I've wasted considerable blog space on Ryan Adams. First, I detailed the steady flow of mediocrity he has produced since hopping on the wagon. Then, just below, I described how the singer, a high school football reject, named his band after that very team in the hope that he could finally feel a sense of belonging/acceptance. I think it's fair to surmise from these posts that Mr. Adams is a "complicated" person. I would even go as far as calling him a "difficult" person, and perhaps a "primadonna." Fine, but who really cares? At his best - which I believe was during periods of great sadness and chemical dependence - he exhibited amongst the best pure songwriting ability of anyone since, dare I say, Neil Young. I fear that those moments of brilliance have left us for a very long time.
Today it was announced that Ryan got engaged to Mandy Moore. That's right, Mandy "prudish, suburban lolita with a heart of bland" Moore. Here's a man who made his best work sad, and now he's sober and engaged. But he didn't just get engaged to any girl. Adams married a woman whose public persona is on par with Hillary Duff. Did Ryan Adams all of a sudden join Good Charlotte? Those dudes could be the ultimate new-school starfuckers. Did Adams ditch the Strokes' posse to join theirs?
This announcement comes on the heels of another shocking revelation several weeks back, in which the artist claimed that he was getting out of the business for the foreseeable future. Taken together, these developments make me believe that something critical has happened. There's a good chance that our man fell in love with a decent, sane woman who might treat him well and keep him off substances. I think that Ryan Adams might actually be happy. This undoubtedly means that we [his fans] must all say our goodbyes to the man we knew and loved. I used that past tense on purpose.
No sadness-swilling artist manages to convert their maudlin following to upbeat tunes about marriage, children, and bliss. Only artists who build their careers on such things, like Alan Jackson, can afford to do so into the future. Bob Dylan tried to go Christian and his following freaked out. Hell, even John Lennon made a public outcry for the old Dylan. Though, the Dylan example raises one hopeful point. Sadness-based artists can come back from periods of blandness and joy. History proves this fact.
Bob Dylan crept out of his Christian phase, had open heart surgery, came to grips with mortality, and released "Time Out of Mind," perhaps one of his most bleak albums. His fans cried out that finally he had returned to form. See, no real fan forgets why they fell in love with an artist. Dylan folks no doubt came about when the man wrote about injustice, politics, hypocrisy, and all the other rebellious things that make young people wet. He saw the light, but then he got dark again. I believe Adams will come back to us one day. Certainly I will never forget when he wrote lyrics like...
"I'm thinking what you said was true, I'm gonna die alone and sad..."
I will never not love sad Ryan Adams. But, I must remind myself that nobody can survive a life filled with despair. There was certainly a period when I really worried that we would lose Adams to depression and drugs. I mean, he looked like this not too long ago...
So I'll resign myself to a world without new Ryan Adams music. To all you fellow fans out there, I suggest you do the same. I would rather have him here, ripe with possibility, than dead. We all must take sollace in the fact that he gave us at least 4 great albums as a solo artist and with Whiskeytown. That's more than most people can say. Lastly, let's hope that one day, once he's got his ya ya's out, our troubled troubador will croak once more...
"Cause honey it's over now, it's harder now that it's over, now that the cuffs are off, and you're free..."
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