Chuck Prophet

Temple Beautiful – Yep Roc

Green On Red man’s ode to San Francisco

The city by the bay, a radical outpost and rich source of urban myth and legend, provides a fine springboard for the ever buoyant Prophet here. Titled after the long-since defunct punk rock club where he earned his stripes, Temple Beautiful provides a home for the many musical genres Chuck has explored since then.

With songs combining wry world weariness, affectionate homage and emotional depth, the singularly sumptuous production makes Museum of Broken Hearts’ valediction for the AIDS epidemic a standout, but the pleasures are abundant.

The title track manages to combine Stones in the honky tonk groove with a crafty Ramones tribute and Willie Mays Is Up To Bat is what The Replacements might have sounded like, had they been able to stay together and get into a Dylan influenced late period. A heroic all round smash and grab raise on rebel rock across the generations. Well played, Sir.

7/10

Gavin Martin

Chuck Prophet

Temple Beautiful

2012

Yep Roc

San Francisco singer/songwriter/producer Chuck Prophet makes a mighty follow-up to 2009’s Let Freedom Ring! With Temple Beautiful, his 12th studio album. Well-known as a co-founder of Paisley Underground head honchos Green On Red, Prophet lives up to his last name with a witty, gritty style that simply goes unmatched. TB, named after a long-defunct punk rock club, is packed with Prophet’s unmistakeable style, and features special guests such as Red Man, Dan White, Flamin’ Groovies vocalist Roy Loney, and a passel of highly talented soul mates. TB kicks off with the driving, fiery rocker “”Play That Song Again,”- a number that causes the listener do just that. “Castro Halloween” weeps and bleeds out a memorable, rough ballad- all bells and whistles intact. “ The title cut is a catchy hand-clapper with Chuck’s trademark “shooby doo wahs” and a memorable tale of unrequited love. “Museum Of Broken Hearts” slows the pace and shares his deepest fantasies, “Willie Mays Is Up At Bat” recalls a personal tale of the past over slithering slide guitar, while “I Felt Like Jesus” is an urban toe-tapper of the highest order. “Who Shot John” recalls Johnny Cash- a musical journey through crime, hard times, and righteous rhythms. “Little Girl, Little Boy”is an upbeat duet with Chuck’s partner Stephanie Finch, and slams out like a ‘50’s jukebox standard- replete with bouncy piano, danceable decadence, and revved-up horns. “White Night, Big City” collects all of the album’s highlights to perfection, and the disc closes with the mystical, spiritual slice of lust and loneliness that is “Emperor Norton In The Last Year Of His Life (1880)” which neatly ties the whole affair together; bow and all. A must-have for fans, and an effort that should be heard globally. Sublime.

Tom Hallett

Not since Lou Reed paid homage to the city and era that forged him with New York has there been a song cycle dedicated to a place and reality that offers the core immediacy with the thump, churn and ferocity of Chuck Prophet’s Temple Beautiful. It’s a stripped-down rock ‘n’ roll record where the drums pump and echo, guitars slash and buzz, horns squawk like geese with rhythm, and the former wunderkind of progressive cosmic cowboys Green On Red bristles with an intensity that makes great rock burn.

More than anything—even the punk aggression, the unadorned arrangements that slice to the core, the voice that tears through layers of guitars, bass and drums—there’s a far-flung Americana at work. Named for Jim Jones’ San Francisco-based temple, the title track is all marching band pound-down, while the strummy electric guitar-basted “Castro Halloween” evokes the sweetness of Alex Chilton’s power-pop and the promise of holidays burning off to leave the wistfulness of what is. The post-Western “I Felt Like Jesus” is equal parts Clint Eastwood and Azetec Radio, xylophone flourishes popping around the melody.

Noir machismo that’s so pulp West Coast pushes the flat rock of “Who Shot John,” and the Paisley Underground scene of LA in the ’80s sweeps through the character sketch “He Came From So Far Away,” ethereal background vocals falling in sheets and whispering the details of an illusionary life that may or may not be what is presented.

It is the details that make Prophet explode. Loping through a strtaight-forward midtempo— lacerated with bits of twangy guitar—of “Willie Mays Is Up At Bat,” it’s an afternoon painted vividly, a conflict torqued and bravado bristling in the seemingly ordinary moment. Not quite Bukowski, the tale has a beat poetry sensibility that honors San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore, and enough rising and falling “ohhhhOOOhhhoooHHHohOH” chorus to make Legionnaires of us all.

