Every week, 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 42-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Yes, yes. We’re aware that not everyone loves Mecca Normal. I think the negativity towards us provided a kind of fuel, knowing that we were making an impact with our idiosyncratic sound. To be regarded as “bad” and “annoying” by some and then to recently see “I Walk Alone” (written in the ’80s) named a top 100 protest song by someone at Rolling Stone illustrates the dynamic. To be in the middle and the cause of this division was interesting.
Regarding “I Walk Alone,” I hasten to add that we didn’t just have a song with protest lyrics; we recorded, pressed and released it on our own label in protest of how the music industry functioned, especially for women. And then we toured it, playing it at so many shows with me leaving the stage to go into the audience without a mic, to sing it directly into people’s faces, which was another form of protest, with David listening to me and playing an appropriately low-volume guitar in support of a woman’s voice and the vulnerability expressed in the lyrics and in my actions at those shows while he actively protested male guitar players drowning out women’s voices. That’s a hell of a protest song!!
“The Way Of Love” from Who Shot Elvis? (Matador, 1997) (download):
