tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:/blogs/300-songs-blog
300 Songs Blog
2019-05-27T16:42:41-04:00
David Lowery
false
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/3002450
2014-06-09T08:10:46-04:00
2022-05-19T05:19:59-04:00
#84 Sugartown: San Pedro, SugarBeets and Portuguese Fishermen
<p> </p>
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Atrack%3A62TmrmwJwH99bhPgfeimIc" style="display:block; margin:0 auto; width:300px; height:380px;" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
<p>Buy <em>El Camino Real </em>at your local record shop.<a href="http://www.recordstoreday.com"> Click here for locations</a></p>
<p>The Song <em>Sugartown </em>is the 6th track on the Camper Van Beethoven album <em>El Camino Real (2014). </em>This album is part of a two album series on California. The first album <em>La Costa Perdida(2013) </em> focused on Northern California while<em> El Camino Real </em>focuses on Southern California. In particular El Camino Real celebrates the polyglot poly-cultural history of Southern California</p>
<p>The fictional Sugartown is a combination of the working class neighborhood of San Pedro and the early 20th century sugar beet plantations of Seal Beach and Los Alamitos. San Pedro is situated at the mouth of the Los Angeles River and faces the massive Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Seal Beach and Los Alamitos are on the mouth of the San Gabriel river to the southeast on the other side of the two ports.</p>
<p>Both cities are (or were) home to large and diverse immigrant communities. San Pedro is now known for it’s Italian neighborhoods, but was also once home to large populations of Croatians -actually Dalmatians, Greeks, Portuguese and Irish. The Dalmatians are perhaps the most interesting group as they settled here when California was still part of Spain. I wanted to use the Dalmatians as the fishermen in the story but lines like “We Came from Portugal to fish the sea” didn’t sound as good with Croatia, Dalmatia Brač, Hvar, Vis or Korčula substituted. So the Portuguese got the focus.</p>
<p>Los Alamitos and the adjacent Seal Beach were the center of Southern California’s briefly thriving sugar beet industry. The sugar beet farming and processing industry attracted a lot of immigrant labor. When the sugar beet farming collapsed in the 1920′s one of the big owners John Bixby started leasing out land to immigrant farmers including many Japanese families (many later ended up in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar">Manzanar</a>) further diversifying the population.</p>
<p>Finally Sugartown also makes reference to Crocket or as the locals in the North San Francisco bay call it “Sugar City.” Crocket is most clearly distinguished by the big C&H (California and Hawaii) sugar processing plant that faces the Carquinez strait. Interstate 80 is carried over the city by a massive flyover bridge hence the line in the song “Stay up upon the bridge at sugar town mind your business don’t come down.”</p>
<p>So essentially the story is this: Portuguese fisherman come to California to fish the sea. The fishing dies out and the lucky ones get jobs at the sugar processing plants. Of course the sugar beets are not even grown locally anymore. So they process sugar cane shipped from hawaii. The unlucky resort to smuggling drugs “sugar cane” (probably heroin) using the local port and what’s left of their fishing fleet.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The sea is empty now</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s all we had</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So we sell sugar cane</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">God is our judge</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">This little area is so rich in history, I feel like I could have done a whole album just on this area. The Portuguese began exploring this as far back as the 1540′s. The Spanish used this as a regular port shortly after. The Tongva-Gabrieleño had villages here for at least 8,000 years. They were expert seafarers and traders. They had ocean going canoes something of a rarity among the native populations.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">The whole sugar beet boom involves various railroad and banking tycoons and some genuine 19th century robber barons. The aforementioned John Bixby deserves his own treatment. Finally their is the fate of the Japanese americans who were forcibly relocated to Manzanar during WWII. Most of them lost everything.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Sugartown</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We come from Sugartown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">At the river’s mouth</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Nestled in soft green hills</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A factory town</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">it comes from cross the sea</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">raw sugarcane</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">it comes in railroad cars</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">we make it pure</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dont you show your face in Sugartown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">we dont need your kind around</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">if you think you’re better than we are</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">you can leave at anytime</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Stay up upon the bridge at Sugartown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Mind your business dont come down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you show your face in sugar town</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You know what happen last time round</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We cam to Sugartown from the old country</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We came from Portugal to fish the sea</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The sea is empty now, its all we have</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So we sell sugar cane, God is our judge</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dont you show your face in Sugartown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">we dont need your kind around</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">if you think you’re better than we are</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">you can leave at anytime</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Stay up upon the bridge at Sugartown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Mind your business dont come down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you show your face in sugar town</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You know what happen last time round</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2840/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2840/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2840&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/3001206
2014-06-08T12:17:56-04:00
2017-02-04T00:24:46-05:00
#83 Dockweiler Beach & Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out-Surfing Under the Runway at LAX
<p><iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Atrack%3A6nEHCTlnl7A1DqcZdyCTeT" style="display:block; margin:0 auto; width:300px; height:380px;" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe><br>
Support your local indie record store. Buy new album local. <a href="http://www.recordstoreday.com">Click here to find store.</a></p>
<p>Flying out of LAX you almost always takeoff out over the Pacific Ocean. Even if you’re not going west. The aircraft climbs to a few thousand feet and then banks north east or south. I’ve often looked down and noticed the beach below us as you climb into the air. Although it doesn’t seem like there are ever many people on the beach, it clearly has it’s devotees. Most surprising is that there are a series of state park RV campgrounds along this stretch of beach.</p>
<p>When Camper Van Beethoven was filming the video to <em>Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out (</em>from last years<em> La Costa Perdida). </em> We ran out of time to film in Northern Californian and had to finish up in Southern California. We were staying at the lovely (?) Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo. This happens to be across the street from our Tour Manager and Video Director’s apartment. So he know this funky little stretch of the south LA coast pretty well and suggested that we go down to this beach and film some of the video there. The idea was that the aircraft taking off would make a nice backdrop to the song.</p>
<p>When we got down to this beach we also discovered that there are these two natural gas fired power plants on the beach. These power plants made impressive and contrasting backdrops for the video for <em>Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out.</em></p>
<p>I assume the power plants are here because there is this enormous petrochemical processing complex in El Segundo that runs from Sepulveda all the way down to the pacific ocean. (The plants must burn the natural gas byproducts?) The petrochemical plant is impressive in it’s own right. Especially when you’re sitting on the patio of one of the down-home restaurant/cantinas in tiny downtown El Segundo and Chevron designed to burn “flare” off some excess flammable gasses. The night sky turns this eerie orange color. It frightened me the first time I saw it. I thought we were in for a <em>toxic airborne event. </em>The locals didn’t even bat an eye. Continued their small talk and ordered more drinks.</p>
<p>There is also a huge cluster of defense and aerospace companies between El Sepulveda and Aviation. Northrop Grumman, Rayethon, Boeing, SAIC and numerous smaller companies. Direct TV is also in with this lot. So if you think you are in your typical Southern California beach community you are wrong. This is a serious redoubt of the military petrochemical industrial defense complex. This is a serious component of our nations imperial might.</p>
<p>That said there are also three pleasant old school surfer hangouts right next door. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. So here you have the makings of a camper van beethoven song. The bucolic surfer lifestyle literally in the shadows of some of the most toxic elements of our national imperial might: petrochemicals, armaments and the deafening and relentless global air traffic at LAX. This became the inspiration for the lyrics to Dockweiler Beach-which is the name of the state park under the runway.</p>
<p>So the character in song has lost his wife or girlfriend to a “rogue wave” which sucked her into an undertow. He’s descended into madness and is basically living in a trailer in the Dockweiler Beach RV camp weighting for her body to reappear.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="450" height="284" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/251ZiqB4fb8?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe></span></p>
<p><em>Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out.</em></p>
<p>In June 2011 Camper Van Beethoven was supposed to play a show at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. The performance is not in the library but always outside on the grounds. It rained and they postponed our show for a week. So instead of flying home to Virginia we decided that I should stay in Northern California and Camper Van Beethoven should use the time to write a new album. That week of songwriting produced 17 songs that make up the bulk of both <em>La Costa Perdida and El Camino Real. </em></p>
<p><em>Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out </em>is a track off the Camper Van Beethoven Album <em>La Costa Perdida. </em> This song is about an illicit love affair between two military intelligence officers who meet at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California just up Highway 1 from Big Sur. Even after they are deployed to Afghanistan they continue their affair. This song tells their story.</p>
<p>There is also this super cool Acoustic Demo of the song. It’s simply us sitting around in jonathan’s living room in oakland when we made up the music. That’s why you can hear us giving each other instructions. Later I overdubbed the vocals onto this.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Atrack%3A6Xq8DjioN30Z2lGEp7gzfL" style="display:block; margin:0 auto; width:300px; height:380px;" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
<p style="text-align:center;"> <strong>Dockweiler Beach</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I am waiting in the water</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I am waiting at El Segundo</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I am waiting for that rogue wave</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> bring your body back</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I saw you go into the water</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I saw Neptune’s Trident Shine</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Took you by the hand my darlin</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Took you in the Undertow</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I will wait ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I will wait ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Eternity</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Montgomery Atoll</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I am living in a trailer</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dockweiler Beach at LAX</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Planes take off for Tokyo</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">They are never coming back</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Oceans filled with submariners</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dark secrets and chemicals</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Night time lit by gas flares</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">bring my baby’s body back</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I will wait ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I will wait ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Eternity</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">ten thousand years</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Montgomery Atoll</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong> Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday they’ll come stone us to death</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday the sun will burn our flesh</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The crows will come they’ll eat what’s left</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday my love forever now</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Eternity is you my love</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The drone is perched high up above</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Black winged bird don’t give us up</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Just one more night I can’t explain</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Just one more night I can’t explain</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday my love forever now</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Eternity is you my love</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday my love forever now</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Eternity is you my love</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Someday our love will sell us out</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Lyrics for La Costa Perdida by Camper Van Beethoven</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Copyright 2012 Camper Van Beethoven Music.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Published by Camper Van Beethoven Music Company BMI</p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2834/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2834/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2834&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/2992292
2014-06-04T08:56:16-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:45-05:00
#82 Camp Pendelton – Echos of New Roman Times.
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/el-camino-real-front.png"><img src="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/el-camino-real-front.png?w=297&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="el camino real front" height="300" width="297" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Camp Pendelton- Camper Van Beethoven.</strong></p>
<p><em>Last year Camper Van Beethoven released La Costa Perdida (loosely “the lost coast”) which is a set of songs about Northern California (see Northern California Girls or Come Down the Coast as examples). This year Camper Van Beethoven releases the companion piece to this album “El CaminoReal.” This time the album thematically focuses on Southern California and Baja California.</em></p>
<p><em>Whereas La Costa Perdida was a look back at the “back to the country” hippy period of northern California with references to Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, The Grateful Dead and even The Beach Boy’s “Big Sur” period this one is firmly planted in the present and further down the coast in Southern California.</em></p>
<p><em>The best way to look at the new album is to draw a contrast between the two. On La Costa Perdida the ocean is calm, benevolent and feminine; on El Camino Real the sea is “filled with darkness, secrets and chemicals.”</em></p>
<p>Camp Pendelton is the Camp Pendelton is the 4th track on the new Camper Van Beethoven album <em>El Camino Real. </em>The song tells the story of a marine in either Iraq or Afghanistan (most likely Afghanistan). He is manning a remote outpost somewhere and in his head he is speaking to his wife:</p>
<p>“<em>Keep the children safe</em></p>
<p><em> dress them the same</em></p>
<p><em>cause I have changed</em></p>
<p><em> I’ve changed forever”</em></p>
<p>The idea is that he is fully aware that he is suffering from the effects of his long deployment. Maybe PTSD although it’s not really clear to me and I wrote the song. You might compare him to the character in<i> The Hurt Locker. </i>Although the similarity is purely coincidental because this is the one song that we didn’t write FOR this album. This song has been kicking around since 2003 in the form of of a half finished demo. This was when Camper Van Beethoven was working on their alternate history sic-fi rock opera <em>New Roman Times. </em>In fact it was intended to be a track for that album. It would have loosely fit in somewhere between White Fluffy Clouds and Might Makes Right. We didn’t include it because it seemed like we didn’t need this “in between” stage of his character development. I sort of forgot about the song.</p>
<p>Skip forward 8 years and I was looking for B-sides for La Costa Perdida and I came across the demo for this song. What a surprise! How could we leave this unreleased?</p>
<p>Fortunately it’s set in Southern California and considering that Camp Pendelton and Twenty Nine Palms take up 85% of the landmass of Southern California (joking folks) it seemed like it was perfect for the album.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.recordstoreday.com">Buy the album at your local record store</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Ftrack%2F0kFUjl60bNHUtoB6iS4rtd&ei=C5qOU4akEY6GogSTsYGQCw&usg=AFQjCNFdtmNsi2G52vyiYq0wH2CHDY8ILg&sig2=ajy1RioIwSjWmIjJ3QSLfQ">or stream here.</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Camp Pendleton</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I have dreamed immortal suns</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I gazed upon the fiery surfaces</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">and I have fought down burning roads</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The highways littered with our humanity</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I see your face safely at home</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Baby keep the home fires burning</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Keep the children safe</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">and dress them the same</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Because I have changed I’ve changed forever</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I have dreamed immortal sun</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I gazed upon the fiery surfaces</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">always fear but never falter</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">onward forward Christian Soldiers</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the lights on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">©2014 Camper Van Beethoven</p>
<p> </p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2825/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2825/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2825&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/2991152
2014-06-03T18:39:05-04:00
2019-05-17T13:56:13-04:00
#81 Class Dames and Able Gents – The
<p>In number <a href="http://300songs.com/2010/10/05/60-im-so-glad-she-aint-never-coming-back-how-an-unfinished-jam-became-a-song-other-unfinished-unreleased-outtakes/">#60</a><em><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/10/05/60-im-so-glad-she-aint-never-coming-back-how-an-unfinished-jam-became-a-song-other-unfinished-unreleased-outtakes/"> I’m So Glad She Ain’t Never Coming Back</a> </em>I posed a little riddle about where I found the titles for three unfinished demos I exhibited in the blog. These titles were</p>
<p>“Infidel Sorcerers Of The Air”</p>
<p>“Peppermint Mind”</p>
<p>“Classy Dames and Able Gents”</p>
<p>Only a couple of people figured it out. It was a reference to a website that appeared to be the semi-secret homepage for the Forsythe Associates. This audiovisual services company was the “cover” company that operated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/travel/12heads.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">the secret underground bunker </a>beneath the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia designed to house the US government in the event of a nuclear war.</p>
<p>This is not a joke. This actually happened. This is not some wacko conspiracy theory thing like the <a href="http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4194">Denver International Airport Conspiracy. </a></p>
<p>So after reading about the Greenbriar bunker I decided to try and track down information on the Forsythe Asscoiates. Eventually I came across a webpage that seemed to have no obvious purpose. The website had 4 screens that were supposed to be live camera feeds but all 4 only showed static. Each of them had a cryptic title. That’s the three titles above. My first thought was “What fantastic band names!”</p>
<p>Think about it? Especially the first two “Infidel Sorcerers of the Air” and “Peppermint Mind.” <em>Classy Dames and Able Gents</em> is more like a wedding or corporate gig band. However it does make a good song title. So I used it.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHLelReSWdY">So what in God’s holy name are you blathering about in this song? </a> I’ll tell you what I’m blathering on about. I’m blathering on about elements of the military-academic-industrial-electronic-espionage-complex that covers much of the Southern California coast from Vandenberg AFB to the Mexican border. The whole southern half of the state is bristling with sensors, antennae and mysterious military installations. Most people who visit Southern California don’t really notice this or if they do give it much thought. But California is pretty much a garrison state. It’s pretty well chronicled in this book <em><a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/83rdm5yw9780252071034.html">Fortress California</a>. </em>This song riffs on this theme and throws in references to other important military and electronic warfare installations in the Pacific. The main character who is some sort of government contractor has just returned from being stationed at the military installation on the the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Instead of speaking literally and directly I had him speak in a style of cryptic prose that I borrowed from the aforementioned Forsythe Associates website. It’s perfectly logical in a Camper Van Beethoven sort of way. As some of our readers have already noted it seems to have confused the starched shirts over at <a href="http://www.americansongwriter.com/2014/06/camper-van-beethoven-el-camino-real/">American Songwriter.</a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Classy Dames and Able Gents</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I Augustine, the fishes widow</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I knew the crawfish, I lived on shellfish</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Under a sail</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Lived on atoll</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I had a foreclosed motorhome</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">At Kwajalein tracking station</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got friends not on vacation</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">They got big ears they got big eyes</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We’re here to serve our government</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">There was a fire under water</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Bring me my space suit!</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I always wear it</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I feel like Elvis</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A million bucks</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I lived in Baltimore</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I work greenbriar</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I worked for Foresythe associates</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">A Kwajalein tracking station</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got friends i can be trusted</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">i got black bags i got black hands</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We’re here to serve our government</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">We’re here to serve our government</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Classy Dames and Able Gents</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p> ©2014 Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p> </p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2817/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2817/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2817&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/2988650
2014-06-02T21:30:33-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:45-05:00
#80 It Was Like That When We Got Here & I Live In LA – Northeast Los Angeles Party at the End of the World.
<p><a href="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/screen-shot-2014-06-02-at-9-18-14-pm.png"><img src="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/screen-shot-2014-06-02-at-9-18-14-pm.png?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Screen Shot 2014-06-02 at 9.18.14 PM" /></a></p>
<p><strong>These two tracks are from the new Camper Van Beethoven album <em>El Camino Real. </em>Release date June 3rd 2014. </strong></p>
<p>I was recently in Highland Park a neighborhood of what might be loosely referred to as Northeast Los Angeles. I was there to record and episode of Marc Maron’s immensely enjoyable podcast WTF. I realized I was not too far from the apartment where the “Playing on a flying saucer over Los Angeles” story took place as chronicled in <em><a href="http://300songs.com/2011/01/10/68-the-long-plastic-hallway-playing-on-a-flying-saucer-with-the-talking-heads/">#68 The Long Plastic Hallway-Playing on a Flying Saucer with the Talking Heads. </a> </em>Funny. Regrettably I failed to tell him this story in our interview.</p>
<p>It seemed like all throughout the 1980s every couple of years I would end up at some strange party in this area of Los Angeles. Some weird mix of rich people, hipsters and low lifes. Socio-economically strange as well. On the east side you have the extremely wealthy enclaves of South Pasadena and San Marino. I mean really rich. Like Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos corrupt ex-dictator rich. Indeed this is where the former filipino president and his wife lived after being overthrown. Various relatives of the Shah and other members of foreign oligarchs seemed to settle in this area. And of course the wayward scions of New England establishment fortunes. I assume dwindling fortunes cause they always lived in some decaying mansion. Think grey gardens.</p>
<p>But back to geography. To the north you have Glendale and Pasadena. To the south high-rises of Downtown. To the west Los Feliz and Hollywood. All relatively affluent places, home to power brokers of various kinds: banking, entertainment, military-industrial academic (Cal Tech/JPL) and political. But in the middle of this are a series of neighborhoods like Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village, Montecito Heights, Mt Washington and others without name. Within these neighborhoods you have poor areas, usually in the flatlands, and up on the hillsides are nicer houses and generally wealthier people. Not Imelda Marcos 15,000 pairs of shoes rich, but not as poor as the folks in the flatlands.</p>
<p>It was in a relatively new and nice compound near the top of one of these hills that I occasionally attended parties with a few of the the punk rockers from the Inland Empire. I don’t know who in my IE group of friends got the original introduction but somehow we were on the guest list from time to time. The hostess was a woman reportedly from spain, but I always wondered about that because most of the cars were tagged with Mexican “La Frontera” licenses plates. The rumor was she was variously the daughter, mistress or wife of some gangster. This was the early 1980′s and the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels hadn’t really made any headlines, so we always assumed that our host was connected to the Sicilian Mafia. Which somehow made it seem safer.</p>
<p>Regardless these were pretty typical LA parties, mostly booze and a little bit of drugs in the back room somewhere. Some impossibly arty musical ensemble. Inevitably someone was keeping time on an oil drum or some other large piece of metal. Guitars, Synthesizers and a often more than one bass player. At least one of the band members was always from the UK.</p>
<p>One night we all went outside because there was an enormous brush fire in the Angeles National forest that had worked it’s way down into the foothills of Pasadena. It may have even been the La Tuna fire that burned parts of Verdugo Mountain between Burbank and Glendale. It looked like the end of the world. But this only seemed to enliven the guests.</p>
<p>Their are two songs on the record inspired by these parties and their mysterious hostess. <em>It Was Like That When We Got Here </em>is largely about the party on the night of the fire. <em>I Live in LA </em>is about the hostess.<em> </em></p>
<p>Buy album at your local indie record store</p>
<p>Or</p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/el-camino-real-camper-van-beethoven/27571304?ean=795041799524">Buy album Here</a></p>
<p><a href="http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/05/stream-camper-van-beethovens-new-album-el-camino-real/">Stream Album Here</a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>It was Like That When I Got Here</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">It was broken on the floor</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A piece was stuck in to the door</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">There was this girl I kind of know</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">In an Army Uniform</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I’m a mess baby and you’re a mess baby</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So why can’t we be more than friends</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You and I were meant to be together</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’m a mess baby and you’re a mess baby</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So why can’t we be more than friends</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You and I were meant to be together</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">An Endless pool of summer light</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pasadena burning bright</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A phoenix rising from the smoke</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The mountains rising up in flames</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I’m a mess baby and you’re a mess baby</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So why cant we be more than friends</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You and I were meant to be together</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’m a mess baby and you’re a mess baby</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So why cant we be more than friends</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You and I were meant to be together</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was like that when we got here</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>I Live in LA</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">She comes in like a star</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Wearing jewelry and fur</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">with her own entourage</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">hanger-oners in clogs</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">From some small town in spain</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Its never explained</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Sufficiently</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Or the security</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>I live in LA</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come and see me someday</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You can stay at my house</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got plenty of space</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come see me someday boy</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you wanna have a good time</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A good time with me</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">Black SUVs in the drive</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">tinted windows and guards</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Cowboy boots and shaved heads</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Italian suits tattood necks</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">the party rages inside</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">but its never explained</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Sufficiently</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Oh boy I hope its not too late</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come and see me someday</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You can stay at my house</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got plenty of space</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come see me someday boy</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you wanna have a good time</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A good time with me</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">Done ever ask where i’ve been</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dont ever ask where the money comes from</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dont ever ask who I am cause it cant be explaind</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Sufficiently</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Or the Security</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come and see me someday</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You can stay at my house</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got plenty of space</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come see me someday boy</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you wanna have a good time</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A good time with me</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come and see me someday</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You can stay at my house</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ve got plenty of space</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I live in LA</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Come see me someday boy</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">If you wanna have a good time</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A good time with me</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
</p><p style="text-align:center;">© 2014 Camper Van Beethoven</p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2809/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2809/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2809&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/2985849
2014-06-01T08:38:09-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:45-05:00
#79 The Ultimate Solution- The Polyglot Polyculture City-State that is Los Angeles
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/el-camino-real-front.png"><img src="https://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/el-camino-real-front.png?w=297&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="el camino real front" height="300" width="297" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>The Ultimate Solution- Camper Van Beethoven.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>The polyglot poly-cultural city state that is Los Angeles. </em></p>
<p>Last year Camper Van Beethoven released <em>La Costa Perdida</em> (loosely “the lost coast”) which is a set of songs about Northern California (see <em>Northern California Girls</em> or <em>Come Down the Coast</em> as examples). This year Camper Van Beethoven releases the companion piece to this album “El CaminoReal.” This time the album thematically focuses on Southern California and Baja California.</p>
<p>Whereas <em> La Costa Perdida</em> was a look back at the “back to the country” hippy period of northern California with references to Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, The Grateful Dead and even The Beach Boy’s “Big Sur” period this one is firmly planted in the present and further down the coast in Southern California.</p>
<p>The best way to look at the new album is to draw a contrast between the two. On <em>La Costa Perdida </em> the ocean is calm, benevolent and feminine; on <em> El Camino Real </em>the sea is “filled with darkness, secrets and chemicals.” The choice of the masculine title subject <em>El Camino Real </em>as opposed to the feminine<em>La Costa Perdida</em><em> </em>was an intentional contrast. On La Costa Perdida the bucolic rural past is the focus; on <em>El Camino Real </em>it’s the urban polyglot multi-cultural landscape of Southern California that is celebrated. <em>La Costa Perdida </em>is laid back where <em>El Camino Real </em>is fast paced and frenetic.</p>
<p>Generally when journalists have written about Camper Van Beethoven they have inevitably associated the band with Northern California because of the band’s long residency in Santa Cruz CA. But it’s often overlooked that the band originally formed in the gritty and rural “Inland Empire” region of Southern California. This album is a gentle reminder of the band’s roots.</p>
<p>The album starts with the track <em>The Ultimate Solution. </em>Essentially an ode to the City of Los Angeles. Frommer’s has described Los Angeles as “Less of a melting pot and more of a tossed salad of overlapping cultures.” This song essentially sums up this view of Los Angeles as the ultimate polycultural American megapolis .</p>
<p>If there were a video to this song it would be a high speed stop action video that took you down vermont from the Hollywood hills through downtown Los Angeles. There would be stops along the way for snacks like “Armenian lamb kabobs served in Mayan pickled cabbage tacos” or “Filipino style curry udon.”</p>
<p>Alternately you could take a larger east to west cross section of the megapolis and travel from the celebrity suburbs of the far west sunset drive, through downtown Los Angeles all the way out to the far end of the San Gabriel Valley. On this drive you would encounter large communities, of Russians, Mexican-Americans, Persians, Samoans, Koreans, El Salvadoreans, Filipinos, Hasidim, Indians, Japanese, Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Chinese, Turkish and Afghanis.</p>
<p>I once took a city bus from the Fairfax district all the way down pico and into Boyle Heights with a native Angeleno specifically to experience this aspect of the city. Oh and to sample the food at various restaurants along the way.</p>
