John Doe – Border X-ing
The first four X albums, all produced by Manzarek and all released within four years, hold up two decades later in much the same way the first five Clash albums do. Both bands started out as fairly orthodox punk bands — playing short, brash songs fast and hard — but gradually grew weirder and woolier as their ambitions blossomed.
More Fun In The New World is only a single disc, but it sprawls stylistically much like Sandinista, ranging from a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Breathless” to an update of Woody Guthrie’s talking blues on “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”; from the political commentary of “The New World” to the party song “We’re Having Much More Fun”; from the punk manifesto “Make The Music Go Bang” to “True Love, Pt. #2”, which references everyone from Tammy Wynette to Cannibal & the Headhunters.
About the same time, the marriage between Doe and Cervenka was falling apart. That’s usually the death knell for a band, yet the two singers not only stayed in X but also shared songwriting credits on the nine breakup songs that formed the basis for the next album.
“There were fleeting moments when Exene and I weren’t sure if we could stay together,” Doe confesses, “but the band was doing well, and we both loved the band. We realized that the musical union was more important than our personal problems. It helped that we had started out as friends rather than as some huge romance. Plus we’re masochists to a small degree, and we’re willing to take an unflinching look at what happened.”
Producing 1985’s Ain’t Love Grand was Michael Wagener, best-known for his work with the heavy-metal band Accept. He gave X their biggest guitar sound ever and their most in-tune vocals, but he also pruned away some of the eccentricity. “My only regret was that the production on Ain’t Love Grand, which was about that split, wasn’t as personal as the songs,” Doe acknowledges. “The production kept the listener at arm’s length.”
That same summer, Doe, Cervenka, Bonebrake, Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin and bassist Jonny Ray Bartel formed the Knitters, which Doe describes as “the country alter ego of X.” The name was a pun on Pete Seeger’s folk group, the Weavers, but the emphasis was traditional country. The one and only Knitters album, Poor Little Critter On The Road (released by Slash in 1985), included songs by Merle Haggard, the Delmore Brothers and the Carter Family plus two songs also on Ain’t Love Grand.
“It was all Dave Alvin’s fault,” Doe says today. “We wanted to play more benefits, but that was difficult with Billy. Dave was a fucking socialist, so he was all for it, and we formed the Knitters to play benefits. It let me play acoustic guitar, and it let me play soft, slow, sad songs. And it allowed us to play all the country songs we’d been listening to.
“Exene and I had been listening to a lot of Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. In the early ’80s, you could still find George Jones Starday records in thrift stores. Those old country records hit home. The lyrics were so truthful, and the singers had such good haircuts.
“It wasn’t an intellectual or conceptual thing; it was more a natural progression of where our interests led us. Once you’ve mastered punk rock, you start looking around for other things to use. When you find this huge world of country and blues, you gravitate toward that very naturally, because it’s so rich.”
Last year, Bloodshot Records released Poor Little Knitter On The Road: A Tribute To The Knitters, featuring remakes of the Knitters’ original dozen songs by such acts as Robbie Fulks, Kelly Hogan, Whiskeytown and the Handsome Family. Doe joined the Old 97’s for a remake of “Cryin’ But My Tears Are Far Away”, and the reassembled Knitters contributed a new song, “Why Don’t We Try Anymore”.
“When Bloodshot called me up and told me they were making a Knitters tribute record,” Doe says, “there was this big pause in the conversation. Finally I said, ‘Why?’
“I was flabbergasted that anyone would make a tribute album to a band that had made only one album. But I guess that’s what independent record companies are good for; they can come up with a crazy idea like that and just go with it. The tribute album was OK; some of the songs were good and some were not so good. I thought they should have stuck to the original sequencing.
“The Knitters actually got back together and did a West Coast tour at the end of ’99. We’ve talked about recording another Knitters album, but Dave is pretty busy with his solo career.”