Rufus Wainwright Lorca connection

[dick]

From Paste Magazine
Issue 31 – Rufus Wainwright -- Please Don’t Feed the Vultures, by Kate Kiefer

Hearing it from an acclaimed singer/songwriter who’s currently working on an opera, you’d hardly expect the fawning anthem “Tulsa” (“Your suit was the whitest thing since you know who / I feel that that savior I have mentioned may be you / And who would have thought that I’d owe it all to Tulsa?”) to be about, of all people, Brandon Flowers of The Killers. “I spent one night with him at a bar, swooning over him along with everybody else,” jokes Rufus Wainwright.

In fact, Wainwright—son of singer/songwriter Loudon—wrote most of the songs on his new record, Release The Stars, for friends and contemporaries, including some other children of musicians. The string-adorned “Nobody’s Off The Hook” is about Teddy Thompson, son of Richard, and the triumphant title track is about his relationship with longtime friend Lorca Cohen, daughter of Leonard. According to Wainwright, the shift in subject matter is part accident and partly a natural consequence of arriving at a more emotionally relaxed place. “I just realized I couldn’t be so precious about my intentions,” he says.

Release The Stars is Wainwright’s first self-produced record. While the original plan was to make a more stripped-down, darker follow-up to the extravagant Want One and Want Two, the new album turned into something just as huge. “When I went in [to the studio this time],” he says, “I was this athletic animal that had to really lay everything out on the line.” The result is another installment of Wainwright’s signature fusion of pop and operatics, but the music comes off as less self-conscious under his total artistic control.

“I think it’s everything that Rufus has ever wanted to do, and everything he should do,” says his sister Martha, who sings on the record. “It’s the truest expression of his songwriting, for better or for worse.”
Since his last pair of records, Wainwright has picked up an extracurricular activity that helped shape the sound of Release The Stars.

He reenacted Judy Garland’s legendary 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall during two sold-out nights in New York last year, along with three more shows in London and Paris this past February. In September, he’ll perform the show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Garland is one of Wainwright’s musical idols, and he wears the influence proudly, taking advantage of the emotional power of theatrical vocals without being saccharine or contrived.

Also in the Dreams Come True department, Wainwright has been commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan to write an opera. “I’m completely obsessed, and have been all my life, with opera and the effect it can have on a person and on society,” he says. “I feel that this is my World Series of artistic pursuit.” The libretto of Wainwright’s Primadonna follows a day in the life of an opera singer, and while he doesn’t expect the piece to come to fruition for several years, he’s working on it constantly, the exposure making his pop arrangements and storytelling even more vivid and intricate.

“He can do Judy Garland, he can do opera, he can do a singer/songwriter pop record,” says Martha. “All that education and life experience has really culminated in a pinnacle for him.”

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY? HIM?

Wainwright says he’s at a personal pinnacle, too. He’s got a long-term boyfriend (“He’s just a godsend who looks like a god, as well”), he calls his new record “an unintended masterpiece,” he’s getting along with his friends and family, and he’s realizing a lifelong dream with his opera. “There have just been a lot of fulfilled things in his life recently,” says Martha. This lack of personal drama has only strengthened his art.

“For any person who’s worried about getting older and taking care of themselves, I hope that I’m some sort of beacon showing that, in fact, you only really start to hit your stride after you’re done with your 20s,” he says.

He’s even healed a volatile relationship with his folksinger father, which was made public by both Wainwright (“So put up your fists and I’ll put up mine / No running away from the scene of the crime,” from “Dinner At Eight”) and his dad (“I don’t know what all of this fighting is for / But we’re having us a teenage / middle-age war,” from “A Father And A Son”). Wainwright says the two have been bonding when he goes out on his father’s boat in Los Angeles. “My dad and I are very, very traditional at the moment,” he says. “I’ve learned not to expect too much change from him. He does exactly what he wants to do, but I respect that, because in life you’ve gotta do what you want to do to be happy.”

