Three Snakes and One Charm...This Is What Drugs Do To a Great Band
Written: Feb 20 '02 (Updated Apr 22 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: some solid songs, and some solid songwriting
Cons: some poor songs, and some poor songwriting
The Bottom Line: Three Snakes and One Charm is a decent album, but it doesn't measure up to efforts preceding or following it, and it's by far the weakest Black Crowes album.
MattA75's Full Review: Three Snakes and One Charm by The Black Crowes
Excuse me while I lay my heart and my soul on the line one more time...I guess you could say this is an addendum to the "Soundtrack To My Life" write-off
I was depressed this past weekend. Some of you already knew that. I don't know if it was the "Soundtrack to My Life" Write Off that did it with me reliving some painful memories, or if it was the fact that I couldn't seem to get along with anyone, or what, but I was in a very dark place that I can safely say I haven't been to in at least four years. So what did I do? Well, I pulled out Three Snakes and One Charm, by far the worst album in the Black Crowes catalog, and yet at times, it shows the potential that it could have been their best. While obviously completely drug induced, even moreso than this record's predecessor, Amorica, Three Snakes has some great tunes on it.
The most notable tune is Good Friday, a slow ballad that has great music and the 4 best lines that the dueling Robinson brothers wrote for this album, and possibly in their careers:
I will not forgive you
nor will I accept the blame
I will see you on Good Friday
on Good Friday
The song is moody, but it taps into emotions that I have had with such a ferocity. As I sat there listening to this song over and over this weekend, half the time in tears, I wondered why I had been so forgiving to people, why I had been so quick to accept the blame when nothing was my fault in the first place.
This weekend, it became normal for me to skip straight to Girl From a Pawn Shop after listening to Good Friday. Some people call Girl From a Pawn Shop drug induced, too slow, too depressing. To me, it once again just sums up a lot of things and a lot of emotions that I've felt throughout my own life.
There's a passion to being alone
I knew a lot about being alone, no one to trust. The song continues...
A grace in a loveless time
There's no new cross, there's no new sign
only the sun and the changing tide
I knew a lot about a "loveless time" as well, and the line about the sun and the changing tide to me represented the place I loved to go and yet could not get to. And then at the end, as the song picks up momentum (finally, as some people might say), there's something deeply sentimental and emotional contained in the guitar playing of lead guitarist Marc Ford, who would be fired in late 1997. He seems to channel the emotion of the song in such a way that is so gorgeous and so beautiful, anyone who can't feel it I would almost dare call not human. (no offense intended to the writer who bashes this song in her own review of it, you know who you are, hehe)
There's always been something about How Much For Your Wings? that has always captivated me as well. I've always had this strange fascination with flying in a way. Not the literal sense of course but the sense that your soul is flying, your spirit is flying. I've always kind of thought this song tapped into that feeling or that fascination I've had.
I'm not naive but I believe
So I may grow
I always thought those two lines particular described me perfectly. Sure, I'm a little naive, but I believe that someone can make themselves grow and make themselves soar as human beings. Maybe that's being a lot naive, or wearing "rose colored glasses" or whatever you want to call it. For me it's something more.
There's also always been something about the song Better When You're Not Alone that's struck a chord with me. I always thought the song title was misconstrued in a way, but it's so f*cking beautiful and it's so f*cking right about love and life and everything in between.
This life, this life aches
And this life moans
This life, this life is great
And it's better when your
not alone
Your eyes don't lie to me
And your smile is worth it's weight in gold
The lyrics hit something deep with me, I don't know if they do with anyone else, but they do with me. It's a sweet sappy song and yet it's not. It reminds me a lot of Pearl Jam'sBetter Man, if only because I can totally see this song being misconstrued in so many ways.
Of course, it's odd that I would talk about a Black Crowes record and not mention them rocking. The two best examples are Nebakenezer and Blackberry. Neither of which have decidedly great lyrics, but they are probably the two songs that is most representative of the old Black Crowes sound, and they're fun to dance to.
The problem with this album lies in the rest of it. It's so repetitive, so, well, boring. Many of the songs sound a lot alike, and this is no doubt due to not only the drugs that the band was taking at this time, but to the general feeling that the band was putting out there at the time as they seemingly tried to become a "jamband" in the vein of Phish or the Grateful Dead. The only difference in fact, between the Dead and Phish and then the Crowes, was that those two bands were always jam bands. Meanwhile, the Black Crowes had been a southern rock, balls to the wall outfit. You can't be both. You can try, and there were times, especially live, where the Black Crowes pulled it off. But the problem with songs like Evil Eye and Under a Mountain and One Mirror Too Many is that they don't really sit apart from one another.
And then, the one song that does sit apart from really anything else on the album, Halfway to Everywhere, is so completely hideous and insane and annoying, that the band should just hang their heads in shame for releasing such rubbish (Especially with something like Title Song sitting on the shelf).
All in all, I like Three Snakes and One Charm. It's charms are more than just a few. However, if you truly want a sense of who the Black Crowes are, then you need to get your hands on their second album (and one of the best albums ever made) The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, or their third album, Amorica. Three Snakes and One Charm rates three stars and a recommendation with a warning that it has more than it's share of flaws.
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