Words and images from Johnny Reay
In the words of the band “The living embodiment of down and dirty excremental rock & roll, The Dry Retch are an Anglo-Australian Rock & Roll Strike Force in the front line in the war against the jive!”
Prophetic words indeed, and straight to the point. There aren’t many bands out there that can say this with true conviction. An ensemble of highly tuned and talented musicians, Gaz on drums, Dave on bass, JP on stun guitar and John on vocals and guitar. Whenever ya see the lads play, ya just know it will be a constant onslaught of pure punk rock n roll. Eardrum shattering noise with its relentless target of sucking you in to their zone, and believe me, it works every time. There aren’t many (if at all any) bands better at doing what they do with such power and energy.
Anyway, another album by the Retch to have you shaking your head “in the war against the jive”. Throughout the album and on every track, we have a continuous bombardment of heavy deep bass lines, scintillating guitar work and drum noise to waken the dead. Theres no point in defining each track musically, as soon as you listen you will get what I mean. John’s screeching vocals ripping the songs to pieces in a rock melodic methodology. Clear influences from classic bands from way back when including MC5 and Stooges to name but 2. I’m quite sure you will find your own snippets to compare others to. Oh, and in one track, for those of you in the know, may just recognise an influence from the one and only Jim Jones.
To keep any person’s identity out of this, I will call the main character Jane for ease of literation.
Is this a true story, a retelling of a person’s dilemma in life, who knows, or do you? Bearing in mind, that it’s the lyrics from a third party I will try to translate.
Here we jolly well go then, this album is a story, a story of one person’s life journey, a journey of escape, redemption and finding out just who they are. Something many of us do in one way or another. But in this case, it’s a total change of lifestyle and thought process that made that person who they are, and what they might just become.
Petrograd Overture/Put You in the Picture
In the beginning, there was a woman, a woman who wanted or needed to change her life, knowing it was going to be a rough ride, decisions were made, some might say quite drastic. Taking that first step is usually the hardest step of all. “stormy waters are coming” is quite an apt line, considering how this pans out. Hoping all will be well and yearning for life on “east street”
Shanghai Surprise
Lyrically, this can be seen as a third-party inclusion of the song, are we talking hearing Jane’s words, or is there another piece of the jigsaw here. The song asks “why you aint moving out”, intimating a potential reason, could Jane be a victim of domestic abuse, with the desperate need to escape from a living nightmare. Questions questions questions. Domestic violence, if indeed this is the main feature here, is a rapidly expanding issue for many, not many escape, some do.
So Alone
So where to go, the feeling of loneliness is all enveloping, the third-party details of the escape is coming together. Destinations abundant, time to decide. The feeling “that retribution is coming for you”, is Jane the victim, or abuser, cryptic lyric right there, retribution against her, or from her ? turning that corner, that will be enforced by whom, herself, her new found society or her circumstances ? And “the shame of her new life”, interesting, where or what is she getting herself into? “so, scurry off, run away, your life’s not needed, here today”
She was the One
“so you know you’ve taken a beating”, and realise that that life is not ok, its not normal. You’ve reached your goal, relax, pretend it never happened. Has your father absolved you, has father been complicit, or is that he now understands what you have been through Jane. Father, are we talking about our real Dad, or indeed the “holy father, god”? has religion reared its ugly head once again? Lying there at night, looking back at your anguish, your pain, your violent beatings “what do you think about, what do you care about”. “just another commodity to be bought and sold”. The feeling of guilt, as if Jane was the one to blame for the anger, the hurt, the physical and mental abuse, the “one with rape on her mind”
Cataclysmised
As soon as we feel the calm, the release of the pain……………it all starts again, the mental revenge of something terrible, “ferment and turbulence, it’s like an avalanche, a deluge and a landslide”. For now, you have met your Waterloo, feeling the memory is like déjà vu, despairing and hateful memories abound. Is this what you deserve Jane, these thoughts you so recently thought you had swerved, put aside to be forgotten.
Not no One
Third party thoughts again, where are we going with this story. Jane, what are you up to, resolutions don’t come easy. “I’m gonna leech it, and I hope that she’s leaving, cos the heart again is bleeding”. Who is “she” Jane, is it you, your lover, your abuser. Another new beginning, the fight, the urge to get away once again. Jane, is she not your kind, or are you not theirs, who is the racketeer here?
Get Over It. Bo
Time to get over it all, leave it all behind “under heel, cut loose”. Remove yourself from the nightmare. Forget the pain, the pain your received, the pain you have caused, the “mercenary” traits we have, no “penitence” no regrets.
Aint no Happenstance
The knowledge of what you once were, morphing into what you are about to become, in this new life, can we truly subjugate our actions, can we forgive ourselves, or others for their crimes of “passion”, for the hurt we have caused, or been subject to. Is remorse ever a total thing that we are able to genuinely feel, or is there always that sense we were right, or deserved the pain we received. Knowing that either way, whatever we might think “youre gonna see us in every alleyway that you know”. An analogy perhaps of the alleyways of our mind and/or the physical places we tread.
Dysentery/Destiny/History
So, Jane has arrived. Your new friends with money and guns, shedding light on the life left behind. The new friends who want to mould you into their life and way of thinking. “wishing for dysentery” to flush away the detritus of life into the “dustbin of history”. Yet there, somewhere, you are still in turmoil, the pain never goes, playing in the sand of a new life, it never goes away does Jane. “holding back humanity if you can”.
1514 (p1)
Finding your so called happy, doesn’t always turn out to be so happy. Leaving this place to try harder, to be better, or running away once again. Leaving behind an elated community who maybe better off with out her, seeing Jane, or her past experiences as being fatal to their own sense of morality and lifestyle. “the future needs creating” “leave em like a tantalus”, wondering what could have been. Interesting line in this one “the 56 revision, it needed some excision” could refer to the book The 56, which examines the solidarity, strength and community in the face of overwhelming tragedy.
1514 (p2)
So here we are, the end of the story. This album has told a story about a woman who I have called Jane. As I said earlier, is it true, or fiction. The lyrics point o many things, Jane as being the victim, or depending on how you look at it, the offender. This final track, if read from a third-party point of view, would suggest that Jane is the protagonist in the story, conversely, it could be Jane speaking to us, exposing her frailties and accepting what she has done and trying to find closure on her action, or again, Jane is telling us of her fight with abuse.
The final lyrics read “we all have a world to win, the march of humanity perseveres”.
This have been a somewhat challenging review to write, many different ways to interpret the lyrics, which is good. As I have said in previous reviews, each of can see or translate different things in songs. One day I will ask all these questions of someone in the know and has true knowledge of “Jane”. Some might say, why not ask before I wrote this, good point, but I genuinely wanted to try and see for myself what it is all about, also, if I knew, there wouldn’t be much to write about.
John Retch-vocals, JP- stun guitar, Wils-drums, Dave-bass
Recorded by Gary Thomas and the Dry Retch. Mastered by John Michel Noir. Photography by Richie. Cover by JP
Links:
Web: https://thedryretch.org/
Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/TheDryRetch
Email: dryretch@hotmail.com
Bandcamp: https://thedryretch.bandcamp.com