Jay Farrar: Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs

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Uncle Tupelo founder and Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar's memoir Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs isn't a straight-up memoir but a collection of anecdotes that aren't ordered chronologically, but instead by themes much like an album.

Amazon's blurb:

In this collection of beautifully crafted autobiographical vignettes, Jay Farrar visits the places he’s journeyed to over twenty years as a traveling musician, and recalls his formative childhood, raised by his parents from the Missouri Ozarks.

As a child, he marveled at the eccentric habits and mannerisms of his father, though it has taken him over 40 years to fully appreciate his guidance. Recollections of Farrar's father are prominent throughout the stories. Ultimately, it is music and musicians that are given the most space and the final word since music has been the creative impetus and driving force for the past 35 years of his life.

In writing these stories, he found a natural inclination to focus on very specific experiences; a method analogous to the songwriting process. The highlights and pivotal experiences from that musical journey are all represented as the binding thread in these stories, illustrated throughout with photography from his life. If life is a movie, then these stories are the still frames.

The title of the book comes from a story about Farrar and his father visiting junkyards looking for the next junk car to replace the one that had just died and his father's words of warning regarding the hazards of the junkyard. Interestingly enough, this story is one of the only two stories in the whole book in which he even mentions Uncle Tupelo, albeit in this anecdote not by name but instead as the "touring band" he played in; this anecdote also sheds life in the reasons for the eventual demise of Uncle Tupelo -- a topic that I was hoping that he would cover but sadly he didn't really go into any detail.


One of Farrar's anecdotes resounded with me and my attitude towards celebrities, the real ones and not the manufactured ones, spotted in the wild:

“You just walked by Willie Nelson!”

“Huh? No way?”

“You just walked right past him in the parking lot.”

This was about 1997 in Houston, Texas. Just as well to walk unobtrusively through the parking lot with Willie Nelson. It never seems fair to meet famous people anyway, as it’s basically putting them on the spot. Willie has earned the respect of millions by shaking off adversity with sublime perseverance. He deserves to walk the parking lot in peace.

Farrar is an amazingly talented singer/songwriter and so perhaps my expectations were set too high, but the book didn't quite live up to my expectations. Many of his stories lack the poetic vision of his song lyrics. Still, I highly recommend it for any music fan, especially alt-Country fans.

 

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I was listening to Uncle Tupelo's Give Back the Key to My Heart and remembered I wanted to mention the Doug Sahm story

...Doug’s conviction and enthusiasm for music was palpable, contagious, and always audible. In 1994, while recording with Uncle Tupelo, Doug hit a microphone stand with his guitar headstock (which can be heard on the recording) while getting into the groove. But no matter—it’s all about the groove anyway. That was the lesson learned.

I've listened to that song at least a hundred times and always thought that I heard something but I never knew what it was.

You can hear it at 2:14-2:17 (I think).