"The Best Intentions" Part Five - Knowing Just When To Face The Truth, And Then Knowing Just When To Dream: Excursions Past, Present, & Future

Excursion, up close. From Runrig's Beat The Drum Festival at Loch Ness this past August.

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I can't say for sure when it was I first heard the song Excursion, though it was most likely at my first Great Big Sea show, Bumbershoot in Seattle over Labour Day Weekend in 2001. Likely then, because I certainly had never heard Excursion before knowing about GBS, and because out of all the GBS shows I've seen, there have only been a few where they did not perform this song.

Back then, of course, it was Darrell singing the lead part of Excursion, a song which, I would soon find out, was widely considered by longtime GBS fans to be "Darrell's Song" since it was one of very few on which Darrell sang the lead part. Actually, it was the only song Darrell was still singing lead on by the time I came along - I never had the chance to hear Darrell's Little Beggarman or his Jakey's Gin done live, one of the slings and arrows of having been a latter-day Original-Four-GBS fan - though there would be a series of spectacular exceptions to that circumstance during his last run with GBS in the Sea Of No Cares Tour.

As a bit of a sidebar, congratulations to Darrell for his song, We Know What We're Fighting For, having been chosen as Newoundland & Labrador Premier Danny Williams' (overwhelming) victory tune, something good happening for a fellow who deserves more of the same. I really liked Darrell Power: He is one of the two most sensible Newfoundlanders I have known so far; Darrell made even the simple act of being kind consistent with being sensible, no small accomplishment considering the circumstances.

Darrell always sang a grand Excursion, each and every night. He would sing the tune at breakneck speed, seeming never to need to catch a breath, Sean would whack away on the bodhran, Bob would wave his arms and gesticulate, and a guitarless Alan would strut and swish a glorious path along the edge of the stage, grinning and twinkling and waggling, teasing and beckoning and exhorting the crowd to the pinnacle of fist-pumping glory. I'm sure Alan Doyle loves many traditional Newfoundland songs, but it has always seemed as if this particular traditional Newfoundland song holds a special place in his heart.

I would listen to Darrell but watch Alan, laughing and loving every posture and pose he struck, enjoying the view of him unblocked by guitar and with his fists held high in the air, all while surrounded by warm bodies and loud voices, getting the occasional shower of beer when the hand holding the beverage was the one answering Alan's insistence on the communal fist-pump. It was wonderful, such a perfectly twisted song with which to ignite fervour and glee - not long ago, I got an email from a Russell Crowe fan who was completely befuddled by Excursion's lyrics....Is he trying to kill the old wife so he can get a new young wife? was her mystified question - and such an unquestioning obedience to the call for defiant celebration in the face of disease and disaster and death, or even such comparatively minor troubles as disappointment and weariness and pain.

While standing in the mud at Loch Ness along with thousands of soggy souls whose spirits had just been lifted by GBS's set, it occurred to me during Excursion that it has been a very long time since I have been in the midst of a large crowd of people in which many are hearing Excursion as an unfamiliar song, particluarly a crowd that's brought few if any GBS preconceptions in with them. It's an experience which is always a delight to watch as those brand new to Excursion try to puzzle out the lyrics as the song moves rapidly along, wrinkling their brows in concentration, struggling at first to understand why a song about illness and death is being sung with such a sense of triumphant cheer, bemused smiles spreading across their faces, tentative smiles that turn to wide grins as their hearts race ahead of their brains and they find themselves shouting along and pumping their fists on demand, understanding on an intuitive level what their intellects might still be finding somewhat elusive. Once again at this show, it was warm bodies (warmer than they had been, at least) and loud voices, though the liquid being splashed about with each fist-pump was more likely to be accumulated rainwater.

At the moment, standing there among a throng of folks who were being charmed and seduced and captivated, I wasn't thinking much beyond how good this was, how fitting a conclusion was taking place to what had been a GBS performance the likes of which I hadn't seen for quite some time, and how much I had been missing seeing them play these kinds of shows. It wasn't until I began to work on editing the photos this past week that I began to think of all the times I've seen certain songs performed.  Because Excursion is such a special song, and because of how much I have loved watching Alan show how much he loves this special song, I got the bright idea to do an entry that included shots of GBS doing Excursion from the past 5 years.

It's taken me a few days of sifting through my (perpetually scattered) photo and review files to realise that I underestimated how many Excursion photos I have and overestimated my ability to remain focused on the task and resist being drawn into hours of wandering around in what has gone before. So many Excursions, some with technically great photos, others with technically great performances, both of those factors coming together every now and then with spectacular results. And then there were the especially sweet and special and memorable Excursions. All of this scattered across two hard drives and a stack of CDs, in a pile of less-than-efficiently titled folders. All of it bringing back a flood of memories of the people and the places, the faces I've seen and the music I've heard. Too much, for now at least. I still think taking one song and finding photos across the years of that song being performed is a cool idea, but it's one that will have to wait for me to become much better organised and far more focused.

