Happy Father’s Day to my Dad!
If you’re a Dad and you happen to be reading this today, thank you, and Happy Father’s Day to you.
Today I will talk about a book I finished recently that greatly improved my understanding of modern Western civilization and culture. I will also discuss an exceptional song and explain why it’s so good.
Book
“Napoleon: A Life” by Andrew Roberts.
Roberts’ biography is very much pro-Napoleon, which, from my understanding, is not the norm when it comes to Napoleon biographies.
What drew me toward this book is that in recent years I realized I did not know anything about Napoleon Bonaparte, and since he is among the most important historical figures ever, I wanted this to change.
My Takeaways:
There is a great deal that we can learn from the life of Napoleon. We can learn from his triumphs as well as his failures. We can learn about leadership, politics, strategy, and history to name a few.
Napoleon deserves many things: admiration, criticism, praise, hatred.
He was a giant. His ambition knew no bounds. It was realized. But the cost was millions of lives and his own.
He was many things, but one thing he was not was a coward. He put himself in the line of fire countless times even though he did not have to. People standing right next to him were blown apart by cannonballs on several occasions. He had at least ten horses shot from underneath him. He suffered from stomach cancer at the end of his life in exile, but from what I can tell, he died with dignity.
Estimates are that 1.8 million French/Allies died in the Napoleonic Wars. Would they have died otherwise? Maybe. Probably. It doesn’t matter. It’s part of his legacy and it’s not a good thing. It doesn’t mean we need to condemn him in my opinion. We can acknowledge that he is at least partially responsible for all the carnage that was the Napoleonic wars and also celebrate him as a great leader and military commander and learn from him. If we condemn him, we must condemn the Allies as well.
He was a leader of men. One of the best in history. He inspired confidence with his charisma, abilities, work ethic, and bravery.
I did not realize the extent to which Napoleon affected the entire world through laws that he passed, political reforms he made, and cultural contributions he inspired and made personally. He had a massive effect on the making of modern Europe.
Song
The song “When We Were Close” by Jason Isbell is remarkably good on many different levels. I heard it probably ten times or so before I realized this. It’s very subtle. It’s a song about an old estranged friend of Isbell’s Justin Townes Earle (JTE), who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2020. On the surface, it sounds like any other pop-rock-countryish song you might hear on the radio today, but below, it is an incredibly deep-meaningful song with a vast range of emotion. Anger, resentment, hatred, love, and ultimately sadness. It is a timeless song about a lost friendship that can never be healed.
Below are some of the verses that stand out to me along with some commentary.
I got a picture of us playing in a bar
And your shirt cost more than your guitar
But you played so heavy, and you always let me sing a couple
Even though you were the star
I was the worst of the two of us
But Rex's Blues wasn't through with us
You were bound for glory and grown to die
Oh, but why wasn't I?
Why wasn't I?
“Rex’s Blues” is a song by Townes Van Zandt, which Townes wrote about Rex Bell, owner and operator of the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe, where Townes recorded one of his best albums, Live At The Old Quarter.
By invoking the name Rex’s Blues, Isbell is likely saying that JTE and he were addicts and possibly that Townes being his middle name made him “grown to die” in a way. Also one of the lines in Rex’s Blues is “born to grow, and grown to die.”
I saw a picture of you laughing with your child
And I hope she will remember how you smiled
But she probably wasn't old enough, the night somebody sold you stuff
That left you on the bathroom tiles
Damn. That’s all I can say about that verse. Scathing. Because of this verse, JTE’s widow has requested that Isbell not play this song. He has not granted this request as he opens most of his shows with it now.
Got a picture of you dying in my mind
With some ghosts you couldn't bear to leave behind
But I can hear your voice ring, as you snap another B-string
And you finish off the set with only five
And for a minute there, you're still alive
It's not up to me to forgive you
For the nights that your love had to live through
Now you'll never need to look me in the eye
This is another scathing line that really stands out to me above all others in the song.
I am the last of the two of us
But the Fort Worth blues isn't through with us
You've travelled beyond the Great Divide
Oh, but why haven't I?
Why haven't I?
In the final chorus, Isbell changes the lines “I was the worst of the two of us” to “I am the last of the two of us.” And “But Rex’s Blues wasn’t through with us” to “But the Fort Worth Blues isn’t through with us.”
He (Isbell) was able to beat addiction (temporarily), so he is the last of the two of them.
Fort Worth Blues is a song written by Steve Earle (JTE’s father and protege of Townes Van Zandt). The song is a dedication and a memorial song for Townes Van Zandt.
I stumbled upon an amazingly in-depth analysis of this song by Dani Zev, much deeper than what I just did. If you found any of what I said about this song interesting, then definitely check it out here:
There are many reasons why this song is amazing. Zev sums it up pretty well in this paragraph:
“There is a specific, closely-linked family tree of country music that runs through “When We Were Close,” rendered through Isbell’s careful word choice and explicit references to the songs that inspired him and Justin Townes Earle. This is a half-century long legacy of painful addiction, of cathartic songwriting, that Isbell draws upon to great success.”
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever remains of it.
-SJ
Have you listened to Founders?
David Senra does the podcast. He'll read a biography of a famous "founder", then spend 40 minutes to an hour describing his main takeaways. It's very good. Senra is passionate about these people:
https://www.founderspodcast.com/?prod-episode-release-desc%5Bpage%5D=8
He has (at least) 3 episodes on Napoleon: #294, #302, and #337. I liked episode #294 the best of the three, but if you want to go deeper on Napoleon, there's a lot there! Cheers!
Cool about Napoleon's brushes with death. Did u watch the new movie? I haven't and won't, but I heard it was pretty bad by a critique I know.