''The Use Of Ashes'' was the fourth album made by American

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music, psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of contemporary folk music, folk, but adds musical el ...

group Pearls Before Swine, and the second on Reprise Records after their move from

ESP-Disk ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman. History Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's ''Spiritual Unity''), ESP ...

Background

After recording the 1969 album ''These Things Too'', the other original founding members of Pearls Before Swine had all left, and leader

Tom Rapp Thomas Dale Rapp (March 8, 1947 – February 11, 2018) was an American singer and songwriter who led Pearls Before Swine, an influential psychedelic folk rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Described as having "a slight lisp, gentle v ...

and his then wife Elisabeth moved to her home country of the Netherlands (travelling on the maiden voyage of the '' QE2'' liner) to live for several months near

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. Most of the songs on ''The Use Of Ashes'' were written there. They were recorded back in Nashville in March 1970, with some of the city's top session musicians, many of whom formed the basis of the band Area Code 615.

Recording summary

Many of Rapp's admirers regard this, and particularly the first side of the original LP (tracks 1 through 5), as the finest and most consistent of all his albums. The opening track, "The Jeweler", with its refrain of ''"He knows the use of ashes / He worships God with ashes"'', came to him when he saw his wife cleaning a piece of jewelry with a paste made from ashes, and is generally regarded as one of his finest and most poetic songs. A version was later recorded by

This Mortal Coil This Mortal Coil were a British music collective led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotati ...

. The next track, "From the Movie of the Same Name" is largely instrumental, featuring David Briggs' harpsichord and, like all the tracks, is beautifully and sensitively arranged. "Rocket Man" is based on the

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

story "The Rocket Man" (in his book "

The Illustrated Man ''The Illustrated Man'' is a 1951 collection of 18 science fiction short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. A recurring theme throughout the stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was ...

") about an astronaut and father burning up in space, but also draws on Rapp's difficult relationship with his own father and the fact that, in his teens, he lived near Cape Canaveral in Florida. Irish singer-songwriter

Pierce Turner Pierce Turner (born June 1949) is an Irish singer-songwriter. After forming a duo with Larry Kirwan he went solo in the mid-1980s and has since released several albums. Biography Turner grew up in the port town of Wexford, where his mother ...

recorded the song for his 2022 album ''Terrible Good''. The song itself inspired Bernie Taupin's lyrics on Elton John's hit of the same title. Another highlight, "Song About A Rose", again shows Rapp's ability to convey metaphysical thoughts within an artfully arranged song, with the lyrics ''"And even God can only guess why or where or when or if the answers all belong / And you and I we sing our song about a rose / Or perhaps the shadow of a rose"''. A different texture is provided by the jazzy "Tell Me Why," shimmering with vibraphone beneath Rapp's whimsical lines. The song "Riegal" was inspired by reading a newspaper article on the wartime sinking of a prison ship, the ''

MS Rigel MS ''Rigel'' was a Norwegian vessel built in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1924. The ship was used as a German prisoner of war (POW) transport during World War II, and was sunk by British Fleet Air Arm aircraft off Norway on 27 November 1944 with mor ...

'', when up to 4,000 prisoners drowned. Later histories suggest the number may have been out by 1,000 odd souls, but the sinking remains one of the worst maritime disasters ever and the song is an evocation of the perils of going down to the sea in ships. Rapp does not apportion blame, indeed the lyric gives credit to the German, but probably not Nazi, captain who apparently saved many lives by grounding his ship. Rapp's juxtaposition of stark imagery reveals that while Pearls Before Swine might not have continued the more bombastic direction set about on their earlier protest songs "Uncle John" or "Drop Out," they maintained social and political relevance. The final track, "When The War Began", contains an equally potent message on the futility of war. A

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "The Jeweler" / "Rocket Man" (Reprise 0949), was issued from the album. Additional material from the Nashville sessions was released on the next Pearls Before Swine album, '' City of Gold''.

Design

The sleeve design shows a late 15th-century French or Flemish

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

, "

The Hunt of the Unicorn ''The Hunt of the Unicorn'' or the ''Unicorn Tapestries'' (french: La Chasse à la licorne) is a series of seven tapestries made in the South Netherlands around 1495–1505, and now in The Cloisters in New York. They were possibly designed in ...

: vi, The unicorn is brought to the castle", from the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. It shows three huntsmen bringing down a unicorn with spears and swords. The sleeve continued the group's approach of using classic art on their album covers, started with their debut album '' One Nation Underground''.

Reissues

In 2003 ''The Use Of Ashes'' was issued on compact disc as part of the ''Jewels Were the Stars'' compendium, anthologizing Pearls Before Swine's Reprise Records output. It was again reissued, with ''These Things Too'', as a two-on-one CD by Floating World Records in 2011.

Influence

A Dutch groupThe Use Of Ashes band site
/ref> formed in 1988 out of the rock band Mekanik Commando took the name "The Use Of Ashes", inspired directly by the Pearls Before Swine album.

Track listing

#The Jeweler (2:48) #From the Movie of the Same Name (2:21) #Rocket Man (3:06) ("''based on a short story by

''") #God Save The Child (3:08) ("''Elisabeth helped''") #Song About A Rose (2:21) #Tell Me Why (3:43) #Margery (3:03) #The Old Man (3:16) #Riegal (3:13) #When the War Began (5:07) All words and music by Tom Rapp

Performers

: Vocals, Guitar *Elisabeth: Vocals *

Charlie McCoy Charles Ray McCoy (born March 28, 1941) is a Grammy-winning American session musician, harmonica player, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2009, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Based in Nashville, McCoy's playing is heard on r ...

: Dobro, Guitar, Bass, Harmonica *

Norbert Putnam Norbert Auvin Putnam (born August 10, 1942) is an American musician, studio owner and record producer who was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2019.Robert McFarland, Jr"Norbert Putnam."'' Delta Business Journal''. November 2004. Acce ...

: Bass *

Kenneth Buttrey Aaron Kenneth Buttrey (April 1, 1945 – September 12, 2004) was an American drummer and arranger. According to CMT, he was "one of the most influential session musicians in Nashville history". Buttrey was born in Nashville, Tennessee, became a ...

: Drums * Buddy Spicher: Violin, Cello, Viola *Mac Gayden: Guitars * David Briggs: Piano, Harpsichord *John Duke: Oboe, Flute *Hutch Davie: Keyboard *Bill Pippin: Oboe, Flute

Other credits

*Engineer: Rick Horton *Mixing engineer: Brooks Arthur *Producer: Peter H. Edmiston *Executive Producer: Charles R. Rothschild *Art Direction:

Ed Thrasher Edward Lee Thrasher Jr. (March 7, 1932 – August 5, 2006), known as Ed Thrasher, was an American art director and photographer. He was the recipient of numerous Grammy Award nominations for his work on album covers and won a Grammy for Best Album ...

*Special thanks to Jon Tooker *Recorded at Woodland Studios, Nashville, 3 days in March 1970 *''This album is dedicated to the Netherlands where most of the songs were written''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Use of Ashes, The 1970 albums Pearls Before Swine (band) albums Reprise Records albums