<p>Finally I reference the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAPD_Rampart_Division"> LAPD “Rampart Division” scandal.</a> Los Angeles as a true city-state has often operated it’s police department as an almost militarized internal security force. Sometimes acting more like a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Guard_(Spain)"> <em>La</em> </a><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Guard_(Spain)">Guardia Civil </a> </em>than a traditional city police force. The most bizarre chapter in the LAPD history concerns an anti-gang operation out of the Rampart substation that rumored to have acted as it’s own gang, with it’s own tattoos and spray paint tags.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/el-camino-real-camper-van-beethoven/27571304?ean=795041799524">Buy New Album Here.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/05/stream-camper-van-beethovens-new-album-el-camino-real/">Stream New Album Here.</a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The Ultimate Solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I was living happily</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">waiting for the world to end</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">eating pickled cabbage in a taqueria</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I was waiting patiently</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">For the geminids to show</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I was staring happily in to the sun</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And every day is just like a dive</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">into the ultimate solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">violins and violence</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Samoa town Los Angeles</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">In Tagalog Korean girls</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">say Oyster Pearls</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">are like the Ultimate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Ultimate Solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Ultimate Solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I was on a new game show</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Dancing with the Rampart squad</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">everyone had gang tattoos</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">and designer luggage</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Waiting on the El Al Bus</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Security was tight that day</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pico and Sepulveda</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">all the way to Baghdad</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And every day’s just like a dive</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">into the ultimate solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">violins and violence</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Somoa town Los Angeles</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">In Tagalog Korean girls</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">say Oyster Pearls</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">are like the Ultimate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Ultimate Solution</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Ultimate Solution</p>
<p> </p>
<p> <br>
© 2014 camper van beethoven music</p><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2801/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2801/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2801&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/1517141
2012-04-08T20:04:45-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:45-05:00
Trichordist
<p>Hello everybody.</p>
<p>I’m making some changes to the this blog. So for the time being I have unpublished all these posts. I’ll put them back on line as we go through them. thanks.</p>
<p>You can also visit me at <a href="http://www.trichordist.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.trichordist.com</a></p>
<p> </p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2758/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2758/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2758&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/155742
2012-04-08T15:04:45-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:45-05:00
Trichordist
<p>Hello everybody.</p>
<p>I’m making some changes to the this blog. So for the time being I have unpublished all these posts. I’ll put them back on line as we go through them. thanks.</p>
<p>You can also visit me at <a href="http://www.trichordist.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.trichordist.com</a></p>
<p> </p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2758/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2758/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2758&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/72865
2012-01-21T08:42:46-05:00
2021-09-06T04:39:02-04:00
#78 No more bullshit. The top 10 lamest excuses for stealing artists music
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/photo-12-e1327174911869.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/photo-12-e1327174911869.jpg?w=450&h=600" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="600" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><em>I am on the fucking warpath this week.</em></p>
<p>Lamest arguments in favor of illegal file sharing from the past week. I’m not making this shit up. These are real arguments people presented. And argued vehemently.</p>
<p>1. “Marijuana is illegal. File sharing is illegal. Therefore it’s okay.”</p>
<p>Response try filesharing your pot dealer’s stash with 5,000 strangers online and let’s see how long you live.</p>
<p>2. “The RIAA is secretly behind filesharing. They make more money suing people than by selling albums. There are Youtube videos explaining all this therefore it’s true. Therefore it’s okay to steal from cracker and camper van beethoven”</p>
<p>Response: The RIAA was also behind 9-11, Global Warming Hoax and the Kennedy assassinations. Usher is behind Justin Bieber. And Camper Van Beethoven tests cosmetics on lab animals.</p>
<p>3. I heard that the record companies ripped off Willy Dixon in the 1950′s Therefore it’s okay to steal from Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>Response: Very clever. You figured out that Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven have a time machine. We all went back in time to the 1950′s (before we were born) and took $20 dollars from the man’s wallet while he was sleeping. Curses Foiled again.</p>
<p>4. Louis CK. Is successful and his stuff is on Youtube. Therefore it’s okay to steal Cracker’s songs.</p>
<p>Response ask Louis CK if he would prefer his income stream or his idol George Carlin’s Income stream from album sales, video sales, book sales in the 1970′s and 1980′s. Louis CK is making a lot of money. But nothing like George Carlin. And in the process he is helping Google/Youtube add to the piles of gold bullion that Google keeps in secret spaceship deep inside the mantle of the earth below their mountain view “campus”.</p>
<p>5. Music should be free it belongs to the universe.</p>
<p>Response: Okay then come to my house and do YOUR job for free. My car needs it’s oil changed and someone needs to pick up the dogshit in the backyard. There is a signup list on our website. Last i checked my car and the dogshit also “belonged to the universe”.</p>
<p>6. In the middle ages there were no music sales. It was all based on live performance.</p>
<p>Response: Yes and doctors bled you or covered your torso with leaches when you were sick. Also it was permissible to beat your wife with a stick as long as the stick was not larger in diameter than your thumb .</p>
<p>7. “Music sucks today. I’m gonna steal music I like. You bad. No No.”</p>
<p>Response: There is no official response. We have been advised by our legal counsel that the above referenced statement exhibits such a degree of logical incoherence that the statement:<br>
A) was made by a mentally disabled individual<br>
B) are lyrics to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song<br>
C) A zen koan created by a zen master operating on a higher level of consciousness<br>
D) or any two of the above three.</p>
<p>8. “You’re not the boss of me. You can’t tell me what to do”</p>
<p>Response: Actually I personally am the boss of you. Check with your attorney. Unless you are in international waters. Now get out in the backyard and clean up the dog shit.</p>
<p>9. “The Record labels and Musicians failed to adapt to the new hi tech reality. So it’s okay to steal music by Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven”.</p>
<p>Response: So it’s okay to steal handmade boots, organically grown farm produce from family farms, and custom motorcycles? You’re right I’ve been stealing custom choppers for years. How stupid of me. You win.</p>
<p>10. “It’s okay to steal from musicians cause they are all rich”</p>
<p>Response: Although I am dictating this into my solid gold jewel encrusted dictaphone from horseback I’m not rich. Now Steve Jobs he was rich. You know he was buried in a 300 yard long platinum coffin along with 50,000 of his favorite servants? A funeral procession 66 miles long stretched from Vacaville California to Mountain View. Thousand of Buddhist monks burned themselves alive. I’m not rich.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>A lot of you may be shocked by this response. But should you really be surprised? I mean i’ve spent 29 years making music for people who think the world is full of a lot of unadulterated bullshit and can see the humor in it. Have a sense of humor people.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/19-no-more-bullshit.mp3">19 No More Bullshit</a></p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2607/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2607/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2607&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/107446
2011-08-01T02:54:11-04:00
2018-10-17T07:09:07-04:00
#77 Exile in Beach Flats–Lulu Land, Wasted and Surf City 1985
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-31-at-1-02-47-am.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-31-at-1-02-47-am.png?w=450&h=334" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="334" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Ted Kaczynski’s Santa Cruz vacation shack.</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-lulu-land.mp3">04 Lulu Land</a></p>
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<p>In 1982 I lived in the tiniest house imaginable. It was at most 400 square feet yet it boasted a kitchen, bathroom, living room and two bedrooms. My bedroom was 6 x 10 feet. big enough for for a single mattress on a small platform. The small closet could hold about a ½ a dozen shirts, a couple of jackets and a sweater or two. I rolled up four or five pairs of jeans and stuffed them onto the shelf at the top of the closet. The rest of my clothes I kept in a suitcase that I slid out from under my bed when I needed it. This is where I also kept my guitars. I had two plastic beer crates. I stacked these on the floor one on top of each other. I kept a few books, a couple of writing journals and my supply of cassettes for my cassette recorder. The cassette recorder was on the top of the stack. In the corner I kept a small fender amp. A Fender super champ that somebody with excellent cabinetry skills had reworked into a separated “head” and speaker cabinet. This was my songwriting workstation.</p>
<p>I can’t remember if the living room had any furniture in it. I know we had my roommate’s stereo in there and one wall was filled with our vinyl collections. The other side of the living room had a couple of guitar amplifiers, my full size SVT and some miscellaneous drum kit parts. I can’t imagine there was any room for any furniture. Plus I can not recall ever once sitting in that room.</p>
<p>The house was part of a collection of a dozen beach cottages crammed into the parking lot of the Santa Cruz beach amusement park. These were originally meant to be summer rentals. But this was during Santa Cruz’s deep nadir in popularity. Air travel had rendered Santa Cruz’s oceanfront irrelevant to the Bay Area’s middle class. Yes there were tourists on the weekend but they were a decidedly working class and rowdy lot.</p>
<p>This area was called Beach Flats. It was really just a sand bar barely above sea level. It was protected from the San Lorenzo river by a 12 foot levee. Aside from a few students living here the area was populated by Spanish speaking immigrants. Most worked in the local restaurants. Everything about the place suggested impermanence and transience.</p>
<p>In the summer it was occupied land. A foreign army of daytrippers from San Jose, Milpitas, Watsonville and Fremont encamped upon these shores. Their <em>River’s Edge</em> Baja Bugs, Low Riders and tricked out pickup trucks were like the chariot armies of Carthaginians to our Roman sensibilities. Thus we avoided their beachhead.</p>
<p>But most of the time, especially in the winter, it was a lonely outpost from the rest of the city. The city bus neglected the area and it always required a lonely and dark walk along the top of the river levee. Alternately you could walk across a small pedestrian bridge attached to the railroad trestle that spanned the San Lorenzo just as it emptied into the ocean.</p>
<p>During heavy rains directly below the bridge there was a violent mixing of river current and storm driven waves. If you fell into this you would surely drown. I’d often encounter neighborhood youth smoking pot or drinking beer on this bridge late in the evening. They stared at me warily. Their alliances were uncertain. I never knew if we were friend or foe. On many occasion I imagined they might throw me off the bridge just for their own amusement. For this reason I often carried my all aluminum Ultraflex skateboard. I rarely rode it, but both tail and nose were worn down into a sharp edge. It was like a 30” Celtic sword with urethane wheels.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>Corry Arnold defines a music scene as a neighborhood or city that is a “net exporter of concerts”. In other words</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>Let A = the number of concerts performed by the bands in a scene outside their neighborhood or city X. </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>Let B = the number of concerts performed by outsiders within that neighborhood or city. </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>City or neighborhood X is a music scene If and only if A> B.</em></p>
<p>By this definition I’d say that Santa Cruz (barely) qualified as a music scene in 1982.</p>
<p>Arnold also notes music scenes rely on low property values in particular transitional neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that had once had another purpose but now had fallen out of primary use. Cheap space and a tolerance for noise are important commodities for bands.</p>
<p>You could argue that the old beach rentals along the lower end of Ocean street and the neighborhoods clustered around the old harbor qualified as <em>in transition</em>. Too seedy and rundown for beach rentals these houses were subsequently occupied by the more adventurous. Arty students, musicians and other <em>slackers </em>now occupied many of these cottages.</p>
<p>But our cottage was effectively cut off from these neighborhoods by the river levee. In retrospect I now see it was very Dungeons and Dragonsish of the locals to refer to the homeless population that slept in hideaways along the river as “trolls”. Indeed walking to my house at night I learned to steer clear of these trolls as many were quite aggressive or totally insane. You definitely felt penalized after unexpectedly making contact with these folks.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-31-at-1-48-05-am.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-31-at-1-48-05-am.png?w=450&h=275" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="275" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>But the isolation was very good for a couple young mathematicians and songwriters. I was able to really dive into the most difficult proofs and songs in that cottage. Later when I moved to a better part of town I found that I had to go to the science library to get any deep thinking done.</p>
<p>My roommate was also a mathematician and songwriter. His name was Paul MacKinney. Recognize that name? We covered one of his songs on the 3<sup>rd</sup> Camper Van Beethoven Album. The song is <em>LuLu Land.</em> We also named our CVB fan club after him. The Paul MacKinney Fan Club. People were completely mystified as to why the Camper Van Beethoven fan club was named The Paul MacKinney Fan Club. Paul was also mystified. As always CVB was Inscrutable.</p>
<p>I’m not really sure what Paul had in mind when he wrote Lulu Land but in my mind I always associated it with that walk along the river levee. An unplanned conversation with one of the sad crazies was surely the root of this song! But who knows.</p>
<p>Also it should be noted that Paul, Joe Sloan (of Spot 1019) and I had a short lived band about this time called The Jaws of Life. It was actually during this time that I began performing the Black Flag song “wasted”. This was later carried over into Camper Van Beethoven’s repertoire.</p>
<p>Paul would often finish his math homework well before me. He’d come into my room and hover. Or he’d try to help me with whatever proof or problem I was working on. Once I was finished he’d celebrate by handing me a PBR (or joint). and dropping the needle on his well worn copy of Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP. Wasted was one of the songs on the B side. We became fixated on the simple genius of the 40 second song. How could we not cover it?</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-wasted.mp3">03 Wasted</a></p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Beach Flats makes another small appearance in a Cracker song. Once I moved to the eastside of Santa Cruz I rarely went back to this neighborhood. Except to go bowling. Go figure.</p>
<p>Boardwalk Bowl (I remember it as Surf Bowl-anyone else?) was on the western edge of Beach Flats. Right where the land began to slope up and become Beach Hills. To be accurate it should be noted that the cheap beer was more of an attraction than the actual bowling. This and the two old dive bars The Asti Café and the Avenue were for a long time my usual hangouts in Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>But one day my girlfriend Jennifer (see fear and loathing in Las Vegas #….) ruined it for all of us. She had become fixated on the bowling shoes at the Surf Bowl. She wanted her own pair but the ones that were available commercially were nothing like surf bowls cool retro beauties. So one day she just walks out with a pair on.</p>
<p>When I discovered this I was quite mad. Because we were regulars and she was quite the beauty. There was no way the middle aged men who worked in the bowling alley would not remember us. No more Surf Bowl. All for a pair of shoes.</p>
<p>So in Surf City 85 I sing.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/surf-city.mp3">Surf City</a></p>
<p><em>Then you stole some bowling shoes</em></p>
<p><em>What a pathetic criminal you.</em></p>
<p><em>What a pathetic criminal</em></p>
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<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><strong>Lulu Land- (Paul MacKinney)</strong></p>
<p><strong><br>
[Am]</strong> Pictures of <strong>[C]</strong> movie stars <strong>[D]</strong> fade and grow old<br><strong>[Am]</strong> The hot dogs and <strong>[C]</strong> pretzels are <strong>[D]</strong> always served cold<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Take nothing <strong>[C]</strong> with you when you <strong>[D]</strong> leave but your soul<br>
In <strong>[E]</strong> Lulu Land</p>
<p>How can you lose when you choose what you feel?<br>
The scab will fall off when the wound starts to heal<br>
Luck’s on your side and it’s your turn to deal<br>
In Lulu Land</p>
<p>In <strong>[F#m]</strong> Lulu land, the <strong>[G]</strong> walls are soft and <strong>[F#m]</strong> dark<br>
In Lulu <strong>[G]</strong> land, the secret <strong>[F#m]</strong> heart<br>
is in com-<strong>[G]</strong>-mand in Lulu <strong>[E]</strong> Land</p>
<p>How can you lose when you live in the past?<br>
Nothing can happen that happens too fast<br>
Live is a furnace and love is the blast<br>
In Lulu Land</p>
<p>Where innocent promises turn into bad debts<br>
Where things that you do you live to regret<br>
Your life is a movie and the world is a set<br>
In Lulu Land</p>
<p>In Lulu land, the wall are soft and dark<br>
In Lulu land, the secret heart<br>
is in command in Lulu Land</p>
<p><strong>[C#dim]</strong>-<strong>[Cdim]</strong>-<strong>[C#dim]</strong>-<strong>[Cdim]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[A#m]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong>Surf City 85</strong><br><strong>[INTRO x2 (also: chords for verses):]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p>Schoolgirls walking down the street<br>
In schoolgirl uniforms<br>
There’s a sadness at<br>
The centre of the world</p>
<p>Well days they seem to drift away<br>
I don’t know where they go<br>
There’s a sadness at<br>
The centre of the world</p>
<p><strong>[CHORUS:]</strong><br>
So <strong>[G]</strong> come pick me up<br>
At the tea cup<br>
We’ll go <strong>[Am]</strong> down the seaside lanes <strong>[F]</strong><br>
We’ll watch the <strong>[C]</strong> girls<br><strong>[F]</strong> We’ll bowl a few <strong>[C]</strong> games</p>
<p>Nothing to do<br>
But there’s the red room<br>
Then you stole some bowling shoes<br>
What a pathetic criminal you<br>
What a pathetic criminal</p>
<p>Blair and goldie on the sand<br>
It’s raining in the surf<br>
Well that’s nothing lost<br>
And nothing gained today</p>
<p>They tried to go their separate ways<br>
But all roads circle back<br>
Well that’s nothing lost<br>
And nothing gained today</p>
<p><strong>[CHORUS:]</strong><br>
So come pick me up<br>
At the tea cup<br>
We’ll go down the Asti Café<br>
We’ll watch the girls<br>
Just like every Saturday</p>
<p>Nothing to do<br>
Ride out to Bonnie Doon<br>
We thought she had it made<br>
But you crashed your bike on ice-cream grade<br>
And then you were dead</p>
<p><strong>[KEYBOARD SOLO then GUITAR SOLO (chords as INTRO)]</strong></p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/category/cracker/">Cracker</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2594/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2594/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2594&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/105999
2011-07-18T11:57:39-04:00
2023-12-10T12:00:29-05:00
#76 Camper Van Beethoven and the Border Patrol-The Day Lassie Went to The Moon.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-17-at-1-01-12-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/screen-shot-2011-07-17-at-1-01-12-pm.png?w=450&h=307" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="307" width="450" /></a><br><em><strong>Very early Camper Van Beethoven. From Left to Right. David Lowery, Mike Zorn, David McDaniel and Boris Yeltsin.</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-the-day-that-lassie-went-to-the-moon.mp3">02 The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon</a></p>
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<p>Camper Van Beethoven was originally called <em>Camper Van Beethoven and the Border Patrol. </em>We shortened it after about 9 months. Nobody was listing the full name of the band anyway. There are only two or three posters that I’ve ever seen that show the full name of the band. But this was the original name of the band.</p>
<p>The band name was the brainchild of David McDaniel. David pictured above (in the bowling shirt) had an odd sense of humor. At the time we formed Camper Van Beethoven he was also working on this sort of stand up comedy routine that involved these carefully constructed “jokes”. they had all the rhyme and rhythm of a joke but made no sense. I only remember one. And it was intended to be delivered with a sort of generic foreign accent.</p>
<p><em>“My country, where I come from is SO SMALL! SO SMALL that when they change the tire everybody laughs”</em></p>
<p>The next joke might not have the foreign accent. There was no coherence to the character. They were like computer generated one-liners read by randomly selected people.</p>
<p>So Camper Van Beethoven and the Border Patrol was in the same vein. It sounded like it was supposed to make sense or be a pun. It had the rhyme and rhythm but it fell short. And it also kind of wandered off on a tangent. Still it somehow evoked the bands music.</p>
<p>David McDaniel was also the spiritual leader of the band. Literally. He was just beginning his studies to become a Pastor. I’m not quite sure what denomination. Just that it was somehow in the Charismatic branch of American Christianity. Charismatic? Best explained by one of my friend’s very Mexican American Catholic mother:</p>
<p>“I think they are snakehandlers”.</p>
<p>If you are uncomfortable with Mrs Gonzales’ definition, how ’bout the one from wikipedia:</p>
<p><em>The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt beliefs and practices similar to Pentecostals. Foundational to the movement is the belief that Christians may be “filled with” or “baptized in” the Holy Spirit as a second experience subsequent to salvation and that it will be evidenced by manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Among Protestants, the movement began around 1960. Among Roman Catholics, it originated around 1967.<br></em></p>
<p>For you Europeans who are unfamiliar with pentecostals, they are known for celebrating <em>baptism in the holy spirit.</em> This can include speaking in tongues, ecstatic dancing and yes, Mrs Gonzales, snakehandling.</p>
<p>Some of you might be surprised that a devoutly religious young man was one of the founding members of Camper Van Beethoven. Or perhaps it makes sense. I mean California was home to people like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Frisbee">Lonnie Frisbee</a> and the whole Jesus Freaks movement. In the 70′s a lot of these Charismatics came out of the counter-culture movement. So David wasn’t really a Jesus Freak. No, he had to much new wave post punk awareness. A Jesus Punk?</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lonnie_frisbee_in_the_1960s.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lonnie_frisbee_in_the_1960s.jpg?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Lonnie Frisbee in a Camper Van Beethoven promotional Tunic.</em></strong></p>
<p>It’s nothing we really thought about very much. Except maybe once. As Victor Krummenacher, Chris Molla and myself pulled up stakes and decided to move Camper Van Beethoven from Redlands (in the Inland Empire) to Santa Cruz we asked David if he was gonna come along with us. He really looked at us like we were crazy. No he was gonna become a pastor. And that is indeed what he did.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>David was only in the band for three or four months but he left his mark on the band. He co-wrote and sang The Day Lassie Went To The Moon. The early rehearsal tape I posted here last summer in #23 has a version of Lassie with David McDaniel singing.</p>
<p><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/09/23-ms-santa-cruz-county-cracker-who-were-the-blue-ladies-ode-to-santa-cruz/"> http://300songs.com/2010/08/09/23-ms-santa-cruz-county-cracker-who-were-the-blue-ladies-ode-to-santa-cruz/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-1983-demos.mp3">1983 Camper van beethoven rehearsal</a></p>
<p>The lyrics to this song very much set the tone for most of the early Camper Van Beethoven albums. Light and happy but somehow deeply warped. Like a subversive children’s song. We repeatedly re-used this voice.</p>
<p>Final note on Lassie. The chorus chord progression must have been unconsciously lifted from Wall of Voodoo’s version of Ring of Fire. (we listened to a lot of Wall of Voodoo ). The riff begins at 3:13</p>
<span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2011/07/18/76-camper-van-beethoven-and-the-border-patrol-the-day-lassie-went-to-the-moon/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/0f5nUqko3Ug/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span>
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<pre><strong>The Day That Lassie Went to the moon.</strong>
<strong> . E A D A e|| -----------------|---2------------- || B|| ---0-------2-----|-----3-----2----- || G||.-----1-------2---|-------2-----2---.|| D||.-------2-------2-|-0-------------2-.|| A|| ---------0-------|---------0------- || E|| -0---------------|----------------- || </strong></pre>
<p><strong>[INTRO & BREAK (see tab)]</strong><br><strong>[E]-[A]-[D]-[A]</strong><br><strong>[E]-[A]-[D]-[A]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E] My little [A] dog [D] ran away the [A] other day [E] (yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah, [D] yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah)</strong><br><strong>[E] I can’t be-[A]-lieve my little dog [D] Lassie ra-[A]-an a-[E]-way (yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah, [D] yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah)</strong><br><strong>[E] She packed her [A] bags and [D] got into a [A] hot-air bal-[E]-loon (yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah, [D] yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah)</strong><br><strong>[E] Then my little dog [A] Lassie, she [D] sailed [A] off to the mo-[E]-on (yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah, [D] yeah ye-[A]-eah yeah yeah)</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHORUS:</strong><br><strong>[E]-[B]-[Bb] The day</strong><br><strong>[F#]-[A]-[G] the day</strong><br><strong>[E] That was the [Bb] day that [F#] Lassie [A]went to the [E] moon</strong></p>
<p><strong>My little dog Lassie packed her bags and went out onto the porch</strong><br><strong>Her golden fur glistened in that sunny blue backdrop sky of Kansas</strong><br><strong>Before her stretched majestic wheat fields and over to that great city to the west</strong><br><strong>Lassie knew she had the duty to serve the youth of America and the stars above</strong></p>
<p><strong>REPEAT CHORUS x3</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/105900
2011-07-17T14:57:18-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:44-05:00
#75 KQED’s The California Report on Big Dipper
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/giantdippervp1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/giantdippervp1.jpg?w=450&h=294" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="294" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Giant Dipper. The Roller Coaster of Love.</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-big-dipper.mp3">03 Big Dipper</a> Click here to play big dipper.</p>
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<p>This is an interview I did with KQED for The California Report. As part of their California Songs series they ask me about Big Dipper. So todays blog is simply the audio recording of that interview.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201107151630/d">http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201107151630/d</a></p>
<div>
<p>Look for the full or extended interview file.</p>
<p><img src="//u.s.kqed.org/2011/07/15/DavidLowery.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></p>
<div>Gabriel Coan/KQED</div>
<div><em>David Lowery</em></div>
</div>
<p><em>The wooden roller coaster on the Santa Cruz boardwalk is a magnet for families, kids and teenagers on dates. It also inspired musician David Lowery’s song “Big Dipper.” Lowery studied mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, and “Big Dipper” appears on the album titled “The Golden Age” released in 1996 with his band Cracker. Lowery tells us the story behind the music.</em></p>
<p>Here is the short version as it was broadcast:</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/2011-07-15d-tcrmag.mp3">KQED California Songs David Lowery/Big Dipper</a></p>
<pre>
: Am . C . F . G . Am . C . F . G .
e|--------0---1-0--|----1p0-----------0h1|0-----0----|--------------------|
B|----1-3---1-----1|--------0h1-3-1-3----|-----------|----0h1-3-1-0-------|
G|--2--------------|---------------------|--2-----0--|--2-----------2-0---|
D|-----------------|---------------------|-----------|3-------------------|</pre>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>[SECTION 1 (see tab):]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Am]</strong> Cigarette <strong>[C]</strong> and carrot juice <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong><br>
And get yourself a <strong>[Am]</strong> new tattoo <strong>[C]</strong> for those sleeveless <strong>[F]</strong> days of <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> June</p>
<p>I’m sitting on the Cafe Xeno’s steps with a book I haven’t started yet<br>
watching all the girls walk by</p>
<p>Could I take you <strong>[F]</strong> out<br>
I’ll be yours without a <strong>[Dm]</strong> doubt<br><strong>[C]</strong> on that big <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> dipper</p>
<p>And if the sound of this it frightens you<br>
we could play it real cool<br>
and act somewhat indifferent</p>
<p>And hey June why did you have to come, why did you have to come around so soon<br>
I wasn’t ready for all this nature</p>
<p>The terrible green green grass, and violent blooms of flowered dresses<br>
and afternoons that make me sleepy</p>
<p>But we could wait awhile<br>
before we push that dull turnstile<br>
into the passage</p>
<p>The thousands they had tread<br>
and others sometimes fled<br>
before their turn came</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT SECTION 1 x2]</strong></p>
<p>And we could wait our lives<br>
before a chance arrives<br>
before the passage</p>
<p>From the top you can see Monterey<br>
or think about San Jose<br>
though I know it’s not that pleasant</p>
<p>And hey Jim Kerouac brother of the famous Jack<br>
or so he likes to say “lucky bastard”</p>
<p>He’s sitting on the cafe Xeno’s steps with a girl I’m not over yet<br>
watching all the world go by</p>
<p>Boy you are looking bad<br>
Did I make you feel that sad<br>
I’m honestly flattered</p>
<p>But if she asks me out<br>
I’ll be hers without a doubt<br>
on that big dipper</p>
<p>Cigarettes and carrot juice<br>
and get yourself a new tattoo for those sleeveless days of June</p>
<p>I’m sitting on the cafe Xeno’s steps<br>
I haven’t got the courage yet, I haven’t got the courage yet,</p>
<p>I haven’t got the <strong>[ending Am]</strong> courage yet</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/105752
2011-07-15T02:43:11-04:00
2017-10-15T10:05:54-04:00
#74 Hits are Black Swans-Take the Skinheads Bowling
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/camper-skinheads.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/camper-skinheads.jpg?w=450&h=454" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="454" width="450" /></a><em>The <strong>Black Swan Theory</strong> or <strong>Theory of Black Swan Events</strong> is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that The event is a surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight.- wikipedia.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/12-take-the-skinheads-bowling.mp3">12 Take The Skinheads Bowling</a> (click to play)</p>
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I’ve mentioned this before. Success in the music business is completely unpredictable. No one can really predict which artists will end up being successful. No one can really predict which song or album will be a hit. And a lot of times the songs, albums or artists that become the <em>really big</em> smash hits seem to just come out of the blue. They are often surprises to the record labels and artists themselves. The smaller hits and the minor hits seem almost predictable by comparison. The really big hits are truly outliers.</p>
<p>In technical terms these smash hits are <em>Black Swans</em>. Further there appears to be a distinct lack of causality. By this I mean, spending money on radio promotion, publicity, advertising, production, videos etc etc seems to be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Sure it’s unlikely that a band with no budget or promotional push behind them is gonna be a massive hit. But having a million dollar promotional budget and the full might of Warner Music Group behind a band doesn’t guarantee success. Money might sometimes be a necessary condition but it is not sufficient.In fact it leads to success in perhaps 1 in 10 cases.*</p>
<p>Sadly talent is overrated. Yes there are very talented artists and songwriters. While talent is a subjective quality there are clearly artists that we all seem to agree have talent. We can be objective and say they have talent. And to be sure these talented artists always have a much better chance of becoming stars. They have a much better chance of having hit songs, multi-platinum albums and large crowds at the their shows. But it is not guaranteed. In fact most “talented” artists do not become stars. T They toil in obscurity until they finally give up or become too old to be marketable. Its just a lucky few that make it. And it is luck.</p>
<p>And the opposite is also true. Sometimes fairly untalented artists have big hits. Sometimes it’s the strange one hit wonders like Right Said Fred. Other times fairly untalented artists can have long and successful careers. Take for instance Kid Rock. This is not a jab. I believe there exists a scientific proof that can establish that Kid Rock is fairly untalented. I’m just stating facts. I have a feeling that Kid Rock might admit that he is fairly untalented and extremely lucky.</p>
<p>Talent is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for success.</p>
<p>ab</p>
<p>It’s not that there really is no rhyme or reason to an artist’s success. It’s not really random. It’s just that the process of making a hit or a star is <em>irreducibly complex,</em>unpredictable and impossible to model. It can never be duplicated. What worked for one artist doesn’t work for the next artist. All we can say is that <em>empirically </em>the secret alchemist formula for success has little to do with money, clout or talent. These seem to lead to only marginal improvements in total sales. And this is usually only once an act or a song has <em>already</em> generated some success on it’s own.</p>
<p>Yet everyone in the music business seems to think otherwise. Artists, managers, agents and record executives will argue otherwise. They will cite their own personal narratives that show how their actions and decisions led to some spectacular success. But there are always a few strange logical fallacies at work.</p>
<p><em>“Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan”- arab proverb.</em></p>
<p>What this means is not that a successful project has many fathers helping to guide it on it’s way to success. No, this means that many people claim to be associated or responsible for a project’s success no matter how tenuous. People play up their role in a successful project but downplay their role or completely disavow involvement in failures and disasters. It’s a genetically encoded survival feature of <em>Homo Corporaticus. </em>By doing this people artificially increase their win/loss ratio. Equity traders would say they fraudulently increase their <em>alpha</em> or skill quotient.</p>
<p>This also helps create an illusion of causality. It helps us tell <em>ourselves and others</em> the lie that our actions decisions and theories usually result in great success. There’s also something called the <em>narrative fallacy</em> whereby an individual will look back on events and select a cause and effect narrative that brings order to what were really chaotic and random events and decisions.</p>
<p>For instance Quincy Jones might naturally and understandably think that his production of Thriller was the most important and consequential narrative in the unprecedented success of this album (100 million worldwide best selling album of all time). When in actuality totally unrelated seemingly random developments and events were likely greater factors:</p>
<p>1. A burgeoning middle class in the developing world that identified with american Soul and R & B.</p>
<p>2. satellite television that distributed american music videos worldwide</p>
<p>3. the guest guitar solo by Edie Van Halen on<em>Beat it</em> suddenly made it okay for white suburban kids to listen to Michael Jackson etc etc.</p>
<p>I’m skipping a few things here but in short we lie to ourselves not because we are bad or evil, it’s just seems we can not function comfortably with a universe that is chaotic and unpredictable. We need to make sense of the world in a way that comforts and soothes us.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>I teach a class at University of Georgia about the music business. As part of the class I like to give the students a sort of proof by contradiction that outcomes in the music business can not be reliably duplicated and are highly unpredictable. Here’s how it goes:</p>
<p>Suppose that the music business is perfectly rational and predictable. If that’s the case you could design a Hit Machine that models the music business. For example if you put inputs X Y and Z into the machine you get a predictable volume of sales or revenue out of the other end of the Hit Machine. Every time. No Variation.</p>
<p>For example suppose for each album</p>
<p>we spend exactly the same amount on advertising.</p>
<p>We use exactly the same radio promoters.</p>
<p>We use exactly the same publicity firm.</p>
<p>We give the band the same amount of tour support.</p>
<p>They play the same number of shows in exactly the same venues.</p>
<p>The recording and video budgets are exactly the same.</p>
<p>We even use the same creatives: record producer, engineer, video director, songwriting team and studio musicians.</p>
<p>We spend the same amount on Black Ops: strippers, hookers, drugs and payola.</p>
<p>The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>If there were a hit machine we would get the same result each time. The exact same sales. Each album generates the same revenue. <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-09-53-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-09-53-pm.png?w=450&h=251" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="251" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>For each album, the exact same inputs (left) produce the exact same number of sales (right).</em></strong></p>
