STRANGE ANIMAL
Posted by Deirdre | Filed under Blog
Every time I hear Larry Gowan on the radio, I crank up the volume and remember fondly the few times I had the fortune of being in his gentle rock lord presence. Presently the lead singer for Styz, Gowan was once upon a time a solo artist with a string of hits to his credit— Strange Animal, Moonlight Desires, A Criminal Mind, to name just a few. He found success while young but that success never went to his head. I met him again years later when he performed — for free— at Andy Kim’s annual Toronto charity concert, and he was still the same talented yet modest guy, singing his heart out and filling ours with his gift of song. In tribute, I share this story from the archives —- a portrait of the artist as a strange animal. Enjoy.
Canada’s Larry Gowan has long black hair and purple bangs. His clothes are dark and sombre. A gold earring, twisted in the shape of the first letter of his last name, dangles from his left ear. His Scottish mother and Irish father have lent him brooding Celtic features that, in the mid- morning sun, seem Byronic.
England’s Jon Anderson, the choir boy ex-leader of Yes is blonde and lithe. His taste in clothes runs to priest-like robes and gowns. In performance, he not only sounds angelic, he looks it.
Gowan’s latest album, Great Dirty World, features a duet with Anderson on Moonlight Desires, the album’s single. It is an alliance of opposites, yet one not entirely unexpected. Gowan has always been influenced by the progressive rock of the late seventies. His last and most celebrated album, Strange Animal, featured some the musicians who back Peter Gabriel.
But Gowan, who lives in Toronto, is not a slavish imitator. Rather, he has taken elements from seventies rock and reshaped them to fit an eighties context. The result is music that’s progressive while still paying service to contemporary social and moral concerns and novel musical ideas.
Speaking one week away from his two-night concerts at Toronto’s Massey Hall next Wednesday and Thursday, Gowan yesterday talked about the creation of Great Dirty World and how it illustrates what he wants to do with pop music.
His main concern in making the album, he said, was making sure he didn’t let down the people who helped him shape his musical style on the last record – in particular producer David Tickle, who also produced Strange Animal.
Yet he wasn’t worried about duplicating the success of his last album. “The way I write songs, each ends up having its own individual life. I couldn’t write another Strange Animal or A Criminal Mind (hits off the last album) even if I tried. A lot of the songs on Strange Animal would not have made it on to this record. They wouldn’t have much sense in the context of this album. Moonlight Desires is already so different from what I’ve written before. The only thing it has in common with the songs on Strange Animal is its uniqueness.”
Gowan said Great Dirty World is a reaction to Strange Animal in the same sense that Strange Animal was a reaction to his self-titled debut album, a critical flop. “Lyrically,” said Gowan, “Great Dirty World is going into certain areas where pop songs don’t usually delve.”
For instance, Sixty Second Nightmare is a song about the single worst minute of your life; One Brief Shining Moment is about how your life is but one brief light in the universal scheme of things; Great Dirty World, the album’s title cut, is about going through the ringer and surviving it.
Gowan said he called the album Great Dirty World because he was “trying to add a sense of humor to what can be a dark subject matter.” He said the only way to survive a dirty world is to adopt an attitude that allows you to breeze through life with relatively few scratches. “I’m not really saying anything new,” he admitted. “Life’s really how great you make it. You could call this album How To Make Good A Dirty World and that would just about sum it up.”
For Gowan, the belief that the world can be a better place has religious roots. While he’s uncomfortable talking about himself as a religious man, Gowan conceded that he believes there’s a purpose and direction to life that’s worth contemplating. “I think everyone basically has spiritual leanings,” he said. “I think it’s a reality. But I also think music is a great way of letting that side of you explode and come out in the world. What I hope I’m doing with my music is making people aware of that.”