Song of the Day 4/16: Matthew Sweet, “Evangeline”
The Trump administration seems to have declared war on the Vatican. Donald Trump commands the U.S. military’s 1.3 million active personnel. The Pope is protected by the 135-man Swiss Guard. That hardly seems like a fair fight.
What the Holy See needs is someone like Evangeline, an indie comic book heroine of the ’80s who inspired a Matthew Sweet song on his breakthrough 1991 album “Girlfriend.”
“She was this scantily clad kind of babe who’s a warrior on behalf of God, so there was this weird mix of religion, violence, and sexuality,” Sweet said. He must have encountered the character’s second incarnation. When the comic began in 1984, the brainchild of writer Chuck Dixon and his illustrator then-wife, Judith Hunt, Evangeline was a conflicted 23rd-century feminist who was both an assassin who worked for the Vatican and, as revealed at the end of her debut adventure, a nun.
Dixon, who went on to a long career and greater fame in the comics world as a writer for DC Comics, was inspired by “The Inquisitor,” a pulp thriller series by Martin Cruz Smith that featured a James Bond-style secret agent who worked for the Vatican. (He was given absolution and penance after committing his sins). The comic was set in a future with an interplanetary society and a papacy that was also a political power.
Evangeline took her orders from Cardinal Szn and often worked with a thief sidekick, Johnny Six. His crush on her conflicted with her vow of chastity, creating the sexual tension that made it an adult comic. Fans say Sweet is singing from Johnny’s perspective.
Dixon and Hunt produced two issues for a small independent company in 1984, then mothballed the series before emerging with a new publisher in 1987. The couple eventually divorced – Hunt went on to work as an illustrator for a variety of magazines, including Highlights for Children. Once she left, the feminist perspective waned and the artwork declined in quality as her outfits grew skimpier. A total of only 14 issues were ever produced.
The tune emerged when Sweet was fooling around with drop-D tuning and came up with the riff. As for the lyrics, Sweet said, “I grew up Roman Catholic, but I was pretty much an atheist by the time I was writing the songs on Girlfriend. I sort of lashed out at God a little bit on the record. In ‘Evangeline,’ the guy is basically saying, ‘Forget about God and come be with me.’”
The solos are the work of Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, who said he dialed down the anger he often plays with in service of the song’s pop sensibility. Sweet wanted him to play the recurring riff the same way throughout the song, which he said frustrated Lloyd, so they passed the instrument back and forth on the verses and chorus. Sweet said Lloyd nailed the solos on the first take.