<p>Of course we know this is absurd. No one would really expect this to happen. We reasonably expect there to be variation in sales for each successive albums. No matter how firmly we control the inputs to the machine. There are just too many other variables. The songwriter is off his/her game on one song. Global cultural tastes change. Current events make a song’s subject less or more engaging… etc etc.</p>
<p>So let’s redesign our Hit machine. We introduce some variation. A little randomness or pseudo randomness. Now we get something that seems more reasonable. If we put exactly the same “inputs” into the machine for each album you get varying sales out of the machine. In this case you get what mathematicians and statisticians call a “normal” or “gaussian” distribution. <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-10-09-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-10-09-pm.png?w=450&h=261" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="261" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Exact same inputs (left) produce a normal variation in sales (right).</strong></p>
<p>But as it turns out we know a lot about the variation in album sales. Album sales do not vary in this “normal” or “gaussian” way. They vary “wildly”.***</p>
<p>And here wild is actually a real mathematical term. So if there is a hit machine it would have to generate wild variation in sales with the same inputs.****</p>
<p>Like this: <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-11-09-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-17-at-9-11-09-pm.png?w=450&h=278" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="278" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>I’m skipping a few logical steps here but basically the conclusion is that the “inputs” to the hit machine – those things that the artists, managers, record labels, agents and songwriters have control over – have only a marginal effect on the end result. So marginal they are pretty much irrelevant. And if the cumulative actions of managers, labels, agents, artists, songwriters, producers and video directors have only a marginal influence on the outcome then it’s fair to say success in the music business is due to luck. or success in the music business is random or unpredictable. Q.E.D. sort of…</p>
<p>To use Michael Jackson as an example again <em>off the wall </em>had pretty much the same inputs as <em>Thriller</em>. Yet the results were wildly dfferent. 2 million vs 100 million. Or in gross revenue terms 16 million versus 800 million. You could plausibly argue with a straight face that $16 million dollars of <em>Thriller </em>was due to skill and $784 million dollars was the result of luck. I know this is an oversimplification but it still illustrates my point that most of the profit in the music business is not due to skill, talent or expertise.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fractal.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fractal.gif?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>This fractal design is “self similar” Each smaller piece is exactly the same shape as the whole.</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fields.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fields.jpg?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>While similar to fractals this is something mathematicians call a “Dork”. </em></strong></p>
<p>Another important fact. This “wild” variation in sales of albums or songs is also <em>Self-Similar. </em>By this I mean that no matter how you slice and dice the sales data, no matter which subset of albums or songs you might create you still get a wild distribution.</p>
<p>For example if you look at the subset of just Camper Van Beethoven songs. And you look at the revenue generated by each song, you get what appears to be a wild distribution. It doesn’t matter whether you look at one quarter’s income or the lifetime cumulative income the distribution appears to be wild.</p>
<p>But I doubt that it is just Camper Van Beethoven. I don’t know for sure but I suspect that in the sub-genre of black metal, that if you looked at income for every album in the genre you would get a wild distribution. I suspect the same for the Narco-corridos sub genre.</p>
<p>This is <em>Self-Similarity</em>. Without going into it in detail- I don’t want to make your brain explode- everywhere that you have wild distributions you usually find <em>Black Swans Events. </em>And in the music business these <em>Black Swan Events </em> are the Hits. Camper Van Beethoven’s <em>Black Swan Event </em>was Take the Skinheads Bowling.</p>
<p>********************************************</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/cvb-1985.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/cvb-1985.jpg?w=450&h=298" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="298" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>CVB writing a smash hit in 1984. The guy in the hat was not visible to the naked eye. He was only visible using certain film and special cameras (Usually KODAK EKTACHROME 160T). He is a minor demon of the Santa Catalina class. We would often accidentally conjure him during moments of intense creativity. He told us his name was “doobie”. </strong></em></p>
<p>Honestly in 1984 I never thought that much about the song Take The Skinheads Bowling. It was part of our repertoire but it wasn’t like people talked about this song much after the show. If they did talk about it they didn’t talk about it anymore than the other songs.</p>
<p>I don’t think it was until after we recorded our demos or the first Camper Van Beethoven album (and before it was released) that people began to notice this song. Usually because we had given them a demo tape. Our friends were also dubbing and passing around our cassette. It started to become one of our popular songs. At least within our circle of friends.</p>
<p>But it was not the only song that people liked. Lassie, Where the Hell is Bill and Club Med Sucks were also popular with our friends. In fact Where The Hell is Bill and Lassie were much more popular with our friends.</p>
<p>So it should not surprise you that I never thought that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit. If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit. Not in a million years. I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.</p>
<p>Why? we regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling. BTW this is the most important fact about this song. We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning. There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.</p>
<p>Lassie and Where the Hell is Bill were silly but there was at least a point to the songs. Plus both songs were pretty jokey. Something that seemed popular at the time.</p>
<p>When we first put out the Telephone-Free-Landslide-Victory we mailed out a fairly limited amount of albums to radio and press. We got a few good reviews and a handful of college radio stations began to play a couple of the tracks. Where the Hell is Bill was one. Club Med Sucks was another and then of course Take the Skinheads Bowling. We were pretty excited. There were probably 20 college radio stations in the country summer of 1985 that were playing our record.</p>
<p>In September we decided that we should mail out another round of promo copies of our album. We expanded our list of college radio stations we added a few commercial stations like KROQ in LA and WLBS in detroit. Someone also suggested we send copies to two or three BBC DJs in london.</p>
<p>Sometime later that fall something unexpected occurred. We began getting reports that BBC 2 was playing Take The Skinheads Bowling. Simultaneously it began getting regular airplay in Detroit on WLBS .</p>
<p>Up until this point College Radio had been mildly supportive of Camper Van Beethoven. But somehow word began to get out that we were being played on the BBC and suddenly our cool factor went way up with college radio. I had been calling various West Coast college radio stations for some time. I was always trying to find gigs for Camper through the college stations. I was also aware that this also helped to promote airplay.</p>
<p>I was always treated decently by these college station program directors but I could tell that some were just humoring me. So it was very apparent when the sea change came. Suddenly <em>everyone</em> would take my call. And everyone wanted to talk about the fact we were getting played in the UK. Shortly after this we began to see our record charting on nearly every college radio station in the US (as well as a number of commercial stations.)</p>
<p>I have no proof that the BBC playing Take The Skinheads Bowling led to more US airplay. It is just a strong hunch. And I think I am probably right. But what I know to be true is that Camper Van Beethoven acquired <em>Gravitas </em>when the BBC began to play us.</p>
<p>For a band like Camper Van Beethoven <em>gravitas</em> was an important property. Without it we would have been regarded as novelty or joke band. We would have been regarded in the way our friends (and fellow travelers) The Dead Milkman were regarded: A cute band, an interesting and clever novelty. (BTW I <em>do not agree</em> with this characterization of the Dead Milkman).</p>
<p>The Dead Milkman were a punk band from Philadelphia. They put out their first album almost the same week Camper Van Beethoven released their first album. They were funny and irreverent like Camper Van Beethoven. Like CVB they mixed serious songs with silly punk rock anthems like “bitchin’ camaro”.</p>
<p>Camper Van Beethoven was definitely a weirder ensemble but the bands were very very similar in many other ways. Our fanbase overlapped a good deal. They were also on a very small independent label. The same college radio stations played us. And they also were completely self directed.</p>
<p>For the early part of our career the two bands were traveling in parallel. With the Dead Milkman being perhaps a little more popular than Camper Van Beethoven. But after the BBC airplay Camper Van Beethoven began to be to be regarded as more serious. Serious mainstream journalists began writing favorable stories about us. Spin magazine and The Village Voice featured us. We also began to garner interest from major record labels. IRS records which was on a hot streak came a-callin’. We turned them down but we were able to parlay our newfound <em>gravitas </em>into a distribution deal with Rough Trade Records. More importantly Rough Trade functioned as our label in the rest of the world bringing greater sales, publicity and radio play across Europe and Australia. Camper Van Beethoven quickly surpassed The Dead Milkman critically and commercially. It wasn’t until long after Camper Van Beethoven had disbanded that The Dead Milkman had their big commercial success with the MTV hit <em>Punk Rock Girl</em> and sadly they never acquired the <em>gravitas </em>that they deserved.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/ipp-booklet-cover-web.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/ipp-booklet-cover-web.jpg?w=450&h=230" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="230" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>So I don’t really know what made Take the Skinheads Bowling a hit. I’m sure it was a lot of different things. But I’m gonna drill down, and focus on one tiny element. I know it’s not likely correct to attribute the success of this song to this one small event. It’s simply an exercise to show how a tiny accidental decision can make a huge difference in the success of a song, album or artist.</p>
<p>Assume that the BBC playing Take the Skinheads Bowling was the primary engine of success for this song. Then one little handwritten note on the beautifully designed <a href="http://www.independentprojectpress.com/">Independent Project</a> stationary made all the difference in the world for this song.</p>
<p>See someone told me that many of the BBC DJ’s did not accept unsolicited submissions <em>unless </em> they were accompanied by a personalized handwritten note. But this was not common knowledge . Somehow this little factoid filtered down to us and when our album(s) were mailed they included a personal note to the DJ from one of us or Bruce Licher . I don’t recall who wrote the notes just that they were included. I like to think the handwritten note on Bruce’s beautiful Independent Project stationary caught someone’s eye. This made our album stand out from the stacks of albums that the BBC would receive each week. And this small detail, this tiny flap of a butterfly wing made Take the Skinheads Bowling a hit.</p>
<p>* ”throw ten records against the wall and see which one sticks” This is often attributed to Atlantic records founder Ahmet Etegun. I’ve googled it and find no evidence he ever said it. Still the modern 1950-2000 music business was based on a success ratio of something like 1 in 10. 1 success for 9 failures.</p>
<p>*** It is know that there is “wild” variation in book sales and other cultural products. Since YouTube views of music videos seem to vary wildly and using YouTube views as a good proxy for album/single sales I’m not going out on a limb by stating album/single sales also vary wildly.</p>
<p>**** Actually this last statement does not really follow. I know many of my readers are smart and will quickly point this out. For the sake of readability I am completely fudging here. I believe my conclusion is true but it’s a much longer argument and involves some induction.</p>
<p>“If a hit machine existed it would have to output wild variation in sales because in actuality the variation in sales of albums are wild” No that doesn’t follow. Previously we were assuming that the inputs were exactly the same. The only way this follows is if all albums in the known universe have the same inputs. Clearly they don’t.</p>
<p>Instead the logic is much more complex. It first involves the fact that there are known pairs or even triplets of albums that have substantially the same inputs. The variation of sales in these pairs or triplets of albums is so great (thriller vs off the wall) that this inductively suggests the hit machine will produce a wild variation in sales.</p>
<p>Or another way of looking at it. If there were a hit machine the market would eventually nudge the labels into using only the best inputs, those that produce the greatest sales. These would all be virtually the same inputs. But the market doesn’t do this because it “knows” the inputs don’t matter all that much.</p>
<p>(And the market may know this because at times in Nashville and Hollywood the record labels have come very close to using exactly the same inputs over and over again and they still got “wild” variation. For instance in the late 1990′s at any time the top 10 modern rock tracks were usually mixed by just 3 or 4 mix engineers!)</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
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<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Fmaj7]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Fmaj7]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Fmaj7]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Fmaj7]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> Every day, <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong> I get up and pray to <strong>[C]</strong> Jah <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> And he increases the number of <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong> clocks by exactly one <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> Everybody’s comin’ <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong> home for lunch these <strong>[C]</strong> days <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> Last night there were <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong> skinheads on my <strong>[C]</strong> lawn <strong>[Fmaj7]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[G]</strong> Take the skinheads <strong>[F]</strong> bowling<br>
Take them <strong>[C]</strong> bowling <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong> Take the skinheads <strong>[F]</strong> bowling<br>
Take them <strong>[C]</strong> bowling <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p>Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes (got big lanes, got big lanes)<br>
Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same (look the same, look the same)<br>
There’s not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything (anything, anything)<br>
I has a dream last night, but I forget what it was (what it was, what it was)</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>I had a dream last night about you, my friend<br>
I had a dream, I wanted to sleep next to plastic<br>
I had a dream, I wanted to lick your knees<br>
I had a dream, it was about nothing</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2523/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2523/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2523&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/105658
2011-07-13T18:32:10-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:44-05:00
#73 South California Revisited – St. Cajetan.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/13secession_map-popup.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/13secession_map-popup.jpg?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>South California as proposed by secessionists.</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-st-cajetan.mp3">05 St. Cajetan</a></p>
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<p>I was browsing the web last night and came across this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/us/13secession.html?_r=1&hp">NY Times article</a> about the Inland Empire and 10 other counties wanting to secede from the state of California. The idea is to form their own state called South California. Not to be confused with the Mexican states of Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur (Lower California North and Lower California South). If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you already know about the Inland Empire of California. It’s geography and how it differs significantly from the rest of the state. But here’s the quick synopsis.</p>
<p>The Inland Empire, Mojave Desert and much of the Central Valley (think Bakersfield) are very different than the rest of the state. It is poorer, more agricultural than a lot of California. It is also populated by a lot of people that moved along the southern wagon trails, railroads, highways and interstates from the Southern States of the US to the California. Also there was a significant Mormon migration (The Mormons once envisioned their own seperate nation that included this area of California).</p>
<p>The City of San Bernardino was first the center Morman migration to California and next a significant Pro- confederate settlement during the Civil War. This area has often acted like it wanted to be part of something other than California. And much of the time it has shared a sort of affinity with the US Southern States.</p>
<p>When my family first moved to California from Spain. (My father was in the US Air Force) I saw so many “confederate”* flags I assumed that Southern California was somehow part of the Confederacy. That wasn’t that far fetched. Indeed it tried.</p>
<p>From KCETs excellent <a href="http://http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/32239-how-southern-california-tried-to-split-from-the-north.html">history of secessionists in California (both from the Union and state of California):</a></p>
<p><em> On August 25, 1861, troops under the command of Major William Scott Ketchum secretly moved into San Bernardino amid rumors of rebellion. The next month, in the nearby mining town of Belleville (close to the present-day site of Big Bear Lake), the presence of Union dragoons in the streets quashed a election-day riot by secessionists.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lynyrd-skynyrd-the-early-years-1974-75-dvd-31994.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lynyrd-skynyrd-the-early-years-1974-75-dvd-31994.jpg?w=450&h=438" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="438" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Sweet Home San Bernardino.</em></strong></p>
<p>To further the feeling that I was living in a lonely outpost of The South or at least Texas, <em>Southern Rock </em>became enormously popular in the Inland Empire. I know Lynyrd Skynyrd was enormously popular everywhere in the US but in the Inland Empire that popularity extended far down into the lower echelons of Southern Rock ie Charlie Daniels Band, Molly Hatchet,The Outlaws etc. Green Grass and High Tides was as important an high school parking lot anthem as Stairway to Heaven. Indeed in the late 70′s it was not un-common for local FM station KCAL to boast of playing a 1/2 hour of uninterrupted southern rock.</p>
<p>And why shouldn’t this stuff have been staples of FM rock radio? all through the 70′s, the stuff wasn’t that different from what The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were playing. Both played southern blues and gospel based rock. The difference between the english blues rockers and the southern blues rockers had mostly to do with their public persona. The Stones and Led Zeppelin may have sang about the working man the poor and downtrodden from time to time, but they decidedly cultivated an image as being part of some sophisticated elite. Albeit a dangerous, decadent and hedonistic elite. Contrast that to the Allman Brothers earthy notion of “The Family” or Lynyrd Skynyrds sneering contempt for elites and northerners. You got the feeling that the English bands sang the blues ( and sang it well) but the southern rockers actually lived it. They were still decadent and hedonistic but it was a <em>down home </em>working man’s kind of hedonism. Hell raising. Boys being boys.</p>
<p>As the the New York times article nicely notes there is also a recurring sense of victimhood in the Inland Empire. Similar to what you find in the south. In the Inland Empire it goes like this: the hard working, poorer inland californians have a better and more traditional way of life but it is constantly under attack from northern, sacramento or big city elites. “<em>And if we were just left alone to run their own affairs things would be so much better”.</em> Does this sound familiar? This is not to say that like the other southerners they at times do have a point.</p>
<p>I believe it was that subtle subtext that made southern rock so appealing in the Inland Empire. That and the family ties to the US south.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>All of this was intended as an explanation of how two california boys, myself and Johnny Hickman , became well versed in southern rock.</p>
<p>I classify St. Cajetan as a southern rock song. It’s what we were intending to create with that song. Hear the southern rock “oooo’s’ in the chorus backing vocals? The stomping drone of the guitars and drums. The fabulously overplayed climatic guitar solo. If we had 4 guitar players there would have been a 4 part guitarmony at the end.</p>
<p>Its also the song on the first Cracker album that most differentiated it from Camper Van Beethoven. While Camper could expertly play with the Jimmy Page/ Peter Green english blues rock oeuvre, <em>mythologizing</em> it in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes">semiotic/Roland Barthes</a> sort of way, CVB never really played with the southern rock sound (despite the fact Greg Lisher sounds so much like Dickey Betts at times it’s uncanny). As one of the ways of differentiating Cracker from CVB we went a step farther and embraced southern rock. This is not to say we weren’t embracing it in the same post-modern** way that CVB embraced Led Zeppelin, we weren’t trying to be 100% authentic. It was a tip of the hat to southern rock from a couple of South California rockers.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>St. Cajetan was named after the performance space in Denver. An old Catholic Church in Denver now part of the university there. Camper Van Beethoven was playing a show in this venue and I was sitting around with an acoustic guitar backstage. I came up with that riff and named it “St Cajetan”. Camper Van Beethoven broke up before i could ever turn that riff into a song. So this was probably the first or second Cracker song.</p>
<p>Loosely the supplicant in the song is asking St. Cajetan for a cool drink of fresh water. Which is not water at all. Salt water being being heartache. Nothing more to it.</p>
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<p>*I know this is a misnomer the flag commonly called the confederate flag was not actually the confederate flag.</p>
<p>** All ROCK IS POST-MODERN. IT IS AT THE HEART OF THE GENRE. THERE IS NO AUTHENTICITY. ROCK WAS BORN AS A MONGREL. STOP ARGUING ABOUT IT.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><strong>St. Cajetan</strong></p>
<p><strong>[A(-Am-A-A7-A embellishment)]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[Cm]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p><strong>You know I don’t feel well.</strong><br><strong>I gotta thirst in my mouth.</strong><br><strong>And all I want is a cool drink of water.</strong><br><strong>You know I don’t feel well.</strong><br><strong>I got salt in my wounds.</strong><br><strong>And all I want is a cool drink of water.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Can you hear me, St. Cajetan?</strong><br><strong>I once knew a well so sweet.</strong><br><strong>I put my lips, my lips to the pail to drink.</strong><br><strong>But I would give it all up for some water.</strong></p>
<p><strong>You know I don’t feel well.</strong><br><strong>Got the salty taste of my tears.</strong><br><strong>And all I want is some relief from this.</strong></p>
<p><strong>You know I don’t feel well</strong><br><strong>Been tossed and turned on this ocean.</strong><br><strong>And all I want is this one wish.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Can you hear me, St. Cajetan?</strong><br><strong>All I want is a cool drink of water.</strong><br><strong>Can you hear me, St. Cajetan?</strong><br><strong>All I want is a cool drink of water.</strong><br><strong>Can you hear me, St. Cajetan?</strong><br><strong>All I want is a cool drink of water.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Can you hear me?</strong><br><strong>Can you hear me?</strong><br><strong>Can you hear me, St. Cajetan?</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/91678
2011-01-30T21:12:23-05:00
2017-01-13T14:43:44-05:00
#72- Marigold- A small fragment of a much longer story.
<div>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ship-building-porthole-windows.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ship-building-porthole-windows.jpeg?w=450&h=325" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="325" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Did I dream this?</em></strong></p>
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<p>Listen to Marigold. <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-marigold.mp3">07 Marigold</a></p>
</div>
<p>I awoke from a strange dream just before dawn. It was Nov 3rd 2005. I know this because I wrote the dream down in much detail using my laptop. I can see the date the file was created.</p>
<p>I wrote it down cause it seemed like my subconscious had been processing something. My head or rather my brain seemed like it had been churning a vast multi axis array of data all night. My head felt hot. And i was hungry and exhausted. Because of this I thought it might be important.</p>
<p>It wasn’t as coherent as what you will read below. It wasn’t linear either. It was a few big semi-continuous scenes. And a series of fragments. I wrote them down in the best order that I could. To try and make them make sense. The main points were these:</p>
<p>In the dream I knew I was dying. I had a brain tumor that was affecting an area of my brain that made it difficult for me to find the proper words when i spoke. The other key part of the dream was that I went to Ecuador to find my ex-wife (who was not my ex-wife in real life). There were a series of apocalyptic events while in ecuador ; an earthquake, a civil war and a perhaps a tsunami. I was often with a tall african man who In my notes I dubbed Queequeg (after the fictional character in moby dick). At other times I was guided by a Turkish or Arab man who wore an eye patch. A repeated scene: I was underwater trying to bring to the surface this Incan artifact. A golden statue of an animal that looked like a koala.</p>
<p>Because much of this seemed so specific I started googling things. Like “Ecuador” or “Arabs in South America” “Golden Koala” and “Civil War Andes”.</p>
<p>Although the mystery of the dream never really did present itself to me, something surprising began to happen. An alternate narrative began to form as I googled these phrases. I began to incorporate it into my notes.</p>
<p>Previously I had noted that draft emails composed in the gmail browser would often have provocative, funny or unusual Google adwords links on the the side of the gmail window. Remembering this I began to drop whole sentences even paragraphs into a draft email. Save it. Close it. Then i would reopen and look at the ads. At this point the narrative began to explode into this rather long… Poem? Short story? Treatment for the next Cohen Brothers movie? I don’t know what this is.</p>
<p>At one point I thought that I would make an album or something out of this. I wrote the first song. It’s this song. It’s called Marigold. And as much as I like this song, I don’t think an album of pop music could ever come close to the wonderful weirdness of this bit of prose that I dug out of my googled subconscious.</p>
<p><strong>Conquistador</strong></p>
<p><em>neon clouds swirled above the alcohol like a flame</em></p>
<p><em>yet i followed her</em></p>
<p><em>for the health of my disease hung in the balance</em></p>
<p><em>i had no choice</em></p>
<p><em>i flew southward into a chaotic metropolis.</em></p>
<p><em>i rode in taxis and stuttering tramcars</em></p>
<p><em>I rode in jitneys up steep hillsides</em></p>
<p><em>dirt trails through villages</em></p>
<p><em>the chaos dwindled</em></p>
<p><em>the dramamine and cane liquour shared with strangers</em></p>
<p><em>i drew closer</em></p>
<p><em>and knew i was dying.</em></p>
<p><em>at the last town a friendly hotel</em></p>
<p><em>in the ruins of a conquistador redoubt</em></p>
<p><em>i shared a room with a cyclops</em></p>
<p><em>i slept with a knife and an antique pistol</em></p>
<p><em>we never spoke except in the rowdiness of the bar</em></p>
<p><em>i shouted in english he in turkish</em></p>
<p><em>yet i came to understand he was a bandit</em></p>
<p><em>who likewise lost an eye to a greek sailor</em></p>
<p><em>languid, drifting, i was without purpose</em></p>
<p><em>days months or years passed</em></p>
<p><em>i have no recollection</em></p>
<p><em>i had lost my purpose</em></p>
<p><em>i knew i was dying but even that i postponed.</em></p>
<p><em>alas an unknown offense was committed</em></p>
<p><em>a huddled circle, murmurs from the shabby tea room</em></p>
<p><em>a quick glance over the shoulder from the bandit</em></p>
<p><em>it was settled</em></p>
<p><em>i was to be exiled.</em></p>
<p><em>the desk clerk obliged me with a guide</em></p>
<p><em>his name was queequeg</em></p>
<p><em>jolly and earthy</em></p>
<p><em>but always darkened when my flask appeared</em></p>
<p><em>and these days at the shadowless noon</em></p>
<p><em>he took me to high valleys</em></p>
<p><em>to my singlemindedness</em></p>
<p><em>and at last it appeared</em></p>
<p><em>we stood on a ridge and queequeg pointed down</em></p>
<p><em>into an improbable green valley</em></p>
<p><em>like ahab i limped towards her white tent</em></p>
<p><em>the grass beating arythmic drum brushes on denim</em></p>
<p><em>queequeg stayed on the ridge counting his pesos</em></p>
<p><em>then he watched us and waited</em></p>
<p><em>she greeted me happily</em></p>
<p><em>the tent was zippered</em></p>
<p><em>at dusk when we emerged</em></p>
<p><em>queequeg was gone</em></p>
<p><em>we built a fire and sat close together</em></p>
<p><em>I would awake in the tent <span style="font-size:11.6667px;">to bright sun.</span></em></p>
<p><em>to my stillness</em></p>
<p><em>the sea of grass eddying quietly</em></p>
<p><em>the andean cold only a hint in the wind</em></p>
<p><em>and always she was away</em></p>
<p><em>with the aboriginals</em></p>
<p><em>in their high villages</em></p>
<p><em>returning only at night</em></p>
<p><em>awakened by her warmth and moist breath</em></p>
<p><em>i woke before her one morning</em></p>
<p><em>the malaise had returned</em></p>
<p><em>I knew it would stay this time</em></p>
<p><em>i drank from my flask</em></p>
<p><em>the earth rumbled below me</em></p>
<p><em>a curious thing</em></p>
<p><em>Appearing its way along</em></p>
<p><em>like an aardvark in the grass</em></p>
<p><em>a vectored wave and then another</em></p>
<p><em>what was that? she asked from the tent</em><br><em> that same day we packed and moved higherinto the mountains.</em></p>
<p><em>oblivious to those thousands buried alive under mudbrick</em></p>
<p><em>for the radio had been abandoned when the batteries quit</em></p>
<p><em>within weeks we ceased speaking full sentences in english</em></p>
<p><em>or any language.</em></p>
<p><em>then we lost even the single words</em></p>
<p><em>things were no longer named</em></p>
<p><em>nothing was discreet there were just areas</em></p>
<p><em>broad tones</em></p>
<p><em>yet we lived</em></p>
<p><em>grunting and pointing</em></p>
<p><em>like the german tourists in themarketplace in quito</em></p>
<p><em>the world without names was curious</em></p>
<p><em>a pull tab glinting in the sun,was also the sun,</em></p>
<p><em>and the sun was also a smell from my childhood</em></p>
<p><em>that ended with watering eyes a deep and powerful sadness</em></p>
<p><em>all things ended there</em></p>
<p><em>the singularity.</em><br><em> I should be happy i thought.</em></p>
<p><em>eating guinea pigs as snack food</em></p>
<p><em>in the high villages</em></p>
<p><em>dribblling quechua.</em></p>
<p><em>still the lurking mass metastasized and blocked the sun.</em></p>
<p><em>I lived in the shadows</em></p>
<p><em>when the militia men and teen soldiers visited</em></p>
<p><em>i may have been happy</em></p>
<p><em>which was also the sound of the grass left behind,</em></p>
<p><em>and also the burning taste of the L’aguardiente they traded with me.</em></p>
<p><em>our incan hosts feared them</em></p>
<p><em>weltering like smallpox blisters</em></p>
<p><em>nevertheless stoic they donned their bowler hats</em></p>
<p><em>an english court</em></p>
<p><em>formally and coldly played their strange waltzes</em></p>
<p><em>meters cut neatly in half, by duples, martial drums</em></p>
<p><em>marching waltzes</em></p>
<p><em>other times the shining path in black masks,</em></p>
<p><em>their ages impossible</em></p>
<p><em>their violence implicit.</em></p>
<p><em>i shared our dwindling grape with them</em></p>
<p><em>she was aroused by their danger and violence</em></p>
<p><em>we always retired early to our hut</em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:11.6667px;">They drank and took delight listening to our couplings.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:11.6667px;"><br></span></em></p>
<p><em>after the earthquake i remember the C5-As</em></p>
<p><em>Enormous but from our vantage above they were playful toys</em></p>
<p><em>circling otters on the sea of thick air</em></p>
<p><em>fortified with smoke rising from the ruined city.</em></p>
<p><em>smoke rose always in this land</em></p>
<p><em>everywhere, which was also her hair</em></p>
<p><em>which was also a certain smell from childhood</em></p>
<p><em>which was different than thatother smell</em></p>
<p><em>but ended with watering eyes and the deep sadness</em></p>
<p><em>the singularity</em></p>
<p><em>I captain ahab now drunk on fermented quinoa</em></p>
<p><em>In desperation took a vow</em></p>
<p><em>to begin speaking again</em></p>
<p><em>it was awkward</em></p>
<p><em>i would shout”likewise a tit is better than nothing”.</em></p>
<p><em>The villagers didn’tunderstand but laughed with me</em></p>
<p><em>as days passed I found other crooked phrases</em></p>
<p><em>i shouted them in the village</em></p>
<p><em>or whispered them to her at night</em></p>
<p><em>“never ignored.. . but never more has been barked”</em></p>
<p><em>she stroked my hair and rubbed my stiff leg</em></p>
<p><em>which about the time of talking had developed a tremour</em></p>
<p><em>I knew i was dying</em></p>
<p><em>and that was all</em></p>
<p><em>there she stayed</em></p>
<p><em>in villages of altitude sickness</em></p>
<p><em>for a nobler cause than I</em></p>
<p><em>like a deep sea diver who surfaces to fast</em></p>
<p><em>i had left the continuous wordless realm,</em></p>
<p><em>and entered into the discreet world of language too fast</em></p>
<p><em>noxious gases had formed and chemically bonded with the words</em></p>
<p><em>new molecules of speech were born</em></p>
<p><em>twisted strands and double helixes</em></p>
<p><em>benzene rings</em></p>
<p><em>an alchemy of sorts</em></p>
<p><em>i could only share my secrets with other alchemists</em></p>
<p><em>the rhyme for orange</em></p>
<p><em>the strange beauty of the word “vacuum”</em></p>
<p><em>one night she sent me away with the militia men.</em></p>
<p><em>she sobbed and spoke in perfect non crooked english.</em></p>
<p><em>i was dissappointed she did not share my gift</em></p>
<p><em>i cried and was angry</em></p>
<p><em>in the valley of the whispering grass a trap was sprung</em></p>
<p><em>shining path rose black against the moonless sky</em></p>
<p><em>i laid down in the grass and listened to echoes of bullets</em></p>
<p><em>the echos stopped</em></p>
<p><em>the shining path walked around and slit the throats of the wounded and dying</em></p>
<p><em>when they came to me i waited for the knife</em></p>
<p><em>instead water from a cup.</em></p>
<p><em>a bit of bread</em></p>
<p><em>“vacuum” said one of the hooded</em></p>
<p><em>at dawn i woke in the eddying grass</em></p>
<p><em>surrounded by the still surprised militiamen</em></p>
<p><em>though of course they were still dead</em></p>
<p><em>perverse relief i had not dreamed this</em></p>
<p><em>improbably queequeg was on the ridge where i left him</em></p>
<p><em>many many months ago</em></p>
<p><em>queequeg spoke of the earthquake</em></p>
<p><em>the city was dangerous and ruined</em></p>
<p><em>full of armed gangs and american marines</em></p>
<p><em>there was a civil war</em></p>
<p><em>although he offered to take me to the conquistador hotel bar</em></p>
<p><em>to see the cyclops</em></p>
<p><em>i shook my head to decline</em></p>
<p><em>along the coast to queequegs home</em></p>
<p><em>an old colonial port city</em></p>
<p><em>curious blacks and melungeons</em></p>
<p><em>with japanese surnames</em></p>
<p><em>an endless circle of bars</em></p>
<p><em>queequeg lived amongst the colourfully painted tin</em></p>
<p><em>in the tidal flats along the beach</em></p>
<p><em>each morning he took a crowded bus to the north</em></p>
<p><em>shrimp farms amidst the dead mangroves</em></p>
<p><em>disapproving witness to a bloom of nitrates fingering to the sea</em></p>
<p><em>while i was drunken abuelita on the bus</em></p>
<p><em>proffered seats and gently led off</em></p>
<p><em>the bus cobbled away into the old quarter slums</em></p>
<p><em>streaming beyond</em></p>
<p><em>i limped to each bar in succession</em></p>
<p><em>these a legacy of a bauxite boom</em></p>
<p><em>in the previous century</em></p>
<p><em>grave nations preparing for carnage and war had found this gentle place</em></p>
<p><em>flattered her</em></p>
<p><em>brought her to flowering</em></p>
<p><em>and then abandoned her.</em></p>
<p><em>an apartment building on the bluff above</em></p>
<p><em>built to resemble a ship</em></p>
<p><em>porthole windows,</em></p>
<p><em>looked to sea</em></p>
<p><em>jilted</em></p>
<p><em>only now as an old maid was one of her suitors to return.</em></p>
<p><em>embarrassed by it’s continued youth and virility</em></p>
<p><em>she pretended to have forgotten him</em></p>
<p><em>she looked away to the sea.</em></p>
<p><em>at night marines filled the bars</em></p>
<p><em>i had ceased speaking</em></p>
<p><em>they called me the mute, gently mocked me and bought me drinks.</em></p>
<p><em>they helped me into the converted hearse</em></p>
<p><em>a cab driven by one of queequegs uncles or cousins</em><br><em> the seasons were a gentle wobbling</em></p>
<p><em>barely perceptable but at the equinox a rotation occurred</em></p>
<p><em>the first marines bawdy</em></p>
<p><em>these were mean conscripts</em></p>
<p><em>the first night they beat me unconcious</em></p>
<p><em>i awoke after some days in a military hospital</em></p>
<p><em>my countrymen were like aliens</em></p>
<p><em>they smelled of milk and disinfectant</em></p>
<p><em>they told me i was dying</em></p>
<p><em>i tried to sign a document</em></p>
<p><em>i was given cash by a civillian with a terrible mustache and reflective glasses</em></p>
<p><em>i was assigned a congenial MP and a wheelchair</em></p>
<p><em>he talked of affairs i knew nothing about nor cared</em></p>
<p><em>an oil pipeline had been sabotaged the day before</em></p>
<p><em>the crisis in my former country</em></p>
<p><em>he took me to queequegs colourful tin</em></p>
<p><em>but i refused</em></p>
<p><em>at last he understood and carefully wheeled me into the don quixcote</em></p>
<p><em>with its yellowing bullfight posters and blaring television</em></p>
<p><em>that night i dove into that lake of drear</em></p>
<p><em>swimming along the bottom i found a golden dead koala</em></p>
<p><em>i knew this was my alchemist prize</em></p>
<p><em>all the crooked phrases had unraveled the singularity</em></p>
<p><em>i clutched it to me before the blackness hit</em></p>
<p><em>i was kicked by a barmaid</em></p>
<p><em>she was shouting in spanish</em></p>
<p><em>my tattered denims were warm with urine</em></p>
<p><em>the tile of the floor was cool on my cheek</em></p>
<p><em>this soothed me</em></p>
<p><em>a crowd gathered around me as if i was dying</em></p>
<p><em>i clutched the koala to my chest</em></p>
<p><em>no one would take it.</em></p>
<p>©2005 David Lowery</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/91649
2011-01-30T14:17:46-05:00
2017-01-13T14:43:43-05:00
#71 The Palace Guards- A Superhero In Need of a Restraining Order.
