The 1981 Listening Post - Jandek - Later On

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler

Released: 1981 Jandek Later On Genre: Jandek Rating: 3.7 out of 5 (see note) Highlights: Your Condition Oh Jenny Fifteen Observations on Jandek’s 1981 album, Later On: 1. “Some of that sounds like Native American chanting.” (My wife, who is always right) 2. It took me a few seconds to recognize that the other instrument (besides the guitar) was a harmonica. On the Last.fm page for this album, someone wrote, “Damn, that harmonica surely adds up to the music. This sounds like satanic folk music.” 3. Yes, he only plays one “chord” on the guitar, but if you think of it as purely a percussion instrument, it’s a breakthrough moment when he starts playing a different rhythm after the same strum over and over. 4. “I was walkin’ down the road / Yes, I was walkin’ down the road / I was walkin’ down the road / Movin’ down the road / Saw you comin’ back.” In the world of Jandek, this feels like a blues. Actually it’s not that hard to imagine someone like John Lee Hooker making the same lyric into a blues. 5. My favorite “song” on the album is Oh Jenny. It has a good rhyme in it! The harmonica actually feels plaintive, a real music adjective. The refrain, “Oh Jenny” is sung with a recognizable melody. 6. I decided I should also include the first song, Your Condition, as a highlight, not because I liked it or would want anyone to listen to it, but because someone on YouTube commented, “First song is one of the best things i’ve heard in my life.” I felt this warranted a highlight. 7. On some of these songs, Jandek plays individual strings of the guitar separately from others. This, too, feels kind of bluesy, although I cannot explain why. 8. "You walk along / You sing a song / You know tomorrow’s gone.” These lyrics inspired my personal conspiracy theory about Jandek: he is actually Jim Morrison, who didn’t die, but suffered a massive brain injury and lives with a caregiver who periodically releases his music and tells him he’s still a big star. It all makes sense! 9. The song Don’t Know If I Care includes one section of guitar that comes dangerously close to an actual melody. It fades out quickly, thank god. 10. John Carne also sounds like a Jandek blues song. “Well I been up the mountain / I been down below / Been in the sky / Down valley.” That’s all there is to it. 11. In the album’s scariest song, Jandek tells a girl named Jessica to “Go gently to your chambers / Open a window and greet the sky.” If I were her, I would politely refuse. 12. I wonder if Jenny, Max, John Carne, or Jessica from the song titles are real people. Imagine being a person named in a Jandek song. Would you ever sleep normally again afterwards? 13. Another title with a name is Jackson Go Down the Mississippi. Jandek wants him to sail to the sea and away to another land. “Now Jackson, look to the skies / They’re the reason for your eyes.” I mean, yeah, sure, that’s possible. Why not? 14. The album ends with a song called Second End. I don’t know when or if there was a first end. I felt this song was attempting to hypnotize me into doing something, perhaps listening to the album again from the beginning. I resisted this impulse. 15. The last lyrics on the album are “Joy to the world / Hallelujah.” I mean, those lyrics come just a few seconds before this album is over. Make of that what you will. NOTE: I had no idea how to give this record a score out of 5, so I decided to use a random number generator. It only seemed fair. I put in 0 to 50, and it gave me 37. Thus, 3.7 out of 5.