This happy-go-lucky talk might sound strange coming from someone who’s been portrayed for years as an emotional train wreck. Critics often find it hard to resist Wainwright’s sensational side, harping on his former meth addiction, his sexual history (sometimes simply the fact that he’s gay) and his turbulent relationship with his father. But he takes it in stride and answers the questions he’s asked, no matter how invasive or outdated. “I’m somewhat fascinated by the way Madonna or Morrissey or U2, whoever—they seem to really be in control of their personal front and how they’re perceived, and there’s a certain cathedral-like architecture to their persona,” he says. “I think that’s interesting. I just don’t have the energy or the time. So, as far as my life and my feelings are concerned, bring on the vultures. It’s fine.”

But, at this point, there’s really not much for Wainwright to worry about: He’s all grown up; he’s in complete control of his life, artistically and otherwise; he doesn’t have any new stories about drug-induced debauchery or family fights; and it’s not like he can come out of the closet again. His sister says it best: “I think Rufus is a true testament to the fact that you don’t have to be completely miserable to make good art.”

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We are planning on going to Rufus' cd signing in NYC tomorrow, and have read several great reviews of his new cd. This article from Paste was the first mention I heard of song connections to Lorca and Teddy Thompson. Makes it even more interesting .. as did his appearance on British TV with the future prime minister. Gordon Brown left during Rufus singing his scathing anti-Iraq war song, "Going to a Town."

[Linda S]

Link to download of Rufus on BBC TV with the future PM

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1CR4KS4Q

This link will expire. PM me if a fresh link is needed and I'll upload one.

[blonde madonna]

Hi Dick
I checked this out because I am a Wainwright fan generally (more Louden and Martha) and I found this extra detail about the 'Lorca' song (which doesn't make it any clearer to me).

Quote from Review-Uncut:
'The title track, meanwhile, has a brassy Broadway swagger – the result, presumably, of Wainwright immersing himself in that world for his Judy Garland tribute concerts (the song’s lyrical inspiration comes from Lorca Cohen, Leonard’s daughter, missing the New York show). Wainwright, though, is not a belter, and it’s his unsuitability to the top hat and high-kicking routine that makes this grand, flawed finale so compelling.'

Maybe others can make sense of the lyrics:

'Why do you keep all your stars in from your studio on Melrose Avenue?
You've lost all your assets in life-long contracts to you
Didn't you know that old Hollywood is over?

Oh, can't you see all the good that celebrity can do for those in the dark?
Yes of course, I am speaking in metaphors for something more in your heart
Didn't you know that old Hollywood is over?

So why not just release the gates and let them all come out?
Remember that without them there would be no Paramount
No paramount need to hold on to what isn't yours
Release the stars

The more that you fight, then the more they will scrutinize and realize just your size
And believe me, you are no match for the public that has seen no
Didn't you know that old Hollywood is over?

Old Hollywood is over
So why not just release the gates and let them all come out?
Remember that without them there would be no Paramount
No paramount need to hold on to what isn't yours
Release the stars

Release the stars, release your love, release the stars
Release your love, 'cause Hollywood is over
Why do you keep all your stars in from your studio on Melrose Avenue? '

Have fun

[dick]

Rufus says he is speaking in metaphors, and the odd sentence construction muddles rather than clarifies for me.

The thoughts that come to mind are simply that Lorca has an antique store on Melrose. She does have some big names as clients -- I think Johnny Depp may be one of them. I'm pretty sure Rufus had been warned he was taking a huge risk in the Garland show, so in spite of his confident air he probably was hoping for all the friend support he could get. It appears some conflict kept Lorca from coming to New York to see it. We didn't see her there at any rate. It made Rufus sad, but he wrote a beautiful song to help take away the pain.

Who needs Dr Freud when I'm here?

By the way, he wowed his huge Barnes and Noble crowd on Wednesday night. We also got to congratulate Martha and Brad on their wedding plans and spend a little time with Esther. Linda loves this new cd.