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<p>Listen to <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-the-palace-guards.mp3">02 The Palace Guards</a></p>
<p>I am totally hijacking the 300 songs blog for a few days to blatantly promote my new album solo album The Palace Guards.</p>
<p>It comes out Feb 1st 2011 and you can buy the CD here from:</p>
<p>click here for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Palace-Guards-David-Lowery/dp/B004AAKEPC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1296431264&sr=8-1">Amazon</a></p>
<p>download from itunes <a href="//itunes.apple.com/us/artist/david-lowery/id409207682?uo=4%22%20target=%22itunes_store%22>David%20Lowery</a>">click here</a></p>
<p>I was driving around in my car listening to the reference master of my new CD The Palace Guards. I like to listen in my car because it’s a good to hear how your albums sound outside of a studio or on something other than a high end set of speakers. Beside this is where most people I know listen to music. I had my 11 year old with me and I sort of forgot he was listening to the album as well.</p>
<p>“Dad, didn’t this song start out as a kid’s song” my 11 year old asked.</p>
<p>I had to think about this. Yes indeed he was right. I remember that a few years ago when he was really really young (maybe 7?) I had been playing this bit of music and thinking it would make a good ironic post-modern parenting type kids song. I asked my same son then 7 if I was to make a kids album what should it be about?</p>
<p>“Space or the planets”</p>
<p>Actually that’s a good idea. I mean there are 9 planets. Well maybe 8 but you could do a song about whether pluto was a planet or not. 9 Tracks on an album not bad. Plus you could have a track about the Moon as an iTunes bonus track and one about the Sun as an Amazon.com bonus track.</p>
<p>And <span style="font-size:11.6667px;">the whole concept makes for some very good ironic post-modern kids album titles:</span></p>
<p>Venus is Hot (and so is your mom)™</p>
<p>Mars is Angry (and so is your dad)™</p>
<p>you get the idea.</p>
<p>But this was just kind of a passing thought and I eventually forgot about it. At least until my 11 year old brought it up.</p>
<p>“Dad ? what is this song about?”</p>
<p>“Um that’s a little hard to explain”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“Well cause it’s sort of a superhero team, The Palace Guards’ but they aren’t exactly good, and they are not exactly telling the truth.”</p>
<p>What I was getting at is that in my song “The Palace Guards” are a group of superheros who have crossed some sort of line. They’ve gone from being the public’s protectors to being overprotective, secretive and controlling. They’ve turned into Stalkers.</p>
<p>Yes it was intended to be a metaphor about the growing power of government!</p>
<p>Just kidding. It’s just an accident that it happens to work so well as a metaphor. Watching the protests in Egypt you could very well think of Mubarak and the ruling national democratic party as The Palace Guards.</p>
<p>The other curious thing about this song: The song shifts between third person and first person. When in third person the narrator praises The Palace Guards and portrays them as noble, selfless and a tad misunderstood. But than the narrator shifts to first person and you realize that he is actually one of The Palace Guards. Not only does this make the narrator seem much less “reliable” it also suggest that he is a little crazy. Continuing with the theme of authoritarian governments, it’s a little like the pro-government newspaper praising and making excuses for the authoritarian government. They are essentially the same thing but they pretend to be otherwise.</p>
<p>And then there is the end of the song. I love singing this part. Getting to finally drop the whole charade and scream:</p>
<p><em>I work my fingers to the bone </em></p>
<p><em>to keep the little piggies safe in their little straw homes</em></p>
<p><em>I rip my heart out every day for you</em></p>
<p><em>I rip my hear out every day for you.</em></p>
<p>See I’ve painted this totally crazy un-reliable character and then I try to make you empathize with him. And if i’ve done my job you do empathize with him <em>and now we are all mad</em>. Get it?</p>
<p>This is NOT how I explained this song to my 11 year old son. But he still managed to grasp some of this from my watered down description. Cause suddenly I get this from the peanut gallery:</p>
<p>“So he is not a normal Cartoon Network superhero, he is more of an Adult Swim kind of superhero, Right?”</p>
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<div><strong>The Palace Guards.</strong></div>
<div><strong>the palace guards they’re working hard</strong></div>
<div><strong>they stay up late with beaker jars</strong></div>
<div><strong>they’re mixing things in laboratories late at night</strong></div>
<div><strong>don’t look at them</strong></div>
<div><strong>you’ll make them mad</strong></div>
<div><strong>the palace guards are they’re working hard</strong></div>
<div><strong>they have your best interests at heart</strong></div>
<div><strong>they are making song of great enduring strength and beauty</strong></div>
<div><strong>somewhat fruity</strong></div>
<div><strong>all top hits</strong></div>
<div><strong>I love you and cause I do</strong></div>
<div><strong>don’t ever leave me</strong></div>
<div><strong>I’ll smash your stuff up if you do</strong></div>
<div><strong>I love you and cause I do</strong></div>
<div><strong>I’m only joking</strong></div>
<div><strong>It’s just my sense of humor y’all</strong></div>
<div><strong>The palace guards love you and me</strong></div>
<div><strong>they don’t discriminate they’re free</strong></div>
<div><strong>they’re open minded intellectual atheletes</strong></div>
<div><strong>who won’t compete</strong></div>
<div><strong>in weird mind games</strong></div>
<div><strong>The palace guards are real rockstars</strong></div>
<div><strong>don’t give them things not up to par</strong></div>
<div><strong>they play guitar and regulate the atmosphere</strong></div>
<div><strong>with telescopes and bread machines</strong></div>
<div><strong>I love you and cause i do</strong></div>
<div><strong>i’ll never let you go</strong></div>
<div><strong>to london without me along</strong></div>
<div><strong>i love you and cause i do</strong></div>
<div><strong>i hid your passport</strong></div>
<div><strong>i put you on a no fly list</strong></div>
<div><strong>and the palace guards</strong></div>
<div><strong>and we work very hard</strong></div>
<div><strong>we got all of your best</strong></div>
<div><strong>all of your best interests at heart</strong></div>
<div><strong>we go up</strong></div>
<div><strong>we go down</strong></div>
<div><strong>we go where the job takes us</strong></div>
<div><strong>to keep you safe and sound</strong></div>
<div><strong>i work my fingers to the bone</strong></div>
<div><strong>to bring the bacon</strong></div>
<div><strong>bring the bacon home</strong></div>
<div><strong>i work my fingers to the bone</strong></div>
<div><strong>to keep the little piggies safe</strong></div>
<div><strong>in their little straw homes</strong></div>
<div><strong>i rip my heart out every day for you</strong></div>
<div><strong>i rip my heart out every day for you</strong></div>
<div><strong>i rip my heart out every day for you</strong></div>
<div><strong>i rip my heart out every day for you</strong></div>
<div><strong>well the palace guards</strong></div>
<div><strong>we work very hard</strong></div>
<div><strong>we’re not asking for much</strong></div>
<div><strong>a kind word a kind touch</strong></div>
<div><strong>we’re the palace guards</strong></div>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/64081
2011-01-26T11:43:18-05:00
2017-02-01T15:01:49-05:00
#70 I Sold the Arabs the Moon- When we fly we all become philosophers.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/helicopter-lowery-1-rotation.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/helicopter-lowery-1-rotation.jpg?w=450&h=600" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="600" width="450" /></a><br></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-i-sold-the-arabs-the-moon.mp3">06 I Sold The Arabs The Moon</a></p>
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<p>First of all let me openly acknowledge I am hijacking my blog for a few days to talk about the songs on my upcoming solo album The Palace Guards. Available everywhere Feb 1st.<br>
And I know I have a lot of competition this week. It looks like a number of my peers are releasing records. So let’s quickly review them.<br>
First off Iron and Wine has a new album out. Kiss Each Other Clean. I am told it is a 45 minute field recording of Sam Beam humming The Theme to a Man And a Woman while he vacuums.*<br>
Then there is the new Deerhoof album which is titled Deerhof vs Evil. This is also a strange album. It consists entirely of Brittany Spears covers with vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki singing in a fake texas accent ala Stan Ridgeway of Wall of Voodoo. **<br>
Finally there is REMs new record “Mine Smell Like Honey” which is a concept record about Michael Stipe’s testicles. ***</p>
<p>So as you can see you are much better off spending your 8, 10 or 12 dollars this week on my new solo Album The Palace Guards.<br><a href="http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_home.php?storenr=103&deptnr=548"> Click Here</a> to buy an autographed CD from Newbury Comics.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/palace-guards-cover-final.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/palace-guards-cover-final.png?w=450&h=455" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="455" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>**************************************************************</p>
<p>There is this magnificent book by gabriel Garcia Marquez titled the <em>Autumn of the Patriarch</em>. A sprawling first hand account of a south american’s dictators improbable 100+ year rule.<br>
Throughout the story the dictator repeatedly sells out to various world powers eventually selling the sea to the Yanquis.<br>
I loved this phrase. I’ve turned on my tongue many times while strumming guitar trying to fit it into a song.<br>
I never found a home for this phrase until in 2009 I found myself inexplicably flying in a US Army combat helicopter 2500 meters over Iraq. We were on our way from the Coalition base at Basra International Airport to a US armed forces base variously referred to as<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Air_Base"> Camp Adder by the US army or Ali airbase by US Air Force. </a> Most People call it Talill.</p>
<p>We were engaged in what had become the familiar GI shit talking on headsets as we flew. Questions from the crew about details of life touring in a rock band. Us asking questions about their lives, their experiences and some good gossip about celebrities politicians and others they had ferried around Iraq.</p>
<p>At some point one of the pilots or crew members mentioned that we would be flying over the Ziggurat of Ur. Although I had spent a good deal of time prepping for this trip by reading histories of Iraq and accounts of both Iraq wars, I didn’t know what this was.</p>
<p>“It marks the city of Ur which is literally the birthplace of civilization”</p>
<p>“Ur was probably the first or one of the first urban human settlements, the first city”. another unknown voice on the internal comms chimed in.</p>
<p>The pilots obliged us by banking the aircraft in a large arc as we went into Talill so we could get a look at this historic site.</p>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="450" height="284" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D2FR0hOOZi0?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe></span>
<p><strong>The ziggurat comes clearly in focus at 0:12 seconds.</strong></p>
<p>I remember looking down at this and getting this weird sensation. This feeling that you sometimes get when you are flying and you see the curvature of the Earth.</p>
<p>You get this sense of how small you are. How short your life is in the span of human history. How insignificant your small deeds and actions. At the same time you get a glimpse of the huge yet unseen forces that shape everything we do.</p>
<p>The green of the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigres. The great arc of the fertile crescent that produced the first large groups of non-nomadic peoples. How the land itself shaped who we are and what we do. Farming and craftsmen then produced a (relatively) gentle life that produced cities scholars and philosophers. The great expanse of desert on one side. A harsh wilderness to some but a home of sorts to nomadic tribes like the arabs. They became skilled warriors and traders taking goods from once place to another.</p>
<p>The Kurds on the other hand in their distant blue mountains, their strongholds they are independent and wary. Their great herds of livestock still the cultural link between the eurasian steppes and the Persian gulf. The people of this land also straddle the linguistic divide between the semitic languages of the south, the Indo European mother tongue to the north and the mongol horseman borne languages of the East.</p>
<p>At an altitude like this you can see how the land shaped the people. At an altitude we all become philosophers.</p>
<p>And other things. I had an officer comment to me that we won’t leave Iraq for a long time because:</p>
<p>“we’ve scrambled their economy and now it’s reassembled around our supply lines. The gulf arabs come in from the south and the Turks from the north. They use our supply lines. It started with their mobile phone companies now it’s their construction companies, and so on…when you fly back to kuwait you can see the flow of containers and equipment coming in. It dwarfs what we are taking out”.</p>
<p>There it is again. When you fly you become an economist, a geopolitical scientist and a philosopher.</p>
<p>So here I was a son of a career US Air Force NCO. I couldn’t help noticing the vast infrastructure of the Air that we were building. Rows of antennae non-directional helixes, which told me they were for speaking to “birds’ or satellites. As well as the more familiar satellite dishes. Air Traffic towers, infrastructure for unmanned ariel vehicles, airstrips for our large aircraft, and the strangely a high tech reprise of Edwardian blimps bristling with sensors and cameras. All this showing no sign of a drawdown. Sure we’re removing most of our ground forces, but instead we leave behind our dour civillian contractors with their mustaches and sunglasses. Our clever Australian, South African and English engineers to build and man our lethal redoubts. Our invisible fortresses in the Air. No one will notice.</p>
<p>Although unsure about the wisdom of this naked thrust of our imperial might my chest couldn’t help swelling with pride for my country. I suddenly felt like chanting USA USA USA!!</p>
<p>The English and their grey warships. They controlled this part of the world by controlling the sea. The Turks with their masterful bureaucrats backed by cruel and efficient armies. The Mongols with their highly disciplined calvary of squat horses. The Arabs with their swords, caravans and the crescent moon of Islam. And two dozen other forgotten empires. They all came to rule this part of the world.</p>
<p>And so on my way out of Baghdad on the roof of what serves as the passenger terminal for officers and US government employees in and out of Iraq I began composing this.</p>
<p>“I sold the Yanquis the Sky, I sold the English the Sea. I sold the Mongols the Steppes. No too obscure. People will think ‘steps’ instead of ‘Steppes’, I sold the Ottomans… no people will think furniture, I sold the Mamluks the… ? Who? I sold the Romans the chariot? sounds sort of pathetic. I sold the Arabs the Moon.”</p>
<p>I also thought of my father as I was writing this. I couldn’t help because he actually died this day (January 26th). I wondered if all those years of flying around in planes had made him a philosopher. He never really talked about much in a geopolitical context. Although I do remember a vague memory of him pointing out the faint arrow straight outline of the roman road out of Londinium towards Dover. And of course scrambling around on Moorish and Roman ruins when we lived in spain. He clearly had some sense of the bigger historical picture. I also document this in the Cracker song Riverside. My father metaphorically stands on the bank of the river Styx which in greek mythology separates the land of the living from the land of the dead.</p>
<p><em>I can’t see you standing by that riverside.</em></p>
<p><em>I can’t see you standing by that riverside.</em></p>
<p><em>See you on roman roads, aqueducts and matadors</em></p>
<p><em>See you on Moorish walls, Alhambra, Seville</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-riverside.mp3">05 Riverside</a><br></em></p>
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<p>*, **, *** I’m only joking. It’s just my sense of humor y’all. And my father would approve of this kind of joking. And *** was actually borrowed from ashley knotts.</p>
<div>I WAS THE MAN THAT SOLD THE ARABS THE MOON</div>
<div>And I was the man who sold the arabs the moon</div>
<div>The emirate princes their hands manicured</div>
<div>Their servants with luggage they followed behind</div>
<div>The african concubines regal and tall</div>
<div>And I was the man</div>
<div>who sold the arabs the moon</div>
<div>they festooned their flags with</div>
<div>crescent moons</div>
<div>And i was the man who sold the English the sea</div>
<div>They wanted the afternoon breezes it bore</div>
<div>The sweet smell of spices from over the sea</div>
<div>The afternoon showers it brought during tea</div>
<div>And i was the man</div>
<div>who sold the english the sea</div>
<div>i cowered before</div>
<div>grey battleship guns</div>
<div>And I was the man</div>
<div>who sold the yankees the sky</div>
<div>the black of the night</div>
<div>and the blue of the day</div>
<div>the endless horizon</div>
<div>of hope and desire</div>
<div>I was the man who sold the yankees the sky</div>
<div>the english the sea</div>
<div>the arabs the moon</div>
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<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/cracker/">Cracker</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/category/david-lowery-solo/">David Lowery Solo</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/i-sold-the-arabs-the-moon/">I sold the Arabs the moon</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/riverside/">Riverside</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2461/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2461/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2461&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/91287
2011-01-23T11:28:29-05:00
2017-02-01T15:37:40-05:00
#69 Deep Oblivion- A Victorian Love Song.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/doubful-guest.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/doubful-guest.jpg?w=450&h=297" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="297" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><em>The Doubtful Guest. By Edward Gorey. Eventually I’ll get around to explaining what this has to do with the song.</em></p>
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<p>Pre-order autographed copy of this CD from Newbury Comics. <a href="http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_home.php?storenr=103&deptnr=548">click here.</a></p>
<p>Deep Oblivion is a track from my first solo album <span style="text-decoration:underline;">The Palace Guards </span>(Feb 1st 2011). I originally started this solo project in a deep depression about the viability of making albums. By this I mean the rampant illegal downloading of songs had not just reduced CD and Album sales but had eliminated much of the infrastructure that made it possible someone like me to spend time recording music: The record label.</p>
<p>We artists bitch about our record labels all the time. but ultimately the record label is very useful. If you have a record label, you don’t worry about all kinds of things. Manufacturing CDs, getting them distributed, shipping them out, floating the 100k you need to record distribute and promote a CD, setting up press, setting up radio visits, bugging program directors to spin your record more and trying to get on late night TV. With a record label you spend most of your time on the creative aspects of your career. Writing songs, recording music, making videos, writing your blog or updating your cat’s twitter feed.</p>
<p>(btw the band Best Coast -who I’m about to interview- really does have a twitter feed for their cat “Snacks”. It’s often pretty funny. They also have an ongoing contest to caption pictures of their cat. You get free tickets if you win. Here is my entry. I hope i Win!)</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/snacks.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/snacks.jpg?w=450&h=600" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="600" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>“Death to America”</em></strong></p>
<p>Without a record label you end up doing that stuff yourself. Even if you have the cash to hire independent specialists to manage this work for you it is a mental distraction managing and directing this process. Ultimately not having a label directly affects the amount of time you spend on creative endeavors.</p>
<p>Indeed in 1985 when Camper Van Beethoven first started pitch-a-tent records it was because no one else was interested in releasing Camper Van Beethoven records. It was not because we had some sort of DIY ideology that dictated we do this. We knew it was gonna be a lot of work to have our own label. And as predicted Jennifer and I spent long evenings stuffing the vinyl into album sleeves or carefully packaging and mailing albums to radio stations and fanzines.</p>
<p>But we were young and it was enjoyable in a certain way. We could buy a cheap bottle of Chilean wine at<a href="http://shopperscorner.com/"> Shopper’s Corner</a> and watch Star Trek re-runs and turn the work into a sort of party. If it was warm enough we would open the big Victorian bay windows at 1025 Broadway. You could sometimes hear the break of the surf or the Giant Dipper roller coaster on the boardwalk and imagine you were at some seaside resort in southern England. Brighton? Margate? (This is purposeful “Victorian seaside” foreshadowing for the second half of this blog)</p>
<p>In 2007 after more than 20 years of recording and touring with the help of a record label or two, I was dreading the fact that we didn’t have a record label anymore. Our various one-off deals had run out and it didn’t seem like anyone was much interested in giving us the kind of deal <em>to which we’d grown accustomed. </em>Sure we could have got deals with various labels that would have offered us 50/50 profit splits or small advances. But check this out. Any contractor reading this will immediately grasp how expensive it is to record an album:</p>
<p>Like it or not the minimum amount of time to mix and record and album of 12 songs is about 18 days. I know no professional highly regarded bands that will make albums at a quicker pace (unless you go the live in studio route**). So say there are 4 people in the band. Then you need and audio engineer and an engineers assistant. aside from the engineer’s assistant everyone is a highly skilled specialist. So you are looking at 5 people who should be compensated in the range of 250 – 500 a day. Then there are the studio costs. The cheapest home studios charge 300 a day. What if you had your own studio? well did you get the mixing console and microphones for free? The computer software or tape machine for free? NO. Minimal cost for setting up the crudest pro level studio is 25k. Protools HD hardware and computer is 20k by itself. What about lodging or travel? So trust me when i say an 18 day record ultimately costs a minimum of 36k. You may defer payments to your side musicians or engineer or even the studio. But when the CD comes out they will need to get their money.</p>
<p>Further I would bet nearly every modern (post 1980) album you own was recorded in more than 18 days. There are exceptions, but no one has made a career of recoding “live in studio”.</p>
<p>Then you must consider the costs of marketing and distributing a CD or even download only. Again you can’t even get noticed by the bloggers unless you hire a specialist an independent publicist or two. They use their personal contacts to bring (even a cracker ) an album to their attention. The popular and influential bloggers, like the magazine reviewers are overwhelmed with submissions. It wouldn’t even matter that we are a “brand name. “</p>
<p>Commercial even large non-comm radio? Forget it. You need to hire one of these independent radio promoters that essentially bribes stations with “promotional buys” or events.</p>
<p>Okay. ”But aren’t you gonna make a lot more money if you sell the CDs yourselves?” Yes. But most people don’t realize that an album that sales less than 25k its first week can chart as a top 5 album now. A few years ago that would have been impossible. Maybe 100k minimum to get you in the top 5. I just looked at the Sound Scan report for one of our much more successful americana peers. Their last album. touted as their “highest charting”, sold less than 50k copies in the US! I’m not even gonna embarrass them by mentioning their name. Suffice it to say that Cracker’s last album sold considerably less.</p>
<p>You see how this “start your own label” thing is ultimately a sketchy proposition? You put considerable capital at risk and it’s a distraction from the necessary creative “work” an artist must do. It is generally profitable for someone like us to put out our own record, but not guaranteed.</p>
<p>Not saying I wouldn’t put out our own albums on our own label again, if I had to… Just saying I don’t want to.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px;">+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</span></p>
<p>So this solo album began as an experiment. I decided I would dispense with the most expensive parts of making a record.</p>
<p>First? The Band. Living in 4 separate cities it’s virtually impossible to get either band together without dropping a grand. But there was more to it. Going <em>bandless</em> suited my artistic purposes. I was recording the solo songs that ostensibly were solo songs cause they didn’t seem like they fit with either band. Even my two extremely talented and versatile ensembles. There is also a certain charm to those homemade one-or-two-people-playing-most-of-the-instruments recordings. “Lawrence of Euphoria” anyone? Or pretty much any of the Sparklehorse albums.</p>
<p>Second I wasn’t gonna bother releasing this as an album, CD, vinyl LP or download. There was no distribution or marketing in my plan.I wasn’t gonna do any promotion. I was gonna go right to the source. YouTube.</p>
<p>Let me explain. Robots have recently colonized our planet and made us slaves.</p>
<p>As a result we humans have been reduced to sitting in little cubicles emailing YouTube videos back and forth to each other.</p>
<p>Most people call this “their job”.</p>
<p>Well I know where to find everybody. Right? YouTube.</p>
<p>So why not record my songs in my basement? Occasionally take the files to Sound of Music and have Alan Weatherhead or Miguel Urbiztondo play some stuff on the songs, or let John Morand mix the thing? They could use a break from their YouTube-video-emailing jobs.</p>
<p>And why not make a video and put the song on YouTube? At last complete <em>disintermediation</em>. The internet has been promising this for a while. Let’s see if it works.</p>
<p>I put the songs <em>Deep Oblivion </em>and <em>All Those Girls Meant Nothing to Me </em>on YouTube. And some of my friends started emailing the links around. Even Adam Duritz!</p>
<p>But while it was a fun experiment it was ultimately unsuccessful.</p>
<p>I mean it was succesful in the sense that I got a lot of people to watch these songs on YouTube. And WEQX even picked up and spun the song <em>All Those Girls Meant Nothing To Me</em>. But it wasn’t really like releasing an album.</p>
<p>See everyone kept asking me “When is it coming out?”</p>
<p>I’d say “It’s Out. It’s on YouTube”</p>
<p>They’d look at me funny.</p>
<p>“You know the place with all the cute cat videos and rednecks water skiing on trash can lids?”</p>
<p>“Oh I know what YouTube is. I was just wondering when the record comes out”.</p>
<p>The ”forward thinking” music journalists and bloggers were even worse. They wouldn’t even look at it on YouTube. They were not ready to take seriously a completely “virtual” song or set of songs. Besides the video did not have any cute cats in it or fat people falling down.</p>
<p>I found this quite unfair since we musicians take their “virtual” magazines ( ie Magnet and Pitchfork) quite seriously.</p>
<p>(Due diligence: I don’t believe that www.pitchfork.com actually exists. I think it’s a some sort of unexplained atmospheric oddity like<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights"> the Marfa Lights</a> or it’s actually a parody site created by “The Onion” with the aid of semi-sentient machines).</p>
<p>(Due diligence two: As far as magnet magazine goes, I’m glad they stopped making a print issue because it was starting to freak me out. Each cover was exactly the same: Nick Cave! But they would just have him wear a different shirt. It was like groundhogs day. Nobody else was noticing and it was really really starting to FUCKING FREAK ME OUT. I swear I’m not making this up).</p>
<p>However eventually the effort I put into these songs paid off. I was at my part-time job at a hedge fund emailing YouTube videos of funny cats to my friends at the SEC when I was interrupted by an email from Jared Levine saying that Savoy/429 Records was interested in putting out my solo album. How rude! however I bit my tongue and accepted the offer.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>What does any of this have to do with Edward Gorey?</p>
<p>One of my favorite stories as a kid was the Doubtful Guest. As follows:</p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">When they answered the bell on that wild winter night, </span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">There was no one expected — and no one in sight</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></em><span style="font-size:11.6667px;"><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">Then they saw something standing on top of an urn, Whose peculiar appearance gave them quite a turn.</span></span></em></span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">All at once it leapt down and ran into the hall,</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> Where it chose to remain with its nose to the wall.</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"><br>
It was seemingly deaf to whatever they said,</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> So at last they stopped screaming, and went off to bed.<br>
It joined them at breakfast and presently ate</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> All the syrup and toast and a part of a plate.<br>
It wrenched off the horn from the new gramophone, And could not be persuaded to leave it alone.<br>
It betrayed a great liking for peering up flues,</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> And for peeling the soles of its white canvas shoes.<br>
At times it would tear out whole chapters from books, Or put roomfuls of pictures askew on their hooks.<br>
Every sunday it brooded and lay on the floor, Inconveniently close to the drawing-room door.<br>
Now and then it would vanish for hours from the scene, </span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">But alas, be discovered inside a tureen.</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"><br>
It was subject to fits of bewildering wrath,</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> During which it would hide all the towels from the bath.<br>
In the night through the house it would aimlessly creep,</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> In spite of the fact of its being asleep.</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"><br>
It would carry off objects of which it grew fond, </span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;">And protect them by dropping them into the pond.<br>
It came seventeen years ago — and to this day</span></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:large;"> It has shown no intention of going away.</span></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><em><br></em></span></p>
<span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2011/01/23/69-deep-oblivion-a-victorian-love-song/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/5tu4Etsd1cI/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span>
<p>So my song Deep Oblivion starts the same way. sort of.</p>
<p><em>“winter’s night a creature strange and bright appeared upon the porch in a dark storm”.</em></p>
<p>This is the image I had in my head. Drawn in that strange pseudo Victorian style. The setting was one of those Victorian beachfront mansions in southern England. But the important thing is the creature.</p>
<p>It’s a simple metaphor for depression and madness. My own.</p>
<p>Before all depression was turned into a medical disease and chemical imbalances that required little blue pills and psychotherapy, people would get depressed for a while and then shake it off. Or just learn to live with it by drinking a lot and/or smoking weed. Eventually th doctor would say “Hank, you got to cut down on your drinking you are destroying your liver” and after a few tries Hank would quit. The second wife would run off with the owner of The Shamrock Lounge. But the upside was Hanks adult children would now stop by for a visit from time to time.</p>
<p>That is the way it has worked for generations of men of the great pan-celtic diaspora. Why fuck with the formula?</p>
<p>Then again there are people who really are chemically depressed. Really do have the bad brain chemistry. I don’t really think I’ve ever had it. I’ve just had the kind where life get’s you down you drink too much and end up in a fight with the dude dressed in the Sheriff Woody from Toy Story costume at 6 flags Magic Mountain. In front of your kids no less.</p>
<p>“Dad remember when you got in a fight with Sheriff Woody and got arrested?” the oldest reminds you.</p>
<p>“Funny daddy” your toddler chimes in.</p>
<p>Not that I’ve ever done this.</p>
<p>When I wrote this song I was in one of those kind of funks. I’d not done <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=man%20dance">The Man Dance</a> (def 1 please!) with any dream works characters yet, but I had recently woke up under the desk of the publisher of spin magazine and wasn’t sure how I’d got there.</p>
<p>I was a middle-aged. At best a minor rock star. With few other prospects. A small brood of kids. Way over my head in real estate and alimony payments And now virtually the entire CD side of the music business was collapsing in front of me. Ugh. Only touring? we’re supposed to make a fucking living only touring? I took long walks with the dog. I drank a lot.</p>
<p>I taught the dog to drink.</p>
<p>Eventually the dog died and alone I had a lot of time to reflect.</p>
<p>I saw myself doomed to playing chili cook-offs until my youngest son (finally after 8 years of college) graduated from Bard with a degree in Feminist Snowboarding.</p>
<p>I could see it perfectly in my minds eye. At the very moment he reached for his diploma I would be wrapping up the last few bars of the saxophone infused jazz-fusion version (think Sting) of Low at the <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=blue+lake+casino+humboldt&fb=1&gl=us&hq=blue+lake+casino+humboldt&hnear=blue+lake+casino+humboldt&view=map&cid=15109756829513753613&iwloc=A&ved=0CD4QpQY&sa=X&ei=u5M7TYLfHKXAyQWG0Pi3DQ">Blue Lake Casino</a> and I would fall down dead. Like some poor exhausted salmon in the upper reaches of the Mad river. ” I… Made …….it.”</p>
<p>And at last I’d get some rest on tour.</p>
<p>But our manager Velena wasn’t having any of it. As romantic as this notion sounded it didn’t appeal to her. I wonder why?</p>
<p>In the song I say:</p>
<p><em>We were crossing English channels </em></p>
<p><em>In Victorian times</em></p>
<p><em>In midget submarines</em></p>
<p><em>with parasols entwined</em></p>
<p><em>I was going under</em></p>
<p><em>In some deep oblivion</em></p>
<p><em>you bravely took my hand</em></p>
<p><em>and sweetly came along.</em></p>
<p>First of all if relentless badgering can be described as “sweet” then this song is an accurate description of what happened next.</p>
<p>Second. Velena’s house is full of antiques (that would make a southern drag queen proud) so it was the natural “Victorian” setting for the song and video. The fact that Velena was in an 1980′s all-girl goth band further bolstered her Victorian credentials.</p>
<p>Many of the original comments on this video came from women who really seemed to enjoy “The Kiss” in the video. Perhaps the real spontaneity of the kiss is what appealed to many. Velena hadn’t eaten anything all day and she was beginning to complain about how long this video was taking. Every man knows or should know that one of the best ways to end this kind of behavior is to kiss the<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=broad"> broad</a> and then take her to dinner. This is exactly what I did.</p>
<p>Now to those women out there that find this kind of talk sexist and employing outdated gender biased stereotypes I say to you:</p>
<p>well then stop responding so perfectly to our gender biased solutions and we will eventually stop.</p>
<p>There is also something mischievous about the kiss. At the time I was making this video, our relationship was not widely known. We were rightly or wrongly concerned about a number of things. Foremost was the notion that if Velena was seen as “just” my girlfriend people in the business wouldn’t take her as seriously. At the moment of the kiss I am daring her to come clean. This is what makes the video in my opinion.</p>
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<p><strong>Deep Oblivion</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<div><strong>a winter’s night</strong></div>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<div><strong>a creature strange and bright</strong></div>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<div><strong>appeared upon the porch</strong></div>
<p><strong></strong></p>
<div>in a dark storm</div>
<div>the minister said</div>
<div>it’s clearly mad in the head</div>
<div>pay it no mind</div>
<div>it’ll go away</div>
<div>you and i were</div>
<div>thinking about a place</div>
<div>below the sea</div>
<div>in stinging anemone</div>
<div>coral bright and white.</div>
<div>and i was on a fast train</div>
<div>to a deep oblivion</div>
<div>you didn’t try to stop me</div>
<div>no you asked to come along</div>
<div>come take the light</div>
<div>of creatures of the deep</div>
<div>electric eels are fun</div>
<div>but tend to bite</div>
<div>oblivion</div>
<div>rhymes with vivian</div>
<div>rust red things are grey</div>
<div>beneath the deep</div>
<div>you and i were thinking ’bout</div>
<div>a de-commissioned sub</div>
<div>a place submarine</div>
<div>we’d live a life so serene</div>
<div>we were on a fast train</div>
<div>to a drunk oblivion</div>
<div>you bravely took my hand</div>
<div>and we went merrily along</div>
<div>jets and boats</div>
<div>always found them fine</div>
<div>the creature on the front porch</div>
<div>can’t unwind</div>
<div>the sea-captain said</div>
<div>we’ll fix him up with this</div>
<div>gin and quinine</div>
<div>keeps away malaise</div>
<div>we were crossing english channels</div>
<div>in Victorian times</div>
<div>in midget submarines</div>
<div>with parasols entwined</div>
<div>And i was going under</div>
<div>in some deep oblivion</div>
<div>you bravely took my hand</div>
<div>and sweetly came along</div>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/73622
