THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,408) Pearls Before Swine — “The Jeweler”
A true psych pop/folk pearl, one of the band’s “finest songs . . . . simply lovely, as is the quiet, orchestral arrangement”. (Stewart Mason, https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-jeweler-mt0002573568) It is an “exquisite tale . . . [that] exemplifies [Tom] Rapp’s remarkable abilities to draw upon disparate metaphors such as shining coins and worshiping God, both involving the The Use of Ashes”. (Lindsay Planer, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-use-of-ashes-mw0000695770)
Stewart Mason tells us of the song’s origins:
Tom Rapp has explained that the genesis of “The Jeweller,” with its refrain of “He knows the use of ashes,” came to him when he saw his wife cleaning a piece of jewelry in the European style, with a paste made from ashes. That simple, homey image . . . . [becomes] a character study that melds history and religion with uncomplicated, unpretentious ease. The invocation of Catholicism in the chorus (“He worships God with ashes”) is neither superfluous nor judgmental, and the fundamental metaphor of the song — “He knows that he can only shine them, cannot repair the scratches” — is one of the rare poetic images in a pop song that actually invites philosophical debate.
As to the LP The Use of Ashes, Lindsay Planer writes:
For their second Reprise Records outing, Pearls Before Swine worked primarily with Nashville-based musicians, including a small orchestra who provide a stately feel to the highly intimate nature of the material. According to Tom Rapp, the songs were written while he and his wife were living in the Netherlands, which Rapp said contributed significantly to the air of romanticism throughout.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-use-of-ashes-mw0000695770
Jason Ankeny tells us about PBS:
The psychedelic folk band Pearls Before Swine was the brainchild of singer, composer, and cult icon Tom Rapp . . . . [who] formed Pearls Before Swine in 1965, recruiting high-school friends . . . to record a demo which he then sent to the ESP-Disk label; the company quickly signed the group, and they soon traveled to New York to record their superb 1967 debut, One Nation Underground, which went on to sell some 250,000 copies. The explicitly antiwar Balaklava, widely regarded as Pearls Before Swine’s finest work, followed in 1968; the group — by this time essentially comprising Rapp and whoever else was in the studio at the moment — moved to Reprise for 1969’s These Things Too, mounting their first-ever tour in the wake of releasing The Use of Ashes a year later. Two more albums . . . followed in 1971 . . . . [and] Rapp resurfaced as a solo artist [in] 1972[,] but . . . a year later he then retired from music, subsequently becoming a civil rights attorney.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pearls-before-swine-mn0000753485#biography
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