In a move that is both incredibly sweet and a bit on the dark side, LY@TT have penned a tribute song to Pete Ham, one of music’s most unfortunate lost souls, and decided that the best way to honor him was to leave the painful parts in all their jagged glory. For listeners only familiar with the hits Badfinger is best known for, Ham exists in something of a tragic position in rock and roll history; a co-writer of “Without You,” the force behind power pop classics like “Baby Blue,” “No Matter What,” and “Day After Day,” and then a victim of several soul-crushing management deals who died by suicide in 1975. It’s the kind of narrative that lends itself to a very nicely produced documentary set to a mournful piano score.
But LY@TT approach the subject matter from the standpoint of someone still, half-a-century later, deeply annoyed for Ham on his behalf.
It is, at best, a conversation with an unfortunate soul and at its very best, more of an indignant conversation than a requiem. The single, however, owes its power and emotional resonance not only to the fact that it leans in to Badfinger’s melodies without being merely a pastiche of them but to LY@TT’s brave refusal to sand over the jaggedness and ugliness of Pete Ham’s life and death.
Williams both take turns in an excellent duet that feels communal in a very familiar and pleasing way as a couple of buddies have clearly gathered to commiserate over the loss of someone they don’t actually know, but miss all the same.
What makes the single stand out is its willingness to acknowledge the uglier details surrounding Ham’s death. The lyric quoting his suicide note, including the word “bastard,” apparently earned LY@TT their first Explicit rating. Frankly, that feels appropriate. Pete Ham’s story isn’t tragic because it was poetic. It’s tragic because it was unfair, messy, and infuriatingly preventable and cleaning up the language would have felt dishonest.
Any kind of tribute song runs the risk of feeling like homework: it’s sincere, well-meaning, and a little bit tedious. But “Song for Pete Ham” avoids all that trouble, primarily because it is a song that came from undeniable reverence. It comes from musicians who deeply appreciate the Badfinger canon, and, more importantly, from musicians who are clearly unwilling to let their fallen inspiration be solely a warning tale about the pitfalls of rock ‘n’ roll.
LY@TT, however, choose to remind us of the fact that before the lawsuits, the betrayals, and the tragedies, there was a songwriter capable of creating melodies that people are still humming half a century later. That’s probably the best tribute anyone could offer.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
