If Words Were Wine, You'd Be Intoxicated--54 Days At Sea with Chris Bailey



Unable To Drink The Water

 54 Days At Sea is a great album that I suspect might be difficult to get a hold of today, at least in physical form. I saw it on Amazon.com in mp3 form. Chris Bailey was lead singer of Australia's Saints, whose first two albums contain some of the best punk rock ever made. And they started out before The Ramones, Clash or Sex Pistols. Bailey still leads The Saints, but they became a different entity after the departure of guitarist Ed Kuepper after the third album, Prehistoric Sounds. After this they became more of a conventional rock band, which included some rotation on MTV. Good music, but not quite equal to its predecessors.

I heard about this album first from the pages of The Big Takeover Magazine. The 67th issue of this biannual magazine will published immanently. Anyone who has an interest in rock music should get a hold of a copy of this magazine. In my opinion, it is the best rock music magazine out there. I have a vested interest in this, as I've seen so many worthy music magazines bite the dust over the years and that distresses me. So I want publications like the Big T to continue to a ripe old age. Besides our current economic woes, magazines are also being driven out of business by free content on the Internet. So if you haven't heard of this magazine, check out their website and subscribe. The magazine is inexpensive and I guarantee that you will find out about a few great bands that will enrich your quality of life.

In terms of instrumentation, the sound of 54 Days At Sea is unique. It was recorded in Malmö Sweden with a group of Swedish musicians backing him. But that is not the twist. I'll put it this way. If there was a Grammy Award for Best Non-Traditional Pan Flute Performance in a Non New Age Idiom, this record would have run away with the prize. That's right. Pan Flutes. Oscar Salazar namely, with Victor Salazar on the charango, which apparently is a Bolivian stringed instrument similar to a lute. Chris met them while they were busking in the streets and obviously dug what they were doing. Ultimately he incorporated them into this album, and it worked out exceedingly well. Also represented here are Edward Nystrom on guitar, Magnus Borjeson on bass and keys, and Stellan Colt on drums/percussion.

Aside from the Bolivian musicians, this is a straightforward singer-songwriter sort of album. Chris Bailey waxes philosophical on life, and also comments as an observer about the big world he is wandering through.

The themes of wandering and questing, rebirth and redemption run throughout this album. He's trying to figure it all out, but it's simply baffling most of the time. It sounds like he is trying to purge the bitterness out of life and move forward. The album starts out with Fountain Of Life, where it seems like he is making an metaphor using Ponce De Leon and his quest for youth. It sounds like polite society and maybe his own baggage are the things he has to fight to live life. "Then faster than I can see, the waves are washing over me, and drowned me in my own confusion."



During the upbeat, passionate Unfamiliar Circles, he sings "whatever the reasons, I'm not the first to be crucified, and it's all right." On Everything I Need he makes an appeal to "Rise like a phoenix from the ashes, do not hide from the treasures." Lazarus has him asking to be saved from the mark of Cain and free me this mortal dust. In In The Desert he states "if I am alone in the desert, then why is the music so loud, screaming at me from across a crowded room"? He compares himself to a sacrificial lamb in the song Gone With The Wind. There's a lot of biblical references here yet it still doesn't seem like a religious album, probably more the converse.

Nothing seems clear to Bailey on 54 Days, and that certainly can strike a chord with most of us. On the aptly titled Nothing Is As It Seems, "I can't tell what is real and whats not-I can't tell anymore, just like a politician." In Drowned By The Sound, he is "walking on a tightrope and sinking in quicksand. I want too much." On a lot of the songs reality is unclear and his mental wheels are spinning, driving him crazy with doubt. Bailey was born in Kenya, spent part of his childhood in Belfast, and then wound up moving to Australia. From the tone of this album it seems like he feels that it is his fate to wander the earth without a true homeland.

I Should Be Happy In This Raincloud

But even in exile he battles on. In On The Avenue he "conquered enemies unseen, Don Quixote for an afternoon." In Vampyres he claims that "the Vamypres of my imagination have sucked my body dry, the Parasites in my life have left me high and dry." "I am an exile, no one to visit in my prison, oh well, that's the way it goes." Yet for all the bile and sadness, you will be tapping your feet and humming along to this album.
Every seems to indicate that this record may have come together in brief period of time for Bailey, but miraculously it all comes together in a sort of musical perfect storm. One of punk rock's all time greatest vocalists tearing his soul out and flogging himself along to catchy pop melodies and sweet sweet pan flute.
And as far as I can tell, this disc was never released in the US.

I think this is a terrific record that has a different kind of sound to it. Bailey is a soulful and very expressive singer. But it all boils down to personal taste in the final analysis. At the very least if you are a fan of punk rock, you need to hear the early Saints. The 2 disc Wild About You 1976-78 anthology contains their first three albums plus an Ep and some other miscellanea. This is essential snotty buzzsaw rock and roll, some of the most vital music ever to come from Down Under. The original Saints actually reunited briefly in 2009 and performed a few concerts in Australia. God, I wish I had been there to see it. There has been a lot of resentment over the years between  Kuepper and Bailey, so many people are surprised that it ever occurred. But who knows, maybe someday they could reunite again and come to America or Europe. Keep your fingers crossed. See below if you still aren't clear as to the importance of The Saints. Bask in the punk rock glory today. Learn to know and love this product. Don't wait until you hear their music used in an automobile ad.