Cracker: Kerosene Hat

     My love of Cracker's album Kerosene Hat was a long, strange trip that began at a R.E.M. concert. For reasons I can't explain, it was 2003 and I still had never seen R.E.M. live. When it was announced that they were coming to The Palace of Auburn Hills I was all over it. The show was September 28th, 2003 and that's the day I became obsessed with the opening band, Sparklehorse. I bought all their albums. I spent hours on the internet reading anything I could find. One of the things I found was Mark Linkous' (a.k.a. Sparklehorse) connection to David Lowery of Cracker. Linkous co-wrote the song "Sick Of Goodbyes" with Lowery. This song would appear on Cracker's Kerosene Hat album. Later he would record it himself on the Sparklehorse album, Good Morning Spider. Two years after their collaboration on "Sick of Goodbyes", Lowery produced half of the brilliant Sparklehorse album, vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot as David Charles. Obviously, this lead me to buy Kerosene Hat. I welcome you to read my previous post about the late Mark Linkous and vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot if you are interested.
     The only thing I knew about Cracker was they had that "hey, hey, hey you like bein' stoned" song in the 90's. At the time, I was 28 years old with a two year old daughter, so I wasn't particularly interested in "bein' stoned". I didn't even know that David Lowery was the guy from Camper Van Beethoven. And the only thing I knew about CVB was "Take The Skinheads Bowling" and their awesome cover of "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by The Status Quo. And the only thing I know about The Status Quo is "Pictures of Matchstick Men" is their only good song. Seriously, I love that song and all their other stuff is third rate bar band crap. But I digress.
     Kerosene Hat is a great album. It combines 90's mainstream alternative with alt-country and lyrics with subversive humor. I even like "Low", which is the "hey, hey, hey you like bein' stoned" song. After I listened to the whole album, I realized I knew the song "Get Off This" as well. Other standout tracks include "Sick Of Goodbyes", "Movie Star", "Nostalgia" and "Let's Go For A Ride". My favorite song is the title track "Kerosene Hat". This is one of two songs on the album that helped create the template that, two years later, Sparklehorse would use for vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. It's a slow, Southern Gothic, character song  with allusions to the devil and fire and love and hope. I have to believe that when Linkous heard this song a light bulb went off in his head. The difference is that on "Kerosene Hat" the production is clean, whereas Linkous used more olde tyme recording devices and effects. At the end of this post, I'll include the lyrics to "Kerosene Hat" so you can see the influence. At the "end" of the album, there is a piece called "Hi-Desert Biker Meth Lab", which is a 40 second noise collage. Linkous used this same device on the tracks "850 Double Pumper Holley", "Little Bastard Choo Choo" and "Ballad Of A Cold Lost Marble". There is also a song on Kerosene Hat called "Take Me Down To The Infirmary" which eerily foreshadows Linkous' stay in an infirmary when he almost died of an overdose.
     To illustrate Cracker's sense of humor, "Hi-Desert Biker Meth Lab" isn't actually the last song on the album. First of all. tracks 13 and 14 are blank. Track 15 is "Hi-Desert...". If you let the cd keep running, it stops at track 69 which is an eight minute song called "Euro Trash Girl". Then it runs to track 88 which is a song called "Take Me Back To You". Finally, it runs to track 99, which is an outtake of "Kerosene Hat" where they joke around with alternate lyrics. Sorry if this post was more about Mark Linkous than Cracker, but I find all this trivia fascinating. Peace.

                                                           Kerosene Hat

How can I fly with these old doggy wings
While the magpies sing some shiny song

Old corn face row of teeth she says sweetly to me
In the elevator

Here come old Kerosene Hat
With his ear flaps waxed, a-courtin' his girl

Come clattering here on your old cloven skates
With that devilish spoon

Everything seems like a dream
And life's a scream
When you're submarine

So don'tcha bother me, Death, with your leathery ways
And your old chaise lounge

A wickerman's fence of heather retires
And the cook's gone mad, started several fires

Everything seems like a dream
When you're submarine

Head like a stream, she says softly to me
from the rattling chair

Bring me a steak and my old pair of crows
My medicine lamp

Everything seems like a dream
So life's a scream