Mark Eitzel was born on this day in 1959. He seems like the sort of guy I would spot at The Eagle, the neighborhood gay watering hole, sitting alone in a shadow, a guy who shows up in the afternoon & stays till last call, stirring his drink, sadly staring at the porn playing on the TV monitors over the bar, muttering to himself, or mouthing the words to an ABBA song playing on the stereo system. I am louche & lazy in a corner reading Dashiell Hammett & we sneek peeks at each other.
He is a gay guy who sang "Ain't no sunshine when he's gone" when he covered theBill Withers song. Eitzel is a guy who claims work at staying away from being labeled as a "gay" artist, but writes songs about Cleopatra Jones & dedicated songs to Barbra Streisand.
Eitzel has made a career out of being sorrowful. He was once the lead singer/songwriter for the band- American Music Club (1985-1994) with 7 albums, & he has released 13 solo albums. He is a songwriter of stunning talent, but his sadness is inescapable, inextricably intertwined into every line of his lyrics. Eitzel's indulgently miserable musings give off a torchy atmosphere. Eitzel composes emotionally eviscerating, elegiac, sometimes furious music. He sings in a plain, sloppy voice; the most heartbreaking thing about Eitzel is that his songs are often tinged with just the slightest bit of hope:
"Forgot there was such a thing as good people left
Can't you just save my life
I got a fresh screwdriver right before closing time..."
If he is new to you try something off 60 Watt Silver Lining from 1996. Remember the 1990s?
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