Fairly Godfathers

Album: The Godfathers, More Songs About Love and Hate, 1989

Best Track: "Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues"

Lasting Memory:

I promised in yesterday's post to rule on how successful The Godfathers were in blending pop and punk. After hearing both of the band's U.S. major-label releases a total of four times within the span of 26 hours, I can definitively state that band either just missed at bringing the two sounds together or were too good at doing so.

Whichever was the case, the result is the same: With the exception of four, possibly five, songs, The Godfathers' blend of sunny hooks and angst-cum-anger produced more mismatch than monster mash. The poppier songs err on the side of not being light enough, while the heavier songs err on the side of not having a pressure-release. Committing more fully to either the pop aesthetic, like Blink 182 did on Enema of the State, or to punk nihilism, like Green day did on Dookie, would have served The Godfathers well.

In large measure, The Godfathers' failing -- if it's even fair to call it that -- was due to ambition rather than lack of skill. After all, it's not like any pre-1988 bands I can think of had really tried to make a go of pop punk in the world of MTV and mainstream rock radio. The bands who might be named as having done so include The Ramones, The Jam, and, um, nobody. And even those associations aren't completely apt, since The Ramones owed more to garage band and Motown hitmakers than to actual punk. The Jam were Kinks meet Who. Lacking solid role models, The Godfathers couldn't easily hear where they needed to lighten up or bear down.

The Godfathers were innovators who couldn't quite remake the mold for what a rock hit could be. It would be nice to think that The Godfathers were an influence on Blink 182 and Green Day, but there is no solid evidence for that. I'll still make the connection.

At the same time, since what The Godfathers produced in the form of More Songs About Love and Hate hasn't been proven essential by the test of time, I honestly don't have a lasting memory tied to the album. But even though each of the following is still a little too washed out to be to an ideal of its kind of song, there are three standout on this album: "She Gives Me Love," "Life Has Passed Us By," and the aforementioned "Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues."

Click the two of three and wonder what might have been. As The Jam noted, "That's Entertainment."

Up Next: Guadalcanal Diary, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, 1985