Jon writes:
>Maybe, but it would be nice to have songwriting credits, and it's a good
>reason to have liner notes that go beyond listing the musicians, the song
>titles, and a little list of thankyews. In my opinion, if they aren't
>there, it weakens the "introduction" aspect.
>
But the Hazeldine record did credit "Wild and Blue" (to a John "Sherry," as
Neal noted earlier). I think it's safe to guess that the critic in question
probably just assumed that Mr. "Sherry" was a member of the Mekons--a
typical rock crit wouldn't necessarily know individual Mekons other than
Jon Langford, any more than one would recognize the name of a Nashville
songwriter like John Sherrill. Most critics, especially if they're writing
for a daily and have dozens of records to sift through on short deadlines,
would be unlikely to do the necessary homework to figure out otherwise. So
it's not entirely unfair to blame the critic for misattributing the song,
especially since the liner notes would have encouraged her to do so.
It does surprise me, though, that a writer would hear a fairly
traditional-sounding country tune like "Wild and Blue" (even as done by a
rock-influenced band like Hazeldine) and assume it was written by the
Mekons. Unless of course that writer had never actually heard the Mekons
either, which I guess is a possibility. I cringed when I saw the Philclip
that described "W & B" as a Mekons tune, and I couldn't even remember who'd
really written it; I just knew that it sure as hell wasn't the Mekons.
Sheesh.
--Amy, who is also horrified that Neal Weiss doesn't know any John Anderson