2011-01-10T10:29:00-05:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
# 68 The Long Plastic Hallway-Playing on a Flying Saucer with The Talking Heads.
<p> </p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
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<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/12-the-long-plastic-hallway.mp3">12 The Long Plastic Hallway</a></p>
<p><em>“The music business is cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway, where thieves and pimps run free, where good men die like dogs. And then there is a negative side.”-attributed to Hunter S. Thompson</em></p>
<p>There is actually a debate as to whether Hunter S. Thompson said this or not. I suppose because there are variants that are similar attributed to other people. Really? It sounds so much like the guy it has to be Hunter S. Thompson.</p>
<p>Part of this post is a story you may have heard. I like to tell part of this story at shows. usually as an introduction to the song <em>The Long Plastic Hallwa</em>y. But it definitely needs to be written down for posterity. So here goes. It also allows me to get into the history of Box O’ Laffs one of the bands that preceded Camper Van Beethoven. Like the Estonian Gauchos and Sitting Duck there are a number of Box O’ Laffs songs that ended up being Camper Van Beethoven songs as well. Most notably I<em>ce Cream Everyday</em> and <em>Flowers. </em>So Box O’ Laffs’ story is integral to the history of CVB.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/14-ice-cream-everyday.mp3">14 Ice Cream Everyday</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/11-flowers.mp3">11 Flowers</a><br></em></p>
<p>Box O’ Laffs consisted of Eric Curkendall on vocals, Chris Hart on Guitar, sometimes Chris Molla on guitar, keyboards and drums, and then a host of different drummers, Anthony Guess, Chris Pedersen and Richie West. All of which played with Camper Van Beethoven at some point. I’m also quite sure i’m forgetting a drummer or two. But you’ll forgive me if I just move along with the story?</p>
<p>And yes that is how we spelled it: Box O’ Laffs. Sometimes we wrote it this way Box O’ Laffs™ as the name was supposed to evoke a toy or board game. Often the venues would list our name wrong in ads or on flyers. They’d spell it “Box of Laughs”. This drove us crazy.</p>
<p>So Box O’ Laffs™ was formed in 1981 when I met Chris Hart and Eric Curkendall at College 5 at UCSC. I was still living on campus and so was Eric. We constantly struggled to find places to practice. We rarely managed, so much of our rehearsing was done live at shows. There was a neat little formula. Chris and I would make up a couple of very simple repetitive grooves. Then we’d alternate between the two while Eric improvised lyrics over the top. Each “song” had a title and generally Eric sang about pretty much the same thing but each performance was always different. Sometimes radically different.</p>
<p>It was very easy to add a new song to the repertoire. As long as me and chris alternated correctly between the two or three grooves that made up a song, usually the drummer could follow along. And Eric? well he was good at just making shit up on the spot. After a while these improvisations became more and more settled. Eventually they would come to resemble normal songs.</p>
<p>Mostly the college kids we were playing for didn’t notice this process. The grooves we played were kind of bouncy and were easy to dance to. As long as we didn’t stop they danced. No one seemed to notice that Eric would be singing lines from Aleister Crowley’s <em>Book of Thoth,</em> Dr Seuss stories or even laconically announcing a LA Lakers vs Boston Celtics game like a stoned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_Hearn">Chick Hearn</a>. This is how we worked out the songs. Sounds crazy i know but the over all effect was we came off like a slightly funky californian version of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(band)">The Fall</a>.</p>
<p>But a little bouncier. So a lot of people compared us to The Talking Heads.</p>
<p>So what does this have to do with the Hunter S. Thompson quote?</p>
<p>In the summer of 1983 Chris Hart our guitarist was living in LA. He was working for Eric Curkendall’s father in Pasadena. At the very end of the summer he started to call me repeatedly insisting that he had managed to get us a gig supporting The Talking Heads in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Chris was never the most reliable person. Although he was the most normal or straight laced looking member of the band there was something not quite right about him. Aside from being a poor judge of character he would constantly end up in some fucked up situation. He of course would profess that he was a completely innocent bystander and had no idea how these bad things kept happening to him. The truth was we had all watched him put himself in dangerous situations over and over again. It was strange to us. Cause otherwise he was (and probably is still) an intelligent and thoughtful person</p>
<p>Still we had our guard down when Chris phoned us and said he’d got us a gig with the Talking Heads. We were skeptical but we wanted to believe. We called people we knew in LA for some sort of independent confirmation. Anthony even called KROQ to see if any of the DJs had heard anything about us opening for the Talking Heads. We know from our friends in LA that we weren’t in any advertising. It was 1983 and it wasn’t like we could look on the Goldenvoice website to confirm we were playing. It seemed improbable to us… still we wanted to believe. So after a little badgering from Chris we decided to make the 400 mile drive Santa Cruz to LA to play the gig.</p>
<p>Anthony Guess was at that time the drummer for Box O Laffs. Anthony and I got Joe Sloan to drive his pickup truck to LA. Anthony me and the gear road in the open back of the truck 400 miles to the leafy Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena. It was nearly midnight when we made it to Eric Curkendall’s parents house. Early september. We waited out in the yard smoking cigarettes and enjoying the mild night. we waited for quite a while for Chris Hart and The Talking Heads’ “percussionist”. They didn’t show.</p>
<p>Joe Sloan started to get really impatient and agitated. Finally someone figured out where this “percussion” player lived. We drove over to the apartment which was in a much sketchier area of Pasadena or perhaps even Alta Dena. There we found Chris Hart with a person who in retrospect was very clearly a crack head. Chris seemed pretty disoriented and stoned himself. Did I say apartment? It was really more of a crack house. An upscale crack house, but nonetheless a crack house.</p>
<p>Immediately our spirits fell. Still there is nothing like wanting to believe that something really implausible is true. We began to pepper the “percussionist” with questions.</p>
<p>“What time do we load-in?”</p>
<p>“How much do we get paid?”</p>
<p>“How long do we get to play?”</p>
<p>“Why aren’t we in any of the advertisements?”</p>
<p>The “percussionist” began to get more and more agitated. Finally he’d had enough of us and our ridiculous questions.</p>
<p>“Man I’m not talking about <em>that</em> gig. <em>That </em>gig is the fake gig. I’m talking about the real gig. And the real gig is after <em>that </em>gig. The real gig is on a flying saucer above Los Angeles”.</p>
<p>Joe Sloan is a big man. And at first I thought he was gonna attack the “percussionist”. Instead he turned his attention to Chris Hart. I really thought he was gonna beat the crap out of Chris. He didn’t. But he didn’t do anything to rid Chris Hart of the notion either. That is the rest of the night Chris kept a wary eye on Joe, certain that the ass-whipping was about to come at any time.</p>
<p>Now to quote the lyrics from the third verse:</p>
<p><em>playing on a flying saucer</em></p>
<p><em>box o laffs was supporting talking heads</em></p>
<p><em>everyone was high and having a real good time</em></p>
<p><em>they was having a real good time.</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p>The story doesn’t end there. In the summer of 2000 I went to the wedding of Virgin CFO Ken Pedersen. There were several other celebrity guests at the wedding and I was delighted to find out that I was sitting at the table with David Byrne. Wow. This is so cool. David Byrne, ever gracious, stood and introduced himself to me as I approached the table. We exchanged greetings and then I said:</p>
<p>“We actually played a gig together a long time ago”</p>
<p>“Really?!”</p>
<p>“Yes, it was on a flying saucer above Los Angeles”.</p>
<p>At this point David Byrne backs away almost imperceptibly.</p>
<p>“It’s a long story, you don’t remember because <em>they</em> erased your memory of the event”</p>
<p>Now he perceptibly takes a step back from me. Of course I then realize that i may have genuinely freaked him out.</p>
<p>“I’m joking… well sort of…”</p>
<p>It all ended up okay and I did manage to explain the whole story to David Byrne and he seemed to think the whole thing was amusing. But at the same time I could tell he was thinking what I sometimes think:</p>
<p>“some of our fans are out of their minds.”</p>
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<p><strong>The Long Plastic Hallway</strong></p>
<p><strong><br>
CHORUS:<br>
La la la la la la<br>
La la la la<br>
La la la la<br>
La la la la</strong></p>
<p><strong>REPEAT CHORUS</strong></p>
<p><strong>Cigarettes and carrot juice<br>
Marijuana and lots of booze<br>
I threw the flower of youth into that stew</strong></p>
<p>The serpent’s tongues were red and pointy<br>
But they were wearing very cool shoes<br>
Who wouldn’t wanna sell their soul?</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x4</p>
<p>We waited in line for hours<br>
VIP passes bouquets of flowers<br>
To see the brand new siren sing her song</p>
<p>The virgins then were thrown into volcanoes<br>
A beating heart, it was held aloft<br>
And no expense was spared</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x4</p>
<p>Quezacotl and Busby Berkeley<br>
Hanging out in Pasadena<br>
Rodney on the ROQ, and David Byrne</p>
<p>Playing on a flying saucer<br>
Box o’Laffs were supporting Talking Heads<br>
Everyone was high, everyone was having a good time (a good time, they were having a good time)</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x4</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/box-o-laffs-2/">Box O Laffs</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/flowers/">Flowers</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/ice-cream-everyday/">Ice Cream Everyday</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/the-long-plastic-hallway/">the long plastic hallway</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/991/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/991/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=991&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/57395
2011-01-07T14:21:34-05:00
2017-01-13T14:43:33-05:00
#67-Turquoise Jewelry- Grace Slick Where Art Thou?
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-turquoise-jewelry.mp3">07 Turquoise Jewelry</a></p>
<p><em>come down from that condominium treehouse</em></p>
<p><em>stop driving around in that station wagon with the wood on the side</em></p>
<p><em>take off that jumpsuit you look like grace slick</em></p>
<p><em>staying up all night drinking that 7-11 coffee</em></p>
<p>Funny story about this song. It was all pretty much based on the alleged sighting of Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) at a 7/11 in the north bay of SF. Sausalito? Mill Valley? I’m not really clear. I’m not even sure who told me about it. Paul MacKinney (my old college roomate) Jackson Haring (our former manager) one of the guys in Spot 1019? Anyway the alleged sighting was approximately this: Someone had seen Grace Slick buying coffee at a 7/11 or other convenience store. She was wearing some sort of fashion forward pantsuit or designer coveralls, and a fair amount of jewelry. I’m pretty sure that the turquoise jewelry part was my embellishment of the story. More on that in a minute. The part of the story that makes me question the veracity of the story is that she left in a Buick roadmaster station wagon. No self respecting Northern Californian hippy would drive a Buick station wagon. Any former hippy who needed a station wagon would naturally choose a Volvo station wagon. I’m pretty sure it’s in the handbook.</p>
<p>Either that or it wasn’t Grace Slick.</p>
<p>Or the entire story was made up by one of my friends.</p>
<p>But what this song clearly illustrates is Camper Van Beethoven’s delight in picking apart the bones of the dead or dying Norther California hippy scene while simultaneously praising and emulating hippy culture in general. For at the same time the songs distinctly owes it’s narrative voice to Don Van Vliet. That’s Captain Beefheart to you civilians.</p>
<p>Check the distorted harmonica, disjointed and seemingly random horn parts, the hoo hoo hoo vocalizations and most tellingly the barked non-sequiturs.</p>
<p>I know Captain Beefheart was from Southern California. So was Zappa. See even the guys from Northern California in the band seemed to prefer <em>these hippies, </em>these musical anarchists to their Northern Californian cousins.</p>
<p>We were mocking the <em>flower power, peace and l</em>ove part of hippiedom while simultaneously trying to emulate and update the bomb-throwing part of the movement. Using Captain Beefheart’s voice to comment on Grace Slick was just one way of doing it. We didn’t really dislike Grace Slick or Jefferson Airplane. They just happened to be innocent bystanders. Collateral damage if you will…</p>
<p>(and too be fair Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane were a lot more edgy and punk than we gave them credit for).</p>
<p>****************************</p>
<p>But as previously noted Camper Van Beethoven was also defining itself against the punk and post-punk scenes. To a lesser extent the new “college rock” movement. Back in 1986-87 we actually wore a lot of turquoise jewelry. It was one of our ways of rebelling against the punk and college rock movement. It worked too. If you wore a fake indian pancho, giant turquoise belt buckle, laminated scorpion bolo tie and turquoise beaded mocassins into Hollywood’s Club Lingerie in 1987 people loked at you like you were crazy.</p>
<p>We didn’t wear the good stuff. Just the knock-off fake stuff you’d buy at a truckstop or “indian” trading post along I-40 somewhere in the southwest. We also spent a lot of time in thrift stores in this part of the world. Tucson and Albuquerque still have some of the best thrift stores around. I mean they were (and probably still are) hip deep in fake indian panchos and bolo ties with laminated scorpions and of course turquoise jewelry. When we’d return to Santa Cruz from one of our periodic tours, it was usually via the 40. Inevitably we’d come home looking like a deleted scene from movie <em>Billy Jack. </em></p>
<p>Right on.</p>
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<p><strong>Turquoise Jewelry.</strong></p>
<p><em>Come down from your tree house condominium </em><br><em>And start driving around that station wagon with the wood on the side</em></p>
<p><em>Take off that jumpsuit, you look like Grace Slick</em><br><em>Stayin’ up all night an’ drinkin’ that 7-11 coffee</em></p>
<p><em>And take off your turquoise jewellery </em></p>
<p><em>Shake your medicine rattle </em></p>
<p><em>And fill a sock with an herb</em><br><em>Put on your fringe skirt</em></p>
<p><em>Come sit down next to your man, he’s hankering for some company</em><br><em>Come sit down next to your man and let him cough in your ear</em></p>
<p><em>‘Cuz you bring me sticks and stones</em><br><em>You bring me everything</em></p>
<p><em>Take off your turquoise jewelry</em><br><em>Shake your medicine rattle</em></p>
<p><em>‘Cuz you bring me sticks and stones</em><br><em>You bring me everything</em></p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/turquoise-jewelry/">Turquoise Jewelry</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2366/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2366/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2366&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/59372
2011-01-05T10:55:07-05:00
2017-02-01T14:55:27-05:00
#66 -Raise ‘Em Up On Honey. Notes on the etymology of the word cracker
<p> </p>
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<p>The word Cracker has an interesting history one that I felt worthy of further elaboration. It’s origination is widely disputed. Was it from the ’crack’ of the whip of the white vaqueros that herded Spanish cattle in Georgia and Florida? Was it because they were such poor people they cracked and ate their seed corn?</p>
<p>The most interesting etymology of the word purports to illustrate a history of friction between the dominant English culture and Celtic subculture of the British Empire including North America. This is not my theory. It has been thoroughly researched and written about by several historians. Much is in dispute but clearly the word Cracker is intimately associated with Celtic culture in particular the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American">Scots-Irish</a> of the American frontier. The most notable author to propose this is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_McWhiney">Grady McWhiney</a>. In his book<em> <a href="http://http://www.amazon.com/Cracker-Culture-Celtic-Ways-South/dp/0817304584">Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways of the Old South</a> </em>McWhiney argues that Cracker is synonymous with being of Celtic origin. Here is a brief summary of historical uses of the word.</p>
<p>Cracker as in a braggart or sharp and entertaining speaker. In Shakespeare’s King John</p>
<p><em>“What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?”</em></p>
<p>Craic in middle english also was used to mean “to enter into” conversation. Especially loud boisterous conversation. Hence to “crack” a joke.<em><br></em></p>
<p>McWhiney points out that this is exactly the use and spelling of the Gaelic word <em>craic</em>. This and other uses of the word from this period generally reference the Scottish and other Celts of the British Isles. These included not just the well know Irish, Scottish and Welsh but also lesser known Celtic groups like the Cornish, The Manx and the Hebrideans. One must remember that at this time the British Isles had yet to be fully conquered much less anglicized. Later many of these troublesome un-anglicized groups were shipped overseas to the North American colonies. The southern American colonies and maritime Canada were prime destinations. Many of these wild celts arrived in the new world fully un-anglicized. Speaking their native tongue and chafing under the English ways.</p>
<p>Certainly by the time these Celts hit the new world at least some of them were being called “Crackers”</p>
<p>From Wikipedia:</p>
<p><em>As early as the 1760s, this term was in use by the English in the British North American Colonies to refer to Scots-Irish settlers in the south. A letter to the Earl of Dartmouth reads:</em></p>
<p><em>“I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode.”</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p>First a little curious fact about the state of Florida. It was a spanish colony from 1513-1763. It then became an English colony for a brief 20 years. In 1783 it was handed back to Spain after the American revolution. But during those 20 years, many colonists from Georgia and colonies to the north were encouraged to settle in Florida. When the spanish regained control they continued to encourage American settlers to move there by offering land grants. About 20 thousand american immigrants and 40 thousand spanish colonists lived in florida at the time it was ceded to the United States in 1819.</p>
<p>The white cowboys who herded cattle in Spanish Florida alongside the Spanish Vaqueros were purportedly called “Quáqueros.” A corruption of the spanish word for Quaker which was also generic insult for any protestant. Others say they were given the name “Crackers” by other white Floridians and Georgians because of the crack of their spanish whips.</p>
<p>McWhiney and others argue since these were mostly freed Scots-Irish indentured servants they were already called Crackers. Further the pan-celtic preference (at that time) for ranging cattle on common land ( in this case sparsely populated Spanish Florida) as opposed to the english preference for penned sheep and hogs, lends some credibility to the account. Cattle herding was the preferred livelihood of many of these immigrants.</p>
<p>As a footnote the battle between the advocates of private land for grazing and the advocates of a common free range often played out violently through American history. It ended in a stalemate. East of The Rockies most grazing activities happens on private land. In the West, The Federal Government owns much grazing land through the BLM or Bureau of Land Management. Historically this agency then doled out grazing rights.</p>
<p>I have often wondered if the Scots-Irish had a such a deep seated ideological preference for ranging and common grazing land as McWhiney proposes, what did those in Texas think as the US army methodically killed and subdued their Native American analogues? By this I mean the Comanches and other buffalo herding plains Indians. For ultimately the Indian Wars were a process of converting the Indian common lands to private land. Yes they may have been happy to see the murderous cattle rustling Comanche vanquished and confined to reservations. But were they not saddened by the following influx of settlers? For it were these settlers that destroyed the greatest commons the world ever knew. It was settlers from the east that divided the great sea of grass into a patchwork of poor farms and meager homesteads. Did the Texan Scots-Irish descendants secretly prefer the commons loving Comanches to their new neighbors?</p>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="450" height="284" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SdPyPVJebtI?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe></span>
<p>Allow me to divagate for a moment so that I can make perhaps my most glancing reference yet to a song from our catalogue. <em> Raise ‘Em Up on Honey</em>. This is the opening track from my Solo Album <em>The Palace Guards (Feb 1st 2011). </em>In this song the protagonist proposes a very Cracker-like return to the <em>common. </em>Although for the purposes of marijuana cultivation.</p>
<p><em>Go up on the mountain build a little shack just over the line</em></p>
<p><em>well BLM they won’t complain cause no one surveyed this in a while</em></p>
<p><em>home school the children give them weapons training</em></p>
<p><em>just in case the DEA comes snooping round again</em></p>
<p><em>go up on the mountain where the water comes from glaciers blue.</em></p>
<p>With my red beard, cowboy hat and preference for the wild frontier I could easily pass for one of these Scots-Irish “lawless rascals” so detested by the English overlords. And why not? My murky family history would support this. Lowery is a common enough name not only in Celtic parts of the British Isles but very common through the main Cracker heartland. Indeed my great grandfather came from “somewhere in Georgia” and settled deep in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piney_Woods">Piney Woods</a> of Southwestern Arkansas. The Piney Woods are a distinct ecoregion covering 54,000 square miles of eastern Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, southern Arkansas and extreme southeastern Oklahoma. But it must also be somehow culturally tied to the Georgia and Florida Cracker heartland. And for a simple reason. Spanish Cattle.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Those Crackers herding cattle in Spanish Florida were herding a type of cattle that is still referred to today as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Cracker_cattle">Cracker Cattle</a>“. This is somewhat of a misnomer as this breed of cattle is a Spanish breed that the Conquistadors brought to Florida. Cracker Cattle had a very close cousin further west known as Pineywoods Cattle. These also were remnants of the Spanish herds. Whether they were brought west by Florida Crackers or whether Florida Crackers followed them to the piney woods is immaterial. There is somehow a connection. Indeed some historical sources equate the term “pinelander” and “cracker”. But <em>This Is Pinelander Soul </em> doesn’t have the same ring.</p>
<p>Finally the Piney woods immediately reminds me of another Pejorative. Peckerwood. My grandfather used to endearingly refer to me as his little Peckerwood. Years later I looked it up and was shocked to find it was probably the only known slur for red haired white people.</p>
<p>In 1999 I returned to the Piney Woods for my grandmothers funeral. There was a sea of people at the small church graveyard. More than 100 people. Most of these were my blood kin. The majority direct descendants of my grandmother. There were 90 year olds and nursing great-great grandchildren. It was impressive and beautiful spring day. The children were beginning to run in a pack. My wife at the time, Mary was pregnant with our first child. She looked out at the crowd and gestured with her head ” I want one of those”. I looked at where she gestured but i didn’t understand. ”One of those” she pointed at a flaming redhead of a boy that bounded past us barefoot and freckled. Two more followed. I looked across the churchyard and realized that my clan was full of these redheads. I laughed. ”Careful what you wish for”.</p>
<p>My grandmother was of course famous for saying of her red-haired progeny. ”red-hair is how god marks the crazy ones”.</p>
<p>We must have seemed exotic to Mary. Her family also of Celtic origin are textbook <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Irish">Black Irish</a>. The Black Irish largely from counties in the west of Ireland, are not “Black”. They almost look spanish with their black curly hair and dark brown freckles. And as it turns out for good reason. The Black Irish do appear to be from the Iberian peninsula as they share common genetic markers with the Galicians, Basque and Portuguese. I reference Mary, her sisters and their love of broken, old and decrepit houses in this track I recorded with Mark Linkous.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/16-eyes-of-mary.mp3">16 Eyes Of Mary</a></p>
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<p>Raise Em Up On Honey</p>
<div>going up the mountain where the water comes from glaciers blue</div>
<div>take along my sweetheart gonna raise ourselves up a brood</div>
<div>raise em up on honey from bees and buckwheat wine</div>
<div>if we can go do this make our clothes from hemp and twine</div>
<div>go up on the mountain where the water comes from glaciers blue</div>
<div>go up on the mountain build a little shack just over the line</div>
<div>will BLM* they won’t complain cause no one surveyed this in a while</div>
<div>home school the children give them weapons training</div>
<div>just in case the DEA comes snooping ’round again</div>
<div>go up on the mountain where the water comes from glaciers blue</div>
<div>every fortnight or so the bible thumpers they come around</div>
<div>they’re worried ’bout the eternal souls of our daughters and our sons</div>
<div>they’ll be fine they’ll move into the city start black metal bands</div>
<div>give up and move back up the mountain again</div>
<div>raise their little broods on mountain waters from glaciers blue</div>
<div>Eyes of Mary</div>
<div>You were born<br>
With it inside<br>
A secret twin in your wounded side<br>
Bits of hair<br>
Teeth and String<br>
And Yellow flowersOpen Up<br>
Let it all in<br>
Let the strange parade begin<br>
A piece of pie<br>
A piece of cake<br>
For Every sister
<p>Let the eyes of Mary<br>
Carry you away now<br>
Let the eyes of Mary<br>
Carry you away now</p>
<p>A baby born<br>
It’s made of leaves<br>
And Carried round the maypole tree<br>
By Irish Girls<br>
With jet black hair<br>
And dark brown freckles</p>
<p>Let me bring<br>
You bits of string<br>
Tired and worn and sagging things<br>
Under the weight<br>
Of old crows feet<br>
And the seasons</p>
<p>Let the eyes of Mary<br>
Carry you away now<br>
Let the eyes of Mary<br>
Carry you away now<br>
Let the Brides of Jesus<br>
Carry you away now<br>
Let the Brides of Jesus<br>
Carry you away now.<br>
Away now<br>
Away</p>
</div>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/cracker/">Cracker</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/category/david-lowery-solo/">David Lowery Solo</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/category/sparklehorse/">Sparklehorse</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/raise-em-up-on-honey/">Raise 'Em Up On Honey</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/the-eyes-of-mary/">The Eyes of Mary</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2320/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2320/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2320&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/90497
2011-01-02T19:00:00-05:00
2021-04-21T13:06:18-04:00
#65 This is Crackersoul- Reflections on race and music. Also were the Flinstones black?
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cracker1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cracker1.jpg?w=320&h=320" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="320" width="320" /></a></p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-this-is-cracker-soul.mp3">03 This Is Cracker Soul</a></p>
</div>
<p>Cracker Soul. Perfect song to come up next in the cue. Especially after the previous two posts touched upon race and ethnic identity in the music business.</p>
<p>I think there is a misconception that the music industry is very “integrated”. That it must be more “advanced” than the rest of our society. It has always been at the cultural vanguard so it must surely be much farther ahead of the rest of america in marching towards some post-racial society. It isn’t.</p>
<p>There are black record labels. There are “Normal” labels. Under the multinational conglomerates? Black and Latin imprints or sublabels. Our old label Virgin records didn’t really have a separate black imprint, but did have a “urban” department. In a completely different part of the Foothill Rd complex! I remember the offices and cubicles seemed to have been set up by a different interior design firm. There are completely separate sets of publicists, radio promoters and concert promoters for black and latin music.</p>
<p>No one ever talks about this. It’s like some dirty family secret. Racial and ethnic Identity is actually heightened in the music industry.</p>
<p>So i’ll be the first to admit that it is weird that I never really thought much about naming the band Cracker. We chose this name almost on a whim. Although we were aware of the socio-economic/regional/racial connotations of the word, we also enjoyed the fact the word had a host of other meanings. Some well known like Cracker as in Ritz Cracker. Some very obscure like Cracker as a perforative for scottish or (gaelic speakers) in 17th century England. There was also the fact that in the early 1990′s there was a sudden trend towards one word band names, oftentimes words for everyday objects such as food e.g. Sugar, Cake etc.</p>
<p>But the main reason we named the band Cracker was because we had a song on the demos called <em>This is Crackersoul. </em>There is a simple story behind the title to this song.</p>
<p>Each night after we finished working on our demos we’d walk down from Oregon Hill over to one of the bars that lined Grace street next to Virginia Commonwealth University. One of our regular stops was Marvin’s. One night sitting at the bar in Marvin’s we were discussing our new project with our multi-racial bartender. Johnny was describing how our demos varied from the Camper Van Beethoven sound. That they were based more on country, bluegrass and good dose of “White boy blues-rock, southern rock, and soul influenced rock. Things like The Band, Little Feat even Lynyrd Skynyrd”.</p>
<p>“Cracker soul music” our bartender helpfully interjected.</p>
<p>Exactly. Here were several meanings of the word jumbled together. First Cracker as in “Southern Rural White”. Second to specifically refer to residents of Georgia and northern Florida (Little Feat and Lynyrd Skynyrd) and third the murky Scots-Irish roots of appalachian and southern white folk music. There was fourth meaning that also applied although our bartender could not have known given that he hadn’t heard any of the lyrics: Boasting or Shit-talking. Cracker’s narrative “voice” was noticeably cockier and trashier than Camper’s.</p>
<p>Notably absent was any reference to the word as a racial insult.</p>
<p>In 1990 very few white people on west coast, in the north or even the urban centers of the south would have been very familiar with this word. Conversely I had heard this word from a young age. My grandfather would often use it to refer to himself and his buddies who were all from the piney woods of southwestern arkansas. They all now lived in the Coachella valley in California. They did this to distinguish themselves from the native Californians. Around this time Senator Lawton Chiles would openly refer to his rural white supporters as his “cracker voters”. It wasn’t till much later in the 1990′s that this began to be popularized as a racial slur. I’m not saying it wasn’t a racial slur in 1990 but it was relatively obscure term in white america.</p>
<p>So Johnny had this neat little riff that maybe evoked Little Feat or something. It was catchy and bouncy and as I didn’t have any words for the song so as a working title it became Cracker Soul. Thank you very much mr. bartender. Later once I developed words to this song it changed to <em>This is Cracker Soul.</em></p>
<p><em>********************************</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cracker-prez.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cracker-prez.jpg?w=400&h=308" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="308" width="400" /></a></em></p>
<p><em>Speaking of Crackers….</em></p>
<p>And then there was the fact that Cracker became a shorthand for a certain distinction between the public persona of Cracker versus that of Camper Van Beethoven. This is of course greatly exaggerated but the members of Cracker (Johnny and I) were more rural “southern” and working class in outlook and upbringing. My father was from Arkansas. Both Johnny and I were raised on military bases. Anyone who spends much time around military bases realizes much of the military is drawn from working class, rural and especially southern families. I was born in the south. If San Antonio Texas counts as The South. (It’s really more part of the southwestern borderlands.) Our experiences going to high school in The Inland Empire also seemed to bolster our working class credentials.</p>
<p>Conversely Camper Van Beethoven was seen as solidly upper middle class and a college band. Chris Pedersen’s father was a doctor. Victor’s family owned pharmacies. Not quite a doctor but solidly upper middle class. Jonathan’s parents were both college professors at UC Davis. Camper Van Beethoven also seemed to be very much a product of the culturally sophisticated Bay Area. Not a working class ensemble with roots in rural america. Of course this was also an extreme exaggeration.</p>
<p>Case in point: Jonathan Segel. His parents were college professors, but his mother was a microbiologist that had a detailed knowledge of sewage treatment plants. Jonathan once spent a summer touring Warsaw Pact sewage treatment facilities. She was like the honeymooner’s Norton with a PhD. Jonathan grew up in a college town , but this college town was Davis. It’s an Ag college. In the early days of Camper Van Beethoven Jonathan chewed tobacco, fished, camped and occasionally shot guns. He hung out with bluegrass players and generally qualified as a country boy. His credentials as a “cracker” are actually much better than either Johnny or I.</p>
<p>Nevertheless there must have been some subtle difference apparent to others. For when we began touring for Key Lime Pie we hired a new crew member. His name was Bobby Bell. He was an African American and he was from Texas. He immediately pegged me for being a little different than the other Santa Cruz/Berkeley/Bay Area indie rockers he’d worked with. He started calling me MC Cracker D. (Yeah I know it’s a little cheesy now but Hip Hop culture was new to all of us then.) He’d write it on my passes and laminates. It became my Nom de Tour.</p>
<p>So in this way calling my new band Cracker was simply a way of differentiating it from Camper Van Beethoven. I wasn’t trying to say Cracker was an authentic country-roots-southern rock band. Just that it had a little more of that in it than my previous band. So Cracker Soul got shortened to Cracker and Cracker became the temporary project name for our new band. It just ended up sticking.</p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/flintstones.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/flintstones.jpg?w=435&h=336" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="336" width="435" /></a></p>
<p><em>Was I was punk’d?</em></p>
<p>My friends father, an African American, once told me that the modern racism was no longer based on white people thinking they were superior to blacks. It had been replaced with a more subtle bias, the fact that Anglos thought they were the<em> Normal</em> people. Everyone else was to varying degrees <em>not normal</em>. Like being Anglo put you at the center of some pre-Copernicus universe. Being a WASP was neutral and everyone else had small co-factors and properties that did not read a perfect zero. You might be a perfect zero on skin tone and hair kinkiness but the +3 Irish and +2 catholic variation from the ideal pushed you away from the center. Although readily accepted by white people poor Sammy Davis had an incredibly complex variation from the norm. +4 Black +3 Jewish +1 Italian Mob for association with Frank Sinatra plus he was in show business.</p>
<p>So the logical conclusion: If Anglos came to think of themselves as just another quirky tribe from a foggy, poor and cold island; a people of strange music and customs;a tribe noted for their spotty skin, bad teeth and overcooked vegetables; Then at last we would all co-exist as equals in a relativistic racial/ethnic universe.</p>
<p>Calling my band Cracker was also me doing my part to achieve this Utopia.</p>
<p>“Yes I am from a quirky Scots-Irish tribe of red-headed rural southern people who pretty much fry everything and are inexplicably born with innate ability to parallel park a vehicle hauling a trailer.”</p>
<p>But before you go all crazy with this concept due diligence requires that I tell you my friend’s father also told me that The Flinstones were actually African Americans. When I pointed out that I couldn’t recall a single non-white character on the show he became agitated and told me that <em>All </em>the characters were black. Further Hanna-Barbera had carefully filled the show with subtle cultural cues and flags. They didn’t need to draw the characters as black. I was white and therefore I didn’t catch these cues. It was one of the more amusing arguments i’ve had in my life. Still I’ve googled this and haven’t found anyone else who shares his opinion. In retrospect I think the erstwhile professor was taking great delight in pulling my leg.</p>
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<p>********************************************</p>
<p>This is Cracker Soul</p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>Hey hey it’s okay to make<br>
a little mess out of your life.<br>
‘Cause you don’t need a diagram<br>
to show you how to have a good time.</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
I said hey (hey)<br>
Don’t mean to frighten you away.<br>
This is Cracker soul, it comes so easy.<br>
I said hey (hey)<br>
Don’t get your head a mess.<br>
This is just the best, it comes so easy.<br>
It comes so easy.</p>
<p>Hey hey it’s okay to never know<br>
the answer but ask why. (why oh why?)<br>
‘Cause you don’t need another burden<br>
come and party with your spirit guide.</p>
<p>I said hey (hey)<br>
Don’t get your head a mess.<br>
This is Cracker Soul<br>
It comes so easy.<br>
I said hey (hey)<br>
Don’t get yourself distressed.<br>
Love is just the best<br>
when comes easy.<br>
It comes so easy.</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/88471
2010-12-01T19:00:00-05:00
2017-01-13T14:43:43-05:00
300 Songs on Vacation until New Year.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/l_2048_1536_2cc4b525-81c9-46e0-a9f5-8c031c7cb529.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/l_2048_1536_2cc4b525-81c9-46e0-a9f5-8c031c7cb529.jpeg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Bob Lefsetz is a smart and entertaining music business theorist and writer. Yesterday he was comparing the level of innovation and risk taking in the tech world versus the music business. As an object lesson Google and Groupon. Here is his piece.</p>
<p>http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/11/30/googlegroupon/</p>
<p>Odd thing. It turns out that Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven play a small role in this story. Here is my letter to Bob that has been making the rounds of the Blogosphere.</p>
<p><em>Read your article Bob. Nice piece. Largely you are right about the risk averse backwards thinking folks who run the music business now. But strangely music types played a small but important role in the history of groupon. In particular myself and my two bands.</em></p>
<p><em>In 2008 I was appointed to the board of advisors of a small web startup called <a href="http://www.thepoint.com">www.thepoint.com.</a> The site the brainchild of Andrew Mason was a ” tipping point” mechanism, a social networking site that allowed people “commit” to take group action. In particular the hope was they would take group action for social change. The investors quietly noted there was not a clear way to monetize Andrew’s experiment. However they hoped that by watching the way users used the tipping point mechanism, a viable way to monetize this website would present itself. </em></p>
<p><em>I was asked to start a campaign on <a href="http://www.thepoint.com/" target="_blank">www.thepoint.com</a>.”To get a feel for it”. Not being very socially conscious I decided that I wanted to use The Point for my own narrow self interests. </em></p>
<p><em>Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven have a festival, The Campout. It’s rather remote and since we produce the small festival ourselves we take considerable financial risk. While the previous years had been marginally successful we were worried about the rapidly deteriorating economy (I believe Bear Stearns had just gone bankrupt). So I started a campaign to get a “break even” amount of CVB and Cracker fans to commit to attend the festival. In this way our fan’s promises to attend would become a sort of promissory note. no pun intended. While you couldn’t exactly peg it’s value, these collective promises to attend at some point seemed to be worth enough to go ahead and book the flights, PA, lights, and port-o-potties. </em></p>
<p><em>Other successful “campaigns” on The Point also involved similar commitments for group purchasing. It wasn’t long before The Point became Groupon.</em></p>
<p><em>Okay so that’s a story about Groupon, that has smart music people and smart techies helping each other and they all live happily ever after.</em></p>
<p><em>Now here is another story about Groupon that illustrates YOUR point that the modern music business is run by risk averse technophobe idiots. </em></p>
<p><em>The financial backers of Groupon as well as CEO Andrew Mason are music fans. (Andrew apparently played in bands and had dreams of becoming a rockstar.) Groupon’s founders wanted to demonstrate the power of the now wildly successful Groupon by putting on a series of concerts. There was a significant element of altruism in their efforts, but it had not gone unnoticed that most concerts have a lot of empty seats. And Groupon works best when the “incremental” cost of adding clients/patrons is very low. Adding concertgoers to a half full arena is a perfect example of low incremental costs. So concerts were seen as a natural fit for Groupon. I was enlisted to try to get a Groupon only concert going. Twice! Both times artists agents managers promoters all failed to understand the concept. Even my wife, Velena Vego who is a brilliant concert promoter didn’t really get it.</em></p>
<p><em>(editiors note this: is not quite true. concert promoter and groupon user Lucy Freas seemed to understand the concept) </em></p>
<p><em>(Due Diligence requires me to point out that there may be a strange mathematical logic to having consistently half full arenas. The theory is that in the long term the artists will bear the brunt of the inefficiencies of half full arenas while LiveNation reaps outsized rewards on the sold out shows. It’s a complex argument and it involves what options and derivative traders call Volatility Trading Theory, but it at least partially explains why LiveNation has been supposed to go out of business for the last 8 years yet has not. But alas I divagate).</em></p>
<p><em>In general, this is the story of the last 25 years of the music business. Everybody now thinks they are geniuses if they have one artist that is a hit. They think you can take something and make it a hit. They do not understand the roll of luck in this business. Instead they expect certainty and take no risks.</em></p>
<p><em>They no longer understand the need to make MANY risky bets. They have forgotten that most bands and artists will be commercial failures. They no longer have the stomach for failure therefore the modern record company spends 63.4% percent of it’s time trying to figure out who to blame for the failure, instead of moving on, getting back to work and searching out the interesting artists and new ideas.</em></p>
<p><em>After Virgin America signed CVB president Jeff Ayeroff told me ” Just keep doing what you do. one day you guys will write a hit, maybe even by accident”. exactly. </em></p>
<div><em>It’s now the Venture Capitalists and Tech Entrepreneurs who understand how to take risks, how to use their gut instincts, how to stomach the failures in search of the big hits.</em></div>
<div><em>Ahmet Ertegun was a Venture capitalist. A brilliant risk taker, and he knew how to stomach failure. He also signed artists purely on gut instinct. In many ways these new VC’s and Tech entrepreneurs resemble him.</em></div>
<div><em>thanks for letting me spew my observations at you. and keep writing.</em></div>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86560
2010-10-14T20:00:00-04:00
2018-07-27T00:31:00-04:00
Don Smith Photo Addendum
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dcp_0042.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dcp_0042.jpg?w=450&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dcp_0042.jpg"></a>Hey all. Jill Smith daughter of Don Smith was kind enough to send this gallery of photos to me. You may want to go back and read post #61 that is largely about Don Smith. I’ve updated it with these new photos.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img004-11.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img004-11.jpg?w=450&h=376" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="376" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>A very young Don Smith March 1981<a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img_0145.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img_0145.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Me and Don. This must have been from around 2003-2004? I remember it was my first pair of reading glasses.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img009-21.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img009-21-e1287118443395.jpg?w=450&h=292" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="292" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>The gang that couldn’t shoot -i mean record straight. Bugs, Michael Urbano, Davey Faragher, David Lowery, Don Smith, Johnny Hickman, Rich Hasel. In front of “sound stage” in Pioneertown, Feb 1993 Kerosene Hat record</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img029-22-e1287118473373.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img029-22-e1287118473373.jpg?w=450&h=306" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="306" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Don either at his home studio he jokingly referred to as cost-a-lot. Or back deck at bearsville. Gentleman’s blues period.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img031-3.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img031-3.jpg?w=450&h=284" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="284" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Don and his beloved MCI 2 inch machine.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img032-31.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img032-31.jpg?w=450&h=304" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="304" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-402.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-402.jpg?w=450&h=314" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="314" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Another Very Young Don Smith. Tom Petty and Heartbreakers era?</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-41.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-41.jpg?w=450&h=328" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="328" width="450" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-431.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-431.jpg?w=450&h=286" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="286" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>Classic Don smith at work.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86301
2010-10-10T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:43-05:00
#64 The World Is Mine- Cracker. Gillette been very very good to Cracker. Suerte Loca.
