William Dart explores the music of Marc Ribot, one of the world's great guitarists that you've possibly never heard of. As a session musician he's played with almost everybody. And in 2018 he released a solo album of his own - a fiercely political collection called Songs of Resistance 1942-2018.
Photo: Sandlin Gaither
In the early days of his career, as a session musician, Marc Ribot played with big names, some of whom, such as Wilson Pickett, had been boyhood idols. And the young guitarist proved that he could lay down melting arpeggios with the best of them. But the gig that made his name in 1985, was a good deal grittier, spiking up the small band in the Tom Waits cabaret club on the album, Rain Dogs.
In the many collaborations that followed, Ribot could be relied on for delivering attitude on six strings – partially due to an expansive musical vocabulary that could reference his classical training as well as explore his more avant-garde leanings on the jagged side.
Which certainly added a sinister edge when he sat alongside Sam Phillips on her song, "Where are you taking me".
Marc Ribot is the ultimate musical chameleon and he’s not always polite. One of his jeune homme terrible moments, on his 1990 solo album Yo! I Killed Your God, was this 47 second dismemberment of Patsy Cline’s "I fall to pieces".
Yet, chameleon and guitar maestro that he is, Ribot can mould himself into almost any musical situation or style. He’s the soul of acoustic restraint on Allen Toussaint’s 2009 album The Bright Mississippi. The song is Leonard Feather’s "Long Long Journey", and his colleagues include Don Byron on clarinet, Brad Mehldau on piano and bass man David Piltch. And what a blast the boys in the band have.
This year, Ribot has come up with a boldly political album that aims at an audience beyond connoiseurs and cognoscenti. Its title, Songs of Resistance 1942-2018, with the byline of Goodbye Beautiful, couldn’t be more literal, spurred on by these Trumpian times to air grievances, both historical and current.
A finger is pointed at the current American president more than once, here when Steve Earle sings "Srinivas", a tribute to one of two Indian men murdered in a Kansas bar and grill just last year by a disturbed assassin who assumed they were Iranians. Pedal steel provides some ironic cushioning and there’s also grim play with a well-known patriotic tune.
Marc Ribot’s new album is a rich and resonant songbook that roves history, sometimes coming into collision with what’s happening in the here and now. He comments that while they were recording the final track of the album, a chilling few minutes when the transgender Justin Vivian Bond sing’s Bertha Gober’s "We’ll never turn back", Trump was delivering sweet words to anti-gay groups in Washington DC.
Listen to these songs and several more by clicking on the 'Listen' link above.
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Stop! Look What You’re Doing' (Isbell, Floyd) – Carla Thomas
Gee Whiz: The Best of Carla Thomas
(Rhino)
'Rain Dogs' (Waits) – Tom Waits
Rain Dogs
(Island)
'Where Are You Taking Me' (Phillips) – Sam Phillips
Omnipop
(Virgin)
'This Way Out' (Zorn) – John Zorn
Western Intro Avant Garde 2
(Tzadik)
'Don’t Go Breaking My Heart' (Bacharach) – Dionne Warwick
Here I Am/Here Where There Is Love
(Sequel)
'Don’t Go Breaking My Heart' (Bacharach) – Marc Ribot
Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach
(Tzadik)
'I Fall to Pieces' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot
Yo! I Killed Your God
(Tzadik)
'Long, Long Journey' (Feather) – Allen Toussaint
The Bright Mississippi
(Nonesuch)
'Ascending' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot
Exercises in Futility
(Tzadik)
'El Gaucho Rojo' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot and Los Cubanos Postizos
¡Muy Divertido!
(Atlantic)
'Bread and Roses' (Fariña, Oppenheim) – Ceramic Dog
Your Turn
(Pi)
'Srinivas' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot feat Steve Earle
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
(Anti)
'We’ll Never Turn Back' (Gober) – Marc Ribot feat Justin Vivian Bond
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
(Anti)
'John Brown' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot feat Fay Victor
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
(Anti)
'Knock That Statue Down' (Ribot) – Marc Ribot
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
(Anti)
'Bella Ciao' (Trad) – Chumbawamba
A Singsong and a Scrap
(No Masters)
'Bella Ciao' (Trad) – Marc Ribot feat Tom Waits
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
(Anti)