With far too many to choose from within any reasonable time frame, I compromised - found my Middle Ground, as it were - and chose photos of just two times Excursion was performed in the past, each time sweet and special  and memorable in its own way. Two of Yesterday's Excursions. And after those two times, the rest of the photos from Loch Ness, one of Today's Excursions.

Atlanta, Variety Theatre, Uprooted Tour, Summer of 2002

All the times I saw Darrell with GBS, I rarely saw him make many the kind of mistakes you expect to see over a long series of shows done by a band with a brutally exhausting tour schedule, and I'd never heard him make any mistakes at all when singing "his song". I guess this reputation for not messing up went much further back, given Alan's response to the one time Darrell did slip completely overboard while singing Excursion. It was in Atlanta, at the Variety Theatre during the Uprooted Tour. All was going as it should, Darrell singing as fast as he could, Alan leading his Command To Pump:

And then, for some Darrell-only-knows reason, he suddenly drew a complete blank partway through, no clue which line of this song he had been singing nearly all of his life came next. Alan, who has been known on occasion to forget the next line of similarly lifelong-sung tunes - as well as lines he has himself written - and who has apparently taken a ration of shit for that forgetting from his mates, at first did a classic double-take when he saw that Darrell had no idea what to sing. And then, as Darrell gathered himself up and muddled along, Alan broke out into a Darrell Forgot A Lyric Too! dance of celebratory delight.

Darrell, of course, kept right on singing, joined on the chorus by a still-chortling Alan, whose entire evening - perhaps entire tour - had just been made.

Oshawa, Rink, January Of 2003

There was scant advance notice for the first Great Big Sea show after Darrell left the band, but that did not stop people from finding a way to get there. Some were still shocked by the changes and fearful of what might lie ahead; others were simply worried about those who remained and wanted to show support in any small way possible. 

Even though Murray Foster had filled in for Darrell during his "paternity leave" back in the summer of 2001, that was on a European tour, so not many people coming to Oshawa knew what to expect. At that time, nobody knew for sure if Murray was going to be temporary or permanent. Nobody knew for sure if Great Big Sea was going to be temporary or permanent, either. In the midst of all the things people did not know for sure, there was one thing many believed they did know for sure: This was the end of GBS performing Excursion, since Excursion was, after all, "Darrell's song". That made no sense to me, seeing as how I thought Excursion wasn't even really "Great Big Sea's song"; it seemed to me to be Newfoundland's Song. So I argued the point, with all of the success that arguing any point has ever accomplished in the World Of GBS. Which is to say, not one bit.

The Oshawa show was so painfully sweet that writing about it nearly four years later is still a challenge. On a stage in a rink so dark as to make you wonder if there was some refuge being sought from the brightest lights, they were nervous, and so were we. They wanted badly for it to be good, and we wanted it just as badly for them. They played hard, and we cheered for everything and everyone, including that serious-looking young man with the beautiful hands who was playing bass. There were some very silly moments - undergarments tossed up on stage (with Alan trying on a rather prodigiously cupped bra) - and there very touching moments, perhaps most of all when Alan came out for a solo encore and dedicated his song, Fast As I Can, to those who had been with GBS from the beginning.

It was a beautiful and moving performance of a song not often heard on GBS's set list by this time in their career.

As soon as Alan finished singing his song, the other four members of Great Big Sea walked out onto the stage for the rest of the encores. Alan handed his guitar off to Danny. And then Alan began to sing the lead part to Excursion. The stage might have still been dark and some in the crowd might have stil been uncertain, but there was nothing but assurance to be heard in the voice of the man who was making Excursion - Newfoundland's song, Great Big Sea's song - his own song too as he persuaded this crowd to shout out loud and pump their fists in defiant celebration.

Near the very end of the tune, Sean came over and stood by Alan's side, supporting by bedevilling, as he does so very well.

And then Sean gave Alan exactly what anyone and everyone who cares about him would give him if they could. Sean gave Alan exactly what he deserves.

It took quite some time for those who resist and deny the inevitability of change to accept Alan's singing Excursion. There were some who thought GBS should retire the song altogether, and the grumbling continued. But Alan kept on, showing the same courage and resiliency and  at each successive show as he had shown this first time in Oshawa, refusing to relinquish something that clearly mattered a great deal to him. Of all the times Alan Doyle has given just cause to be proud of what he's accomplished on stage, this might have been the single moment most deserving of that pride. As always...so far.

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One the other side of many, many intervening Excursions Past, these are the rest from Excursion Present.

Yes, I do love the beautiful views of Excursion - past, present, and future.

Knowing when to face the truth is very important, and so to is knowing when to dream. That's what Loch Ness felt like - a dream, same with all of the European shows. In some ways - maybe most of all in financial ways - those shows weren't quite real, at least not in terms of how things are today. But those shows were so wonderful, so full of the Possible, that I want very much to believe they were a dream of how things might be one day in the future.

Along with knowing just when to face the truth and then knowing just when to dream, there is also knowing just when to believe.

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I'll wrap up Loch Ness next time. And thanks again to Jennifer for the set list verification; if you can't be organised, it so good to have organised friends.