Back in the late ’90s, Marc Ribot pitched an early version of Map Of A Blue City to a label known for “brutal death metal bands and puke-splattered poets.” It was rejected as “too dark.” He tinkered with it for about a decade, recording new versions with the late Hal Willner producing.
“But by then, I’d grown attached to the earlier versions, and I told Hal and my long-suffering manager that the studio versions were too slick,” says Ribot, a genre-bending guitarist and composer known for his collaborations with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Neko Case and others. “Time passed, and somewhere along the line, I lost the multi-tracks to the original versions—and in 2020, we lost Hal. But I always knew I wanted these songs out in the world.”
Then Ribot met Bay Area alt-folk singer, songwriter and producer Ben Greenberg. “I knew he was the right person to hatch these strange birds,” Ribot says of his first-ever vocal album. “Thanks to mysterious technologies allowing Ben to de-mix/remix the earlier tracks, and thanks to his brilliant mixes of material from the Willner sessions, we now offer them for your listening pleasure.”
Ribot takes us through each track below.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Elizabeth”
“Only those who have seen the ‘natural’ cycle of life from both ends understand just how wrong nature really is.”
2) “For Celia”
“Based on conversations with friend and documentary filmmaker Celia Lowenstein, the song documents the impossibility of fitting human disasters—from the intimate to the grand historical—into our redemptive narratives.”
3) “Say My Name”
“A falsetto R&B Psyche and Eros—electrified by Greg Lewis’ Hammond.”
4) “Daddy’s Trip To Brazil”
“A hungover post-punk echo of Jobim’s famous ‘Wave,’ importing the ennui of a late-capitalist touring musician into that tropicalismo paradise.”
5) “Map Of A Blue City”
“The song describes waking up on an elevated train platform somewhere in New York City—maybe Coney Island—and not knowing where you are. The title came from my daughter, who, when she was seven, loved drawing complicated maps. One day, she worked only in blue magic marker. I asked why, and this was her response: “It’s not a blue map. It’s a map of a blue city.”
6) “Death Of A Narcissist”
“‘I always believed that, in the love of my life, I would find my reflection.’ Some people get it wrong right from the start.”
7) When The World’s On Fire
“The Carter Family recorded this song in 1930. You have to admit they were way ahead of the curve. I added a few lyrics to make it safe for agnostics.”
8) “Sometime Jailhouse Blues”
“‘Sometimes I lay down my wrath, like I lay my body down.’ A sort of Buddhist blues from someone who saw America more clearly than it saw itself—and tried to respond with gentleness.”
9) “Optimism Of The Spirit”
“This is a piece we cooked up in the studio in 2008—an ambient improv of mine sliced, diced, spiced and scrambled into François Lardeau’s brilliant remix and percussion omelet. The astute listener may notice that it has nothing to do stylistically with the rest of the album. But sometimes that’s a good thing.”
See Marc Ribot live.
