BRIAN CAPENER

The marquee outside Uncle Mario's playing a gig smack in the red shag discotheque announces: TONIGHT! heart of Babylon (Provo annex), and MARVIN PAYNE DISCO PARTY. what happens is that it scares the The Provo High School glitter crowd metaphoric subtlety nght out of is there, easily outnumbering the him. To these acolytes of the glitter faithful coterie of Marvin Payne cult he sings, not the new, electric friends and relations. There is a songs, not the calculatedly commer- sense of anticipation. Will tonight cial songs with the messages of truth see the final electrification of this and light buried deep within in- one-time folksinger who for the last nocuous sounding lyrics, but the old five years has gone among the songs, the songs with images that houses and towns of Utah Valley, sometimes interlock like poetry. He plying his trade in vinyl? After all, does sing them "Eliza" but not be- Marvin Payne has been heard on the fore telling them that it is an anti- radio of late, singing a mild rocker abortion number, written to his called "Eliza." A love song? Homage yet-unborn daughter. He explains to an earlier Utah songwriter? No the songs to them, he wants them to one much knows, or really cares; it understand that these are songs sounds like a hit, the Osmonds sing about repentance and atonement the background vocals. and home teaching; he talks and Uncle Mario's is furnished with red talks, and finally he sings "I Am a shag walls and mirrored stage; the Child of God" and wants the audi- effect is a hybrid of abandoned ence to join in, the way they always warehouse and European Health used to. Some do. The Marvin Spa. The truth is, Marvin Payne and Payne part of the evening is over. the disco party occur in that order, There is a pause of no more than ten but the juxtaposition is revealing. seconds before 40,000 watts of disco Marvin has been keeping strange energy erupts from the four hulking company; after all, his latest album speakers in the comer, and Marvin's was produced under the watchful anb-abo=tionsong with the Os- auspices of the Osmonds. Now he is mond "whs" in the background be- MUSIC comes the object of dance interpreta- tion in the tale of young Billy Jenkins tion. And how those children do expiring in a snowstorm while tak- dance. ing the tithing to Salt Lake City on Later, a bearded youth helping Mar- Christmas Eve? The strength of the vin and the band load the truck is words was what people heard, those asked how he liked the concert. that listened at all, and somehow, in "Wow," he responds in awe, "it was spite of the fad that musically the almost like Sunday School." songs sounded a lot like the world's ***** product, the power of metaphor and Marvin Payne grew up in El Monte, imagery saved Marvin Payne from California, and went to high school the taint of writingmntiones profbnap. in the mid-sixties. He was listening The words were both the strength to Bob Dylanbefore it was de rigeur to and weakness of his music, because listen to Bob Dylan, and from him songs you can play on Sunday learned how to write songs in which don't, when it comes right down to the words were noticeably more im- it, sell. portant than the music. Marvin cul- So I went on down to Hollyweird, Tryin' tivated a determinedly average abil- to make it in the world of song. ity to finger a guitar and sing at the I met me an agent, he said, 'Son, Your tunes are all too long. same time. But the voice was clearly What's more than that, they're all too fat better than average, and something From the core out to the peel. had to be done with it. At BW, it And I don't like apples and I don't like underwent "classical training" and you, Marvin appeared in the crook of the So how does that make you feel?" piano, singing black tuxedo music. Marvin sold his records door-to- But after a mission to Australia, door in the evenings with his Gibson Marvin decided he wanted to be a guitar slung over his shoulder, and it poet, and exercised the poetic enter- was only a matter of time before prise to market his verse door-to- someone called him a "Mormon door. A friend suggested that the troubadour." If the metaphor was poems become songs, and the book apt, it was only because troubadours a record album. This accomplished, were notoriously concerned about Marvin began to market his first finding the perfect union of word album -door-to-door. The songs and music. Otherwise, troubadours were from the beginning simply a were, despite the popular miscon- vehicle for the expressions of relig- ception, middle-class nobility who ious faith and experience which he sat around dusty castles writing wanted to share, and the words songs which the real door-to-door were inevitably more important types, the jongleurs, disseminated. than the music. Someday, Marvin would like to be- Marvin Payne rescued a whole gen- come a troubadour. eration of BWcoeds from the **** spectre of silent stereos on the Sab- We are eating dinner in the Ernest L. bath. When everyone else, includ- Wilkinson Center. Marvin has spent ing the Osmonds, fell under the the afternoon practicing with his Sunday anathema in tacit recogni- band, and he will sell records after tion of their ultimate af£iliation with dinner. It costs him more to drive Idumea, Marvin's band played on. back to Alpine to eat dinner with his Even when his songs became, well, family than it does to eat in the Wil- loud, who could fail to find edifica- kinson Center, so Marvin is a fre- MARVIN PAYNE

