Ain't No Sunshine
Well, folks, it’s the end of another week that chewed up our hearts and then spat them back out. We were both completely wrecked by the news that Adam Schlesinger, merely fifty-fucking-two years old, died of complications related to a coronavirus infection on Wednesday.
Even if Schlesinger’s name is not immediately familiar to you, we can guarantee with near absolute certainty that his work will be. Whether you know him for his work with Fountains of Wayne (a band that produced an unbroken string of top-notch albums) and their one immortal power-pop hit, “Stacy’s Mom” or for the immortal power-pop novelty song he wrote for the imaginary band The Wonders (or Oh Nee Ders), “That Thing You Do!”, his music has certainly made you smile and sway and hit repeat. It’s made you roll your car windows down and blast the stereo, so every passerby could appreciate its infectious joy.
For Dame Margaret, it’s the work he did with funny, brilliant women that endeared him to her the most. Without knowing it, she fell in love with his songwriting via the soundtrack 2001’s tragically underrated music industry satire, Josie and the Pussycats. He was one of a team of songwriters that worked on that film, but naturally, the song depicted sending Josie & the Pussycats to number one on the charts? That was penned by Schlesinger alone:
Then Schlesinger burnished those credentials even more through his work with Rachel Bloom on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. If you’ve air-guitared to “Getting Bi”, that’s thanks to Adam Schlesinger.
Aline Brosh-McKenna, the show’s producer and co-creator, shared a particularly remarkable video of Adam finally cracking a big song they’d been struggling with for weeks that does a lot to convey the depth of Schlesinger’s talent. It also says a lot to me that, for someone with so much talent, he seemed to have so little ego. Whether it was with Fountains of Wayne, writing absolute bangers but never singing them himself, or with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, providing the necessary support and scaffolding for Rachel Bloom’s exceptionally specific, feminine, and challenging work, he was always working hard so others could shine.
Dame Sophie’s grief is tinged with a couple of other emotions, including the acute awareness that Schlesinger was, like her, a child of New Jersey, and wasn’t even ten years her senior. That’s a little too close to home. The certain knowledge that his death was preventable and pointless has also yielded a pure rage response. This man & his irreplaceable gifts have been stolen. From him, his family, his friends, from all of us. That’s the truth about everyone who is ill and/or dying from this abject clusterfuck. Things are being broken that can never be repaired, and I will never forgive those responsible.
What we will do is continue to listen to, celebrate, and share his music. A catalogue of gem-perfect songs, in a host of modes and genres, often written for others to sing, is quite a legacy. The least we can do is lift it up and introduce it to others. And sing along, loudly and enthusiastically, every time.
And as if the loss of Adam Schlesinger were not enough, this week saw fit to take from the world the great genius of Bill Withers, too. Passing at 81, of complications from a heart ailment, isn’t the left-field tragedy of Schlesinger’s loss, but it’s a crushing loss, nonetheless. A comforting and crushing thing to know about Withers is that he was exactly as good as you would hope the writer of “Lean On Me” and “Lovely Day” would be, as this 2013 interview with him capably and efficiently demonstrates. If there’s a better “we’ll get through this because we’ve got each other” song than “Lean On Me”, we haven’t heard it, so that’s how we’ll close out this section.
Dame Margaret Brings You The Good Word of New Music
A solid 25% of my favorite bands all plotted together and conspired to release all their new albums last Friday so I have spent the week at least as awash in great tunes as I am in tears. I present unto you a list of the said albums with no further preamble:
Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee-- the album from this list I have, so far, spent the most time with.
The Cormorant I & II by San Fermin-- eagle-eyed readers may remember me mentioning San Fermin in my tune-and-books email as a perfect fit for Kate Racculia’s Bellweather Rhapsody. Well, this album with its creepy subject matter makes a perfect match for Racculia’s newest novel, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts.
Are You In Love? by Basia Bulat -- this one is a perfect thing to throw on if you’re attempting to summon spring simply by playing tonally appropriate music.
Devotion by Margaret Glaspy -- And finally, a new album by the artist whose phenomenal music video for “You & I” introduced this section: Margaret Glaspy. Where her last album, the one that saw her breaking (comparatively) wide, was very garage band-guitar forward, on this one she’s gone in a beautifully synth direction and I, for one, am extremely here for it.
