Day After Day #117: Ambiguity Song

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Ambiguity Song (1985)

I can only imagine how strange it was to be a fan of punk and indie music in 1985, used to seeing bands like Black Flag and the Minutemen and R.E.M. and Husker Du and then you come across Camper Van Beethoven. The group of college friends led by singer-guitarist David Lowery were the polar opposite of super-serious bands like Black Flag, playing a goofy combination of garage rock, ska, punk, folk, alt-country and world music. 

The band's debut song, "Take the Skinheads Bowling," wasn't officially released as a single but it became popular thanks to airplay on KROQ and BBC Radio 2 and the Dr. Demento Show. The song was on CVB's debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which was released on Independent Project Records. 

The album is heavy on the quirk, but the band has the chops to back it up. Lowery's sarcastic lyrics set the tone, but the musical variety also helped CVB stand out right from the start. In addition to a country take on Black Flag's "Wasted," the album features standout tracks such as "Border Ska," "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon," "Where the Hell is Bill?" and "Balalaika Gap." The band combines instrumentals and catchy slacker anthems to full effect.

The album closer is "Ambiguity Song," which is a pretty relatable song for the Cold War days of the mid-'80s right through the pandemic era of the 2020s.

"Everything seems to be up in the air at this time/Everything seems to be up in the air at this time/One day soon, it'll all settle down/Everything seems to be up in the air at this time."

Lowery said in an interview a decade ago that the band's members was too young to sing about serious topics, so they kept things light. "With 'Ambiguity Song,' it's just simple observations. Asking questions without having answers seemed to fit the spirit of the band. We did realize pretty quickly that we're punkers living in this idyllic world. Like, 'What do we have to complain about?' We didn't."

"All across the nation, people are gettin' together/From many ideas they form a single goal/Some people are gonna benefit/And others gotta sacrifice/But everything seems to be up in the air at this time/I got some certain special feelings for you/I got some special feelings for you/I don't know if they're good or bad/But I just might give you a call/Everything seems to be up in the air at this time."

Jonathan Segel's violin weaves in and out as the song jangles along, ending the album on a pleasant (and ambiguous) note.

Camper Van released two more indie albums before signing to Virgin Records in 1987 and releasing two more albums, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and Key Lime Pie, that got them some more rock radio airplay. Their cover of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men" was as close to a hit as they got. They split up in 1990 and Lowery formed Cracker; other members played in Counting Crows, Dieselhed and Sparklehorse. Cracker scored hits with "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" and "Low" and was a '90s FM rock staple. 

Lowery reunited with Camper Van Beethoven in 1999 and the group has released three studio albums and a re-recording of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album. CVB and Cracker have also toured together several times; I saw a few of those shows in Cambridge, Mass. 

All these years later, CVB was right about one thing: Everything still seems to be up in the air at this time.