quent patron. "You know, if some- '"You know," Marvin says, ''I've one asked me if I was affiliated with gone around for a long time saying BYU, I would certainly say no, I that when ou're offering folks the don't have anything to do with it, water of d' e, why should some but I bet I spend more time on cam- people get hung up on the bucket? pus than a lot of students." One of Well, this morning I was sitting in whom approaches the table. "Is the tub and the thought came to me your name Marvin Payne?" he asks. that there are in fact some buckets "It certainly is, and what's yours?" which are so tainted by carrying around the other stuff that wen The question seems to startle the when they're carrying the water of student. He mumbles his name then life you think you're tasting some- quickly adds, "I heard you play back thing eke." in Bowling Green." I opine that the Medium, is after all, "You're the one who had the the Message. twelve-string guitar. " Marvin eyes me distrustfully. "Now hi^ too a visible jolt. "1 you may think 1 haven't read Mar- didn't think you'd remember," he shall McLuhan. Well now I have.'" says. He leans forward as though he is about to share a great secret. "But you were very memorable," "There's just one thing I want to tell Marvin replies, then proceeds to in- YOU about Marshall McLuhan," he quire in some detail into the ac- says, "The man is altogether crazy." tivities and whereabouts of his ac- He smiles at this disclosure then quaintance in the past year. He leans back, waiting for me to con- watches the young man go on his tinue. way, vaguely baffled at having But he continues: "So I get out of the found himself the sole topic of con- tub and drivinginto town, and versa tion. I'm listening to a tape this kid gave I am explaining to Marvin the Coun- cil of Trent. In 1545 the Church was upset because some composers were slipping popular tunes in as the anti firmi of their masses, and some of them were making the music more important than the words. In 1976, Latter-day Saint musicians are being counselled that a fund- amental impropriety may be in- volved in trying to make certain styles of music vehicles for sacred expressions, and Marvin is frankly r worried about this. The fact that the I I problem has historical continuity is not profoundly comforting to him. The suggestion is made that the 111 strangeness of the Uncle Mario's gig ' may have to do with the issue of propriety. I 17 MUSIC me in Chicago. He's recorded these Right now I can't see anything songs that sound just like America wrong with songs like that, but to- or Crosby, Sills and Nash, only the morrow I'm going to be back in the words are about the martyrdom of tub again. " Joseph Smith, and Christ in Jeru- ****** salem, and you know what? It is just Some of Marvin's problems may plain beautiful. date to the Council of Trent, but one "You see, if what some Church lead- of them at least is much older. So far, ers say is true, then the songs I've the itinerant record-peddling ap- got to worry about are not the com- proach has managed to pay the bills, mercial songs, because most of them but it will never produce any profits. don't even make an attempt to be And even though a few years ago he serious, but it's a song like "If Jesus probably didn't even think of it, sell- was a River" which is altogether ing door-to-door lacks dignity, at laid-back and acoustic, and taken least for someone who is serious from Ezekial47: about a career as a songwriter. "I feel If Jesuswas a river rollin' easy fresh and guilty if I go to a movie," he says free, ruefully. "Sometimes I feel like I've And if Jesus was a river rollin' easy, been on a mission for seven years Would you take your shoes off, now." Then more seriously: "When Would you come along with me, I go to a house and sit down to sing a Would you swim into the beauty of the stream? song and sell a record, I've always felt I should use the moment to share Once I was a plain and dusty stranger on the shore. my testimony, or to say something Once I was a plain and dusty stranger. personal. But lately I've felt like I Then I swam the river should sing them one of the new And I dove into the glory, commercial songs because that's Dove into the glory of the stream. what I'm trying to sell them." Look around, the water's to your ankles. Look around, the water's to your knees. For nearly a year, Marvin has been Look around, the water's to your shoul- writing "commercial" songs, ac- ders, cording to strict formulas of style And you can see the fishes dancin' and form. At first it was an invigorat- Dancin' silver rings around you and me - If Jesuswas a river rollin' easy fresh and ing challenge, just to see if he could he, do it; now he has mixed feelings And if Jesuswas a river rollin' easy.2 about it. "I think it's fair to assume that I, like nearly everyone else, will Marvin laughs. "You know I played find my job boring and unchalleng- that song once for this guy who was ing at least part of the time. I think I an English major - probably the can handle that. Ideally I would like kind of person who sits around all to live in Utah, do a minimum of day and reads Marshall McLuhan - touring, write a whole lot of com- and when I got done he looks at me mercial songs for other people to and says, 'Now really, don't ou think that song is awfully pe 'Jes- sing, and then every once in a while tian?' " just sort of slip in an album of my own which is full of beautiful "So what is your conclusion?" I songs." And the chief reason he ask. wants to be successful as a songwri- ter is to avoid the inevitable next step "There is no conclusion," he says, he would have to take in building his "escept that I'm flat-out confused. career as a performer: playing night- MARVIN PAYNE

