Robert Hunter
Amagamalin Street (1984)
Mixing minimalist, sub-folk arrangements with detailed writing focusing on character, Hunter pulled off an ambitious, extended work of the sort that could be ventured only by someone inspired outside contemporary music commercialism. A two album narrative that harkens back to what used to be called rock opera - a genre disparaged almost before it began, and long before it reached its peak - Amagamalin Street is a welcome and successful undertaking.
For anyone who has ever pondered the life of certain hardcore street people, Amagamalin Street paints a convincing dramatic picture. At time recalling Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, Hunter's story is split into two parts. The first record is narrated by Chet, a happy-go-lucky womanizer and alcoholic. The songs recount the end of Chet's relationship with Roseanne, a girlfriend whom he's guided into prostitution. Along the way we meet Chet's new love, Maggie - a dropout from better things - and Murphy, a Vietnam veteran who remains calm in the middle of these stormy and violent relationships. There are plenty of Hunter's Dead elements in the story: lots of rambling motion (from San Francisco to New York City to the Catskills); there are characters whose lives are ruled by good luck and band luck; and the fine distinction is again drawn between characters Hunter empathizes with (Chet and Maggie) and those he sympathizes with (Murphy and Roseanne).
Hunter's way with the story here is impressive - particularly his eliding of time, his use of colloquial dialogue and his mixture of points of view.
"Roseanne" is successful in its verdant accumulation of detail. "Gypsy Parlor Light" seems logically insightful as it digs deep into the psychology of a slipping mind - a psychology seldom depicted well even in longer forms of art. But dramatic musical effects kick into high gear during the poignant lecture "Don't Be Deceived," the giddy elation of "Better Bad Luck," the unrelenting "Face Me" and the haunting, yet hopeful, sentiment of the last song, "13 Roses." Amagamalin Street pushes folk/pop narrative to a unique extreme, and is rewarding every step of the way.
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