There are two kinds of people in this world: those busy livin’ and those busy dyin’. In his 30-year career, Jackie Leven has done his fair share of both, but has always managed to leave us with a life-affirming message. On 1999’s Night Lilies, an ironic and romantic ode to the songwriter/guitarist’s ghostly past, Leven exposes us to his triumphs and many deaths.
Tracks like "Night Lilies," "Burning the Box of Beautiful Things," "Me and Angela," "Empty in Soho Square" (dedicated to Van Morrison and Richard Olivier, the son of the famous actor), and "Live or Die" glorify the more haunted aspects of Leven’s life. Leven moans, groans, and chants like a renegade monk singing R&B melodies while uillean pipes, violin, saxophone, trumpets, whistles, and acoustic guitar dance hand in hand with the songwriter’s storytelling style. In "Universal Blue," a kind of hybrid of Celtic and blues music, a man finds a hidden meaning in lost love: "And my hand will move to the scar/I will press and a trickle of pain will tell me where you are/and of all the world I have heard I know your calling is true/everybody’s got this colour in their life it’s called universal blue."
"I hope my songs are about walking a border between the haunted, unexpressed part of yourself and the real, living world," said Leven, 50, from his home in Titchfield, England. "At the heart of Night Lilies is the notion that we experience everything in circular patterns. Sometimes you realize when you get older, you pass the same place you had been."
Night Lilies represents a scent of youth, a perfume he had refused to smell for a long time. Given his rough early years, it’s easy to see why. As a child, Leven was exposed to a dying coal mining industry and dismally irreversible unemployment in The Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. He listened to American blues, his mother’s favorite type of music, and developed a taste for ironic Russian poetry. As a teen, Leven packed whiskey for a living (or a "dying," as Leven calls it) and formulated the idea that Scotland is a fierce land full of cruelty and aggression.
"Then there was a sudden power change," explained Leven. "All of this electronic industry came in. It was a frightening time."
Just a teenager, Leven fled Scotland and spent most of the next few years in Germany and Spain. Leven thought he had shed all reminders of Scotland completely, but the violent tendencies of his homeland crept into his life. Though he found his musical voice and cut his first record, Control – an acid rock album full of thunderclaps and flutes — he had to use a pseudonym. "I used the fake name, John St. Field, for the record," said Leven matter-of-factly. "I was involved in a crime and wanted by the police for a while." Leven doesn’t elaborate on what he did, but simply said, "They were looking for me for quite a while."
In the late 70s, Leven came back to Britain to form the rock band Doll By Doll. It was the dawning of new wave and the height of punk, and DBD didn’t stand a chance. The band made five unsung records and split up in the early 80s. Leven decided to go out on his own in 1983 to cut a solo record.
Nothing could prepare him for what happened next: "I was drunk, working late at the studio in north London. I decided to walk to the rough west end. The other guys in the recording studio thought I was nuts. They said, ‘We can’t let you go.’ I insisted. I should have listened. I got mugged and was nearly murdered by strangulation. Good thing the other guys decided to come after me. They saved my life."
For the next few years, Leven remained in quiet solitude, his larynx nearly destroyed. "I couldn’t sing or speak for almost two years. I started to use heroin. I abandoned medication. Slowly people treated me as if I were mentally ill."
That motivated Leven to take action; he wanted his life back. "I decided to use my own method of pain management through acupuncture."
Believing the London local government to be treating the symptoms, not the causes, of drug dependency, Leven founded CORE (Courage to stop. Order in our lives. RElease from addiction) in 1985. Leven’s system cured through acupuncture, psychic healing, and holistic medicine. Word spread of this alternative form of medicine, and some very powerful people started to take notice.
"The city of London presented a prize for radical alternatives for medicine. Just like that we received funding and space for an office in central London. The charity was championed by Princess Di."
Leven had beaten his addiction and it appeared as though his life was on track when his longtime girlfriend, who had been with him through his drug abuse and even became an addict in sympathy, fell in love with the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard and ran off with him. "The guy was a New Zealander and he was an acupuncturist," Leven said with a laugh. "I don’t consider myself a sissy, but he was a tough guy. I said, ‘Go in peace.’ "
Immediately afterward, Leven got the itch for writing songs again. He wanted to get back into the studio to make records. With a wealth of new experiences to draw upon, Leven became very productive over the next 10 years. He put out a string of critically acclaimed records, including Forbidden Songs of the Dying West, The Argyll Cycle, Fairytales for Hardmen, and The Mystery of Love is Greater than the Mystery of Death, which included poetry readings by Robert Bly and Mike Scott (ex-Waterboys). His smooth, throaty voice has made him the stuff of cult legend.
"My life has been a wonderful fairy tale ever since," joked Leven as the din of a washing machine in the background grew louder.
His new record is a sort of aural sister to Night Lilies, called Defending Ancient Springs. It may be his most deeply personal to date as it intends to unearth the buried scent of memory. And it seems to have come at an appropriate time. Leven admits his mind wanders to his native Scotland — a land he thought he had long ago left behind him.
"Life is separation, initiation, and return," said Leven. "Separation from community. Initiation into a new society by relearning what the world can be, and finally returning to your home. That’s where my head is at now. I think I’m ready to go back."
