The portentous Jamaican adage, ‘Short cut, draw blood’ warns that taking the easy way out can offer dire consequence. It also warns that the even quickest strike can also cause injury. Both of these eventualities carry substantial thematic weight with Jim Capaldi’s 1975 album of the same title. Recently, the Jim Capaldi Estate has announced a worldwide digital release of this vital album in Capaldi’s discography across numerous streaming platforms. The Estate has rolled out this current reassessment of the record with a release of the first single and title track, ‘Short Cut, Draw Blood’.
The title was brought up to Capaldi by Chris Blackwell of
Island Records, who was also Bob Marley and the Wailers producer, hence the use
and familiarity of a Jamaican proverb. The album was the first following the disillusion
of Traffic, though Capaldi had a number of former and current members of the
band he founded including but not limited to his songwriting partner Steve
Winwood appear on the LP.
The subject of today’s Talk
from the Rock Room ‘Take One’ feature is the title track of Capaldi’s 1975
LP and the aforementioned premier digital single of the album release. With the former ‘Traffic’ and Muscle Shoals rhythm section of Hood, Hawkins and Rebop the song’s striding groove moves
impatiently and nervously through Capaldi’s verses. The song’s construction and
content brings to mind Bob Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’, another melodic proclamation from
1975 that both jams and informs. Jim hisses out gritty accusatory verses that
may have been too much for the early critics. While not always fashionable in
the music industry to be environmentally conscious, this was a theme held close
to Capaldi’s heart. Capaldi was a straight shooter and with this cut he hit the
mark with a bullseye.
The song enters with a picked acoustic lick that signals the
introductory verses. Capaldi itemizes the acts being perpetrated on the Earth and its
inhabitants through swirling lyrics winding around flashing keyboards and
passing sonic washes. Each verse gains momentum with jagged electric guitar, moans
of Moog and percussion joining before crashing into the matter fact chorus, ‘I’m
telling you that a short cut is gonna draw blood, and you are gonna get you
face pushed in the mud’. Capaldi elicits a sneer when navigating the lyrics and a sly smile in the chorus. Following the third verse a guitar solo enters with
all of the various song’s elements colliding. Capaldi comes back following the solo and free forms with the
stratified guitars, adding well timed shouts and vamps on the chorus until the
fadeout.
'Well you can build a lot of buildings that you want in this
world, till a man can't see a thing. Keep on spraying the crops with your
suicide juice, till the birds no longer sing’. These acts were happening when
Capaldi composed the song in the mid 1970’s and they continue to this day.
Proof that Capaldi was on the right path of environmental consciousness and his
venomous voicing and dulcet musicality the perfect combination to distribute
his message.
Jim Capaldi’s 1975 record and track Short Cut, Draw
Blood deserves a critical reassessment and a new audience. Its messages
and musicality are just as important to listener’s ears today as they were in
in middle 1970’s. Capaldi’s talents ranged from composing, arranging, singing,
and of course drumming and his recordings need not languish is the dusty
recesses of a record store. As an
addition, please enjoy this live version of 'Short Cut, Draw Blood' and
'Goodbye Love' from the 'Old Gray Whistle Test' November 18, 1975 before you
go. Here’s to enjoying Jim Capaldi's music as well as adding a
new generation of listeners that I am sure will be hopeful recipients to his
message.
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