Watermelon
1993
Switchblades Of Love
About This Album
Steve Young's records are always exercises in paradox and Switchblades of Love is no exception; perhaps it creates the rule. This album -- with a stellar cast that includes Benmont Tench, Katy Moffatt, Steven Soles, Van Dyke Parks, David Miner, and David Kemper, as well as Young's guitar-slinging son, Jubal -- is the most realized and perfectly executed record of his career. Its songs are about confrontation with the falsehood of self; mortality and how it cycles into the eternal; and responsibility, love, and violence -- oftentimes these themes collide within the same song, poetically, spiritually, and above all, humanly. There are few albums that kick into gear with the intensity that this one does. "Have a Laugh" is a mariachi-tinged folk song with an irresistible melody that philosophically spells out the importance of loving/exhibiting kindness toward ourselves by watching our minds and keeping a sense of humor about us at all times. Immediately after, he launches into the title track, a confrontation with the horrors and blessings we commit and give freely in the name of love. Young sends the song out to both victims and perpetrators as well as lovers, and ultimately turns the responsibility for change upon himself: "Me I think I'm gonna go out and put my switchblades down/Way on down in the ground/No applause, there won't be a sound/Just a rusty spade down in that honest earth/I will bow down to the stars/And ask forgiveness for the scars/That I have made/In the name of love.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7 and 8)

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