I Got No Expectations To Pass Through Here Again

Celebrating Mark Lanegan, 25 November 1964 to 22 February 2022.

Mark Lanegan's made a couple of appearances here and I'd always intended to feature a selection from his vast body of music, though never as a posthumous tribute. But, sadly, that became an unavoidable truth on Tuesday when Mark passed on at the age of 57. Too soon, too soon.

There have been a number of excellent posts in the past few days on music blogs that I follow and admire: A Few Good Times In My Life (choice words and videos from Walter); Bagging Area (Swiss Adam's excellent 30-minute mix); and The Vinyl Villain (a stunning Imaginary Compilation Album produced in the few short hours following the news by Jonny The Friendly Lawyer). So, how to follow those?

I'm not going to pretend that I was a fan - or had even heard of - Mark Lanegan from the start. I was largely unmoved by Grunge when it dominated the early 1990s. I was largely immersed in electronica and dance music at the time, with a grudging like of Nine Inch Nails, NIrvana and other guitar-based bands, but I avoided Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc. by the proverbial country mile. Therefore, Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age remained firmly off my radar.

 

In 2007, I bought It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land, the second album by Soulsavers, having enjoyed the cinematic sweep of their debut, Tough Guys Don't Dance. That album was predominantly instrumental, with a few songs written with singer Josh Haden. The follow up couldn't have been more different, with Mark Lanegan featuring on the majority of the songs and co-writing nearly half of the album. It remains one of my favourite albums, full stop.

It was not long after that I first heard Who Built The Road, a collaboration with Isobel Campbell and, as I discovered, their second album together. I swiftly bought both, as well as the third and final album, Hawk.

 

At this point, the extent of Mark Lanegan's role as serial collaborator was becoming clear: between 2007 and 2009, I also acquired another Soulsavers album (Broken), the sole album by The Gutter Twins (Lanegan & Greg Dulli) and Future Chaos by Bomb The Bass, featuring Lanegan on the excellent Black River.  

 

Mark Lanegan continued to produce music in subsequent years, including several albums in his own name &/or as Mark Lanegan Band, a mix of self-penned songs and interpretations of others' songs. In commenting on Swiss Adam's mix, fellow blogging legend Echorich commented "Only Johnny Cash sounded more world weary and worn" and he's spot on. Lanegan's rich, earthy baritone, often on the brink of cracking, is so evocative of a life lived hard, of mistakes made, of regrets and hope, of emotion deep, deep, deep into the soul. 

 

I cannot help but be moved whenever hearing Mark Lanegan's voice, but the stories he sings - whether his own or someone else's - have the power to bring me to tears. 

In the days since his passing, I've agonised over today's selection. I wanted to capture the breadth of Mark Lanegan's work, but in doing so, would leave out so many other great examples of his music, his songwriting, his ability to transform and inhabit songs so that they were never mere cover versions, his thirst for stretching himself, ever striving forward.

I've done my best not to duplicate the songs that Walter, Swiss Adam and Jonny The Friendly Lawyer chose for their tributes. There is one exception, in the opener Black River, though I've opted for an equally excellent remix instead. I've also repeated myself by including The Lonely Night, which appeared in my Photek selection back in September, for which I make no apology.

The resulting selection is almost exclusively 21st century, with one exception. There are no songs by Queens Of The Stone Age. I have only a couple of songs by Screaming Trees and I was inclined to leave them off too, but I like their cover of The Velvet Underground's What Goes On and it seemed to fit in it's particular place in the track listing.

 

There are a lot of cover versions (seven in all), taking in the Velvets, The Cure, Nancy Sinatra, Massive Attack and The Gun Club. A stunning cover of The Breaking Hands by Nick Cave and Debbie Harry has been featured elsewhere in the blogosphere, but I think Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell's take is right up there with it. A couple of years later, Lanegan was one of a number of artists completing Jeffrey Lee Pierce's unfinished music, producing Desire By Blue River with French singer/songwriter Bertrand Cantat. I made the difficult decision not to include Lanegan's interpretation of Brompton Oratory, even more difficult when I subsequently read Nick Cave's tribute, citing it as his "favorite ever Nick Cave cover". 

 

Hit The City featured in both Swiss Adam's and Jonny's selection, so I've opted for the other song from 2004's Bubblegum to feature a divine duet with PJ Harvey, Come To Me (not a cover of the Björk song).

 

Mark Lanegan's work with Isobel Campbell inevitably makes several appearances, though only one selection from their three albums. Aside from the aforementioned Who Built The Road and The Breaking Hands, I've included a song from 2004's Time Is Just The Same EP, a solo release credited to simply 'Isobel' and featuring - I'm guessing - her first co-write with Lanegan on the second track. The start of a beautiful partnership.

 

I've also featured a trio of Soulsavers songs, two of them from the second album, two of them cover versions. The selection closes with No Expectations, a version of The Rolling Stones' 1968 song that sends a shiver down my spine whenever I hear it, and a perfect example of Mark Lanegan's ability to take a song and surpass the original. 

 

I was listening to this selection whilst writing this post and found that I constantly had to stop what I was doing and listen, just listen.

 

That's the brilliance of Mark Lanegan. Thank you.

 

1) Black River (Gui Borrato Remix): Bomb The Bass ft. Mark Lanegan (2008)

2) What Goes On (Cover of The Velvet Underground): Screaming Trees (1991)

3) Desire By Blue River: Mark Lanegan & Bertrand Cantat (2014)

4) The Wild People (Alastair Galbraith Remix): Mark Lanegan Band (2015)

5) The Lonely Night (Photek Remix By Rupert Parkes): Moby ft. Mark Lanegan & Mindy Jones (2013)

6) Cold Molly (Roman Remains Remix By The Duke Spirit): Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood (2013)

7) The Breaking Hands (Cover of The Gun Club): Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell (2012)

8) Ghosts Of You And Me: Soulsavers ft. Mark Lanegan (2007)

9) Why Does My Head Hurt So?: Isobel Campbell ft. Mark Lanegan (2004)

10) Close To Me (Cover of The Cure): The Separate ft. Mark Lanegan (2012)

11) You Will Miss Me When I Burn (Cover of Palace Brothers): Soulsavers ft. Mark Lanegan & Rosa Agostino (2009)

12) You Only Live Twice (Cover of Nancy Sinatra): Mark Lanegan (2013)

13) Who Built The Road: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan (2008)

14) Live With Me (Cover of Massive Attack): The Twilight Singers ft. Mark Lanegan (2006)

15) Come To Me: Mark Lanegan Band ft. PJ Harvey (2004)

16) All Misery / Flowers: The Gutter Twins (2008)

17) No Expectations (Cover of The Rolling Stones): Soulsavers ft. Mark Lanegan (2007)

I Got No Expectations To Pass Through Here Again (1:10:43)