Sylvan Song // Dream Of the Archer — Heart
“Beauty take us!” they call
“In my arms!” they hear her say
Silken web falls - mist illusion rips away
I’d like to know when you will say hello,When will it be I’d like to see you know, When will you change your mind and say hello?
Little Queen
Seattle forest-fairy perfection. Guitars and mandolins and that voice. Angry, hopeful, wistful, whimsical, fanciful and free. And then you have Barracuda. An album that is often only mentioned because of the raucous power and take no shit attitude of one of rock’s most finely crafted wrecking balls of sound and grit is full of all of these emotions and more in 9 other tracks that should also be considered rock mainstays and worshipped just as much. If not more.
You have the Love Alive’s, the Go On Cry’s and Cry to Me’s, the Archer and his dreams. You have Nancy’s first step into her lead vocal shoes, an innocence and heartache in her voice that was the first and maybe most powerful song she has written and sung in the Heart collective. Powerful in it’s unmistakable purity and naïveté, simply asking, will you save a place for me to rest beside your heart and feel I’m free? Goosebumps all around.
You have the Kick It Out’s, the Little Queen’s who just have to be on our magazines but are as misunderstood as everyone else. You have the instrumental mind escape of Sylvan Song, full of mandolin magic (and crickets) keenly adept to take you away to a foggy Seattle greenery feeling. All you have to do is float.
And THEN. And then, you have the Barracuda’s. Mind your fingers, they’re known to bite.
We all know the story. Sleazy backstage guy, insinuation about the little sister. It’s history. The pure and raging fire that came out when Ann wrote those words, the perfect complementary growl of the music, that chugging guitar. Like a musical fist punched square into the jaw of chauvinism. Leaving nary a bone chip left when it’s done. Total decimation. A voice both musically and lyrically that sends every tough guys knees straight to knocking, a thundering guitar track brought to ultimate perfection by Nancy today; it is the be all and end all of hard, unapologetic, and yet beautifully female rock and roll UGH. Hit em where it hurts, have em crawling back for more.
And so the saga of Heart’s undeniable and unforgettable mark on music continues. No signs of stopping anywhere near. And we are down, down, down on our knees just waiting for what comes next. ♥
Heart - Little Queen