That is Prophet’s vexation: maintaining the innocence in the knowing. “Little Girl, Little Boy”—featuring wife Stephanie Finch—is pure ’50s swoon via Ramones nostalgia to keep it from Sha-Na-Na-ery. Even more retrofit is “White Night, Big City” that scrapes Blondie-esque punk doowop for its essence.

Still, it’s Lou Reed who keeps flickering. With the pounding, half-barked “Play That Song Again,” it’s a more likable “Sweet Jane”/”Walk On The Wild Side” hybrid, also suggesting Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal, which Prophet co-wrote—and the slow-mourn blues of “Emperor Norton” that is an unsentimental caution, Prophet channels Reed’s pervasive urban edge without overwhelming his own voice.

The title track from Chuck Prophet’s upcoming release, “Temple Beautiful”, has been selected as one of Little Steven’s “Coolest Songs In The World” on his radio program Underground Garage. Underground Garage is syndicated on over 100 radio stations nationwide. Click here for an affiliate near you.

Temple Beautiful (YepRoc, release date 2/7/12) is a rock and roll concept album that delivers a twelve track homage to San Francisco as seen through the eyes of adopted son and singer/songwriter Chuck Prophet. Chuck describes his latest recording as “made in San Francisco by San Franciscans about San Francisco” but he’s not serving up Rice-A-Roni or riding cable cars and you won’t find most of Temple Beautiful in your California history books. Yeah, pre-steroid era hero Willie Mays, martyr for gay rights Mayor Harvey Milk and the devastation of AIDS on the city appear in song but more often than not Chuck honors the quirky fringe even as he sings of the “heart of the heart of the city.”

The colorful cast of characters includes San Francisco eccentrics Emperor Norton and the Red Man to the porn producing Mitchell Brothers of Behind The Green Door fame and the silicone enhanced exotic dancer Carol Doda who shocked San Francisco in the 1960’s when she “showed us everything she had and then she showed us all a little more” as America’s first topless and then first bottomless dancer. With a tip of the hat to Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights, Big City”, “White Night, Big City” is Prophet’s tribute to Harvey Milk who was assassinated by “a little man in a fit of rage.” Prophet adds a call and response and doo wops to “White Night” that makes you wonder if Chuck’s considered transforming Temple Beautiful into musical theatre for his beloved city. “The Hand Left Hand and the Right Hand” begins with the Mitchell Brothers and then references one or more pairs of feuding musical brothers who have not (yet) committed fratricide as Jim Mitchell did when he shot and killed brother Artie.

On the upbeat vaguely Wrong ‘Em Boy0-ish “Little Girl, Little Boy” Stephanie Finch sings a duet with Chuck on the most playful track on the disc. You’d expect Chuck might have spent some time in bars during his time in the city and two of his former favorite hangouts are highlighted. The Albion Bar and Temple Beautiful (the bar was previously the Peoples Temple of Jim Jones infamy which is both cool and creepy) are paid tribute as Chuck recalls the clubs and concerts of his youth. No history of San Francisco would be complete without a mention of Castro Street: a street that symbolized both liberation and excess with its annual Halloween party. Little Steven named “Temple Beautiful” his “Coolest Song in the World” on an Underground Garage broadcast. Enough said. What can I add to that?

In this age of MP3 files, Spotify and nonexistent or unread liner notes casual fans may be unaware that Chuck co-wrote and played guitar on all of Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal (2008) as well as co-writing half the songs on Street Songs of Love (2010). Add his political solo disc Let Freedom Ring (2009) and this year’s more personal Temple Beautiful and I can’t think of a more productive songwriter of quality tunes over the past three years. If you’re a fan of complete albums, big guitar and great lyrics you need a copy of Temple Beautiful. The only thing I don’t like about Temple Beautiful is that I won’t be in San Francisco on February 7th to take Chuck’s Temple Beautiful San Francisco Bus Tour!

Many people considered Let Freedom Ring! your best album, do you agree?

I wanted a sound, a feel. We went to Mexico City. The studio was small. Not enough room to cuss a cat in there, so we crammed our little four piece in and cranked it up loud enough to hear across the border. Live in the studio, Live’R Than You’ll Ever Be. The truth is, it was a struggle. Power outages, fried hard drives, the return of the Black Plague, earthquakes. The American Dream falling down in ugly chunks. It was perfect. Dumb luck, yeah, but it was perfect. It’s an American record. Imaginary. We started with the Swine Flu and we ended up with Michael Jackson dead.

