A Quick Word Never Is

Album: The Connells, One Simple Word, 1990

Acquired: I probably received this as a birthday or Christmas present. Thanks to the gifter, or thanks to me if I bought it myself.

Best Track: "Too Gone"

Lasting Memory: I listened to this album a lot while I was researching and writing papers for classes during my two-year junior year at Virginia Tech. It has a nice mellow tone, and the lyrics to most of the songs are mixed low, making them easy to tune out.

If a listener does tune out the lyrics to the songs on One Simple Word, he or she will be proving the points the album seems to have been created to make. Those points are that communication is difficult, meanings are often missed intentionally, and, despite these realities, we all need to try to get and keep each other's attention. Failing to make the effort dooms us to a fate worse than loneliness. It causes loss of the very self-identity that allows us to relate to other people.

My favorite track from this album, "Too Gone," presents evidence in support of each of these points:

And what am I too gone for you?
And when am I too gone?
And what am I too gone for you?
And when am I too gone?

Wasn't I once the one for you?
And what am I to say?
Wasn't I once the one for you?
And what am I to say?

One if by land, two if by sea, three if by chance
Four for the door, five for the sky, six in my hands

[Chorus, quoting musically and lyrically from Shannon's "Let the Music Play"]
Let the music play
We don't get away
There goes the music baby
We know how to use it
Let it play

Let the music play
We don't get away
There goes the music baby
We know how to use it
Let it play

One if by land, two if by sea, three if by chance
Four for the door, five for the sky, six in my pants

Things don't have to get so bad, especially when the solution is as simple as acquiescing to the request "speak to Me," which song begins

Slow down
I'm not looking for an answer
At least not today
Instead, entertain me for the moment
This won't go away

[Chorus]
You speak to me, then sentence me
You change me around
Turn me over and around you like that
Then just let me be.

So while what we hear might not always be welcome, it is surely necessary. Because when it "All Sinks In,"

Then I recognize the classic signs
Of this unkind disease
Be advised
Please realize

And it all sinks in on us sometimes
Oh, and it all sinks down around us.

When the painful truths do register, you can get "The Joke" and figure out "What Do You Want?".

I wrote a few posts ago that The Connells wrote songs that didn't really mean much. I stand by that statement as it pertains to the bands first two albums. The Connells' third and fourth albums, however, have a lot of lyrical depth and stand as, really, conceptual pieces.

To revisit yesterday's question of whether The Connells went "dark" as they matured, I'll have to say no. What The Connells did was progress from "playing rock 'n' roll is fun" to "having fun can have unwelcome personal consequences" to "as long as you establish and keep open lines of communication, then you don't have to mired in rue."* In other words, like The Call, the Connells grew up and recorded their experiences in music and verse. Or to quote The Connells back at themselves, "He was a bad dancer/ 'Til he learned to shimmy."

Listen to a clip from "Too Gone"

Up Next: The Connells, Ring, 1993

* Mired in Roux would be a great band name and/or recipe.