Tuesday Night Smash — Part III: I Shall Believe| Revisiting the second half Sheryl Crow’s collaborative hit.
Welcome back! This third part of the series will wrap up the in depth discussion on Tuesday Night Music Club. Come along as we go through the rest of the album, including her smash hit, “All I Wanna Do”.
“No-one Said It Would Be Easy” would be included on the soundtrack to Kalifornia. This slow burner country tune was made for chain smoking and whisky sipping. In live performances of the track, Sheryl has stated that she wrote the song about her parents. The song opens on the couple’s financial troubles having to be taken care of by the woman’s father, “It’s obvious the trouble we’re in / When your father pulls up in a Mercedes Benz / He says he just happened to be in the neighborhood/ But before he leaves he slips the landlord the rent”. This has an underpinning of emasculation to the male character in this story. The ensuing argument seems to boil down as the man understands why she asked for her father to help, “You say ‘It’s just a question of eliminating obstacles’/ As you throw your dinner out the kitchen door / You say ‘I know how you try’/ But honey let’s eat out tonight”. The second verse points out that even through their disagreements and squabbles, that they love each other dearly, “You can’t seem to ever fold up a shirt / I bring it up and you think I’m a jerk / But I think we’re here to stay /I can’t imagine it any other way”. As Crow sings in the chorus, “No one said it would be easy / No one said it’d be this hard / No one said it would be easy / No one thought we’d come this far / Oh, and look we’ve come this far”, we see that through what many may have thought was insurmountable, their relationship has survived. This whiskey soaked country slow jam is one of my favorites on the album.
“What I Can Do For You” is the second single released off the record. It would just barely crack the top 100 (making it to 98 on the U.S. Billboard charts). The song takes the point of view of a sleazy music executive who threatens a woman into a sort of Quid Pro Quo relationship. This parallels Crow’s real life experience with Frank DiLeo which is highlighted in this segment from June 2021 by The Independent:
He subjected her to sustained sexual harassment throughout the tour, promising to make her a star while threatening that if she refused, or told anyone, he would ensure her career was over before it had really begun. She had never spoken in detail about her experiences with DiLeo prior to Words + Music, but two songs on her 1993 debut album made reference to him [“What I Can Do For You” and “The Na Na Song”].
The song gives off an unsettling vibe as Crow takes on the point of view of the man in power. It starts with the man waking up next to the woman after a night together, “I’m so glad you’re awake/ That you’re not like the others/ ’Cause they’re so straight-laced/ And no fun”. He takes a turn in his motives as he states that he’s in a place of power that could help her if she’d let him have his way, “You’re a very pretty thing/ You remind me of someone/ You must have heard/ Some awful nasty things about me, but/ What I can do for you/ There’s no one else/ On God’s green earth can do”. He doubles down this in a more aggressive manner in the song’s second verse, “You’re never gonna make it/ All by yourself/ You’re gonna need a friend/ You’re gonna need my help”. This takes a turn into assault by the end of the verse, “Do you mind if I just/ Rub my hand up thus / Come on just my hand/ You got to understand / I’m gonna be your man / You’re gonna need me”. Crow’s delivery really makes the song as it takes it from what could have been corny into something dark and off-putting in its light delivery.
“All I Wanna Do” is the smash 3rd single off the record. The song takes a large portion of its lyrics from the Wynn Cooper poem “Fun” which is presented below:
‘All I want is to have a little
fun
Before I die,’ says the man
next to me
Out of nowhere, apropos of
nothing. He says
His name’s William but I’m
sure he’s Bill
Or Billy, Mac or Buddy; he’s
plain ugly to me,
And I wonder if he’s ever had
fun in his life.
We are drinking beer at noon
on Tuesday,
In a bar that faces a giant car
wash.
The good people of the world
are washing their cars
On their lunch hours, hosing
and scrubbing
As best they can in skirts and
suits.
They drive their shiny Datsuns
and Buicks
Back to the phone company,
the record store,
The genetic engineering lab,
but not a single one
Appears to be having fun like
Billy and me.
I like a good beer buzz early
in the day,
And Billy likes to peel the
labels
From his bottles of Bud and
shred them on the bar.
Then he lights every match in
an oversized pack,
Letting each one burn down to
his thick fingers
Before blowing and cursing
them out.
A happy couple enters the bar,
dangerously close
To one another, like this is a
motel,
But they clean up their act
when we give them
A look. One quick beer and
they’re out,
Down the road and in the next
state
For all I care, smiling like
idiots.
We cover sports and politics
and once,
When Billy burns his thumb
and lets out a yelp,
The bartender looks up from
his want-ads.
Otherwise the bar is ours, and
the day and the night
And the car wash too, the
matches and Buds
And the clean and dirty cars,
the sun and the moon
And every motel on this
highway. It’s ours you hear?
And we’ve got plans, so relax
and let us in —
All we want is to have a little
fun.
