“Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles – A Song Feature

 

     The invigorating rhythm is the initial draw to “Gomboo Blues.” Confessing to having the blues isn’t typically this electrifying. Then, with each listen to the track by Ben Charles, appreciation deepens for its subtle compositional nuances and shifting textures. Perhaps best of all, on two occasions the vocalist nearly whispers “Watch Out,” and the guitar emerges—steeped in Gypsy and Eastern hues—to briefly claim the spotlight. (The lyrics are included at the bottom of this post). 

     Ben Charles describes “Gomboo Blues” as “a snack-sized dream journey driven by relentless drum and bass interplay, gypsy guitar runs, and a dynamic narrator with a delivery both intimate and howling.” The song’s dream-journey quality becomes most apparent in its final minute, after a howling buildup ushers in a shift from the high-energy propulsion to a downtempo, dreamlike state. 
 
     The transition is reminiscent of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” where an orchestral climax bridges two fundamentally different musical pieces. Like the Beatles’ track, “Gomboo Blues” flirts with drug imagery (“I’d love to turn you on” versus “She told me it was only to get me high”). But piano is not a featured instrument throughout Ben Charles’s single; instead, the recent release withholds the elegance of the piano until the final minute.
 
      Ben Charles released his debut album “Before the Fire” in 2023 after working with mixer Hugo Nicholson (In Rainbows) and mastering engineer, Dave McNair (The Next Day). Currently he is living on an old oil field in Southern California, where he formed a band called “The Flames” and is writing and recording a new double LP entitled “Deep Son,” due in 2027 via Lovelock Records.
 
     “Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bencharlesxo

Bandcamp: https://bencharlesxo.bandcamp.com/music

 Lyrics of “Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles
Once I knew a woman by the name of Angelina
Shot her in the popcorn slums of Reseda
She told me it was only to get me high
And as she was falling
I thought I saw me die
 
Locked down tight at the edge of the word
Dreaming of the fire like a Hindenburg
All the piggies in the river and a wolf on the line
Don’t worry Mamma, I’m really feeling fine
 
C’mon now
Sometimes I just get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
(Watch out)
 
Sometimes…
I said “Tell me, Angelina, with your bluest rose,
Is a beauty in a bell jar free, you suppose..?
Now I know you never pull a devil by the horns
But is love just a game without a crown of thorns?”
A crown of thorns
 
C’mon now
Sometimes I just get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
(Watch out)
 
Baby how do I talk?
I got visions in my head
Breaking into my heart
When I’m lying in my bed
 
Thinking of what we could do
With a kiss forever
Now is true
And the only way with blues this blue
Is to kill myself
In love with you
 
Here I go
I didn’t know how much I’d miss you
Don’t look back
River, flow.