Dame Sophie’s Varied Assortment
Sure, let’s say this is how steely & stunning I look when I have my daily cry
Because I can only be myself, I made a playlist of tunes for the socially distant. It’s a little mish-mash of ups & downs, which is perfectly reflective of my mental state lately. Sometimes you want to put a little spring in your step, sometimes you want a little contemplation, sometimes you want to discharge your crummy feelings with a weep. This one has it all.
You’ve probably read this already, or maybe you have it up in a tab that you're avoiding, but the Harvard Business Review piece on how the exhaustion and distress you’re feeling is grief is exactly right and affirming. Also, this tweet. Go easy on yourself, friends.
I unexpectedly had the bandwidth to listen to Ed Yong’s interview on the Longform podcast this week. He talks about both the process & content of his instant classic piece in the Atlantic, “How The Pandemic Will End”. If you’re up for it, it’s a fascinating conversation, and he comes across as the insightful, compassionate, and dogged writer all his writing suggests he is.
My family and I are watching at least one Bon Appétit test kitchen video daily lately. We’ve made our way through nearly all of Gourmet Makes (in which the ultra-competent pastry chef Claire Saffitz tortures herself by painstakingly re-creating popular snacks) and are now tackling It’s Alive (a show about fermentation-based cooking with free spirit/human-golden retriever hybrid Brad Leone). Claire & Brad swapped shows for this week’s videos and the results were extremely delightful, most particularly when Claire dropped in on Brad & his co-host for the episode, Chris Morocco. Chris is usually so painstakingly precise in his approach, but Brad’s chaos muppetiness took him nearly off the rails, and Claire’s disappointment in them is so strong that it leaps out of the video and takes physical form, as seen in this supercut. Her Fed Up To HERE With Babysitting Her Brother And His Sweet But Annoying Friend/Deeply Disappointed Teacher Energy is so powerful it could solve any energy crisis we may experience as a result of this pandemic. If you’re new to the Bon Appétit Cinematic Universe, here’s a tasting menu to help you get started!
Passover is next week. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this holiday, rooted in two problems: 1) that it turns into a huge performance of Judaism, rather than doing Judaism; and 2) my decades-long seething hatred of the framing of the Four Children, in which asking questions is cast as “wickedness”, when in fact asking questions (especially tough ones that make grown-ups uncomfortable) is the essence of what it is to be Jewish. My family is postponing our seder until we can all celebrate together at some unspecified time in the future. That doesn’t feel great, but I can’t face a virtual seder. For those who will be observing next week or later, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s guidance is my favorite. Here’s her thread on kitnyot, and another on attending or hosting virtual seders.
Finally, I am loving The Fug Girls’ Flashback series -- where they revisit the red carpet looks of premieres gone by -- so much. In addition to being a smart way for them to keep their site stocked with new content, it’s just fun. We still need fun things! It brought a tear to my eye to go through the slideshow for the premieres of That Thing You Do! and Music & Lyrics, but in a nice way. The Armageddon premiere flashback, meanwhile, is quite something. Enjoy!
Above all else, please remember: NOTHING IS A BIG DEAL RIGHT NOW EXCEPT MAINTAINING PUBLIC HEALTH! THAT’S LITERALLY IT!
Seriously. We’re sure that you’re receiving plenty of messages about the importance of continuing to be productive at this time, and to those messages and the benighted souls sharing them, we send a giant raspberry (a digital, no germ-containing droplets here!) and perhaps a double-barreled middle finger. Nuts to them, they can & should deposit themselves in the nearest very chilly lake, no passing Go, no collecting $200. They should buzz off, kindly & forever, or at least until they absorb the one true gospel of this time, which is: stay home, wash your hands, do what you can to support your neighbors, friends, and family, and your favorite local businesses, to the degree you can afford to do so. Great job with all that you’re doing already, and thank you. Dame Margaret will be back in your inboxes on Monday. Take care of each other! We love you.
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That Andes Mints episode was delightful. Thank you.
To Sophie - my friends and I are consoling ourselves by calling the future date-unspecified get-together the “Passover Do-Over,” which is very fun to say and gives, while not a robust guffaw, at least a small begrudging chuckle, which is sometimes all you can ask for right now.