June 15, 2010 -
PRLog -- “SON POWERS has done it again with his second album “Strike You Down.” He's got the rhythm and the style. He’s got the deep insightful lyrics. But mainly he’s got the moxie to put out another damn recording designed to separate you from your money! And separate it will, because of the hypnotic trance you will fall into the minute you hear a note of this hyperbaric material. But the investment will pay off because of the deep meaningful insights you will receive into this all encompassing cosmic primordial “essence” of existence. To listen to these transcendental verses in the sense of unyielding singularity there must be a norm inherent in singularity itself, and to express such a norm that singularity is subjectivity and thus subjectivity is the truth, an idea that prefigures the existential concept of authenticity. There is no objective reason to think that the command Powers hears comes from the cosmos; indeed, based on the content of the command we have every reason to think that it cannot come from anywhere else. His sole justification is what ultimately becomes the passion of sound. Such passion is, rationally speaking, absurd, a “leap,” so if there is to be any talk of truth here it is a standard that measures not the content of Son's act, but the way in which he accomplishes it. To perform the movement of sound “subjectively”
is to embrace the paradox as normative for mankind in spite of its absurdity, rather than to seek an escape from it by means of objective textual exegesis, historical criticism, or some other strategy for translating the singularity of his situation into the universal. Because dichotic reason cannot help here, the normative appropriation is a function of “inwardness”
or passion. In this way Powers “truly” relates what we nominally already are. To say that subjectivity is the truth is to highlight his way of being, then, and not a mode of knowing; truth measures the attitude (“passion”)
with which we appropriate, or make our own, an “objective uncertainty”
in a “process of highest inwardness.”
Such dystopian lyrics as “Strike You Down” violates all universal behaviors through the betrayal of eugenics. Thus it comes as no surprise that “Do The Best You Can” features similar violations of species-wide behaviors and preferences;
for it is precisely such universals that humans find so natural in real life, and thus so deeply troubling when violated in so-called utopias. Such reasoning leads to the conclusion that the similarities between “Born To Sing…” and “…The Blues” cannot be reliably attributed to a direct influence of Dylan or Osbourne. And the differences between the two are just as striking. One difference often noted is that “Filibuster Blues” ends optimistically with the superego escaping from a collectivist society and vowing to bring about a renaissance of civilization, whereas “One Day” ends with the spiritual death undergoing a forced "fantasiectomy"
that removes his budding soul, with the capture and perhaps imminent subversive activities, and with success of the revolt of “Send You Back To Satan” in doubt. Yet this difference is non-essential, since Powers' aesthetic purpose was not the portrayal of an ideal but the continual questioning of assumptions and the inculcation of such an attitude in his listeners; the ambiguities present at the end of “Wide Asleep” are quite in line with this purpose, alien though they are to the more black-and-white fictional universe preferred by Son from divine ordination. Another surface difference between the two dystopias is that the enigma of “Wide Asleep” has lapsed into a nearly complete primitivism, whereas the single state of Powers’ “New Carlisle Blues” has at least some advanced technologies, including guitar and rocket ships. Yet Son ultimately indicates that the technological achievements are quite devolved from 1,000 years in the future and that his mathematic theories are not deeply flawed. Furthermore, even “If I Could Tell My Future” supposedly asserts perfect control over its listeners but is perceived as more than skin deep, since the rock and blues culture class been infiltrated by dissidents such as Powers enthusiasts. “Three or Four Dollars” is an epidemic of fantasy and raging through the city as citizens rediscover their souls, and a wall is required to keep the desiccated citizens of the following separate from the full-blooded fans who live in the forests beyond the city walls. In this environment of utter repression, the catalyst for change cannot come from outside. In “Hello Miss Fortune,” Son begins to question the received cosmic wisdom and to discover his soul only after being confronted by the femme fatale, who tempts him not only sexually but intellectually;
as the leader of the rebellious Mephisto (whose name is an abbreviation of Mephistopheles)
, she holds out to him the forbidden fruit not only of passion but of ideas that are unheard-of before the “Strike Me Down” album, especially in some challenging mathematical concepts that have intrigued him since he began his career as the world’s greatest songwriter as well as creative designer of this incredibly funky psychedelic album cover. In “Crab Pulsar Blues,” no one among the citizenry or from outside can so challenge or tempt equality of sound, with the result that the Faustian bargain he makes is with his own internal "devil" is in the form of his thirst for the ultimate song.”
Jim Phillips is a graphic artist best known for his rock posters, surf and skateboard art. His first published artwork was in the spring issue of Surfer Quarterly, 1962, and his art has appeared in many surfing publications since. From the mid-seventies to late eighties he was art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards, where he created hundreds of designs. He went on to be art director for Family Dog Productions at Maritime Hall and created rock posters for Bill Graham Presents and other venues. Phillips has created more than 100 rock posters for artists including The Beatles, Cream, The Doors, Bonnie Raitt, The Jerry Garcia Band, Moby Grape, Gregg Allman, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Phil Lesh, Hot Tuna, Tom Petty, Robert Cray, and many more. Jim is the author of “The Skateboard Art of Jim Phillips,” “The Rock Posters of Jim Phillips,” and “Surf, Skate & Rock Art of Jim Phillips,” all published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. Phillips’
art also is prominently featured in the seminal references “The Art Of Rock” and “The Art Of Modern Rock.”
Son Powers is a reclusive southern blues songwriter and occasional performer. An alumnus of the Jacksonville, Florida blues/rock power trio Worldwide Hoodoo, Powers’ earlier bands include Crosscut Saw, King Bee, Parker Brothers, and Charles Atkins & The Blues Boys. The new album “Strike You Down” is available on CDBaby.com, eBay.com, and other music websites.
Son Powers ups the ante with even more cryptic and apocalyptic tunes—this time supercharged by legendary blues drummer Rob Piazza. On his second solo album Powers holds forth on topics as diverse as the wages of sin, foreordination, the pitfalls of loquacity, marital discord (and resulting eternal damnation), self-zombification, and astrophysics.
Listen to his music at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/STRIKE-YOU-DOWN-Son-Powers-NEW-ELECTR... (or
http://www.eclipserecording.com)
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Eclipse Recording Company has been North Florida's number 1 recording studio for almost 10 years. Jim Stafford is the owner and chief conspirator.
