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The World is Wrong

Tracy Thielen (1963-2006)

www.tracythielen.com

The music world was dealt a huge blow recently when it lost another of
its most talented songwriters/performers to a heroin overdose.
Unfortunately, most people don't even realize it, because they've never
heard of Tracy "Ace" Thielen.

Tracy lived for the most part in Los Angeles, putting out short-run
albums every few years on his own label, Action Box Records, and
playing shows to a small group of fans and friends. He was soft spoken
and friendly and put everything he had into his music and lyrics.

The first album with which I became familiar with was "ouch" (most of
tracy's titles were in a modest lowercase and packaged in a cardboard
sleeve like a tiny LP.) The front cover had a black-and-white picture
of a man with his head in a giant clamp. The back had a color picture
of an audi the middle of an intersection with its interior on fire. Ouch.

The songs are earnest and playful, usually acoustic or with a sparse
backup band and played with a frenetic sense of despair. More often
than not, the lyrics are deceptively humorous, with the title providing
half of the punch line. This album featured such classics as "pistol to
me" - a first-person account of a racist cop who matter-of-factly sings
(perhaps before a judge) "It was only his proof of insurance, but it
looked like a pistol to me." Of course, we know the cop will walk.

"ohno" starts out as a simple love song "I think I love you, I think I
love you, I think I love you, oh no," but by the third verse, it has
moved to the cannibalistic "I think I'll eat you I think I'll eat you I
think I'll eat you." And the innocently titled "the christmas song"
makes fun of this supposedly feel-good time of year with the chorus
"Merry Fucking Christmas to you!"

Most of the album was on the bawdy/ridiculous side, but there was a
hint of more sophistication on "ring," a solid rocker, and "good
words," the album's closer. It showed that there was more than just
clever lyrics in Tracy's arsenal.

Margaret Dumont, his next album (at least the next one that I have,)
was packed with 20 tracks. The cover is a parody of Elvis Presely's
classic green-and-purple logo album, also used by the Clash on London
Calling. A photo of Margaret Dumont, Groucho's comic foil in the Marx
Brothers movies, takes the place of Elvis Presley.

In the title song, Tracy offers the listener, over a minimalistic
cabaret shuffle, to "be your margaret dumont tonight" - which -- come
to think of it - is probably one of the strangest/best pickup lines ever.

On this album, Tracy dabbled in more genres. There's such post-punk
classics as "the world is wrong" (with its
simple-refrain-but-catchy-melody over impossibly convoluted guitar
chords - "Ev'ry body's full of shit 'cept for me and my baby, ev'ry
body's full of shit 'cept for me and my girl.") Then there's a happy
little ditty about our obsession with designer water with "french h2O"
and even a Serbian version of "if you're happy and you know it"
performed in a minor key.

But just when you think you've got this guy figured out, you hear a
track like "the lying hearts club song." Just a haunted slide guitar
and soft falsetto voice with a gentle melody over three chords about
how his heart took him for a ride. So simple, so wonderful, so Tracy.
(I have placed a link to it at www.abelincolnstory.com/thielen.htm for
those that would like to listen.)

Tracy was not without success; his song "found a friend" ended up being
used in Demi Moore's G.I. Jane, thanks to pal Viggo Mortensen. The core
of followers may have been small, but they included guitar gods Smokey
Hormel and Joey Santiago, so you know he's got to be on to something.
(It's also telling that Hormel's other gig was playing guitar for
another folky-quirky Los Angeles songwriter, albeit one a bit more famous.)

"King Felix" arrived in 1999, and Tracy seemed to really be giving this
one his all. I had the honor of appearing as a cop in the video for the
song "the bust" - Tracy ingeniously commenting on the impending Police
State by turning a demeaning event into a "dance craze."

The album also butts the manic pop-punk of "accident you" and the
plaintive "desolation time," against songs like "happily happily" (as
in I will happily happily fuck myself for you!") and "jiggle it a
little," an ode to faulty appliances everywhere.

For some strange reason (read: no payola) the album wasn't a hit. For
reasons related and unrelated, his life began to unravel. He lost his
long-time apartment and then began using heroin. At least, that's what
I was told when I would ask about him, after having spent five years
away in New York.

Yet, thankfully he still continued writing and putting out music. His
last effort "great day!" seemed to be filled with the usual
dichotomies. A drawing of a bloodshot, sweaty sun peeking over some
mountaintops graces the cover, the words "great day!" printed below.

Maybe it's just now that the album seems especially dark. His cover of
Nirvana's "Sliver" should have been a clue, perhaps, or the extremely
shocking "words of love" which tried to show how many racial epithets
in our vocabulary there are as opposed to ones for love.

"clap your hands" is Tracy at his most biting, politically. Co-written
with Hormel, it is a cynical look at the greed that fuels our country
("they clap their hands at the bell" refers to the bell at the start of
the morning stock exchange,) chugging atop a dirge-y chord progression.

And of course the title song "great day" turns out to be "today's a
great day to die!" But the song refrain - in typical Tracy fashion --
is strangely uplifting. It's a quote from an Indian battle cry, he
tells us, meaning to live life to its fullest every moment.

Tracy, today may have been a great day to die, but we will miss you.

Here is a link to the video of the Bust which I put on YouTube in
Tracy's honor! Rock on, ace!

Thanks for reading.

The Lying Hearts Club Song by Tracy Thielen (1963-2006)

Sometimes I can’t decide
And I know deep down inside
Where germs and tumours hide
The answer is plain

When I really need to know
For sure that’s where I’ll go
But now all I have to show for that is this pain

And I say oh no my heart’s a liar
Oh no, my heart took me for a ride

Like roaches gnats and lice
There’s lots of good advice
And I know it’s very nice
I used to just say

"No thanks I’m doing fine
With this old heart of mine"
But now it’s like a sign
That points the wrong way

I say oh no my heart’s a liar
Oh no, my heart made a mess of me
I say oh no my heart’s a liar
It’s not the way my heart supposed to be

Now Sorrow paints the town
Dressed up like clown
And Anger’s getting down all over the place
And Worry has a laugh
We take a photograph
And signs his autograph all over my face

I say oh no my heart’s a liar
My heart made a mess of me

Oh no my heart’s a liar
Now I sing the song the lying hearts club
Now I sing the song the lying hearts club
Now I sing the song the lying hearts club
sings

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