Detail of an illustration by Andre Galland from Dominique en Auto, 1955
I was pretty excited when I booted up the Jukebox last night and heard the soft intro to "Son of a French Nobleman". The Jacobites' story started in 1982, when, subsequent to the break-up of their art-punk band Swell Maps, brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks formed the Jacobites with the Subterranean Hawks' Dave Kusworth. Sudden and Kusworth were writing consciously retro pop songs at the time, heavily influenced by early-70s glam rock, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. Their sound was sassy and swaggering at times, and folksy and delicate at others. Their classic '80s albums were out of print for years and it can be hard to figure out the confused thicket of their original discography, but Secretly Canadian Records released expanded versions of their original albums a while back, revealing some real slept-on classics.
The real jewel is the Jacobites' 1985 album Robespierre's Velvet Basement. Originally conceived as a double album, the Jacobites' label asked the band to set aside half the songs from the recording sessions and release it as a single LP. The 2002 re-released version restores the full 27-song tracklist as it was originally conceived, spread across 2 CDs. Dave Kusworth's "Son of a French Nobleman", originally the last song on Side A of Robespierre's Velvet Basement, is now the last song on Disc 1. And that's where it belongs - it's a great closing song, showing the Jacobites' ability to build a song on a single chord progression and chorus-less melody that builds up to a big finish. The continually rising melody adds to the tension as the song gains momentum, with additional elements and voices entering the mix with each line. They hit the crescendo just right, too, with a new vocal coming in on the last shout of "Forever!" - it's one of those perfect pop moments that I look for in music.
"Son of a French Nobleman" by the Jacobites
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