Great Rock Albums of 1988 (I Think): Michelle Shocked- Short Sharp Shocked

This post is going to be a little shorter than normal. It’s also telling me that I should have bought Michelle Shocked’s 1988 album, “Short Sharp Shocked” back in the day. I have tried to find the album on both Youtube and Spotify but it has been non existent on both. It has been suggested the reason for this is that many of Michelle’s music was taken down on account of supposed homophobic comments she made in 1990. Therefore, I am going to have to write this post on memory and the two songs which appear on Youtube, one of them being a cover done by someone else.

My introduction to Michelle came by the heavy metal hating Sun newspaper. Does anyone see a pattern here with the last three posts? The ‘critic’ was moaning that first there was Tracy Chapman, then Tanita Tikarim and now Michelle Shocked and the critic was tired of all these female protest folk singers. Maybe it was the fact that the social-political content of the lyrics of all three singers didn’t agree with the right wing politics of that paper.

Musically, my introduction to Michelle came from the single, “Anchorage.” If I can remember correctly, the song is about a young couple trying to make it in the Alaska but don’t take that as gospel. I do remember Michelle’s unique vocals and the folk rock sounding guitar. While I can’t say for sure, most of the songs on the album follow in the same folk rock vein.

The one song I was able to listen to on the Tubes of You was “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore.” This tempo is very upbeat and the violin in the background accents the song very well. It also has a strong and pronounced thudding bassline while at the same time, Michelle laments the hard life of coal miners and their loss of livelihoods as the coal industry began to shut down in the late 1970s and early 80s. Her vocals are well suited to the songs. I speculate if this and “Anchorage” are typical of what Michelle does on the rest of the album, then it must be a pretty good one.

Track Listing:

1. When I Grow Up
2. Hello Hopeville
3. Memories of East Texas
4. (Making the Run to) Gladewater
5. Graffiti Limo
6. If Love Was a Train
7. Anchorage
8. The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore
9. V.F.D.
10. Black Widow
11. Fog Town (hidden track)

Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked- vocals, acoustic guitar

Pete Anderson- electric guitar, six string bass

Jeff Donovan- drums

Dominic Genova- electric and acoustic bass

Skip Edwards- piano, organ

Michael Tempo- percussion

Al Perkins- dobro

Byron Berline- mandolin

Don Reed- fiddle

Rod Piazza- harmonica

Kristina Olsen- hammered dulcimer

Banjo Jim Croce- banjo

Sophia Ramos- vocals

MCS- vocals on “Fogtown”

Apologies, I wish I could say more about “Short Sharp Shocked” but that’s not the case. I can say what I’ve heard from the album, I liked. If any of you have the album, feel free to further my education here.

Next post: Weird Al Yankovic- Even Worse

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