Understanding Glenn Morrow is understanding the tight-knit music community of Hoboken, New Jersey. For over 30 years Morrow has presided over the indie label Bar/None, home at some point or another to lauded acts such as They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo, The Feelies, The Slip, The db’s, and Freedy Johnston among many others. The label also released albums from Morrow’s own projects including the twangified, Joy Division-esque Rage to Live and the art punk of The Individuals. Pretty much all of these acts had a connection to Hoboken in some way, and it was labels like Bar/None alongside clubs like Maxwell’s that embraced their music. That legendary club was ground zero for the city’s vibrant music scene for years, and when it sadly closed in 2013 (it has since reopened under new ownership), Glenn Morrow found himself onstage for the first time in many years rocking out with his old pals.
The experience of playing Maxwell’s lit a fire for Morrow and he soon found himself writing songs and looking for musicians to play with. Out of that burst of inspiration came his newest project Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help, which just released its self-titled debut not on Bar/None, but on Rhyme & Reason Records, owned by former Bar/None employee Emmy Black. The band finds Morrow at the helm alongside Ric Sherman on guitar, Mike Rosenberg on bass, and Ron Metz on drums. Together they have concocted a collection of songs that are down to earth, striking a perfect balance between bar band rock and roll glory and catchy pop-laden hooks. Morrow dabbles in subjects like being an aging rocker, depression and getting out of your comfort zone, keeping his clever lyrical wit on display at all times. It’s been years since Morrow has been active as a musician, but Cry For Help is a welcome return that shows he still knows how to make sparks fly. Ultimately, the album is a reminder of not just Hoboken’s rich musical history, but the huge role played by Morrow. Recently Morrow took the time to talk about the inspiration behind the album, his return to songwriting, and lots more.
Where did the band name come from – why is this a cry for help?
We were thinking about all kinds of ridiculous names and [then somebody said] ‘how about Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help?’ and I was laughing. Then people really liked the name so it sort of stuck. I don’t know what to say, I didn’t come up with it but I’ll take one for the team.
So it’s not a literal cry for help?
No, other than being an older guy [wondering] what does he expect to get out of this kind of experience of getting back into playing live music and taking it somewhat seriously.
What made you want to return to playing live music and recording?
I always play at home and I wrote a song for a movie that the Front Bottoms recorded. Over the years I put my toe in the water but didn’t really commit. Then at the closing of Maxwell’s I had gotten together with [some people] for the closing celebration as The Individuals. We did all that and it was like, ‘ok, that was great, we actually pulled that off.’ We revisited the past and played songs we hadn’t played since we were 21 years old, but then it was kind of like ‘ok, now what do I do?’ I realized that I needed something to do and I thought I gotta put a band together, and whoever I can find, the first guys in the door will be in the band. Eventually I got a solid lineup.
Did you write all of the songs on the album specifically for the album or did you have any of these songs sitting around for a while?
They were all written after the closing of Maxwell’s, they’re all new songs except for one chord progression that was written when I was with The Individuals in the early 80s. I loved the progression but I hadn’t really worked it into a song.
You touch on a lot of different subjects. Is there a central theme or idea that connects these song sin your mind?
It’s funny – Pete Hoffman, who was in a band called the Mendoza Line, I met in the 70s said a song has to have two distinct parts. You have two distinct parts – you can have a bridge or a coda or an intro, but you gotta have two distinct parts. If you do that you’ll have something that’s kind of compelling, two parts that you like. I tried to figure that out writing songs again. I also have [taught] myself in the blues and these chord formations that have been out there forever, and I tried to start with that as the basis. Also, we’ve played all kinds of covers for years, so breaking songs apart and putting them back together, you just have a body of tricks to pull from I guess. Lyrically, I definitely try to think about what I can communicate from where I am now. I’m not a kid, I don’t have the same emotional angst that I had when I was 22. I’m coming from a different perspective, and I’m trying to speak for myself but hopefully come up with universal stuff that people can connect with. At the same time I like being a little abstract or messy, so you can’t totally get a hold on it but you can deem something from it.
I noticed that. You have a song called “Keira Knightley” that I was wondering about.
I actually came up with the first few lines of that song [when] I saw Keira Knightley on the nightly news and I thought that sounded good, it rolls off the tongue nicely. I think I had written the music but I didn’t know what it was supposed to be about and I thought there should be a movie star in this so I came up with that line. Then I thought, where should this go, and I thought, well the paparazzi is giving her the blues. She feels put upon, she’s kind of oppressed by the paparazzi haunting her day in and day out. That lead me to the idea of her trying to see everybody must be free, and then I thought what are other ways people feel oppressed that maybe aren’t like traditional ways like incarceration or being in a ghettoized situation or being hassled by the cops. There are other ways you can be oppressed, so I thought of these sort of privileged ways of being oppressed but also there are references to opioid addiction, which is just such an [affliction] for this country right now. How do you get rid of all the things that bring you down? Everybody wants to be free, it’s a basic human instinct.
You’ve said that this album was partially inspired by Robert Palmer’s book Deep Blues. What about that book connected with you and how did you translate that inspiration into the music?
I knew Robert when he was the rock critic at The New York Times and he was real supportive of all the Hoboken bands at that time – the db’s, the Bongos, the Individuals. He was in a band in Hoboken in the 1960s called the Insect Trust that actually made two albums. One of them is called Hoboken Saturday Night. I read his book back then, but back then I didn’t have access to all of the records he was referencing. So I was just kind of reading about the blues – I could find a Willie Walker record or a Slim Harpo record or something – but I couldn’t reference Brother Montgomery or something.
The other thing I would say about Robert Palmer’s book is that in reading it now, because of Spotify or Youtube, you have access to all this material. So you can go really deep and hear like 12 versions of this or that song, or I like the way this guy sings in this or this key and I want to sing something like that. Just interacting with these blues forms is fantastic. I wouldn’t call [my album] a blues album, it’s much more rock and roll with pop music, but it definitely looks back towards those forms.
Now that everyone is older and Maxwell’s has changed ownership, is the vibe still the same and is there a Hoboken music scene?
There actually is. Obviously, I’m in a band in Hoboken so I’ve sort of reconnected. Elena Skye, Demolition String Band, Davey and the Trainwreck, the Cucumbers from back in the day are still around. Maxwell’s still exists but it’s got slightly different ownership. People try, you know, keeping the music alive here. It’s difficult and we’ll see what the future brings.
Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help is out now. For more info visit the band on Facebook.
Photo credit: Mark Jaworski
