There are many crimes that we humans are guilty of, but one of the most pernicious of all is our ability to bully our fellow man. Many of us suffer it even when we enter the workplace, but it’s an issue that’s always been especially rife in schools.
A particularly horrific example of the effects of this kind of systematic abuse shocked the world earlier this year when a 15-year old Irish girl called Phoebe Prince took her own life as a result of constant bullying from her contemporaries at the Massachusetts high school she had been attending since she’d moved with her family from her native County Clare.
Such en emotive subject must be handled with the utmost care should it be tackled in contemporary Pop terms, but Phoebe’s memory is safe and secure with Seattle underground heroes THE GREEN PAJAMAS, who have crafted a hugely affecting tribute with ‘The Red, Red Rose.’
GPs leader Jeff Kelly is one of those songwriters you just know you can place your trust in without fear of reprisal, yet with ‘The Red, Red Rose’ he has come up with a particularly touching elegy. It has the Pajamas’ patented Psych-Pop edge, but the haunted lyrics (“One January afternoon, they killed you in your school clothes/ as sure as winter’s cruel hands clutch and kill the red, red rose”) and impassioned vocal delivery from Kelly and Laura Weller recall Iain Matthews/Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention and the effect is heady, dark and memorable.
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If that wasn’t enough, there are several unreleased gems from the Kelly vault rounding out this generous five-track EP. Choosing a favourite proves predictably vexing as ‘Little Dreams’ and ‘Just Another Perfect Day’ are both poised and gorgeous, while ‘Raised By Ravens’ has a rather more mystical bent and comes complete with a stinging, Neil Young-style guitar solo and ‘If Forever Comes’ provides a suitably melancholic post-script, stuffed with folk-ish Celtic accordion and dripping with longing.
With 50% of its’ sales going to youth suicide prevention charity The Jason Foundation, ‘The Red, Red Rose’ is a proud and dignified tribute to someone who left us with so much left undone. It is surely one of the year’s most necessary releases and one which deserves to be picked up on a much wider scale.
Green Monkey Records online
The Jason Foundation online
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