Songs Never Heard
A craft podcast that spotlights some of the best songs you've never heard.
Songs Never Heard
S1E9: Second Best (Red Cavalry)
Historical jealousy stripped down to its melancholic essentials.
Second Best on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3ady6U5EIawJRLKIjWIb1O
More of Red Cavalry’s music:
Robert Howell:
My name is Robert Howell, and in this series I'll be sharing, and digging into, some of my favorite songs that I've come across while in and exploring the underground songwriting scene. Songs written by talented people who are creating music that deserves wider recognition. Songs that, unfortunately, most of the world may never hear.
Welcome to “Songs Never Heard.”
This episode's song finds inspiration in a Victorian love triangle that scandalized artistic circles over 150 years ago, transforming historical jealousy into contemporary melancholy. Let's hear "Second Best" by Red Cavalry.
Red Cavalry:
I held that flame through summer time
but got burned by the new year
I held out as I thought I'd climb
To the peak which he'd cleared
But you won't give him up my love
but you'll take me along
no you won't give him up my love
but I'm leaving as second best feels wrong
I tried to be the better man
but his neediness suits best
I'm the stop gap in your attention plan
I'm the break from his largesse
But you won't give him up my love
but you'll take me along
no you won't give him up my love
but I'm leaving as second best feels wrong
But you won't give him up my love
but you'll take me along
no you won't give him up my love
but I'm leaving as second best feels wrong
Robert Howell:
That was "Second Best" by Red Cavalry, a band made up of James on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Alex on bass and lead guitar. Red Cavalry describes their approach to music as Pre-RapElite, a deliberately playful twist on Pre-Raphaelite, the Victorian art movement known for romantic melancholic paintings that rebelled against the artistic establishment of their time.
"We think that the music industry churns out boring, forgettable music that is dumbed down, lacks depth, and often sounds the same," James explains. Rather than follow contemporary trends, Red Cavalry looks to musical artists that, as James puts it, "showed that bands could produce music that was seen as pop, and that had meaning." This mirrors the Pre-Raphaelite movement by embracing older art forms that buck current popular music tendencies.
"Second Best" embodies this philosophy. James explains, "The song could very easily have been made more grand to sound more contemporary, but its sparseness allows the melodies rather than the rhythm to drive it." Listen to the baseline. It's not there to help keep the beat, it's a counter melody. Weaving through the guitar work to create something that prioritizes melodic interplay over a rhythmic pulse. And the backing vocals also echo the influence of earlier bands. As James says, "They really show our reverence to the past."
The story behind "Second Best" reaches back to one of the most infamous love triangles in Victorian art history. James wasn't writing about his own romantic experiences, he was channeling the voice of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, the charismatic and controversial founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the group that launched the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
In the 1860s, Rosetti became obsessed with Jane Burden, the wife of his close friend William Morris. Morris was a noted philanthropist and early socialist. Jane had married Morris without loving him, and when Rosette's own wife died in 1862, his pursuit of his best friend's wife became an open secret in their artistic circle.
"I really wanted to capture that petulance of Rosetti in expecting to come out better in an affair with his best friend's wife," James explains. The narrator of "Second Best" is literally Rosetti speaking to Jane about Morris. Carrying all the jealousy and desperation of a man who believes he's the better choice, but knows he'll never be chosen first.
I told the band, this may be the first time I've heard the word 'largesse' in a song. James explained it isn't just an unusual vocabulary decision. It's a direct reference to William Morris's character and the specific dynamic that tormented Rosetti. You see, Morris was famous for his generous nature. So when James sings 'I'm the break from his largesse,' he's speaking as Rosetti would have to Jane, seeing Morris's generosity as both admirable and infuriating.
But James believes the song updates this historical jealousy to be relevant today as well. The idea that Morris is generous with his time. Spending it with other people when Rosetti would only wanna spend his time with Jane, if he were in Morris's position. "There's a melancholy in it that I feel is more contemporary," James explains, "I was a student living on campus when I wrote this, and there's something incredibly intense in relationships during those years that I feel this song captures well."
During production, most Red Cavalry songs follow a similar pattern. The process for "Second Best" took a different approach. "Typically, during the production of our songs, we find ourselves building layers upon layers of music," Alex explains, "This was one of the few songs where I found myself taking layers off instead of putting them on.”
This choice was driven by James' vocal delivery on an early demo. "The first time that I heard James' vocal line, it had a softness to it, and it felt like this needed to be reflected in the arrangement," Alex recalls. Rather than contrast soft vocals with a heavier approach, they matched the vulnerability of the vocal performance with musical sparseness.
The result feels intimate, almost voyeuristic as a listener. When I asked what they were most proud of about "Second Best," James replied, "How exposed everything is on it. The production Alex has done is wonderful. It's sparse, but not empty. That atmosphere is not like any other Red Cavalry song." Every element in the song is there to support its emotional core. Nothing is there, just filling space.
"Second Best" carries a unique distinction in Red Cavalry's song catalog. After the album's release, an unfortunate data failure destroyed all the master recordings and individual tracks. "The version that exists today is the only version of this song that will ever exist," Alex explains.
"Despite the obvious horror at this happening, there's something I enjoy about the idea of this being the version that exists, for good or for bad." It is a strangely fitting fate for a song about accepting circumstances beyond your control. About being second best and being forced to live with that reality.
The band also said that lost somewhere in that digital catastrophe is a version with a guitar solo. Which would've been another layer that might've made the song more conventional, but at the same time would've certainly changed its character as well. Red Cavalry's technological mishap may have unexpectedly wound up improving the song. It certainly improved the song's mystique.
The album that "Second Best" is on, "Alas, So Long," was designed to capture different emotional territories and "Second Best" serves a specific purpose in that landscape. "There's exhilaration of desire in the song 'First Fire,' there's frustration in 'Red House,' there's a swoon to 'Heart So Strong,' and there's a wistfulness to 'Unread Books,'" James explains, "'Second Best' is helplessness. When you've done all you can and it's not enough."
That helplessness informs the musical choices. The stripped back arrangement mirrors the narrator's emotional state. Everything reduced to essential elements when grand gestures have failed. The awkwardness James mentions, in what he refers to as 'confessional moments,' where the narrator expresses his heartfelt truths, comes through in how low everything sits in that mix, except for the main guitar, bass, and vocals.
But there's relief too, particularly at the end of the track. "That relief of getting what you wanted off your chest as the chorus lead swells in the outro," James notes. It's the musical equivalent of finally saying what you've been holding back, even when you know it won't change anything.
"Second Best" is the second track on the "Alas, So Long" album for both humorous and functional reasons. " Starting with "First Fire" and then following with "Second Best" appeals to our sense of humor," James admits. But more importantly, the song creates what the band calls 'a valley' between the higher energy songs that sit on either side of it.
"If it were placed anywhere else, it would create a lull that would kill the pace of the record," James reasoned. So with this positioning, the song provides a bit of a resting place, a moment to breathe and reflect before the album builds momentum again with the song "Red House."
It is a choice that prioritizes the emotional journey over what might be considered more typical album track placement, which is what you'd expect from a band committing to creating Pre-RapElite music. Music that values depth over immediate gratification.
“Songs Never Heard” is created and produced by me, Robert Howell. It's a tribute to all the seldom heard music that, in my opinion, rivals what you'd hear on the popular charts. If you're interested in having one of your songs featured, drop me a note at rrobhowell@gmail.com.
Until next time, keep writing.