sic, however, when present, they lend welcome lyricism to Galactic’s musical message. Galactic was actually on the verge of completing its first album without a singer, but after joining forces with Theryl “House Man” DeClouet, who is a contemporary of The Meters and twenty years the senior of the next-oldest member of the group, they began experimenting with his gritty soul. DeClouet’s age and race (he is black and the other members of Galactic are white) set him apart, but provide him a sort of wisdom onstage that gives him plausibility as a singer. However, the majority of Galactic’s songs are instrumental, and no less credible or enjoyable than their narrated counterparts. The “House Man” usually sings of overcoming obstacles and oppression, in such tracks as Start from Scratch, Change My Ways, and Something’s Wrong with This Picture. In the latter, he makes a poignant cry against the government’s mishandling of internal and foreign affairs. DeClouet makes the allusion that life might have been better as a sharecropper if, in fact, the U.S. government had ever come through on their unfulfilled promise to give forty acres of land and a mule to freed slaves during Reconstruction: There's something wrong with this picture.Tell me what it is, why don't you?There's something wrong with this picture.Forget about me, how could you?We go on and fight your wars,And we come home with all these battle scars.Then you send money to every other place.Can someone tell me what's the special occasion?Doe 5We stand in line just to feed our family,But we're the backbone of this whole country.Repaid everybody, but you played us for the fool,Give me my acres and give me my mule!The music of Galactic is widely appealing. With its beat, organ grooves, and especially its live presentation, I consider the stuff to extremely addictive. I played a number of songs by the group for several different p...
