The 1980s - Chris Isaak

I’m not sure what came first – the movies, the video, or the concert [I think it was the concert].  I saw Chris Isaak open for the Allman Brothers Band in 1989.  The venue was Cal Expo in Sacramento, California.  He introduced himself as being from just down the road, Stockton.  I don’t remember the set list [it’s been 30 years, forgive me].  But I do remember that he was an opening act that was actually pretty good.  Most opening acts that I’ve seen since 1982 can’t make that claim.  Usually opening acts are so bad you just hope their sets go quickly so you can hear the act you paid to see.  He had a new album to plug called Heart Shaped World.  But since I was there to see the Allman Brothers I didn’t pay much attention to what he played.  I just know that he and his band sounded very good.  I quickly forgot about the guy from Stockton after the show, until…

One of the songs from Heart Shaped World was Wicked Game.  The song had a video one doesn’t forget after having seen it.  The video features a topless Helena Christensen [and a shirtless Chris Isaak for the girls].  MTV sure liked the video.  The song became popular because of the video.  The video got made because an instrumental version of Wicked Game appeared in David Lynch’s movie Wild at Heart.  Lynch is the guy who made the TV show Twin Peaks.  It was a weird show, as Wild at Heart [Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern] was an off-the-wall movie that came out in 1990.  I still watch it from time to time.  The movie was a cult favorite [I’m part of the cult].  Apparently an Atlanta DJ is part of the David Lynch movie cult as well and started playing Wicked Game a lot.  Then the song hit nationwide.  Funny how things happen that way.  It turns out that Lynch used two other Chris Isaak songs [Gone Ridin' and Livin' for Your Lover] in another bizarre movie [1986’s Blue Velvet with Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Dennis Hopper].

Here’s how your humble narrator [me] buys music.  If there’s a song I like, I’ll check out the album it comes from.  If the only good thing on the album is the song I like, I’ll pass on the rest of the albums.  But if the album is any good, I’ll buy the next two.  If they’re any good, I end up buying the whole discography [unless it’s an incredibly huge discography like Willie Nelson’s].  She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn’t like it, but that’s what she married.  I liked Wicked Game, so I bought Heart Shaped World.  I liked Heart Shaped World, so I bought San Francisco Days [1993] and Forever Blue [1995].  I hit the Chris Isaak jackpot.  Now I own copies of almost all of his studio output.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he didn’t sound like anything else on the radio, much like the Stray Cats did in the mid-1980s.  What was old and classic was new again.  Moody ballads are his strength.

Chris Isaak sings about one thing and one thing only – women.  Judging from the lyrical content, Chris Isaak is one lonely guy.  Given his voice and his looks, I find that hard to believe.  His body of work is described as songs of smoky, wounded romance and dark menace, and of desire and need.  AllMusic reviewer William Ruhlmann describes Isaak’s sound as “meticulously constructed retro” where he entered a time machine and emerged in 1960 when Roy Orbison ruled the music charts with melodramatic ballads and Elvis had just returned from the Army.  Comparisons with Roy Orbison abound.  Is he as good as Roy?  Nobody is or ever will be, but he channels Roy very well – Elvis as well when the occasion merits it.  The formula from album to album rarely deviates, but the same can be said about AC/DC and Motörhead.  Chris Isaak’s strength is the ability to making the sounds of early rock and roll [twangy with a healthy dose of reverb and delay] and make it sound contemporary.  His guitarist for his first four albums was James Wilsey, whose Spaghetti Western lead guitar playing was influenced heavily by the likes of Link Wray, Hank Marvin and Duane Eddy.  The slight deviations from the sound vary from additions of steel guitar, Hammond organ or Farsifa organ.  Sometimes his songs sound like they would fit perfectly on any Dwight Yoakam album [that’s not a bad thing].  If you’re not like me and don’t want to own everything he’s done, a good place to start would be Heart Shaped World and Forever Blue.  You can make up your own mind whether you want to jump in the deep end like I did.

Here’s my Chris Isaak playlist:

1.      Heart Shaped World [Heart Shaped World, 1989]

2.      Somebody's Crying [Forever Blue, 1995]

3.      Wicked Game [Heart Shaped World, 1989]

4.      Go Walking Down There [Forever Blue, 1995]

5.      We Let Her Down [Mr. Lucky, 2009]

6.      Graduation Day [Forever Blue, 1995]

7.      Shadows In a Mirror [Forever Blue, 1995]

8.      The End of Everything [Forever Blue, 1995]

9.      Move Along [San Francisco Days, 1993]

10.  Except the New Girl [San Francisco Days, 1993]

11.  Speak of the Devil [Speak of the Devil, 1998]

12.  Don't Make Me Dream About You [Heart Shaped World, 1989]

13.  Kings of the Highway [Heart Shaped World, 1989]

14.  One Day [Always Got Tonight, 2002]

15.  Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing [Forever Blue, 1995]

16.  Best I Ever Had [Mr. Lucky, 2009]

17.  Courthouse [Always Got Tonight, 2002]

18.  Life Will Go On [Always Got Tonight, 2002]

19.  Things Go Wrong [Forever Blue, 1995]

20.  Goin' Nowhere [Forever Blue, 1995]

21.  5:15 [San Francisco Days, 1993]

22.  Please [Speak of the Devil, 1998]

23.  Walk Slow [Speak of the Devil, 1998]

24.  First Comes the Night [First Comes the Night, 2015]

25.  Insects [First Comes the Night, 2015]

26.  Blue Spanish Sky [Heart Shaped World, 1989]

27.  Blue Hotel [Chris Isaak, 1986]

28.  Funeral in the Rain [Silvertone, 1985]

29.  You Took My Heart [Chris Isaak, 1986]

30.  Some Days Are Harder Than the Rest [First Comes the Night, 2015]

31.  Like the Way She Moves [Speak of the Devil, 1998]

32.  King Without a Castle [Best of Chris Isaak, 2006]