Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 28-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
In my songwriting with Duane—two acoustic guitars without words—I have images about the songs that seem unrelated to the titles. One song, “Call It Potential,” creates a one-camera shot of a very traditional Italian family at a long table behind their house. The edges of the white tablecloth flutter in the breeze. There is a quick intensity to the older people in the group, agitation augmented by a sense of ease within the family structure, a family sitting in the yard on lop-sided chairs to celebrate anniversaries and birthdays. They have their differences and disappointments, but they never doubt the strength of the bond fortified by their traditions. This is how it appears to me and at several points in the song (on low, bending notes) the oldest man—the father, the grandfather—exhibits his nature within the prevailing delicacy of the occasion which is established by the value of objects. The shiniest cutlery, the special platters of favorite food are passed across the best tablecloth. They’ve dressed up, but the old man isn’t required to modify his nature—no one asks him to. To ask, advise or instruct would be the problem they seek to avoid. And so the song ends, the picking and strumming of emotions in space and time, and usually one of us says “best ever” because within our mostly unheard configuration of 25 songs over 15 years, every time we play together the songs evolve, becoming new best-evers. Until the next time. I should ask Duane what he thinks it’s about. Fade to the black fluttering inside an unlit heart.