dub. "I want to just sod of skip that flowery st& out, and he gets really altogether. But the next six stubborn." months will be real crucial in deter- "Guy medieval dn3ng whether or not I wiU have to doesn't We end up posturing as a jester in Baby- images," WNin =plies. "What if I wscourt. " didn't like all the mornings he pvts in his sangs? I have mthlns against "Sometimes8" he once said, "I won- morning," he says map-. der what would have happened if I But there are still songs bein writ- had stayed with the University, ot~ ten which, &e not hammered out ten a bunch of degrees and ended up piece by piece from the pig iron d BWIa huge gig at some prestigious commercially acceptable themes, university. wonder if I have I could songs which are denbecause &ed more people and helped smebody Marvin met out selling more people doing that. I'm not a reads touched him, and driving dumb person, you know. There are home at night the words and the some things 1know, and a lot of music come in such a way that he things I believe real hard. Evlaybe has to pull over to the side oi the have Yhat would knbefier, but road and write if all down. there's no way to tell." Doubtlessly, the st~~@glesand the Ikkvin's songwriting eonpanion is cokbaration have helped, because Guy Randle, who has played with the new so~gsare "hWrand the band for severai years. The col- truer: bbomtion has proved fitful(the I've got happy songs that don't man Osmonds have recorded a number -I3 of Sad songs that Qnfy man goodbye, their songs), but like any creative And my love mgsremind yau of the joy duo, thae am pints of disagree- Wsone, ment. "Manrin has this thing about -my sgneeo* Mm*ym Stars. He always wants to put stars '7. in the songs. Also medieval things, You've been laying lon under the shadow, castles and dragons and that kind of Your windows are bia 3, your walls are stuff. I try to write with images that bare, and Well I'm with you in the ctarkness with a me straight earthy, you know, Lm to*, @t kind of flat and direct, and then But my song is sk,wAy dyid on the air. l&min wants to put a dragon or a Won't you letme help youbeketltere's a star in them. Sometimes I have to mamin' brewso mew he^, f&t with him for hours to keep that Won't you let me hefp you belkw ffiene's t9 MUSIC

new day cornin' through. The intellect of man is forced to choose Ah, but if it hurts you to know that the sun Perfection of the life or of the work. is shinin' anywhere but here, And if it take the latter, must refuse Willit help you to know I've had that feelin' A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. too? = When all that story's done, What's the news? In luck or out, the toil has left its mark; We are finishing dinner in the Wil- That old perplexity, an empty purse, kinson Center. It has been an Or the day's vanity, the night's ~ernorse.~ exhausting afternoon in the studio, "Exactly," he says softly. "You recording songs for a KBYU-FM know we all think that what Beet- special on Marvin Payne. Some- hoven did was so wonderful, but we thing happens in the canned atmos- could all have perfectly happy lives phere of the studio that enervates without Beethoven." enthusiasm very quickIy. The em- phasis shifts wholly to the music, It is past six and time for Marvin to and for a time at least, what the begin selling. We take our trays to songs are about is completely forgot- the conveyor belt and walk slowly ten. Guy, in fact, has played and re- for the door. The most important corded the new song several times thing is that in spite of, or maybe before he suddenly realizes with a because of, it all, Marvin is happy. shock of recognition that it contains He exudes a powerful equanimity. the word "star." Bill Cushenberry His conversation is sometimes doesn't like his bass track, Jac Red- mocking, often self-mocking, but it ford is fretting about the intonation is seldom sardonic or bitter. of his guitar line, nothing ever seems "I think the session went okay," I to be altogether in tune. When the say. "I think for the time we had it session is over nobody is really satis- went pretty well." fied, but we are happy to get out and "It was a learning experience," Mar- do something else. I ask Marvin vin says. "Things will never be per- what will happen to the band if the fect in the studio, but you have to songwriting begins to generate learn to use the time you have to get enough money. it perfect enough." Then a gleam "In a way," he says, "I think the best comes into his eyes announcing the thing that could happen is if they all birth of one of the mock-metaphors went out and got real jobs. Not even that are his trademark, a metaphor in music. I mean nice, solid, nine- so flat and straight on that even Guy to-five jobs. Randle would have to approve. I look surprised. "Life," he says, "is a lot like studio "I'm serious. Now you take Jac Red- time." He eyes me confidently until I ford. Jac has so much talent that all smile, then he nods once and goes the seeds are there for him to stay in out the door. this business and develop all the neuroses of a real artist. I mean a real "1 Never Knew a Dog Named Marvin" @ artist. He could become a Beethoven Marvin Payne, 1976. Notes 2-4. Lyrics of all songs: @Marvin and pay the exact same price." Payne. The thought recalls a poem by Yeats called "The Choice." As memory serves, I recite it for Marvin: MARVIN PAYNE

Hot off the pen(ci1). Ma~nPayne's latest (as of July, 1976), in process of composition.