Dean Wareham’s Legacy
As frontman for Galaxie 500 and then Luna, Dean Wareham has given us several albums of reasonably witty songs, ambling guitar work, and a handful of pop gems. Here we consider his covers and argue that they will comprise his legacy.
Dean Wareham has made a career of coupling unhurried guitar solos with reasonably intelligent, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. After three albums and Kramer’s invaluable assistance in creating the Galaxie 500 sound, Damon & Naomi released sporadically and Mr. Wareham formed Luna. Since 1992’s debut LP Lunapark, Luna has released a number of albums and EP’s, as well as contributing songs to a few prominent compilations. From the divergent trajectories their songwriting has since assumed, I infer that the tongue-in-cheek lyrical tone was set by Mr. Wareham, the guitar solos were his contribution, and the occasional foray into the sentimental and the pretty may be ascribed to Ms. Naomi Yang and Mr. Damon Krukowski.
With the release of the 4-cd Galaxie 500 box set (Rykodisc) and the live album Copenhagen (Rykodisc), it became possible to consider the selection of material Mr. Wareham has covered over the last dozen years. Galaxie 500 recordings include covers of Yoko Ono, the Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman, and New Order. On 1995’s Penthouse, Luna covered Serge Gainsbourg in a duet with Mr. Wareham and Ms. Sadier of Stereolab. Interestingly, Bonnie and Clyde was not credited in the liner notes. On the 1993 Slide EP, they covered the Beat Happening song Indian Summer (from the Beat Happening LP Jamboree). On their most recent LP Days of our Nights, they covered the Guns ‘n Roses epic Sweet Child ‘O Mine. If anything, Mr. Wareham seems to like those artists whose work epitomizes a cultural or political excess of a sort.
For the soundtrack I Shot Andy Warhol, Luna covered Donovan’s Season of the Witch. For the French pop benchmark compilation Pop Romantique, they covered (unsurprisingly) Serge Gainsbourg. And (presumably) at Mr. Merritt’s request, they recorded Falling Out of Love (With You) for the debut 6ths album Wasp’s Nest. What should one say about this litany of covers? Certain things are clear: Mr. Wareham will cover material from both sides of the Atlantic; Mr. Wareham does not seem to choose on the basis of critical or popular success; and Mr. Wareham does not choose material only from one time period.
Recording others’ material is a public show of deference; but it is also an act of appropriation. And that is why Mr. Wareham is exceptional in his covers. The same roguish spirit that moved Luna to cover Sweet Child ‘O Mine is the one animating Superchunk to cover the delicate Magnetic Fields song 100,000 Fireflies: it is severe interpretation and an acknowledgement that the song transcends genre. Any jackass singer/songwriter can record Highway 61 Revisited material plus the odd Nick Drake or Woody Guthrie number. But it takes vision for Devo to construe the Stones staple Satisfaction; and it is to Sonic Youth’s everlasting credit that they knew (instinctively) that Madonna wed to a grinding Goth sound would be magic (Into the Groove(y)). Luna’s faster, hypnotic treatment of Serge Gainsbourg lends a surreal edge to his pop vocabulary. Their version of Indian Summer fleshes out the Spartan instrumentation of the original. In appropriating this material, Mr. Wareham changes the stresses and intonation of the songs, sometimes changing our reactions. His talent for reinventing songs and forcing us to reconsider the songs in this new (reinvented) light, is perhaps his most lasting contribution.
