CD Review: Ben Harper's Both Sides Of The Gun

Swing voters might remember Ben Harper from the 'Vote For Change' campaign in 2004, gospel-music lovers value his collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama, he has opened for a variety of bands and musicians, and introduced Jack Johnson to the music scene. Now, music lovers in general can appreciate a combination of funk, soul, Hindustani, and reggae with his two-disc release, Both Sides Of The Gun.

His lyrics are political, his personal journey deep, his musical influences eclectic — these themes play out continuously through this double album. Looking at the second disc, "Better Way", first, one finds an auspicious beginning in the hopeful cynicism expressed in the title track. The instruments range from the tabla to the slide guitar, and many more, all apparently played by Ben himself. "what good is a man/who won't take a stand/what good is a cynic/with no better plan?"

The second track, "Both Sides Of The Gun" has a reggae-blues feel to it. It is dsytopian to its core, expressing the frustrations of a "one-dimensional fool in a three dimensional world". No answers are provided, save a memory of Shakespeare's "all our yesterdays have lighted fools/The way to dusty death.". The Harper version goes, "politics, it's a drag/they put one foot in the grave/and the other on the flag/systems rotten to the core/young and old deserve much more/than struggling every day until you're done."

"Engraved Invitation" starts off like Genesis, morphs to a harder beat, and features some powerful fingerboarding.

"Black Rain" is openly political, a call to arms for a lost generation, as it were. Raising the spectres of New Orleans, anarchy, and revolution, it features some clever hooks, and portentous music, but in the end is sadly pretentious, perhaps because it will pass like all else. "you don't fight for us/but expect us to die for you/you have no sympathy for us/still i cry for you/you may kill the revolutionary/but the revolution you can never bury."

"Gather 'Round The Stone" slows the tempo, if not the political anger, the stone in question presumably that of a fallen soldier. Satriani-style bridges connect the pungent verses like an 'oil stream'. "old men who send children/off to die in vain/they will hear death's constant whisper/call remember my name"

The interestingly-named "Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating" seems to be saying a lot, but I wasn't quite able to fathom the meaning, despite the 'hot and bothered' lyrics and music.

"Get It Like You Like It" joyously blends imagery of the lifting of the Bambino's curse with the proto-Bambino, who 'shoulda surfed' instead of walking on water.

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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