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/10/11/64-the-world-is-mine-cracker-gillette-been-very-very-good-to-cracker-suerte-loca/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/DGX72GOjHC4/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/09-the-world-is-mine.mp3">09 The World is Mine</a></p>
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<p>So besides the our obvious big hits there have been three other significant money making events in Cracker career. The last two were especially important cause they carried us through some dry periods.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/clueless-album.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/clueless-album.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/08-shake-some-action.mp3">08 Shake Some Action</a></p>
<p>1. The inclusion of “Shake Some Action” in the film Clueless. And it’s subsequent appearance on the soundtrack album. We were at the peak of our career (sales wise) when this song was licensed. Bryan McPherson our attorney at the time demanded and received top dollar for the rights. Well actually half the rights. The song was written by The Flaming Groovies. So the Publishing half went to them. The other half was credited to our virgin account which at the time was recouped. And not only was the price dictated by Cracker’s stature at the time. We were also in the secondary phase of the great Alternative/Grunge asset bubble. There are three phases to every asset bubble, the three “I”s : The Innovators, The Imitators and finally the Idiots. I make no judgement upon the band Creed. But i did meet Scott Stap around 1996 and he was an arrogant idiot. This was before they were really famous. So by my own set of empirical data Creed marks the beginning of the Idiot phase of the Alternative/Grunge bubble. When we sold “Shake Some Action” it was about a year or two before the Grunge asset bubble peaked, but the price of all alternative rock songs were artificial inflated. The record companies were flush with primarily their Hootie/Counting Crows and second their Nirvana/ Songe Temple Pilots cash. There was too much money chasing too few bands/songs. The result to things like this is always an asset bubble. Similar bubbles have appeared throughout the history of the record industry. But that’s another post.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/041108-lez-zeppelin.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/041108-lez-zeppelin.jpg?w=351&h=394" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="394" width="351" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Auntie Led Zeppelin</strong></p>
<p>2. A careless miscalculation by another major record label (not ours) involving the trademark Cracker™ cost this record label dearly. The holy grail for trademark infringement litigators is a clear and demonstrable case of ”confusion in the marketplace”. We had that.</p>
<p>Quite a few people warned me that we were making a catastrophic career mistake by suing this large major label and artist. That they their associated managers and agents would never do business with us again. That they would blackball us from the industry. That all doors would be closed to us forever. These were serious respectable people giving us this advice. And apparently they felt they were receiving this information from credible sources.</p>
<p>The problem with this is that all the doors to the music business have always been closed for me and my bands. Except for a brief period in the early to mid 1990s. And they were certainly closed for us in 2004. I have spent much of my career prying the doors open or sneaking in through the mailroom. Plus your typical music business executive agent, manager will gladly sell his/her soul if there is a buck to be made. So if we have something that others think will sell they will always do business with us. Logically it was always an empty threat. But it’s amazing how often I hear managers advise artists to not rock the boat.</p>
<p>It is always better to be respected in the music business than it is to be liked. Get the distinction? Anybody that tells you otherwise is setting you up to be ripped off.</p>
<p>A legal settlement does not allow me to discuss this any further.</p>
<p>3. The Gillette company decided to use the Song The World Is Mine in a commercial. The commercial is positively dismal and unimaginative but the great thing is that we re-recorded the song for the commercial. So we didn’t have to pay anything to Virgin records. Second the commercial hasTiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry so it was shown practically non-stop worldwide. Also worldwide is very key. Unlike the US and Canada in much of the industrialized world significant airplay royalties apply to commercials. Finally because we re-sang the lyrics to match a new structure for the commercial we were considered voice talent so all kinds of AFTRA/SAG (actor) fees began to apply. So yes Gillette has been berry berry good to Cracker.</p>
<p>But this also illustrates one of the finer points about my career as an artist and every artist’s career. All of an artists success is wildly unpredictable. When you make an album you never really know what songs will be hits. It’s only clear in retrospect. It always seems logical but this is because we are the victims of something called The Narrative Fallacy. In retrospect we re-arrange our actions, emphasizing some discounting others to make it seem that we logically and methodically acted as if we were certain the hit song was a hit song all along. But even stranger is that a song does not have to be a “hit” to generate significant revenues. <em>The world is mine</em> was not a hit. The obscure CVB demo “guardian angels” was not a hit, but somehow some advertising executive plucked it from obscurity and put it in a Citibank Commercial. Finally the most bizarre and unpredictable bit of success involves the CVB track Opening Theme.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cd_margaritis_02.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cd_margaritis_02.jpg?w=280&h=280" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="280" width="280" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-opening-theme.mp3">01 Opening Theme</a> CVB Version.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/01-__pening_theme.mp3">Opening theme Giorgos Margaritis</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.greekshops.com/q_/asp/RefID=725/ProdID=GC5364-792/_q/detail.htm">Giorgos Margaritis</a> is one of the best known Greek singers. I don’t know much about his career except that he was considered a bit of an old fogey when he made a sort of edgy comeback album: <em><a href="http://www.greekshops.com/q_/asp/RefID=725/ProdID=GC5364-792/_q/detail.htm">Ola tha ta diagrapso</a></em><a href="http://www.greekshops.com/q_/asp/RefID=725/ProdID=GC5364-792/_q/detail.htm"> (</a><em><a href="http://www.greekshops.com/q_/asp/RefID=725/ProdID=GC5364-792/_q/detail.htm">I Reject Everything</a></em><a href="http://www.greekshops.com/q_/asp/RefID=725/ProdID=GC5364-792/_q/detail.htm">)</a>. The record was quite successful in that part of the world (Greece and the Levant). The “cover” of Opening theme was apparently the idea of producerThodoris Manikas. He purportedly found the track in a pile of discarded CDs. This bit of CVB success was freakishly unpredictable.</p>
<p>Finally this is my last public 300 songs post for the near future. I will most likely resume in January 2011. It has been a great experience but I must continue doing things like writing and recording music, things that actually pay the bills. I appreciate everyone who has contributed donations. I am using those funds to hire an editor to make this into a book. I promised to turn this into a book and I will. I will resume writing this when I get those details worked out. probably sometime later this fall or winter. thanks so much.</p>
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<p><strong>THE WORLD IS MINE</strong></p>
<p><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>Well we went to the station<br>
They were looking for Vegas<br>
But I was stuck in my beat phase<br>
Like it was 1959</p>
<p>They say the girls wanna hip-shake<br>
They say the boys wanna ball-break<br>
But we couldn’t be bothered<br>
Cuz we’re hipper than y’all</p>
<p>And everyday I resolve to say<br>
The world is mine</p>
<p>So will you bring me salvation<br>
Or a standing ovation<br>
Cuz I really deserve it<br>
And so much more</p>
<p>The big kid in the magazines<br>
You and me, we went to make the scene<br>
?Better get your? name, man<br>
And tomorrow you’ll be gone</p>
<p>So everyday I resolve to say<br>
The world is mine</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86238
2010-10-10T20:00:00-04:00
2018-11-28T22:24:33-05:00
#63 Everybody Get’s One Free- F*ck Montreal. CVB Get’s Ripped Off.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/13-everybody-gets-one-for-free.mp3"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/montreal-hc-jersey.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/montreal-hc-jersey.jpg?w=425&h=425" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="425" width="425" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Little Known Fact. The “H C” on the Montreal Jersey is an abbreviation for the city’s motto: Heist Central. Over the last decade many many bands have had their gear stolen in Montreal, not just CVB. </strong></p>
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<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/13-everybody-gets-one-for-free.mp3">13 Everybody Gets One For Free</a></p>
<p>In the wee hours of the morning oct 20th 2004 someone broke into the Cracker/CVB trailer and stole a bunch of our Camper Van Beethoven instruments. We were in Montreal Quebec. Few people down in the states realize this but Montreal is a little like Manhattan. It’s a relatively safe cosmopolitan big city, but you are really asking for it if you leave your band gear unguarded in the van or trailer.</p>
<p>We hadn’t. We had parked our trailer in the parking lot of the Hotel in the supposed “secure” lot. It really did seem secure as it was just around the side of the building from the reception. Maybe 40-50 meters from the front door. Also we had backed the trailer up as close as we could get to the fence, so it was not really possible to open the back doors very far. Nevertheless some sophisticated thieves managed to get break in. Check it out. These guys were pros:</p>
<p>They drilled a hole or series of holes through the back door next to lock hasps. Then they used something like a “saws all” to cut a rectangle all the way through the doors around the lock hasps. Say 6″ by 6″. this was through 2 layers of sheet metal and 3/8″ plywood. They were there for some time. Then they managed to get the doors open about a foot wide. They squeezed in and took all the guitars, amplifier heads and any item they could get through the opening. Basically all our instruments. The most expensive stuff. The loss was covered by our insurance but still we lost our original instruments. The loss was and still is incalculable in our minds.</p>
<p>And stop asking us if we ever got our instruments back. No we didn’t. Not one.</p>
<p>But that’s only where the nightmare begins and why the Camper Van Beethoven junior hockey league team we sponsor has an F and an M on the Jersey. It stands for “Fuck Montreal” which since 2004 has been the official CVB motto.</p>
<p>(It was changed by unanimous vote of the board of directors on Oct 22nd 2004. Formerly the motto had been “the last band to never stop saying ‘a bad idea is still an idea’”*).</p>
<p>First it had to have been an inside Job. There was only an hour and a half in which the trailer was un-attended. One of the guys had gotten in very late I think it was Victor. Like 4:00 am or later. He went to the van to retrieve something and when he went in the building the night security man asked him if anyone else from the band was coming back to the hotel? This did not seem odd to him at the time. He figured the guy wanted to lock the door and take a nap.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/police-montreal.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/police-montreal.jpg?w=450&h=362" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="362" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>I wasn’t intending to be funny when I searched for images of Montreal police. But this is what I found. They made me do it.</strong></p>
<p><strong>“Fellas: try spending a little less time grooming the moustaches and little more time fighting crime. OK?”</strong></p>
<p>There is a parking attendant’s kiosk in the parking lot. At 6:00 am the parking lot attendant came in and found that his kiosk had been broken into. He explained to me that all the keys were in a pile on his small desk. Like someone had tried to find our van and trailer keys. (Like we would be stupid enough to leave them with a parking attendant.)</p>
<p>So in this short period of time our trailer was robbed. And either the night security person from the hotel, possibly the parking lot attendant or both were in on the scheme.</p>
<p>I don’t remember who discovered the theft. But suddenly we were all at the van. I went to the desk to call the police. We waited some time and the police did not arrive. I went back to the desk and asked them to call the police again. This time they put me on the phone with one of the detectives who told me they were just around the corner and to walk over to the police station. This seemed odd to me. There was a crime scene after all.<br><em>“The Montreal Policeman</em></p>
<p><em>He wouldn’t get off his ass</em></p>
<p><em>So all your shit was stolen</em></p>
<p><em>What’s s’matter with that?”</em></p>
<p>There is a policing technique especially popular in the gallic world. In order to keep crime rates down the gallic police technique is to pretend that no crime ever happened. Try to discourage the victim from even making a report. This makes these french cities seem relatively crime free when compared to their anglo/american counterparts. This is very handy when making the point that french civilization is superior to anglo/american civilization.</p>
<p>It also incentivizes the police officers and detectives because then they don’t actually have to do any work.</p>
<p>At the police station I was asked to fill out a form. Like some kind of petty theft. When i protested i didn’t have room to write all the items stolen and the form was clearly for thefts less than $10,000 CAN (it was printed across the bottom in french and english) I was asked archly If I was “trying to tell them how to do their job?”. Assholes. It went downhill from there. They wouldn’t even come to the crime scene.</p>
<p>“You don’t want to come over and maybe look for evidence or fingerprints?”</p>
<p>“Again Mr lowery you are once again telling me how to do my job. okay? enough”.</p>
<p>They could not have cared less.</p>
<p>Jonathan and Victor had gotten the word out on the internets our website, myspace, friendster even a few gay cruising chatrooms. That was actually me. Hey whatever takes. Word was spreading fast. I suddenly got a couple of calls from the press. Somehow one of the reporters called the local police precinct to find out what they knew.</p>
<p>Did I already tell you that the Montreal Police couldn’t care less? I was wrong. They give a shit about geting interrupted during their 3 hour lunches by journalists.</p>
<p>I got a call on my mobile shortly after this press inquiry. It was the detective in charge of our case. He made it clear we were on his shit list for talking to the press and being prodded to do his job. He told me he was making our case a low priority for making it “political”.</p>
<p>Political? WTF? It took me a while to figure out that i’d wandered into some kind of francophone/anglophone thing. Something to do with which newspaper made the call. Fuck I can’t even figure out the politics in my own country much less Canada’s .</p>
<p>But I do know this. Every country has rivalries between the various levels of city/state/county/provincial/national police. I needed to literally make it a Federal case. This detective and these police were not gonna do shit. So I might as well make there lives miserable. I was in Toronto by this point so it was easy to find how to do this. One of our friends in Toronto worked for the Crown’s attorney office. Basically I made a complaint to federal Canadian authorities that the police in Montreal were not doing there job, and the detectives conduct was completely unprofessional. About 2pm the next night I get aapoplectic call from someone I assume is the same detective. He is now lapsing into mostly french to to chew me out, but apparently to emphasize his points he has to cross back into english to say “mother fucker” and “shit list’.</p>
<p>I would think that a grand language like french; the language of Sartre, Baudelaire and Tocqueville; the language in which Bastiat debated Proudhon, the language in which Galois wrote the foundations of Abstract Algebra; and the language of Monty Python’s famous Flying Sheep sketch; this language would have a word for “shit list”. Apparently not.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/10/10/63-everybody-gets-one-free-fck-montreal-cvb-gets-ripped-off/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/jxM3M7pgkJY/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>Regardless. I was on this guys shit list. As I went through the process of trying to get our insurance money we continued to spar. Copies of the police report of course were needed. Well just put the insurance adjuster in touch with Detective Liste de Merde. Et Voila more angry phone calls! and on and on it went.</p>
<p>Finally I just wrote the fucker into this song.</p>
<p>Yes there’s more to this song than that. It’s got a reference to the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century"> Project For A New American Century.</a> It’s got the Inland Empire, it’s got the usual self-deprecating remarks about our musical career and fortunes and of course “papa was a preacher and mama was a go-go dancer”</p>
<p>This song was not designed to be thought about much. It is what it is.</p>
<p>Musically the most interesting thing about the song is that after we recorded it, live it evolved to have a much better ending. I prefer the live version to the album version. perhaps some of you will be so kind as to post a link to a good archive.org version.</p>
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<p>*actually this was the Spot 1019 motto. CVB never had one before that.<br><strong> Everybody Gets One For Free</strong></p>
<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[A]</strong> I talk to the waitress<br>
Yeah she was pretty hot<br>
She gave me her number<br>
But that’s all I got</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[D]</strong> Everybody gets one, everybody gets one for<strong>[A]</strong> free<br><strong>[G]</strong> Everybody gets one,<strong>[D]</strong> everybody ‘cept for<strong>[A]</strong> me</p>
<p>Started a conversation<br>
About the United Nations<br>
Had to use imagination<br>
She was talking about reincarnation</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Stayed up all night drinking<br>
When I should’ve been home<br>
Had a vision of the blessed virgin<br>
Butt now I’m not sure at all</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL: CHORDS AS VERSE THEN CHORUS]</strong></p>
<p>Miguel Urbiztondo<br>
Backstage New Year’s Eve<br>
When the policeman came to look for him<br>
He said “What the fuck do you know?”</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>She from the Inland Empire<br>
Her dad was an umpire<br>
Her mama was a go-go dancer<br>
Everybody got in for free</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL: CHORDS AS VERSE THEN CHORUS]</strong></p>
<p>I know that our last record<br>
Didn’t do very well<br>
But now we’re back on the block<br>
With our freedom rock?</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>The Montreal policeman<br>
Wouldn’t get off his ass<br>
So all your shit was stolen<br>
What’s the matter with that?</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>I got a yellow carnation<br>
I got some Kevlar pants<br>
I got a new American Century<br>
Do the freedom-hater’s dance</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>I was driving in my car<br>
It was filled up with yams<br>
For no obvious reason<br>
That’s just who I am</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br>
Last call<br>
Find the one</p>
<p>Everybody gets one<br>
Everybody gets one ‘cept for me<br>
Everybody gets one ‘cept for me<br>
‘cept for me</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86193
2010-10-08T20:00:00-04:00
2019-03-08T12:43:52-05:00
#62 I Could Be Wrong I Could Be Right-Cracker. Just your usual southern rock track set on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/york-or-big-medicine.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/york-or-big-medicine.jpg?w=343&h=599" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="599" width="343" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Member of the Lewis and Clark expedition the explorer York. The Arikara Indians of South Dakota called him “Big Medicine” and the nickname stuck.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-i-could-be-wrong-i-could-be-right.mp3">07 I Could Be Wrong I Could Be Right</a><br></strong></p>
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<p>I stated before some songs are coherent stories that can be explained easily. Some are just collections of words that sound good together that evoke a mood or sentiment. And others are somewhere in between. I Could Be Wrong I Could Be Right is one of the the latter.</p>
<p>On one level it’s a playful jab at my wife and manager Velena, and our very complex personal and business relationship. We’ve known each other since 1989 but finally got together in 2006. On another level it is about Sacagawea and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)">York</a> the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. In my song they have a volatile and semi-secret affair.</p>
<p>York was Clark’s slave. But on the expedition York was purportedly treated the same as any other member of the expedition. Given weapons, full voice and voting rights on all major decisions made by the explorers. By all accounts a very intelligent man and superb outdoorsman he was also of quite large stature. The Arikara Indians were duly impressed and gave him the Nickname “Big Medicine” and this name stuck.</p>
<p>Other accounts portray “Big Medicine” as being quite the stud. Fathering many Indian children along the way. Some of these reports seem quite fanciful or at least exaggerated. They would seem to me to be products of racial stereotypes of the age. But there does seem to be some consensus this is at least partially true.</p>
<p>The sad thing about York is that when he returned to the United States he lost all of his freedoms and returned to being a slave. He petitioned Clark for his freedom but it took at least 10 years (if at all. accounts vary) before he was finally granted his freedom. While he was on the Lewis and Clark expedition his wife was “sold” to another family in Kentucky. He supposedly died of Cholera in Tennessee while on his way to rejoin Clark’s household after his business in Tennessee failed.</p>
<p>But there is also a fictional ending that made the rounds. A bit of folklore it would seem. But the fictional ending is that he is freed and he makes his way back to Wyoming where he lives out his days with the Crow Indians. (Another ex-slave may have lived with the Crows about the this time)</p>
<p>But what’s interesting about this story is what it says about “us”. That is our ancestors of the 19th century. We knew that the voyage of discovery was the only time that York was truly free and treated as an equal. And in some way we were ashamed of that.</p>
<p>So “Sacagawea and Big Medicine” in the song is a big messy composite: forbidden love, unrequited love, freedom, a crowning achievement, one’s zenith, and a sad slow fall, the fictional happy ending like a fevered dream.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/lewis-clark-trail.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/lewis-clark-trail.gif?w=450&h=277" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="277" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Agency Group’s Proposed Routing For Camper Van Beethoven / Built to Spill 1806 Tour.</strong></p>
<p>Like Lewis,Clark and Big Medicine returning home, Camper Van Beethoven was working their way from Portland Oregon back into Montana. At some point we crossed the bitterroots and Velena was wearing tall brown boots and I made the rhyme connection in my head. I wrote it down somewhere. I keep a collection of overheard things and phrases in a notebook, or sticky notes on my desktop. They sometimes become a songs.</p>
<p>Later that year Johnny and Sal were playing this lick at soundcheck. We were in Berlin. (Note to self: this is the 3rd song created at sound check in germany. must tour there more often.). I thought it was cool so i recorded it into my macbook as usual.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/blue-berlin-riff.mp3">blue berlin riff</a></p>
<p>But it wasn’t until late 2007 that we actually made this into a song.</p>
<p>Oh and the chant over the riff? I think subliminally I was influenced by the theme song to The Wire. ”Way Down in the Hole”. I didn’t even think about it till much later. But this was around the same time I was watching a lot of The Wire.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/snoop.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/snoop.jpg?w=450&h=323" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="323" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Snoop is an excellent carpenter. Especially with a nail gun.</strong></p>
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<p><strong>I Could Be Wrong I Could Be Right.</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[E]</strong> Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br><strong>[A]</strong> Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br><strong>[E]</strong> Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the<strong>[D]</strong> devil come out and keep you<strong>[G]</strong> for<strong>[D]</strong> his<strong>[E]</strong> own</strong></p>
<p><strong>Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the devil come out and keep you for his own</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[E]</strong> Long brown hair and tall brown boots<br><strong>[D]</strong> You came across the bitterroots<br><strong>[A]</strong> To finally take what you knew was always<strong>[E]</strong> yours</strong></p>
<p><strong>I was glad to go along<br>
I didn’t think it’d be too long<br>
‘Fore you were bored and on to the next big thing</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHORUS:<br><strong>[C]</strong> I could be wrong, I could be right<br><strong>[G]</strong> You and I so much alike<br><strong>[D]</strong> The devil tried to keep us far a-<strong>[E]</strong>-part<br><strong>[C]</strong> Now i was stoned and i was high<br><strong>[G]</strong> But everything it felt so right<br><strong>[D]</strong> I could be wrong, I could be could be<strong>[E]</strong> right</strong></p>
<p><strong>Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the devil come out and keep you for his own</strong></p>
<p>Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the devil come out</p>
<p>Sacawagea big medicine<br>
Had a thing they knew must end<br>
When they finally saw the western sea</p>
<p>I was glad to go along<br>
‘Cause the best laid plans are always wrong<br>
They come apart they always end in misery</p>
<p>I could be wrong, I could be right<br>
What’s wrong with you is also right<br>
There should be laws to keep us far apart<br>
Now i was high and i was stoned<br>
I didn’t want to be alone<br>
Is that so wrong, is that so wrong<br>
It must be right</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK - CHORDS AS CHORUS]</strong></p>
<p>I could be wrong, I could be right.</p>
<p>Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the devil come out and keep you for his own</p>
<p>Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Darling don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole please<br>
Baby don’t you go don’t you look down in that hole<br>
‘Cause the devil come out and keep you for his own</p>
<p>I could be wrong, I could be right<br>
You and I so much alike<br>
The devil tried to keep us far apart<br>
Now i was high and i was stoned<br>
I didn’t want to be alone<br>
Is that so wrong, is that so wrong<br>
It must be right</p>
<p><strong>[CHORDS CONTINUE AS CHORUS TO FADE]</strong><br>
I could be wrong, I could be right<br>
I could be wrong, I could be right<br>
I could be wrong, I could be<br>
I could be right</p>
<p> </p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86160
2010-10-08T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:42-05:00
Full interview and performance with the Holdsteady.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/blshabbasshirt1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/blshabbasshirt1.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a>No 300 songs today. Walter don’t roll on shabbas.<br>
But here’s the full The Hold Steady Interview.</p>
<p><a href="http://http://radio-va.com/2010/10/09/david-lowery-interviews-the-hold-steady/">http://radio-va.com/2010/10/09/david-lowery-interviews-the-hold-steady</a>/</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86080
2010-10-06T20:00:00-04:00
2024-01-03T14:12:40-05:00
#61 My Life is Totally Boring Without You, The Good Life- Cracker, Don Smith and The Heartbreakers.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img004-1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img004-1-e1287101578752.jpg?w=450&h=538" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="538" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Cracker Producer Don Smith. A Very Young Don Smith 1981. </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-my-life-is-totally-boring-without-you.mp3">05 My Life Is Totally Boring Without You</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-the-good-life.mp3">01 The Good Life</a></p>
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<p>Although most of Gentleman’s Blues was recorded at the legendary Bearsville studios near woodstock NY a few of the tracks were radically revamped in Agoura Hills at Don Smith’s studio “Costalot” (see #48 Friends).</p>
<p>We were supposed to be mixing by the time we got to Don Smith’s place but mixing is a very loose concept when you are working with Don. It might suddenly involved singing the lead vox again, putting a new drum track on the song, or in the case of these two songs, completely stripping them back to the acoustic guitar part, vocal and drums, then starting anew.</p>
<p>When I walked into the studio I had expected to see Benmont Tench (from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) there working on a hammond and piano part. This was planned. Benmont had been playing on our records since the very first album. (he is actually on Kerosene Hat uncredited).But I did not expect Mike Campbell to be there. Mike was playing a plinky muted guitar part to the track “My Life” that along with Benmont Tench’s bubbly organ part the song was completely transformed. And much to my relief no longer sounded like a b-side or an outtake. I had begun to worry that this song was living up to part of it’s title. Boring. I guess Don had been thinking the same thing cause he, Mike and Benmont pretty much rearranged the song.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mike-campbell.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mike-campbell.jpg?w=432&h=432" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="432" width="432" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Mike Campbell</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/benmonttench.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/benmonttench.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Benmont Tench sets The Controls to the heart of the San Fernando Valley by way of Florida.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p>Okay, Okay, this is probably cool. At least that’s what I was thinking. Johnny’s part was still in there and he generally doesn’t get too territorial about sharing the guitar space when it’s one of his heroes like Mike Campbell.</p>
<p>But then what started to happen next really started to make me wonder what Johnny was gonna think.Don put up the track to The Good Life. And again he stripped it back to acoustic guitar drums and lead vocal.This song hadn’t really been bothering me or anything but I did feel unfinished in some way. It certainly didn’t feel like a lead off track or a single.</p>
<p>Johnny had a fairly rock lead at the top of the song, and also in the middle. It seemed like a nice album track.But Don was just listening to the song Acoustic guitar vocals and drums. He was doing his patented head bob, which everyone who worked with him knows.</p>
<p>Bounce your head up and down in time on the quarter notes, but alternate which speaker you are looking at on the 2 and the 4. It’s very dramatic if you have a big ‘fro like Don did. And it usually meant he was digging the track. The groove.</p>
<p>He hadn’t been doing this before. Not till he stripped it back.”Mike just play along”.Mike Cambell nearly immediately-say within 8 bars-is playing the signature riff that starts the song. This is not the what Johnny had played. In fact Mike probably hadn’t heard anything that Johnny had played.</p>
<p>“yeah man that’s great” Don encouraged him.</p>
<p>Only it didn’t sound like that. Don was from Texas,his accent and his unknown ethnicity made him nearly impossible to understand unless you’d worked with him for a few weeks. So that probably sounded like:</p>
<p>“yahhmamnumuh dat n grayheyy”</p>
