The Complaint Psalms of John Doe:For the Best of Us

Apparently God is big enough to handle our sharp words, stinging criticisms, and angry protests, because there’s a whole group of Psalms in the Bible called the Complaint Psalms. Many challenge God with questions like, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?/How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1, ESV). The reissued, remastered, renewed For the Best of Us by John Doe could be considered the Complaint Psalms of John Doe.

Originally released by the John Doe Thing (Doe, Smokey Hormel, Joey Waronker, Tony Marisco, Steve McDonald) in 1998 as an EP called For the Rest of Us, the 2006 version includes 5 unreleased tracks from the same sessions. The album finds (found) Doe still channeling those AltCountry spirits from the X days, but letting a distinct Americana flavor emerge on top of any punk sensibilities.

For the Best of Us takes me back to my college dorm room listening to 1990’s Meet John Doe. I thought it quite ironic in that academic way to have a clip of Doe’s “Worldwide Brotherhood” on my answering machine as he breaks out screaming, “But I say, “No!!!!”/And I guess that’s good.” Whether on such charged tracks or on the modern tender country side of things, I could hear Doe’s complaints back then resonating and resounding in my heart.

Now (then) with For the Best of Us you’ve got a Complaint Couplet with “The Unhappy Song” and “Bad, Bad Feeling.” The first rides along like a speeding pickup truck careening out of town, past the grain elevators, screaming into the dark, “Will you still hate me in hell?” When the truck finally runs out of gas at some desolate crossroads guarded by a flickering streetlight, the more grungy smash of “Bad, Bad Feeling” lashes out at the world, pounding the hood, kicking the door, throwing your empties into the back.

Granted I can’t even post the chorus of “Bad, Bad Feeling” here, but it pretty much is just a breakdown of language into a two-word rant at how things have turned out. In that way, Doe is more crass in his language than the Complaint Psalms of the Bible, but his music shares the intensity, the crying out, the searing pain that is inherent in the biblical poetry. If you don’t read Psalm 13 aloud, yelling into the dark, unanswering sky, then perhaps you haven’t really sensed what that poem is saying.

John Doe led one of the most ferocious, raw, acclaimed, rebellious punk bands of the late 70’s, defining AltCountry, but none of that has led Doe to maintaining some kind of bravado. Instead, he lets aches, heartbreaks, and cigarette stains be seen by all. That same kind of confessional intensity is demanded by a close reading of Scripture, and if we’re too proud, if we’re too self-assured, if we’re too falsely fortified to let any complaints come as shouts to our God, then we haven’t let the Psalms have their way with us.

Thanks to John Doe (The John Doe Thing) and Yep Roc Records for the review CD.