'You're a Long Way Off from Yippie-yi-yay': A Week with 'Call of the West'

I started this week queuing up Wall of Voodoo's 'Call of the West' with no prior knowledge other than their song, Mexican Radio, before pressing play. And I feel that this is where knowledge of the band ends for most people. Unfortunately for the average listener, Mexican Radio, although a wonderful pop song, is not really a good representation of what 'Call of the West' has in store for them. It's probably why most people don't know who sings, "that Mexico radio song" (as one of my co-workers referred to it this week) and why Wall of Voodoo never really hit it big. That is a real shame because in 'Call of the West' they have delivered a real lost gem of an album.

As I listened to the LP, I was first struck by what an interesting sound Wall of Voodoo has conjured up on this 1982 album. Imagine if in the middle of one of Sergio Leone's great Spaghetti Westerns ('The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly etc.) all of its characters were magically given keyboards, drum machines, electric guitars, and a whole host of other interesting music-making devices and were set loose to jam away. It really is a sound that I can honestly say I don't think I've heard on any other album: a sort of synth-western. It has the jangle-ly epic guitar lines & wailing harmonica's that mark a lot of Ennio Morricone's western movie scoring alongside keyboards, drum machines, and angular melodies that mark a lot of 80s post-punk/new wave bands. And to my surprise it works really, really well. The instrumental track On Interstate 15 serves as a perfect summation of their style; featuring awesome Morricone guitar lines and strong synth presence working in beautiful harmony.

This interesting musical esthetic is combined with lead singer Stan Ridgway's lyrics that paint vivid stories throughout each of the record's tracks. I mentioned earlier that Mexican Radio is not really a good marker for the rest of the album; it is most obvious thematically. Comparatively, the rest of the record is kind of a bummer. Many of the tracks wrangle with a disillusionment of "the American Dream" and even, maybe to a lesser extent, the idea of American exceptionalism. The first three tracks on the album deal with these themes, all showcasing characters trying to make it big and then failing. The heartbreaking Lost Weekend has a couple dreaming of what their life could be, the businesses they could start, and the places they could visit only to lose their money time after time trying to catch that break. Factory details the life of a man stuck in his daily routine of getting up, going to work at the factory, coming home, eating, sitting in his chair, beating his wife, and going to bed; all for the sake of "a living" and a "little plastic pool for the kids to wade in".

The concept of "The West" represents opportunity, adventure, a final frontier, and a new start in American culture; even now. And in this record, Wall of Voodoo takes a hard look at those ideals and points out that maybe they aren't all they are cracked up to be. It says that maybe this constant striving to live "the life" and get that white-picket fence is what is causing many of the problems the characters in these songs face. The band creates an interesting juxtaposition with its Western-style instrumentation and melodies, and its lyrical content which many times are a critique of the very mythos that it is evoking. It is a true testament to the record that it can still be enjoyed just as much on this more deep, lyrical, and philosophical level as it can be enjoyed as a jangle-ly, synth-wave musical experience.

While I really do enjoy much of what Wall of Voodoo offers on this record, a couple of the tracks never really clicked with me in my week of listens. Look at Their Way and They Don't Want Me could never find that sweet spot as so many of the other songs on this album did. They struck me almost as place-holders in the midst of the really good stuff. The songs themselves aren't half-bad, but in comparison to some of the gems around them; they just don't stand up.

So where does this leave us, then? It leaves us with a really worthwhile album. 'Call of the West' is not a perfect record but it is a very good one and one that deserves to be heard and explored. With its quirky instrumentation and engaging lyrics it really is a great (lost) "American" record. Its themes are ones that are still relevant today; perhaps even more relevant than in 1982. They are ideas and concepts that I think are valuable for every person, American or not, to wrestle with. What is truly worth striving for? And is it worth what we may lose along the way? It's pretty heady stuff and the album doesn't supply many answers but it gets the ball rolling. This record won't change your life or ideals, but it does provide some valuable food for thought in a delicious new-wave, western-flavored package. It is so much more than just Mexican Radio. 

Up Next!: A Tribe Called Quest - "The Low End Theory" (by request!)