<p>And yep it was great except I was thinking “Uh oh, what is Johnny gonna think”. Shit. It transformed the song. It made it way better.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img032-3.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img032-3.jpg?w=450&h=304" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="304" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Don Smith. No head bob.</strong></p>
<p>Now before you think Don Smith was some arrogant producer guy who just never consulted the band and did whatever he wanted, let me tell you he was not. I’d never really seen him do anything like this before with Cracker. In fact Don usually never told anybody what to play other than the most general suggestions.</p>
<p>“lay it back a little”</p>
<p>“what if you straightened out the drums”</p>
<p>or his classic</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s done yet. Not sure why. Let’s move on to something else”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/michaelurbano.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/michaelurbano.jpg?w=320&h=425" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="425" width="320" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Michael Urbano. </strong></p>
<p>If a song didn’t work he just moved on to something else. Always. Don was more about vibe than anything. Setting the mood. Great sounds of course. Amazing 3D stereo soundstage in his mixes. But yeah he worked on some entirely hidden or unseen level. As drummer Michael Urbano said in about Don</p>
<p><em>As I get older I’m finding most of my greatest lessons were taught to me years ago when I wasn’t looking. Don Smith was the best. He didn’t construct records on a grid. He created a space, to conjure a vibe, then captured the beast out of thin air and trapped it onto a tape or a hard drive. All with a Cheshire Cat smile on his face.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img009-2.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img009-2.jpg?w=450&h=292" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="292" width="450" /></a></em></p>
<p><strong>Cracker and crew during recording of Kerosene Hat. Pioneertown CA. Bugs, Michael Urbano, Davey Faragher, David Lowery, Don Smith, Johnny Hickman and Rich Hasel.</strong></p>
<p>So I’d never seen Don so deliberately take a song apart and construct it anew. AND I was freaking out about what Johnny would say when he got to the studio.By the time Johnny did get to the studio, a totally different song had been constructed. Benmont had added some good atmospheric keys. It was sounding like.. well a little like a single.</p>
<p>When Johnny did walk in Don just acted like it was no big deal.</p>
<p>“Hey Johnny check this out,… check what Mike just played … it’s awesome, awesome”</p>
<p>(which actually sounded like this to the rest of you mortals:</p>
<p>“haayfffjjunheeeehnbijflajljannzcyerjkhgdhfkjsahfklhkgjh”)</p>
<p>Johnny cocked his head to one side. Like he knew the song. it was familiar but couldn’t quite name the song. I was on pins and needles wondering what was gonna happen.</p>
<p>“Oh my god” when the vocals came in and he finally figured out it was the good life. ”That’s way better than my old part”. He then slapped Don on the back, or high fived him or something suitably manly.</p>
<p>That’s the great thing about Johnny, he can keep his ego out of the way. If it makes the song better it makes the song better. And he quickly grabbed a guitar and added that slide answer to Mike Campbells guitar lick. Second fiddle to Mike Campbell? No big deal.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-43.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-43.jpg?w=450&h=286" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="286" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Don hard at work behind the console. Gentleman’s Blues era.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img029-21.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/img029-21-e1287116933966.jpg?w=450&h=306" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="306" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>I think this was on the patio at his home studio he joking referred to as Cost-a-lot.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-401.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/untitled-401.jpg?w=450&h=314" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="314" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Don probably mid early 1980′s. His sauve period. </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/don-late.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/don-late.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Don Smith 2009. Scarf? Why not. If anyone calls me a pussy remember I’ve got Keith Richard’s knife.</strong></p>
<p>Don Smith died on Jan 26th 2010. A few hours after my father died. It was quite a sad day. In many ways Don was like a father figure to me also. At least when it came to making records. (Dennis Herring of course is more like a mischievous big brother).</p>
<p>Don had an incredible discography as an Audio Engineer and Producer. His most famous stuff and the stuff he was most proud of was his work with Keith Richards and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His friendship with Keith, Benmont and Mike Campbell was quite deep.</p>
<p>When Johnny Hickman Davey Faragher and I drove out to meet him in 1991 he was working at a small studio in the far western valley. Chatsworth which primarily known as the hollywood of the porno industry.</p>
<p>We walked from the bright sunlight into the dim room. There were candles lit. It smelled of burnt sage, and the walls were covered with tapestries and all manners of vibe making gear*.</p>
<p>Don was wearing a flat brimmed cowboy hat of some kind. His ample curly hair was sticking out on either side of the hat, he was smoking a<a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bestcigarprices.com/shopcontent/images/schimmelpenninck_cigarillos.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bestcigarprices.com/cigar-directory/schimmelpenninck/schimmelpenninck-cigarillos-cigar/440-18064.htm&usg=__JA19IKaoPLW7Pwvn8F9jMpF0yZk=&h=360&w=480&sz=179&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=vsXxPzdsAk972M:&tbnh=157&tbnw=209&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dschimmelpenninck%2Bcigars%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1093%26bih%3D636%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=467&vpy=353&dur=4474&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=143&ty=141&ei=ZNmtTOOpDcL58AbLoLy-BA&oei=ZNmtTOOpDcL58AbLoLy-BA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0">schimmelpenninck</a> cigarillo. There was a large switchblade on the mixing desk. Open. It appeared to have a real pearl handle and was perhaps jeweled. He was like some kind of New Orleans voodoo priest.</p>
<p>“Nice knife”</p>
<p>“yeah keith gave it to me”</p>
<p>Of course i didn’t really understand what he said. It would be a couple weeks until I could understand his accent.</p>
<p>He popped in the Big Dirty Yellow demo tape and went straight to St. Cajetan. He started blasting it through the studio big speakers. The gist of what he was saying seemed to be he really liked this track. Every once in a while the assistant engineer would interject and interpret Don for us.</p>
<p>We left after an hour or so. As we drove off we started discussing him. Davey Faragher immediately started referring to him as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gris-gris_(talisman)">gris gris</a>“. gris gris sometimes is used to refer to an amulet or bag that believers in Voodoo wear to keep them safe from bad spells.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/schimmelpenninck_cigarillos.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/schimmelpenninck_cigarillos.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>“I like that gris gris guy. we should do a record with him”</p>
<p>“yeah he seemed pretty cool”</p>
<p>“what was his accent?”</p>
<p>“I dunno, new orleans? cajun? mexican?”</p>
<p>We drove along for a while then I finally asked the question that we were all wondering but were afraid to ask.</p>
<p>“um is he black? or hispanic?”</p>
<p>” I thought he was like indian or something.”</p>
<p>“he’s not asian?”</p>
<p>“asian? his hair!”</p>
<p>“no those yakuza guys always have perms”</p>
<p>“could be jewish, like really sephardic”</p>
<p>“but he wouldn’t be Don Smith”</p>
<p>“maybe that’s like some witness protection name”</p>
<p>“they don’t give witness protection people jobs in hollywood”</p>
<p>This would become a running gag. Why no one ever asked him is also kind of funny. It became a sort of “It’s pat” of ethnicity. And we sort of didn’t want the show to end.</p>
<p>The funny thing was when we had african-american artists in the studio with us, like Charlie Drayton or Steve Jordon we were sure that his language and accent became more african american, and we were also quite sure they were treating him as if he were black in some subtle way.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/bugs-in-studio.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/bugs-in-studio.jpg?w=400&h=284" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="284" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Don’sdoppelgänger.</strong></p>
<p>Then we brought Bugs (#50 the antechamber of hope) into the Kerosene Hat sessions, Don adopted him, as his mini-me. They looked alike, dressed alike and seemed to share some cultural heritage which then led us to assume Don being from Texas was hispanic. They could spend hours discussing the subtle differences in the variety of chiles grown in the Rio Grande Valley. hmm. After the Kerosene Hat sessions, Don always hired Bugs to cook or be in charge of the boxes of “vibe” that he used to decorate the studio.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/paganblackcandle.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/paganblackcandle.gif?w=300&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" /></a></p>
<p>One day I thought I’d help out. I bought a bunch of different candles at some sort of mexican santeria type shop. I was taking the candles out when Don leapt across the room and started pointing at a set of candles like it was a viper.</p>
<p>“get those out of here! get them the fuck out of here!’</p>
<p>He was gesturing at a pair of black candles.</p>
<p>“Are you insane!? No black candles in the studio!”</p>
<p>No black candles. Okay maybe we are back to New Orleans, accadian, creole?</p>
<p>Shortly before we started the Gentleman’s Blues record Don came to visit us in Richmond VA. Johnny wasn’t in town so it was just me and Bob Rupe kicking around town with him. We went to Sound of Music Studios, and a couple other places. It was 4th of July and we finally ended up at The Hole in the Wall, a bar which served as the Sound of Music Lounge. No one was in there. It was the holiday and the heat. The Hole in the Wall had really poor air conditioning.</p>
<p>Don started talking about how he used to come to Virginia in the summers. How hot it was. This was back in the early 60′s.</p>
<p>“Yeah my grandmother, she lived by Roanoke. One time we went into Sears and this was during segregation-”</p>
<p>Okay here it comes i thought. I looked at Bob.</p>
<p>“- and I went over to get a drink out of the water fountain, and and suddenly she slapped the back of my head, almost knocked me down, then she pointed to the sign it said ‘whites only’ “</p>
<p>Bob and I looked at each other. Finally. But wait Don wasn’t finished.</p>
<p>“oops-I mean ’Blacks only’, haha woops meant to say blacks only”</p>
<p>If I hadn’t have been there I would have never believed it. You couldn’t write anything any better.</p>
<p>Don Smith we all miss you. You were perhaps the best audio engineer this country ever produced. A true american treasure. There are legions of engineers, well regarded engineers who learned from you or learned from your works or those you taught. Every young engineer who decorates a recording studio with your voodoo vibe and tapestries, because that’s what Rick Rubin does, should know he got that from you. You were also just a great all around human being. Our lives are totally boring without you around.</p>
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<p><strong>My Life Is Totally Boring Without You.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br>
[D]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong><br><strong>[ending:]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong></p>
<p>My life is totally boring without you around<br>
These days, they fade to another; I want you around<br>
So I’d like to say<br>
That I’m better off,<br>
I’m happier this way…</p>
<p>But my life is totally empty without you around<br>
Well my life is totally boring without you</p>
<p>Well I fell, but you fell much farther, I was envious<br>
Around here, everyone loves you, cuz you are insane<br>
So we started a band,<br>
owe it all to our fans,<br>
went somewhere near the top…</p>
<p>My life is totally empty without you around<br>
Yeah my life is totally boring without you</p>
<p><strong>The Good Life</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Em]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>This holy circus camp<br>
Aladdin and his lamp<br>
A feverish daydreams and suerte loca<br>
My face in magazines<br>
The lesbian James Dean<br>
I got all I ever wanted</strong></p>
<p><strong>So I don’t mind saying<br>
This is how the good life’s supposed to be<br>
The good life for you, for me<br>
Well I don’t mind saying<br>
This is how the good life’s supposed to be<br>
The good life for you, for me</strong></p>
<p><strong>Down miles of empty road<br>
With acolytes in tow<br>
You could be Persephone<br>
And pitching through the glass<br>
A drunken trapeze act<br>
Well you got all you ever wanted</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>So I don’t mind saying<br>
This is how the good life’s supposed to be<br>
The good life for you, for me<br>
Well I don’t mind saying<br>
This is how the good life’s supposed to be<br>
The good life for you, for me<br></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/86027
2010-10-05T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:42-05:00
What you’re missing-Original demo. Original words.
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<p><strong>Camper Van Beethoven Original Line-up. Jonathan Segel left the band in 1988 but rejoined when the band reformed.</strong></p>
<p>No real 300 songs post today. I’m working on a rather involved one at the moment. To tide you over. One of the most controversial of the cracker songs. I mean controversial cause some people loved it and some people hate it. It was the album closer and so it was supposed to be fairly silly.<br>
actually the whole thing is kind of a rip off of the band War.</p>
<p>Which at first seems like a weird connection except that War was a multi-racial multi-ethnic Southern Californian band (with an english lead singer and a dutch harmonica player) that was enormously popular in The Inland Empire where me and Johnny grew up. You can hear the War influence better on this demo.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/01-what-youre-missing-demo.mp3">01 what you’re missing demo</a></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85954
2010-10-04T20:00:00-04:00
2018-07-20T06:06:23-04:00
#60 I’m So Glad She Ain’t Never Coming Back- How an unfinished jam became a song. Other unfinished unreleased outtakes.
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<p><strong>The Cracker Demi Song Vault.</strong></p>
<p>So continuing where I left off with post 59.</p>
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<p>I had a few more thoughts on the demi-songs that populated the early CVB records. I said after we went to virgin most of these went away. Part of this was a function of being on a major label instead of on our own imprint. But not in the way you imagine. Typical major label contracts pay you songwriting royalties on only 10 songs no matter how many you put on the record. (it gets pro-rated). So we were much less inclined to put a bunch of smaller demi-songs onto the albums. Now we preferred to hold them for an oddities collection or for B-sides. And there is some minor record label pressure to not put really weird stuff on your albums. Although considering how challenging things like “The humid press of day” ”opening theme” and “light from a cake” are, we never got much hassle from virgin.</p>
<p>So basically these demi-songs went away until we put out <em>CVB Is Dead Long Live CVB. </em>At least for Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>But then there is the matter that we became much more expert at turning weird ideas into actual songs. Certainly with CVB and also with Cracker. Be My Love, Guarded By Moneys, Eyes of Mary are all pretty strange demos that got turned into some real songs. But perhaps the best Cracker example of this is the song “I’m so glad she ain’t never coming back”</p>
<p>I returned from dinner to find Miguel Urbiztondo (Drums) David Immergluck (Guitar) and Johnny Hickman, sitting on the floor in the studio jamming. Miguel had some tablas and David and Johnny were playing acoustic guitars.</p>
<p>Always be recording.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/immy-mig-groove.mp3">i</a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/immy-mig-groove.mp3">mmy mig jh groove</a></p>
<p>I flipped open my ibook and just recorded their groove straight into the computer.</p>
<p>later I edited it into a little structure and sang some words to it. We also did a few minor overdubs. et voila</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-im-so-glad-she-aint-never-coming-back.mp3">07 I’m So Glad She Ain’t Never Coming Back</a></p>
<p>But many remain unfinished demi-songs or whatever you call them. They have not disappeared. we generally try to use them at some point or another, work them into another song. But they are still out there. Here are a few</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/02-dont-hear-a-hit-boys-drum-machine.mp3">02 don’t hear a hit boys (drum machine)</a></p>
<p>This is from around 2001. It’s basically Johnny Hickman, John Morand and myself Jamming to a drum machine loop. probably started when the click track ended and one of the saved or demo drum machine loops came in. There may have been some pre-mediation. That is we may have set up to record that piano part or bass part. We kept it because we kept thinking it was gonna turn into a song. But after 10 years i doubt it.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/08-live-at-bombay.mp3">Infidel sorcerers of the air</a></p>
<p>This was a melody i was working on around the time I was doing greenland demos. It’s Miguel on drums, probably david immergluck on guitar, and maybe matt trowbridge on keys. It sort of devolve into this space jam. Really it could have been a monks of doom song.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/01-pillow-pt-1.mp3">classy dames and able gents</a></p>
<p>This is a little collaboration that Lauren Hoffman, Alan Weatherhead (slide, pedal steel keyboards) and myself whipped up one night. Lauren pretty much improvised the words. Again the intention was to turn this into a more structured song, but I’ve always wondered if it would have the same feeling if it got turned into a real song.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/peppermint-mind.mp3">peppermint mind</a></p>
<p>I had a little bit of this carbon leaf (I produced one of their albums) song in my sampler. I looped it and started jamming on it with various synths and exotic instruments. I think it was supposed to be something for the New Roman Times record. For various reasons I put it aside and never did anything with it.</p>
<p>Finally the last three song were untitled so i whimsically made a cryptic reference to an organization. First one to figure it out the name of the organization and what they do (did) gets a CVB or Cracker Souvenir.</p>
<p>Finally I stumbled across this one song, that i had completely forgotten about. It’s so weird or good depending on how you look at it, i’m gonna use it as a B-side for my solo album that comes out Feb 1st.</p>
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<p><strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> Saw my baby at the autumn dance<br>
Dancing with her new boy friend<br>
Saw my baby in her new beau’s car<br>
She’s the<strong>[D]</strong> pride of any<strong>[G]</strong> man</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[G]</strong> Now I don’t mind and I don’t cry<br>
‘Cause I’m<strong>[C]</strong> living on the mountain top<strong>[G]</strong><br>
The wind might blow through the cracks at night<br>
And I<strong>[D]</strong> know she ain’t ever coming back<br>
I don’t mind and I don’t cry<br>
I’m living in a log pine shack<br>
My shotgun keeps me warm at night<br>
And I know she ain’t ever coming back</p>
<p>Saw my baby at the autumn dance<br>
She was dancing with a big ring on<br>
Saw my baby in her new beau’s car<br>
She’s the pride of any man</p>
<p>Saw my baby at the bridal shack<br>
She was looking for a wedding dress<br>
Saw my baby at the dry goods store<br>
I’m so glad she ain’t ever coming back</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85876
2010-10-04T13:15:07-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:42-05:00
#59 Stairway to Heavan (sic)- In Praise of Half Baked Ideas and Unfinished things. The importance of not being earnest.
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<p><strong>“C amper Van Beethoven” II and III. I think the C fell off the paste up board and was incorrectly lined up again. Camper Van Beethoven placed the Star of David on the album for no other reason than to confuse people. The symbol has such heavy meaning while this record was purposely devoid of any coherent meaning, messages or interpreta</strong><strong>tion.</strong> <strong>On Subsequent pressings the star was removed after we were hammered by Rough Trade about the symbol. They were worried that the obliqueness of our songs and the record would eventually lead to terrible mis-interpretations of our intent. Some sort of radical zionist or anti-semitic interpretation of one our songs. who knows.</strong></p>
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<p>Part of the charm of camper van beethovens earliest records that they sometimes contained half baked ideas, studio experiments and things that were really only partially finished.</p>
<p>Some might disagree. But when I look back on these records I think that it was cool we had the self confidence to not take things so seriously. Most young artists tweeze their records to death. Over polish and over arrange each song. They remove every little imperfection. They constantly fret how each song will be perceived. We did none of this. As noted above we put one of the most <em>meaningful</em> symbols of the 20th century on the cover of II and III for no apparent meaning.</p>
<p>In 1985 and 1986 underground rock music was a very serious business to most of our friends and peers. Lyrics were serious. The music was serious. Everything was very important and burdened with meaning. We were very aware of this.</p>
<p>I noted this in earlier posts that Camper Van Beethoven was purposely messing with that notion right from the start. From the choice of the band name, to the non-sensical “Take the skinheads bowling”. We felt it our mission to be seriously unearnest.</p>
<p>But part the way through the second album and especially on the third album we started doing this in a different way. We started including weird sonic experiments and including them in the record. Half finished songs. We included these also. They weren’t bullshit filler, but neither were they 100% serious endeavors. Some were accidents.Like putting the tape on the reel upside down. so the wrong tracks played and were backwards.</p>
<p>We came to believe that if we tried too hard to arrange these accidents and turn them into a real song we would ruin the original flawed yet briefly beautiful idea.</p>
<p>Others were songs we felt just weren’t enough of an idea to be a real song of proper length and scope. So instead of struggling to make them a second rate “song” with lyrics and a standard verse chorus verse chourus bridge chorus outro structure, we let them be as they were.</p>
<p>We WERE earnest about some things. We had the earnest belief that we were creating a sort of demi-song, an overlooked and under appreciated form of music.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-turtlehead.mp3">04 Turtlehead</a></p>
<p>The first entry is a Chris Molla penned ditty. A “small idea” I remember him terming it. A small spinning tension. Release in the repeated abrupt stops. An explosive atonal bridge. Then release in the repeated abrupt stops. No words. The title ? I have no idea.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/12-circles.mp3">12 Circles</a></p>
<p>Circles was created by listening to the song the song Oh No backwards. We learned the structure and kind of played along with it. In the A and C sections. We added a few incidental melodies with guitar and keyboard but nothing that could be considered a focal point an actual melodic theme that ties the song together. The only part of the song that makes an effort at being a real song is the B section where we let the words to chorus play backwards.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/13-were-all-wasted-and-were-wasting-all-your-time.mp3">13 We’re All Wasted and We’re Wasting All Your Time</a></p>
<p>This was also done at about the same time as circles. This is jonathan and victor singing along to Take The Skinheads Bowling backwards. I thin anthony guess or chris molla is also drumming along with it. It’s got a sort of reggae rock steady feel. weird. But again. Its just a thrown away chorus. Perfectly joyful and mischievous.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/13-dustpan.mp3">13 Dustpan</a></p>
<p>This hard driving collection of guitar chords changes and arpeggios would have been used by most bands for the basis for a song with lyrics. Even CVB in a more traditional mood would have tied it all together with an instrumental melody line. Neither of these happened. It was left this way.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/17-cattle-reversed.mp3">17 Cattle (reversed)</a></p>
<p>Another song that contains what would normally be a good set of riffs, an A and B section that should have made a good basis for a psychedelic blues song that an early led zeppelin or fleetwood mac might have played. There should have been some robert plant hobbit rock lyrics over the top of this. but no we were content with the “response” lines of the guitars. The fact the “call” vocal lines are missing qualify this as a demi- song. Arguing against that is the strange interlocked guitar parts in the B section. They are of two different lengths so they phase against each other. This is more interesting and makes this part of the song a more full fledged instrumental. The title of this song came from a randomly drawn celtic rune. (kind of like tarot cards) we went through a period of naming songs in this manner. Abundance (tarot card) The fool (tarot card).</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/16-zztop-goes-to-egypt.mp3">16 Zztop Goes to Egypt</a></p>
<p>This song really doesn’t belong in this category. The only reason i put it in this category is that it doesn’t have two traditional elements of a fully fledged CVB song. A repeated consistent melody or lyrics. The main feature of the song is jonathans multiple tracks of modal violin noodlings. The song slowly builds in intensity. After the crescendo it pedals and slowly decays. That is the arc of the song. Building tension a climax and decay. It is however the most successful of our melody less psychedelic demi-songs. People always shout out for it at shows.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-five-sticks.mp3">03 Five Sticks</a></p>
<p>This is pretty much ambiguity song backwards. Or parts of it. It was the result of putting the reel of tape on the machine upside down. We made a stereo mix of it and then figured out how to play along with it. It has a strange beauty. Like an ancient text in a lost language. Untranslatable. I assume we called it 5 sticks to continue the reference to Led Zeppelin’s fourth effort. The Led Zeppelin album features a track called 4 sticks. get it? I mentioned in an earlier post we always considered this album our 4th album. The second album was both the second and third album hence the curious title II and III. It was recorded in two different sessions.</p>
<p>Also while on the subject. We toyed with using symbols as the album title. Just like Led Zeppelin. However we did not. What we did do was give the album a title that no one could find. Unless you were looking very closely. The album does have a title. The title is “Soviet Spies Swim Upstream Disguised as Trout” It’s right there in the liner notes. And on etched in the inner groove of the first run of vinyl. We titled it this way because we had an obsessive fan that would write us nearly everyday. In one of the letters she (?) said she dreamed the next Camper Van Beethoven album was titled “Soviet Spies Swim Upstream Disguised as Trout”. et voila.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-surprise-truck.mp3">07 Surprise Truck</a></p>
<p>This was simply a damn good riff that didn’t want to have a B section or anything other musical variatiion attached to it. Relentless with just some off the cuff bullshit lyrics about “the surprise truck”. (the “surprise truck” was the apparently the literal translation of hezbollahs code term for their then novel suicide bomb trucks).</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/08-stairway-to-heaven-sic.mp3">08 Stairway To Heaven (sic)</a></p>
<p>So Led Zeppelin’s 4th and untitled obliquely titled record contained Stairway to Heaven. Well we decided we needed a track of approximately the same name. Of course we changed the spelling and added “sic” (Spelling incorrect). Largely because we had all just read Hammer of the Gods and we’re pretty sure Peter Grant or some english thug who worked for Led Zep would show up and break our legs. This track is the most accidental. It starts with a live recording of CVB playing an after hours illegal show in The Icehouse in Fayetteville Arkansas. It was a very early very slow version of the song processional. Someone is playing a weird toy piano or something. It then goes into a Mao Reminisces about his Days in Southern China. With extra instruments dubbed in forward. Most notably a distorted slide and a dumbek. But the great accident is when the previous song on the real comes in. It’s Folly for two. It’s backwards cause we were always flipping the tape upside down to do these manipulations. We didn’t intend for that last bit to be on the recording but it did.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/09-pope-festival.mp3">09 Pope Festival</a></p>
<p>Another interesting case is this song. It doesn’t really count as a demi-song. but there is something cool about the unfinished non-words and dense repetitive arrangement. Later when it went onto Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart album, it got “produced” it has a better arrangement and structure but becomes quite inconsequential. It was also retitled “The Fool”.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/12-the-fool.mp3">12 The Fool</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/10-interlude.mp3">10 Interlude</a></p>
<p>And then all those demi-songs disappear once we start making our albums for Virgin Records. With one notable exception the track “Interlude” from Key Lime Pie. This is simply Garth Hudson – yes that Garth Hudson from the Band- warming up on his pump organ as the microphones and such are being placed and adjusted.</p>
<p>Later when the band reforms these demi songs these sonic experiments come back into play. Camper Van Beethoven is Dead Long Live Camper Van Beethoven is largely made out of these pieces of music. Tom Flower’s 1500 valves being the most notable piece. The drums are from a reel of drumbeats that Chris pedersen sent to us. The strings are a chopped up bit of Dixie Babylon strings. Jonathan and victor played along to this loop. I’d just watched a show on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park">Bletchley Park</a>. This was Britain’s brilliant codebreaking enterprise in WWII. Thomas Flowers was the unsung hero. He built one of the first working computers if not the very first. It used 1500 valves or tubes. We made up the song in a few hours. Jonathan tagged on a very discouraging message to him from PJ Harvey, rejecting his suggestion she sing on his solo album.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-tom-flowers-1500-valves.mp3">03 Tom Flower’s 1500 Valves</a></p>
<p>finally I hate this part of Texas and Come out to show them are similar type songs from New Roman Times. But we already went into great detail about both of these.</p>
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<p><strong>Tom Flowers 1500 valves</strong></p>
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<pre>Contains recording of a phone message where PJ Harvey rejects music from a tape sent to her by Jonathan Segel.
Further info from David Lowery:
"Thomas Flowers was the British postal service engineer who with Alan Turing built the first (years before the americans) electronic computer (Colossus?), allegedly powered by 1500 valves. I watched a BBC documentary on Bletchley Park some years ago, and i believe these are more or less the historical facts, of course its all a little foggy to me now.
<strong>Bletchley Park</strong> (sic?): the site of english and allied efforts to break german ciphers in W.W.II.
<strong>Cipher Girls</strong>: the corps of young women who were hired to work by hand all the possible permutations once a code was partially broken.
<strong>Monty</strong>: Montgomery.
<strong>Ultra</strong>: the Cipher Girls slang for decoded german communications
<strong>Valve</strong>: English term for Vacuum tube.
