Sinister: "The Chalet Lines"

[Lawrence Mikkelsen]

Hi everybody ...

Many thanks to Jeepster and Rocket Girl. My copy of "Fold Your Hands Child
.." came in time for the release day, only about 5 days after placing the
order. In all honesty I thought I would get it about a week late. Cheers
guys.

I've now listened to the new album three times. Some thoughts .... Well,
firstly, I really like it. Highlights (at this time) are "I Fought In A
War", "The Model" "Woman's Realm" and "Waiting For the Moon To Rise". Sarah
Martin has a beautiful voice ..... I'm not too keen on "Beyond The Sunrise"
or "The Chalet Lines", but I there is one thing time has taught me, it's
that I know I'll grow to love them. Do you know who the male singer is on
"Waiting For the Moon To Rise"? I think I read somewhere it was Chris
Geddes. Melody Maker said it was Stevie, but it doesn't sound like him ....
And I think "The Wrong Girl" is much better than the live versions. My
complaints are that I wish it was about 5 or 6 minutes longer. It's all over
too quickly, and there needs to be another Start Murdoch song in there
somewhere. It also lacks a really poppy song, like "The Boy With The Arab
Strap", Me and the Major" or "She's Losing It". I can't help thinking the
album would be about 10 times better if they'd put "The Lonliness of a
Middle Distance Runner" on it. Still, hopefully that will be released as a
single in a month or two ....

And now, the main part of my message .....

The last thing I want to do here is stir up a can of worms, or horribly
offend someone. Nonetheless, I am compelled to post about "The Chalet
Lines", and one listee's comment that said song is "insulting to women". I
am a little bit sick of the whole rhetoric where men are NOT ALLOWED to even
talk about rape.

Let me draw a parallel. My grandfather was in WWII, and saw lots of his
freinds die. It would be fair to say that the bloodshed and general carnage
of fighting the Japanese in the acific screwed him up pretty badly, and he
has spent much of his life (he's now 89) dealing with it. He came back
wounded, almost died, and has been partially disabled ever since. Similarly,
my dad fought in Vietnam, and while he lacks the classic "screwed up 'vet"
thing, many of his friends suffer from severe depression as a result of that
war.

Now, as a young male, I can't imagine anything more horrific than having to
watch my friends die in a hail of bulletts, all the while crawling around in
the mud shooting at some guy I have never met and would probably get along
with perfectly well in other circumstances.

(Where the hell are you going with this Lawrence?) The thing is, I don't
find "I Fought In A War" offensive. I don't think it is insulting to all
veterans, all young men, nor is it insulting to any of the people who've
died fighting for their country. I don't think my father or grandfather
would find it insulting either. The song tells a story in the first person,
about a terribly traumatic experience. Now, I don't think Stuart M has ever
fought in a war, so he's not writing from experience. I think you can look
at "The Chalet Lines" in a similar light. The song is pivotal to the album,
to my thinking. It comes right after the jauntiest song ("The Wrong Girl"),
and musically it is stark and sombre. The song is about someone Stuart
knows, and I can't see he would have written the song, nor put it on the
album, without without consulting/talking to that person, as obviously it
has the potential to stir up some horrific memories. Nonetheless, it IS on
the album, which makes me think that Staurt, the band, and the woman at the
centre of the song all felt it should be there. It is a compassionate,
heartfelt song, and by merely using tired old cliches like "the song is
insulting to woman" is. in my opionin, insulting to Stuart's intelligence,
and also to the woman to whom the experience belongs.

A couple of final points. Obviously, I'm not trying to compare rape and war.
I just think they are two traumatic experience from which an individual may
never recover, and it just happens that they are both the subjects of songs
on the new album. Secondly, men do get raped too. Granted, it's not nearly
so common, but it can happen. If Stuart had written a song from personal
experience as a rape victim, would it still be insulting.

I guess my reason for posting this rather massive message is just that this
is something I feel very strongly about. I believe a major cause of the sort
of attitude which makes men rapists is that they objectify women, and as
long as men can't contront and deal with the issue,m what hope is there.

Sorry if I have offended anyone with this. I'll gladly take a beating from
anyone offline about this, should you care to mail me and call me an
insensitive bastard or whatever, but will be away for the next few days so
may take a bit to reply.

Lawrence Mikkelsen
http://www.akn.quik.co.nz/mikelsen/aboutme

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