The album’s centerpiece is the love story between a Mr. Mustard and Captain Custard. It doesn’t go well and on “Captain Custard” he moves out because his lover is not called Mean Mr. Mustard for nothing. The instrumental “Mustard’s Blues” recalls McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It” and the neatly six-minute “From a Hole in the Road” (or is it a hole in the heart?) with its repeated line “I’ve been dreaming you” and then “I still dream of you” becomes a mantra and a hope that dreams can come true.

Whether the story ends on a positive note is up to the listener but based on the final song on Ramon (and my new favorite Christmas song), “I Fell in Love On Xmas Day,” it appears to be resolved.

By the way, Nichols has just released a two-song EP, Double Mantasy (Kill Rock Stars), with covers of McCartney’s “Waterfalls (featuring Rogue Wave)” and Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels” (listen to this one all the way through for its chilling ending). Here’s the video for “Waterfalls” with John kissing a crying Paul.

New York Letters, The Vague Ideas

New York Letters (Trouserphonic) is a unique idea by US-based musician and writer Mare Rozzelle and set during the period John Lennon lived in New York between 1971 and 1980. Originally conceived as a stage play, Rozzelle asked UK-based songwriter and musician Glenn Prangnell to write the music for songs that took the form of letters and messages both to and from Lennon. Rozelle used the Hunter Davies “The John Lennon Letters,” Cynthia Lennon’s book, and books by John and Yoko’s assistants, as well as the many television shows he was on to gain insight into John’s conversational style.

The songs on New York Letters lift licks and sounds from Lennon’s work during this period. It’s like the songs that Neil Innes wrote for The Rutles but without the jokes (although “Always Good to Hear from You [Letter from Mimi]” is funny with its swipe at Paul and a tune like the “granny music” John detested.)

The album begins with the rocking “NYC (Letter to Julia)” following his primal scream therapy and sounding like an outtake from Walls and Bridges or Milk and Honey. The snarky “Nixon’s Listening (Letter to Tricky Dicky)” is a response to that president’s attempt to throw Lennon out of the country and tap his phone because of John's political activities.

With a sound that fittingly recalls Double Fantasy’s  “I’m Losing You,” “Bread and Jam (Letter to Julian)” has John writing to his young son who lives with his mother across the ocean: “I know you can’t be happy that I’m so far away/But someday soon I’m gonna send for you/And I promise you can come and stay.”

The amazing “Revolution 9”- inspired “Prelude to the Lost Weekend” is Prangnell’s look at Lennon’s state-of-mind as he leaves Yoko and goes to California to drink and hang out with folks like Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and Ringo Starr. The Macca-like, bouncy and piano-based “Something’ll Happen (Letter from Paul)” is his hope for a reunion, not of the greatest band in the world, but a friendship (I love the line “Talk about us/We thought it was heaven/Riding the bus in search of B7”).

The last two songs on the album are the saddest as well as the most beautiful. “When You Turn Five (Lullaby for Sean)” is the future that neither of them will see together. And “No More Crying (Message to Paul)” is a love song to McCartney; it’s his version of “Here Today” and even begins with the same chord. “It’s only me, Paul” the lyric goes, a remark that McCartney has said would happen when he and John argued during the Fab times.

It was 80 years ago today

 By Henry Lipput

Today, June 18, 2022, is James Paul McCartney’s 80^th birthday. I have been listening to his music, both with The Beatles and as a solo artist, for nearly 60 of those years.

The first mention of activity by Paul was in 1953 when he was awarded a Liverpool Public Libraries prize for his essay about Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. But it wasn’t until four years later that things really took off. On July 6, 1957 he met John Lennon and so was born one the greatest songwriting partnerships in popular music. 

Paul was the lead writer for early classics like “I Saw Her Standing There,” “All My Loving,” and “And I Love Her.” But for me he really came into his own on June 14, 1965 when the band recorded “I’ve Just Seen A Face,” “Yesterday,” and “I’m Down” in one day.

When The Beatles broke up in 1970, Paul was still in his late twenties and even if he retired from music and took up being a shop keeper or barman he would still be remembered today. His fingerprints are all over Revolver (in addition to the songs he wrote, he played lead guitar on “Taxman” and brought in the tape loops for “Tomorrow Never Knows”), the concept of Sgt. Pepper’s was his, and he cobbled together the glorious Abbey Road medley.

But as we know he didn’t stop there. His solo career began in 1970 with his self-titled album on which he played every instrument. And two years ago he released McCartney III, another (mostly) all-McCartney production. He just finished up an American tour and he’s about to headline Glastonbury, the biggest music festival in the world.

It would be very difficult to list all of my favorite McCartney songs but here are just a few: Side 2 of Wild Life, “I’m Down,” “Hey Jude,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five,” “Smile Away,” “Press,” “Here Today,” the Abbey Road medley, “I Will,” “Demons Dance,” “Arrow Through Me,” “Fabulous,” “Heaven On A Sunday,” and “Get Enough.” On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, there’s a special segment in which he asks guests a series of questions to get to know them better. One of the questions is: If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would that song be? For me it’s no contest: “Got To Get You Into My Life” (the mono mix of course).

Paul McCartney’s music has influenced how I think about music. His music is my default reference for how I describe music in my reviews.  Important moments in his life are hard wired into my mental calendar.

Happy Birthday, Paul. Have a wonderful day.