Chuck Prophet

Let Freedom Ring (Yep Roc)

By Todd LazarskiAt the heart of hugely underrated singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet’s sound there’s always been a kind of tug-of-war among disparate eras. In turns Petty-esque, Springsteen-like and generally rife with Stones swagger, there’s also an undeniably coy, modern indie slant. Sure there’s “Born to Run”-style driving guitars, and even some “shoobie-doo-wop” backing vocals, but, hey, LeBron James gets name-checked too. In fact, Prophet’s latest sounds a bit like Franz Ferdinand after an all-night bout of Studs Terkel: old-timey, good times rock, but with a conscience.

Prophet empathizes with the downtrodden (“What Can a Mother Do”), apologetically pokes fun at his roots (“American Man”) and seems generally earnest in hopes of a renewal in the Americana from whence he borrows so much of his sound. From jangly country rockers to straight KLH-style distortion, what mostly comes out is a from-the-hip, nostalgic take on the American ennui that was 2009.

The songwriting peaks may be clearest on the introspective tracks—“Leave the Window Open,” or the lovely “Love Won’t Keep Us Apart”—but as a whole the album feels like something more. It’s a sensible, rollicking, perhaps important look at the hard times of the moment.

Chuck Prophet’s old band, Green On Red, enjoyed a cult following in the ’80s and early ’90s, and the same can be said of the solo career he’s maintained since 1990. The San Francisco songwriter may not have tons of fans, but the ones who continue to follow his eclectic path were rewarded with 2007’s Soap And Water and the recent Let Freedom Ring, an album title that’s meant to be taken with a grain of salt, given its protest-as-patriotism lyrics.

” Let Freedom Ring!”

Chuck Prophet (Yep Roc)

Chuck Prophet chose a studio in Mexico City to record his ninth studio album, and even from a distance, the situation on the home front looked grim.

” Let Freedom Ring!” portrays a land of orange alerts and car alarms with blood on the sheets and asbestos in the Kool-Aid. The river’s rising, stores disappear and dreams don’t extend beyond Saturday night. “Who’s going to miss you when you’re gone?” Prophet asks.

Depressing stuff. As an antidote, Prophet offers stabs of guitars to propel a defiant Stones-style strut, and gradually the mood improves.

Past the halfway mark, Prophet turns his attention to a nightclub dialogue and pairs it with a dance beat on “Hot Talk.” Two songs later, the backing vocalists are singing “Shoo-be-doo-wah” on “Good Time Crowd.” The final song is “Leave the Window Open,” which finds Prophet engaged in pillow talk, with no mention of car alarms.

-Steven Wine, AP

As America continues to pillage itself, simply holding on now qualifies as hoping for the best. With his richest album in a long career, Chuck Prophet manages to capture that cruel truth while avoiding traps on both sides, steering clear of falsely dressed-up, teeth-whitened optimism and the simmering anger of knee-jerk cynicism. By looking at the stagnating disillusion from the outside, Prophet’s ¡Let Freedom Ring! is the album for our times, weaving together the failures of this American dream with its fraying cords of hope — what Bruce Springsteen captured so well during the dismal Reagan years (and failed so miserably at repeating on this year’s Working On A Dream).

Recorded in the spring amid swine-flu panic and an earthquake in Mexico City, on equipment Prophet describes as “state-of-the-art, for 1958,” the record is no-frills, timeless rock ‘n’ roll, urgent and sharp, but also soothing like an after-work beer. The title track is a barroom rocker, with Prophet singing, Let there be darkness, let there be light, as the hawk cripples the dove over a joyous slide-guitar riff. “American Man” is garage-rock-infused with a little Tom Petty drawl, catchy “ooh-wee-ooh” backup vocals and more excellent licks from the former Green on Red guitarist.

In recording what he calls “a political album for nonpolitical people,” Prophet bypasses slogans and battle cries for the simpler truths: that even staring down the gun barrels of Wall Street’s robber barons and Washington’s warmongers, redemption is no further than friends, family, love, and good times. Life is only so long, Prophet sings on the album closer. Don’t let it rub you raw. (Yep Roc)