A Pilgrim’s Digression

…the Alanis Morissette album “Jagged Little Pill” is re-released in an acoustic version to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the album’s release.

I saw it for sale at Starbucks this morning. I’ll probably buy it later in the week. 10 year anniversary! Can you believe it? I remember 1995 very well. I’d get in my old ‘86 Toyota Tercel and drive to the University for class, and I could always count on hearing “Ironic” played at least once. Sheesh I feel ancient.

Now the big question in my mind is why Starbucks will sell “Jagged Little Pill” while banning the sale of Springsteen’s “Devils and Dust.” The Morissette album was notorious at the time for its sexual themes. Remember, the song “You Oughta Know” contains the lines “Would she go down on you in a theater?” and “Are you thinking of me when you fuck her?” The song is a general expression of rage at a boyfriend who has left the singer for another woman, and Morisette pulls off rage very well in her screeching, off-key voice. There is also the song “One hand in my pocket” which some have interpreted as being about masturbation.

The new Springsteen album “Devils and Dust,” on the other hand, has been banned because of one song alone, “Reno.” The song is about a man visiting a hooker in a Nevada brothel. Ultimately, the song is a love song. A couple lines indicate that the man is trying to assuage a grief for a lost love. He says that the hooker has “your ankles,” and at the end of the song, the hooker proposes a toast to “the best you ever had.” Springsteen sings that she wasn’t the best “I ever had / Not even close.” It’s a sad love song. One can imagine the singer’s love has died (my preference), or else she has simply left him.

The whole album “Devils and Dust” is a great, great album, and it’s disappointing that Starbucks would ban it. The one questionable lyric, in which the prostitute tells him, “200 straight in / Or 250 up the ass” is sung so that “ass” is unintelligible until you read the lyrics. I didn’t know what Springsteen was saying, or what the song was about, until I looked at the liner notes.

I’ve been meaning to write a full review of “Devils and Dust” for awhile, and maybe I’ll get around to that. The album is definitely worth buying. It has a folksy, Bob Dylan-ish sound to it which I really like. I’ve been listening to it just about every day for the past couple weeks.