John Cole
05-01-2003, 01:51 AM
It's a certain quality in the voice that's unmistakable. Even when Dr. John teams with Leon Redbone on "Frosty the Snowman," his voice bespeaks a life spent among reprobates and scoundrels, pimps, prostitutes, and pushers. What do we expect a poker player to sound like?
I'm sitting here, getting in the mood by donning my "I'm Running Bad" hat and readying myself for Tommy Angelo's CD of poker songs. Let me here reveal my critical bias: I've always hated poker analogies, and I recoil whenever I hear someone resort to the particular and peculiar language of poker to explain rather bland insights. So, I'm not quite sure what to expect from a CD of poker songs, and I'm a bit afraid that "I'm Running Bad" contains five songs too many about poker. Poker players might think poker is like life, but, taking my cue from T.S. Eliot's comments about poetry, I've always thought of poker as an escape from life rather than a metaphor for life.
Given the title, I expected various songs about the vagaries and the inevitable frustration that comes with "running bad." And, certainly, many of the songs attempt to express this sensibility. Somehow, though, there's a certain dissonance between what the songs try to say and how they're delivered.
I think the first song, "I'm Running Good," sets much of the tone. Tommy borrows from Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown's Christmas music to reinforce the Christmas morning euphoria the song expresses. Tommy also knows that beginnings look forward to endings, and perhaps it's no surprise that the last song, not really a poker song, is aptly titled "The Present."
Of course, highs must lead to inevitable lows--running bad. In "Slowroller," a narrative song based on a showdown between the good (Tommy) and the bad (a character named Nimrod), we hear the story of how the weak victimizes the strong and evil conquers good. Nimrod's win provokes the most unspeakable of foul words--F***.
And here's where the dissonance enters. Tommy, I don't believe you. Damn it, you're a nice guy, and it just comes through in your voice. You'd like to show us what it's like in the depths, but you can't stay there. Sure, we all feel bad for Charlie Brown, but we admire his resiliency. No matter how many times the little red-haired girl rejects him, no matter how many times Lucy pulls the football away, Charlie Brown plugs away because he knows someday life will get better. And because he knows, at heart, he's a winner, we also want him to win. Charlie Brown is one of us, and, as poker players, we know Tommy's one of us, too.
Give Tommy Angelo's CD a listen. Poker players will love it, especially those running bad. Hell, we know, thanks to Tommy, it can't last forever.
I'm sitting here, getting in the mood by donning my "I'm Running Bad" hat and readying myself for Tommy Angelo's CD of poker songs. Let me here reveal my critical bias: I've always hated poker analogies, and I recoil whenever I hear someone resort to the particular and peculiar language of poker to explain rather bland insights. So, I'm not quite sure what to expect from a CD of poker songs, and I'm a bit afraid that "I'm Running Bad" contains five songs too many about poker. Poker players might think poker is like life, but, taking my cue from T.S. Eliot's comments about poetry, I've always thought of poker as an escape from life rather than a metaphor for life.
Given the title, I expected various songs about the vagaries and the inevitable frustration that comes with "running bad." And, certainly, many of the songs attempt to express this sensibility. Somehow, though, there's a certain dissonance between what the songs try to say and how they're delivered.
I think the first song, "I'm Running Good," sets much of the tone. Tommy borrows from Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown's Christmas music to reinforce the Christmas morning euphoria the song expresses. Tommy also knows that beginnings look forward to endings, and perhaps it's no surprise that the last song, not really a poker song, is aptly titled "The Present."
Of course, highs must lead to inevitable lows--running bad. In "Slowroller," a narrative song based on a showdown between the good (Tommy) and the bad (a character named Nimrod), we hear the story of how the weak victimizes the strong and evil conquers good. Nimrod's win provokes the most unspeakable of foul words--F***.
And here's where the dissonance enters. Tommy, I don't believe you. Damn it, you're a nice guy, and it just comes through in your voice. You'd like to show us what it's like in the depths, but you can't stay there. Sure, we all feel bad for Charlie Brown, but we admire his resiliency. No matter how many times the little red-haired girl rejects him, no matter how many times Lucy pulls the football away, Charlie Brown plugs away because he knows someday life will get better. And because he knows, at heart, he's a winner, we also want him to win. Charlie Brown is one of us, and, as poker players, we know Tommy's one of us, too.
Give Tommy Angelo's CD a listen. Poker players will love it, especially those running bad. Hell, we know, thanks to Tommy, it can't last forever.