Ryan Adams' Gold Standard

There is, I don't think, another artist I fell in love with as hard as Ryan Adams, only to fall out of love with him pretty hard later in the decade. Whiskeytown had pretty much passed me by and were history by the time I got interested in Americana and then in Adams. I first heard "To Be Young (To Be Sad, To Be High" and read a glowing review of Heartbreaker, immediately bought that album and then picked up the Whiskeytown back catalogue in short order. But, really, my Adas fvorite at the time was Adams' sophomore effort, Gold. It was, and still is, a great record, the gold standard, so to speak. Gold has everything that's great about Adams - the effortless, winsome melodies, the warm vocals, impeccable production by new bff Ethan Johns - with little to none of the uglier side of him: No super lazy lyrics with foul language just for the hell of it, no filler, and just the inklings of the patsiche problem to come. It was obvious even on Gold that Adams was a pastiche artist, but the effect on Gold is different than what happened on the following albums. Here, it sounds like Adams had ingested a jukebox chock full of great tunes from about the late 1950s to the late 19970s and was now regurgitating the best of those dacades' music. 

Maybe not the best metaphor, though considering what was to come - both in quality and quantity of output - a probably fitting one, but on Gold it all came together. Sometimes the idols being worshipped shone through quite obviously - "Nobody Girl' is only nine minutes long because it would have been had it been a Neil Young tune and "Tina Toledo's Streetwalking Blues" is one of the weaker numbers on here, since it is so obviously a Rolling Stones pastiche. But elsewhere, the 'great classic American music vibe' shines through in better, subtler ways. "Touch, Feel And Lose" manages to both nod to (reference? steal from?) Prince's "Purple Rain" and Otis Redding. Songs like "La Cienega Just Smiled" or "Answering Bell" are superior examples of Adams' patented midtempo country rock, while "Gonna Make you Love Me" is modern rockabilly. And Gold of course shows Adams' gift for balladry, even though I find it weird that "When The Stars Go Blue" was chosen as the torch song that a bunch of other artists, including Bono, The Corrs and Tim McGraw, would cover. 

Gold is already a modern classic in its normal form, but amazingly Adams still had great songs to spare. Five of them got published as a special bonus disc entitled Side 4, so as to make Gold a true full-fledged double album (and Adams later claimed that's the way he wanted to publish the record), instead of just a reasonably long CD album. Except, of course,- and no matter what Adams later claimed -  just tacking these extra tracks on to the end doesn't work for an album that sounds like it should end with original album closer "Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard", not "Canonball Days" or have the two slowest songs of the project (which Is why I didn't use those two) in such close proximity. Sorry, Ryan, if that really was the original sequencing, its no bueno. But, as ever, the One Buck Guy is willing to give a helping hand and turn Gold into a real 2 LP music extravaganza with a logical sequencing and natural flow. For this, three tracks from Side 4 were reincorporated into the album, with the Black Crowes-sounding "Rosalie Come And Go" serving as the imaginay B-side opener for LP 1, while the aforementioned "Cannonball Days" has the exact same function on LP 2. Finally, the banjo-picked, old-timey sounding "Sweet Black Magic" found a place right before the end. 

This version is, I think, a richer version of a very good album without denaturing what Adams' work set out to do. As a matter of fact, the sequencing of Gold's opening was pretty much perfect as is, so I left what would be side a of LP 1 it in its original running order. From there, there's some minor changes here and there, but if you loved this album already you will hopefully share the sentiment that these changes are to the record's benefit, breaking up a short lull in the middle of the original album and giving Gold even more of variety and quality. And if you have never heard Gold before, then it is of course about time you change that...