Since the song uses such a large amount of the poem by Wynn, I thought I would provide some insight into the genesis of this poem. Here is a few excerpts from an L.A. Times article on the poet:
Several years ago, two writers, Bill Ripley and my old friend Wyn Cooper, sat drinking late into the night. Bill wanted to continue, but Wyn reminded him that they were both scheduled to teach classes in a few hours, and they had better call it an evening. “All I want to do,” Bill said, “is have a little fun before I die.” Wyn wrote down the line. He used it as the first line in a poem he wrote the next day, a 300-word poem that took all of two hours to compose… The year before, Bill Bottrell had stopped by Cliff’s and picked up a bunch of poetry books, including one of the 500 copies of “The Country of Here Below.” He brought it to a sort of informal weekly meeting he attended, called the Tuesday Night Music Club. One of the members, a singer/songwriter named Sheryl Crow, had written a song titled “I Still Love You.” She liked the music but was unhappy with the lyrics. Bottrell showed her Wyn’s poem, and bam — like that — American poetry took one giant step into the mainstream. Crow changed some of the words in “Fun,” added a refrain and came up with “All I Wanna Do,” which sailed to the top of the Billboard charts, where it remained in the №1 position for weeks.
Ironically enough, Sheryl Crow has said in several interviews that this was the song she liked the least on the record. Prior to its release as a single, the album had seen little fanfare in the past 8 months it had seen a release. This would be the catalyst of Crow’s career and set her on a path to stardom and success that she still sees to this day. It’s hard not to hear this track and feel a little happy when hearing it. It’s definitely a must listen off the album.
“We Do What We Can” is a jazzy slow track. This track includes horn playing by Sheryl’s father, Wendell Crow. The lyrics of the song have a sort of autobiographical tone to them regarding Crow’s upbringing. The opening see her looking back at her childhood and hearing the horn players practice downstairs, “Downstairs they’re playing Kenton / The house set to swing / I lay in my bed / And listen to everything/ ’Cause Leo’s in rare form tonight / His trombone sings so sweet”. The second to final verse describes the emptiness in the home without Leo coming to practice since his death. This breaks into a fantastic bridge with a driving momentum through jazzy piano. She looks at how this ever changing environment is affecting everyone, “The procession on the TV screen / What could it possibly mean for a man / who’s come this far just to turn around / Could there still be life in Kenton’s swing”. She also hits on the political and social climate of the time during the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War, “With the Kennedys gone and everything / Those sad rows of houses with their optimistic colors / Democrat grandparents and draft-dodging brothers / Riots down the street and discontented mothers / We do what we can”. We end on a bittersweet remembrance of what once was downstairs by an older Sheryl talking about how she copes though lives challenges and injustices, “But it’s good to be alive / And these are the choices / We make to survive / You do what you can”.
“I Shall Believe” ends out the album beautifully. This is probably the best ballad on the record hands down. There’s a country/gospel mix that takes this to the top. The emotive tone in Crow’s vocals beside the beautifully smooth pedal steel gives the song this gorgeous sadness and desperation. Sheryl has described this track as having a spiritual edge that definitely comes through. The song opens on Sheryl at her lowest asking God to give her strength and solace, “Come to me now/ And lay your hands over me/ Even if it’s a lie/ Say it will be alright/ And I shall believe”. The song’s chorus picks up into a swell of pedal steel as Crow sings, “That not everything is gonna be the way/ You think it ought to be/ It seems like every time I try to make it right/ It all comes down on me/ Please say honestly you won’t give up on me/ And I shall believe”. Through all this misfortune, she prays that the Lord will give her some salvation from this place that she’s in. She seems to repent from straying away from her religious dogma and takes solace in her beliefs, “Never again/ Would I turn away from you/ I’m so heavy tonight/ But your love is alright/ And I do believe”. The bridge where the pedal steel takes full focus is my absolute favorite part of the album. The remixed version of the song that appears on the deluxe version of the album brings this out more along with the rhythm guitar that I prefer over the original. Either way, this is a must listen off the album.
The record still stands the test of time as being a true gem in the realms of Americana and Adult Contemporary music. The songwriting is pristine and Sheryl’s vocals are fantastic. There is no wonder why she still kicking ass and taking names to this day as Crow is a multi-faceted talent and this debut record allowed her to go on to show these talents through 10 more albums. My picks for best tracks off the record are:
- “Leaving Las Vegas”
- “Strong Enough”
- “No-one Said It Would Be Easy”
- “What I Can Do For You”
- “All I Wanna Do”
- “I Shall Believe”
My overall rating: 9 out of 10 bottles of Bud as they spin on the bar…
The final section of this series will discuss the aftermath of Crow’s relationship with the songwriting collective she worked with on Tuesday Night Music Club. Included in this piece is several interview segments from some of the songwriters as well as Crow herself on the fall out. This will also bridge into some of the history of her work towards her follow up sophomore record.
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