<strong>Tunnyfish</strong>: nickname for the german u-boat cipher, apparently the most
difficult to break."</pre>
<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[Esus4]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[A]</strong> Bletchley Park - <strong>[Bm]</strong> what a lark<br><strong>[E]</strong> Cipher girls, they’re <strong>[C#m]</strong> dressed in curls<br>
They <strong>[D]</strong> gave to Monty <strong>[Bm]</strong> the very best of their <strong>[E]</strong> Ultra</p>
<p>And Thomas Flower in his hour,<br>
It’s 1500 valves were powered<br>
And tunnyfish, is permanently broken</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong> (unintelligible echoey voices)</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong> (voice of PJ Harvey):<br><strong>[A]</strong> “Hi Jonathan, this is Polly, <strong>[Bm]</strong> er, got your call, and thanks very much for <strong>[E]</strong> sending that CD and demo tape that Ann? showed my Mum?. Erm, I listened to the <strong>[C#m]</strong> tape and, er, I don’t <strong>[D]</strong> feel that it’s the right kind of #thing for me to <strong>[Bm]</strong> be doing, it’s just not, I don’t feel the <strong>[Esus4]</strong> mood is right for me, so I, <strong>[E]</strong> I’m sure you’ll understand. Erm, it was real good to <strong>[A]</strong> see you the other day. Errm, I-I <strong>[Bm]</strong> hope it all goes well for you, and er, <strong>[A]</strong> keep in touch, get your card? off?, and maybe you’ll find that <strong>[Bm]</strong> recording in Majorca/New Yorker? should last <strong>[A]</strong> through, kind of help proof? some different? songs?. <strong>[Bm]</strong> So, er, yeah, really good to see you Jonathan. <strong>[A]</strong> Take care. Bye.”</p>
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<td><img src="//www.the-van.co.uk/img/bit.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="10" width="15" /></td>
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</tbody></table><br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/camper-van-beethoven/">Camper Van Beethoven</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/cattlereversed/">cattle(reversed)</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/circles/">circles.</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/dustpan/">dustpan</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/five-sticks/">five sticks</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/interlude/">interlude</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/pope-festival/">pope festival</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/stairway-to-heavan-sic/">stairway to heavan (sic)</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/surprise-truck/">surprise truck</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/the-fool/">the fool</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/tom-flowers-1500-valves/">tom flowers 1500 valves</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/turtlehead/">turtlehead</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/were-all-wasted-and-were-wasting-all-your-time/">we're all wasted and we're wasting all your time</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/zz-top-goes-to-egypt/">zz top goes to egypt</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2095/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2095/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2095&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85801
2010-10-02T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:42-05:00
#58 big dirty yellow outtakes. Richmond Oregon Hill addendum.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/oregon-hill.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/oregon-hill.jpg?w=380&h=500" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="500" width="380" /></a></p>
<div>
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<p>A final addendum on the Cracker Big Dirty Yellow period in Oregon Hill. nov 1989 – feb 1993.</p>
<p>We named our house and the demo tape of 20 songs we delivered to virgin Big Dirty Yellow.</p>
<p>There were a few good out takes from that period that never made it onto later records. Yes some were on the fan club CD “Bob’s Car” but that was a limited edition CD. Here they are:</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-china-demo.mp3">02 China (Demo)</a></p>
<p>Mary my girlfriend and then wife, originally lived near the corner of china and pine street. That’s the “china” i’m singing about. Everything else is fairly silly and nonsensical. Note Johnnys beautiful high falsettos. I think we may have vari-speeded them. That is slowed the tape down so he could sing them lower. Them put the tape back up to speed for the mix.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/08-father-winter-demo.mp3">08 Father Winter (Demo)</a></p>
<p>One of Johnny’s bakersfield influence Country rock tunes. The mics are really far away on every track so you can hear the “sound” of that house. You can also hear traffic and birds if you listen carefully.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-china-demo.mp3"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-steves-hornpipe.mp3">07 Steve’s Hornpipe</a></p>
<p>Like i said many of the people in oregon hill came out of the mountains of western Virginia and West Virginia. One of our neighbors was from somewhere out that way. He could play this really spooky minor key mountain fiddle. He was quite good. He and his friend Josh who played accordion worked up this track with us.</p>
<p>Mountain music? truthfully the melody was greek inspired. At the time Mary was working at this Greek Restaurant (Stellas when it was on harrison where edo squid is now). Johnny and I would hit the bar there about closing time. This melody sort of came out of listening to all this traditional greek music. We just gave it a more mountain arrangement. We were in Oregon Hill after all.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-hans-lament-demo.mp3">03 Hans’ Lament (Demo)</a></p>
<p>Another simple instrumental that came out of those demos. It was called Hans’ lament because Johnny’s son Hans was probably only 3 or 4 then. Every time Johnny picked up the mandolin Hans’ wanted to take it from him. So if Johnny attempted to play an entire song it would usually end up with Hans crying.</p>
<div>
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<p><strong>China</strong></p>
<p><strong><br>
Ah Miss<strong>[G]</strong> Mary won’t you<strong>[C]</strong> please<strong>[G]</strong> come home from<strong>[D(7)]</strong> China.<br>
Bring a<strong>[G]</strong> bottle of whisky and a<strong>[C]</strong> tin cup<strong>[G]</strong> for your<strong>[D(7)]</strong> teeth.<br><strong>[Em]</strong> Don’t you sneak<strong>[D]</strong> into the<strong>[G]</strong> back door<strong>[C]</strong> wearing some<strong>[D(7)]</strong> disguise.<br><strong>[Em]</strong> Knock on the<strong>[D]</strong> front door in<strong>[G]</strong> view of the<strong>[C]</strong> Temperance<strong>[D(7)]</strong> Guild.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ah Miss Mary won’t you please come home cause I miss ya.<br>
Your old spinster sister don’t always give good advice.<br>
Look at her she’s in love with that drunken bandy-legged sheriff.<br>
He’ll unzip her pantsuit, but never leave his fat wife</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHORUS:<br>
Ah Miss<strong>[Em]</strong> Mary won’t you<strong>[B]</strong> please come home from<strong>[C]</strong> China.<br><strong>[A]</strong> Come home from<strong>[G]</strong> China.<br><strong>[D]</strong> Come home from<strong>[C]</strong> China<strong>[Am6]</strong>.</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Now that fake old beatnik poet the volunteer fireman.<br>
He don’t care if you come, he don’t care like I do.<br>
He’s in love with his dog and all his volunteer fireman.<br>
And he is afraid to let the end of his versus rhyme.</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<p><strong><strong>[Em]</strong></strong></p>
</div>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85765
2010-10-01T20:00:00-04:00
2017-02-01T15:28:24-05:00
Camper Van Beethoven Racine WI Oct 16th. Good Guys and Bad Guys Video
<p><strong>BAD GUYS</strong></p>
<p>No 300 songs post today. I’m traveling. Instead let’s just have some fun with some jerks first.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rockincd.com">www.rockincd.com</a></p>
<p>This company is buried behind two layers of proxy domain domain registrants. This is for no other purpose to hide their identity and make it difficult to prosecute them for bootlegging. The proxy registration service Whois Guard demands a court order before they will release any information. An unreasonably high bar that is probably in violation of all sorts of ICANN rules. Their web hosting company appears equally sleazy.</p>
<p>These people are blatantly bootlegging artists records for profit. They are selling our shows off this site and paying no royalties of any kind. Yes we have sent the publishing company lawyers after them. I know wilco had to sue them. In the meantime lets fuck with them.</p>
<p>Don’t order anything from them for real. It looks like they do all their responses manually. so just pick something you want to buy. and then just put in a bogus email address. do it a couple of times. Hell do it 30 times if you want. Or just use the web form to write them long notes. anything to waste their time. cause time=money.</p>
<p>I also pointed out to the Zappa estate and Grateful Dead estate that they are being bootlegged. Both of these organizations are highly aggressive</p>
<p>DON’T USE YOUR REAL EMAIL ADDRESS THEY”LL JUST PUT YOU ON A SPAM LIST.</p>
<p>Ann_Al_Aksam@proctoptic.com was my last order. I’m up to about 40 orders now.</p>
<p><strong>GOOD GUYS</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mcauliffes-pub-racine.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mcauliffes-pub-racine.jpg?w=350&h=209" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="209" width="350" /></a></p>
<p>Just a reminder that Camper Van Beethoven will be playing a very special and very intimate show at McAuliffes Pub in Racine WI. Between Chicago and Milwaukee.</p>
<p>Tix available two places.</p>
<p>milwaukee.tickets<br>
Rushmore Records<br>
2635 S Kinnickinnic Ave<br>
Milwaukee, WI 53207<br>
414.481.6040</p>
<p>or at McAuliffes Pub</p>
<p>3700 Meachem Rd<br>
Racine, WI 53405-4600<br>
(262) 554-9695</p>
<p>Now enjoy this very low tech CVB video from 1987 good guys and bad guys.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/Tr6NcfKG8Tc&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1">
<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true">
<param name="wmode" value="opaque">
<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/Tr6NcfKG8Tc&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="350" wmode="opaque"></embed></object></span></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85711
2010-09-30T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
Cracker in Batesville Arkansas Tonight. Also Unreleased Track
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/countrysides.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/countrysides.jpg?w=200&h=200" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="200" width="200" /></a></p>
<p>Cracker is playing in Batesville Arkansas tonight at 8:30 pm.</p>
<p>here is the link:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.batesvillepromotions.com/">http://www.batesvillepromotions.com/</a></p>
<p>But for your listening pleasure here is an unreleased outtake from the Countrysides album</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/she-thinks-i-still-care-81902.mp3">she thinks i still care – cracker-countrysides outtake</a></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85690
2010-09-30T19:30:26-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
#57 Can I Take My Gun Up To Heaven. Hollywood Cemetery. Richmond And Oregon Hill Part 3
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong>Church Hill is on the opposite side of downtown from The Fan and Oregon Hill. But firmly on the East West Axis. Indeed this is the original city center. The city shifted first west than stretched north and south. Leaving the old city center Church Hill isolated from the main life of the City.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/08-can-i-take-my-gun-to-heaven_.mp3">08 Can I Take My Gun To Heaven_</a></p>
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<p>Although Oregon Hill is now considered a neighborhood of Richmond it wasn’t always that way. It had a distinct identity separate from the city. When established during the Reconstruction (the rebuilding and re-industrialization ) of the South after the Civil War it was far west of the City. The neighborhood was established primarily for the workers at the Tredgar Ironworks and the Albemarle Paper company.</p>
<p>The houses in the neighborhood have a distinct look. The rumor I always heard was that they were intended to be only temporary housing for the workers. Hence their simple construction.Very narrow two story houses. A steep staircase at the middle of the house that went up at a 60% angle to conserve space. constructed of wood when most of the rest of the building in the city were brick. The adjoining row houses although separate houses and not “condos” often share continuous floor joists and communal walls. The whole neighborhood has the feel of something you would find in New Orleans or more tellingly some of the old West Virginian Mining towns.</p>
<p>Indeed one rumor or story I have heard over and over again from many Richmonders is that the workers were all recruited from a single village in the mountains of West Virginia because they supported the Union in the Civil War. The reconstruction authorities wanted Yankee loyalists in the factories to foil potential saboteurs. Indeed West Virginia broke away from Virginia and was made a separate state because by and large the folks in the mountain counties of Virginia supported the Union. For various reasons this seems believable to me, but I’ve yet to find any real reliable source that supports this story that the inhabitants of Oregon hill were imported from Appalachia in mass.</p>
<p>Still like all the big cities within a few hundred miles of the Appalachian mountains, Richmond attracted many many West Virginians. They came many in successive waves. Certainly during the reconstruction and industrialization of the southern cities after the civil war. But also during other periods of boom and bust. So the idea that the Oregon Hillbillies- as they are often called- came from west virginia or Appalachia is plausible for many reasons. When I lived there you could hear the neighborhoods distinct accent. It was different than the rest of the city. You could hear the mountain cadence in there speech. Older people used curious mountain phrases and words like ‘ye ought to ‘ or ‘thar’ and the river pronounced not with the pretentious Richmond/Tidewater accent pronunciation: Ruhvuh. it was pronounced River. Like the rest of us.</p>
<p>It was also 100% white neighborhood. Very poor, very working class. Insular and wary of outsiders. Although the wonderful and elegantly decaying houses were magnets for artists hipster and musicians. The students from VCU were also busy colonizing the neighborhood. Blocks of houses were abandoned and condemned. This didn’t stop people from living in them.</p>
<p>If Corry Arnold’s theory of the inverse relation between housing prices and the vitality of a music scene ever needed a case study, it would be oregon hill 1981- 2000. These are the earliest and latest dates by which my (admittedly) small pool of Oregon Hill residents agree there was some music scene based in Oregon Hill. Even if your band practiced on Broad street or Fulton hill, the fact most band members lived in Oregon Hill made oregon hill the center of the scene.</p>
<p>The Fan district another neighborhood of brick homes and with a distinct upper middle class and historic pedigree attracted many students. But the Gestapo-like Fan District Association did not permit any bands to practice (or live music establishments) in it’s domain. Or even near it’s domain. Church Hill the oldest and most historic part of the city was another promising area where artists and students lived, but it was too ghetto to rehearse there. Your gear would get stolen.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/2068196-unique_neighbourhoods-richmond.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/2068196-unique_neighbourhoods-richmond.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>In recent years oregon hill has begun to emulate the fan district. Exhibit A. the flag at the main entrance to the neighborhood. This is in marked contrast to the old bumper sticker you would sometimes see around the neighborhood. <em>Oregon Hill: That better be a tan!</em></strong></p>
<p>So Oregon Hill by default was the hub of the music scene however brief and small. Despite the fact it was an alien in a host body that did not 100% accept it’s presence. Yet it thrived in it’s own way.</p>
<p>It produced only a handful of bands that went onto wider recognition. But I have to say. owning a studio I have empirical quantitative evidence that the Richmond music scene in this period was much more vital than the current period. With the exception of Lamb of God most of the Richmond bands that have had any lasting commercial or cultural impact emerged in that brief period.</p>
<p>Again leaning on Corry’s observations, this was the period when the the city had abundant cheap real estate (mostly in oregon hill and along broad street), but was sufficiently safe (in that area) to support a start-up band ecosystem.</p>
<p>One thing that helped Oregon Hill remain inexpensive while The Fan rapidly gentrified was that it was not considered a “historic” neighborhood for a long time. It is still often dismissed by the local historical societies. Especially the University VCU which coveted the neighborhood for expansion. I suspect this has something to do with Richmonds economic axis being pivoted 90 degrees after the civil war. Oregon Hill was definitely tied into the industries that were part of the “new” North-South trade. It didn’t even exist when there was a East-West trade.</p>
<p>In contrast Church hill and the Fan (with it’s monuments to the confederate war heros) still dream of Richmond’s Antebellum past. These neighborhoods and others further west are where you find the connected families that make up the old money power structures. The lawyers and politicians that broker the deals of the city and state. I have a friend who identifies this social strata as the “skimming” class. His point they aren’t actually adding anything to the GDP of Richmond or the US. They are just simply taking their cut. Much as generations of virginian <em>rentiers</em> that came before them.</p>
<p>Conversely the troublesome carpetbaggers with their US Army, Fort Lee, Defense Supply Depot, railroads, industrial facilities, fancy credit card companies, pharmaceuticals, and bio tech firms all live and work along the north south axis. The poor ones live in places like Oregon Hill, Lakeside or trailer parks along rte 1 south. The prosperous ones live in the gated communities and sparkling suburbs of Chesterfield county. Brandermill. Colonial Heights. As opposed to the “skimmer” class these people are generally involved in thevalue added part of the economy. But I digress.</p>
<p>My point is that Oregon Hill did not represent old Richmond. The old southern aristocracy. It also didn’t represent the old southern poor. It was simply a white working class factory neighborhood remarkably similar to those found in cities like Portland ME, Providence RI, Pittsburgh Philadelphia or Baltimore. Yes it had a southern flavor. But it was it’s working class white trash sensibility that had the greatest influence on Cracker. That’s what Can I Take My Gun Up To Heaven is about.</p>
<p>Yes it gently mocks and praises the inhabitants of this neighborhood at the same time. And how could we not?</p>
<p>The first weekend we had our studio set up we heard a ruckus that was so loud we could hear it while wearing headphones listening to loud guitars. Two different factions in the neighborhood had decided to fight. Well not exactly fight but sort of pretend to fight. Each side had a leader. One guy had a shovel. Another guy had a chain. They were naked to the waist like ancient Celts or Comanches. They were standing in the middle of laurel street daring the other to “come on” . To throw down. To throw the first blow. A crowd of at least a hundred people had gathered to watch.</p>
<p>“I’ll Rock and Roll you Motherfucker!!”</p>
<p>A cheer from most of the crowd.</p>
<p>“Yea and i’ll beat your ass, C’mon C’mon!!”</p>
<p>A cheer from most of the crowd again. Which really doesn’t make sense if you think about it.</p>
<p>Amazingly a single fat white city policeman walked into the crowd and dispersed it. In LA or NYC 25 squad cars and the SWAT team would have responded.</p>
<p>Then of course there was The Prison. Actually I think it was called the Virginia State Penitentiary. I guess I should have mentioned that earlier. Neighborhoods that contain a prison are quite unique. And this was not the city jail i’m talking about. I mean the Prison with death row prisoners. They electrocuted people in that prison. I was at a party in oregon hill one night when the lights dimmed. It was the night they electrocuted a prisoner. It was probably just a co-incidence. There were death row protesters across from the prison sometimes. Sometimes there would be Oregon Hillbilly counter-protestors. One time I saw a guy standing at the corner of belvidere and spring with a sign that simply said “fry him”. People driving home to south side were honking and waving at him. Like he had a sign saying “Go Redskins”.</p>
<p>Anyway sometime during this time we lived in Oregon Hill, they closed the prison and tore it down. Suddenly our whole neighborhood was filled with rats. They brazenly walked around my kitchen. I could scream and stomp and they would hold their ground. They would have had to smoke and feign boredom to seem more disinterested in me. These were some hardened city rats. They’d done time.</p>
<p>There was also dirt woman. He was a sort of local celebrity. A redneck drag queen. Worthy of a John Waters movie. Every year he would wrestle Dave Brockie from GWAR (in costume) for charity. He walked up to Mary once and took a bite of her Ice Cream cone. She gave it to him. ”You eat the rest”.</p>
<p>There was dog man. That’s just what Johnny called him. Cause he was like a dog. He’d sit on his non functioning car in front of his house. Drinking beer and barking or shouting at whoever drove by. Not in an unfriendly way. It was a shout but the important thing was it usually made no sense.</p>
<p>“Hey man it’s going on!”</p>
<p>“That’s what I say!! yep that’s what I say! “</p>
<p>Some nights when buzzed just enough I sensed a profound truth in his seeming inanities. But it was always just out of reach.</p>
<p>We didn’t hang out with the locals. The students, musicians and artists that had moved into the neighborhood were our friends and peers. Most were from northern virginia. They played or listened to punk rock, hardcore metal alternative and indie rock. Some played some quite fey indie-pop. So it wasn’t like we were in some Southern Rock immersion zone.</p>
<p>And a lot of the young oregon hillbillies were picking up on rap, and listened to the more bonehead metal bands. But yeah on any given day you would hear southern rock emanating from someones car or the local bars. Especially the locals only place on the corner of Pine st and china street. That place was rough. (somebody remind me of the name The Chuck Wagon?). Johnny and I loved our dive bars, but even though we were accepted by the locals we only went in there once. We were immediately challenged to a fight so we left.</p>
<p>One night I was driving Mary’s car up Pine street and a guy comes running out of that bar at full speed chased by an angry mob. I didn’t have time to even react and touch the brakes. I hit the guy going about 20 miles an hour, he went up and over the hood of the car. Landed on his feet and kept on running. I stopped to see if he was okay, but one of the locals started shouting at me.</p>
<p>“get outta here or you’ll get what he’s gonna get”</p>
<p>My dream was that one day I’d drive by this bar and hear this song blasting from the jukebox.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>Finally there is an cemetary at the edge of Oregon Hill. It’s called Hollywood Cemetery. It is fairly famous because it has several US presidents and CSA president Jeff Davis buried there. It also has a giant stone pyramid that marks the burial place of 17,000 (?)confederate soldiers. Many people assume that the song Hollywood Cemetery is referring to Hollywood California. It is not. It refers to this graveyard. In oregon hill it’s presence is overwhelming. The whole neighborhood should be filled with ghosts. The protagonist sings the song from texas. His lost love is like a ghost that haunts him. He wishes she would stay buried and gone.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-hollywood-cemetary.mp3">04 Hollywood Cemetary</a></p>
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<p><strong>Can I Take My Gun Up to Heaven.<br>
[D]</strong></p>
<p>Can I take my <strong>[G]</strong> gun up to <strong>[C]</strong> heaven? <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Cmaj7]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br>
You know she’s <strong>[G]</strong> always been by my <strong>[C]</strong> side <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Cmaj7]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br>
Can I take my <strong>[G]</strong> gun up to <strong>[C]</strong> heaven? <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Cmaj7]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br>
I’ll check it with St. <strong>[G]</strong> Peter at the gate <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></p>
<p>And if I had a <strong>[D]</strong> woman that was <strong>[C]</strong> faithful <strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
Or even <strong>[D]</strong> kind some of the time <strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
I’d drag her on <strong>[D]</strong> up to the gates of heaven <strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
Or follow her right <strong>[D]</strong> down to the gates of <strong>[C]</strong> hell <strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> When I come home from a long day <strong>[G]</strong> a-working at the prison<br><strong>[A]</strong> I find my woman she’s not a-<strong>[D]</strong>-round <strong>[C]</strong><br>
She’s down at Dahlie’s corner <strong>[G]</strong> a-playing cards and drinking<br><strong>[A]</strong> Or sitting on the cars singing Dixie with the <strong>[D]</strong> boys <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Can I take my gun up to heaven?<br>
Can I take my gun up to heaven?<br>
Can I take my gun up to heaven?<br>
Can I take my gun up to heaven?</p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> Can I take my gun up to <strong>[G]</strong> heaven?</p>
<p><strong>Hollywood Cemetery</strong></p>
<p><strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[G7]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C(7)]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[G]</strong> I left my baby, <strong>[B]</strong> I left her <strong>[C]</strong> down in Hollywood <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> Cemetary<br>
Weren’t a cloud in the <strong>[B]</strong> sky, but how I <strong>[C]</strong> wish it was <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> raining</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[Em]</strong> Well I know it was <strong>[C]</strong> wrong to feel love like a <strong>[G]</strong> burden <strong>[G7]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong> But if we all were <strong>[Em]</strong> angels <strong>[C(7)]</strong> Heaven would be earth<br><strong>[G]</strong> So I left my baby, <strong>[B]</strong> I left her <strong>[C]</strong> down in Hollywood <strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> Cemetary.</strong></p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[G7]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C(7)]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></p>
<p>She got her petees? and coffee, while the band plays a funeral dirge<br>
In New Orleans Mardi Gras, but I’m sick as a dog, here in Texas</p>
<p>When the one that you love’s in the arms of another man<br>
You’ve got to rise above it, and let her go<br>
Leave your baby down, leave her down at Hollywood Cemetary</p>
<p><strong><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong><br><strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></strong></p>
<br>Filed under: <a href="http://300songs.com/category/cracker/">Cracker</a> Tagged: <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/can-i-take-my-gun-up-to-heaven/">can i take my gun up to heaven?</a>, <a href="http://300songs.com/tag/hollywood-cemetary/">hollywood cemetary</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2069/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/2069/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=2069&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85591
2010-09-29T08:58:44-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
#56 Kerosene Hat-Cracker. Richmond and Oregon Hill Continued.
<p> </p>
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<p>In #47 part 2 I mentioned the move Johnny Hickman and I made from California to Richmond Va. The 64 plymouth threw a rod in Arkansas stranding us in the middle of rice paddies in the middle of the night. That’s where i’m gonna pick up.</p>
<p>We were being eaten alive by mosquitos in the rice paddies while we were waiting for a tow. Johnny started smashing the mosquitos with a magazine on the headboard of the car. Finally aftter 2 hours a tow trucke arrived and took us to a local Uhaul facility. We had to wait several hours for the place to open up. We’d now been up all night. We rented a truck and a tow dolly and towed the station wagon all the way to Richmond. When we pulled the station wagon off the dolly in Richmond i noticed all these brownish red smudges all over the headboard of the car. I stared at them for a while trying to figure it out. Those hadn’t been there before.</p>
<p>Johnny leaned in the passenger window to see what I was looking at.</p>
<p>“It’s our blood”</p>
<p>I guess I gave him a confused look.</p>
<p>“from the mosquitos”</p>
<p>There were hundreds of these smudges. “We’ve already played a price in blood” I thought. I knew this was funny and overdramitic still I didn’t say it out loud. I couldn’t decide if this was an inauspicious or auspicious start for the band.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Big Dirty Yellow Demos were recorded on a machine like this.</strong></p>
<p>Big dirty yellow is what we named the house at 239 S. Laurel street in Oregon Hill. Because it was well Big, Yellow and Dirty. This is also what we called the demo tape of 20 songs we turned in to Virgin Records. The house had a few distinct pluses. The first was the neighbors took an immediate liking to us, cause Johnny (always the goodwill amabassador) did an impromptu duet of Streets of Bakersfield with the neighbor lady to the right. This drew a small crowd. When Johnny flipped the last chorus to Streets of Oregon Hill the small crowd broke into pandemonium. They had to play it 2 more times before the crowd dispersed. Meanwhile I had managed to unload half the truck by myself. It was a small price to pay for the goodwill of the neighbors. We never had to lock our doors, and no one EVER complained about the noise we made recording the demos.</p>
<p>It also didn’t hurt that the neighbors on the left were a deaf family. Well not entirely. The oldest daughter could hear. She would play the pop radio station quite loud. On weekends we noticed that the radio would often blast all night. This was because the one hearing member of the family, the daughter, had gone away to the grandmothers for the weekend.</p>
<p>It was not always easy to gain the locals trust. Oregon Hill had been it’s own little city within a city for 140 years. A white some would say white trash ghetto in the heart of the city. And the neighborhood was beginning to be not exactly gentrified but filling up with artists, hipsters and especially musicians. They were drawn there by the ridiculously low rents and charm of the funky houses. Members of GWAR, The Alternatives, The Fugs, Michael Hurley, House of Freaks, Flat Duo Jets and Cowboy Junkies could be seen wandering around the neighborhood. The old locals which dominated our block were hostile to these newcomers. But never us. It was fortunate that Cracker was such a country rock roots oriented ensemble.</p>
<p>Big Dirty Yellow had three bedrooms and was 300 dollars a month. It was the classic Oregon Hill row house. Narrow like a shotgun shack. Each room lead into the next room till you got to the kitchen on the back of the house. It had no heat or air-conditioning. There was a hole in the floor between the kitchen and living room. You could crawl down into the basement through it. We tacked a large piece of plywood over the hole. I found an industrial strength restaurant kitchen fan at a junk store. I installed this in the uppermost window of my bedroom recording room. It basically sucked the cool air out of the basement into the upstairs of the house. Except for the hottest days it was adequate. In the winter Johnny and I each had a kerosene heater. We would actually carry these around the house with us. not lit of course. But if we had people over we would drop both of them in the living room and kitchen. If we took a bath or shower we would bring our kerosene heater with us. To this day the smell of kerosene reminds me of the poverty and the wistful hope we had for our music.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Site of the old East Coast Gas Station in Gunsmoke. Cary and Meadow Richmond VA.</strong></p>
<p>In some ways this is part of the inspiration for the song Kerosene Hat. The kerosene hat was the wool hunting cap with earflaps that I would have to wear when I walked to the gas station in the middle of the night to get more kerosene. This was sometimes a scary proposition because if it was too late and the local texaco by VCU was closed, we had to walk to the East Coast station up in the neighborhood known as “Gunsmoke”. Cary and Meadow st. This is still a sketchy area today. It was really quite dangerous in 1990.</p>
<p>The second part of the inspiration for this song was the simple fact that Johnny Hickman and I were older than many of our peers in the alternative and indie rock scene at that time. Also we were one of the few bands that was playing what would later be called Americana. So this is exactly what i’m talking about when I sing:</p>
<p><em>How can I fly with these old doggy wings</em></p>
<p><em>While a magpie sings some shiny song.</em></p>
<p>Finally the main body of the song is populated by characters that are similar to the broken down houses and people who populated the neighborhood at that time. I’ll go into this more in the next post “Can I Take My Gun Up To Heaven”.</p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-kerosene-hat.mp3">04 Kerosene Hat</a></p>
<p><strong>[INTRO & BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D(bass F#)]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D(bass F#)]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Em]</strong> How can I fly with these <strong>[C]</strong> old doggy wings<br>
While a <strong>[G]</strong> magpie sings some <strong>[D(bass F#)]</strong> shiny song?<br><strong>[Em]</strong> Old corn face row of teeth, she says <strong>[C]</strong> sweetly to me<br>
In the <strong>[G]</strong> elevator <strong>[D(bass F#)]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[Em]</strong> Everything <strong>[D]</strong> seems like a <strong>[C]</strong> dream<br>
and <strong>[A]</strong> life’s a scream.<br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p>Here come old Kerosene Hat<br>
With his ear flaps waxed, a courting’ his girl<br>
Come clattering in here on your old cloven skates<br>
With that devilish spoon</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Everything seems like a dream<br>
And life’s a scream<br>
When you’re submarine</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>So don’t you bother me death with your leathery ways<br>
and your old chaise lounge (old chaise lounge)<br>
Wickerman’s fence of leathery tyres<br>
And the cook’s gone bad, started several fires</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Everything seems like a dream<br>
When your submarine</p>
<p>Head like a stream she says softly to me<br>
from the rattling chair<br>
Bring me a steak and my old pair of crows,<br>
my medicine lamp</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Everything seems like a dream<br>
So life’s a scream<br>
(life’s a scream)</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85538
2010-09-28T11:47:36-04:00
2020-02-05T03:48:14-05:00
#55 James River- Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. Richmond Virginia.
<p> </p>
<p><strong>The James River in Downtown Richmond.</strong></p>
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<p>The James River is the major waterway through the center part of the state of Virginia. The river is quite deep until it hits the “fall line” at Richmond. Indeed this is why Richmond was built at this spot. It is the farthest you navigate up the James in an ocean going vessel. After that there are a series of falls and rapids. In the early 1800′s the <a href="http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_River_and_Kanawha_Canal">James River and Kanawha Canal</a> was built to bypass these rapids and bring trade from the mountains of Western Virginia down the James River to Richmond. As a footnote it was surveyed and designed by George Washington. But that’s another story. This canal helped bolster the city’s commercial activity turning it into a relatively prosperous and large city.</p>
<p>Although Richmond is very far inland few people realize that there is actually a Port of Richmond which accepts container ships -albeit the smallest container ships. The port is tucked away along the south eastern side of the city, in an area dominated by large (and mostly abandoned) industrial sites. Few people who live in Richmond even know where it is. I’m not sure how financially viable it is. I suspect that the fact the Defense Supply Facility is nearby has something to do with it’s continuing function</p>
<p>But these days the James is a relatively unimportant waterway. And it figures little into the commercial life of the City. The city literally turned it’s back on the river for many years. The banks were dominated by railroad right aways,sidings industrial facilities and power plants. Until recently there was no easy access to the river from downtown. It was only in the last 15 years a riverwalk was built along the river in downtown. There were parks along the river but you still have to cross railroad right aways to reach them. And thenyou were often in close proximity to railroad hobo camps (south bank) or the rough but not unfriendly denizens of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Hill">Oregon Hill</a>.* It is a beautiful river nonetheless. There are spectacular rapids for rafting and this is in the core of an urban city. Quite strange really. Deer, foxes, bald eagles and even bears are often seen wandering along the forested banks of the city’s river. But to me there is a certain sadness or nostalgia to river. It feels at times a relic of the past. Like the antebellum mansions and the Civil War battlefields and monuments. And a hint of even darker things. Belle Island in the center of the river was a POW camp for Union troops throughout the Civil War. By american standards a gulag of unimaginable horror. 30,000 prisoners on this island. 1 in 25 perished. A prominent Baltimore surgeon who treated some of the released captives from the Belle Isle prison had this description of the prisoners:</p>
<p><em>“in a semi-state of nudity…laboring under such diseases as chronic diarrhoea, phthisis pulmonalis, scurvy, frost bites, general debility, caused by starvation, neglect and exposure. Many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting even the date of their capture, and everything connected with their antecedent history. They resemble, in many respect, patients laboring under cretinism. They were filthy in the extreme, covered in vermin…nearly all were extremely emaciated; so much so that they had to be cared for even like infants.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> </em>Talk about Southern Gothic! Cormac McCarthy in his imagination could not do much better. But it is less the horrors along the river that captured my imagination. It was the sense the river was part of the lost past. Once important it is now but a shadow of itself. It is irrelevant to the life of the city. Just as the city was once the capitol of the Confederacy it is now a second tier urban center. It is somewhat irrelevant to the greater life of the nation.That is both sad and sweet.</p>
<p>The river was the heart of a system that sent the products of the colonies and antebellum south mostly tobacco back to England and Europe. An export oriented agricultural / natural resource economy. Trade that went East to West with Richmond an important trans shipment point. But as the North began it’s rapid industrialization, and railroads proliferated trade shifted North to South. The Civil War only accelerated this trend. Indeed one of the minor frictions between the norther and southern states was over tariffs. High tariffs protected developing industries in the north. Richmond was also industrializing and was becoming more tied to the northeast than the south. Hence many Virginians reticence to join the cause of the Confederacy. As Corry Arnold (Rock Prosopography 101) recently explained to me:</p>
<p><em>Thus the geography of Richmond is infused with a logic that no longer applies to the way the city works, as it is oriented towards the river when that is not actually the economic engine of the city (rivers are pretty, fortunately, so its not a terrible thing, but I’m not researching quality of life). In effect, the economics of Richmond were literally rotated on its axis, as the James River initially facilitated East-West transportation, but was of no value when commerce in the the region moved to a North-South axis (eg Atlanta and Florida to Baltimore).</em></p>
<p><em>(This post on richmond is largely based on research that Corry sent to me)</em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">I wasn’t aware of this when I began to write about the James River. But one – even an recently transplanted westerner- could sense that the James River represented the old romantic past of Richmond. It’s sorry state also represented something else that I came to associate with Richmond. “Elegant decay” and “opulent poverty”. Two evocative phrases my ex-wife Mary uses to describe Richmond. </span></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">The first time I ever spent any real time in the City was my 29th birthday sept 10th 1989. Camper Van Beethoven was on tour with the 10,000 maniacs. We played a show at the Mosque theater (now called the landmark theater) just west of downtown in the middle of the VCU campus. Natalie Merchant had some friends that lived nearby. Later Natalie asked me if I wanted to go to a party at her friends house in this funny little neighborhood to the south of the VCU campus. This neighborhood is called Oregon Hill. It is a former factory neighborhood built along the banks of the James for the workers at the Tredgar Iron works. The neighborhood is very distinct. It even has it’s own accent despite the fact it’s a 4 by 10 block area. Tiny two story row houses with porches. It looked like some neighborhood in New Orleans. The residents were out on their porches this fine late summer evening. Some polite with nods or “good evenings” others drunk with catcalls and wolf whistles. Cicadas buzzed in the trees and I thought to myself? ”where the hell am I”. I’ll explain this neighborhood more in a later post (Can I take my Gun Up to Heaven).</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">It was at this party where i met my future ex-wife. (I’ve always wanted to use that expression). It is the neighborhood that Mary and I lived in for many years. And more importantly this is the neighborhood that Johnny and I set ourselves up as we sought to finish writing the first Cracker Albums. </span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">So the song started as a Camper Van Beethoven Song. With me trying to evoke what I would term the “Old-fashioned seediness” and “antiquated decadence” of Richmond. There were a surprising number of junkies, drug fiends and decadents in the music scene when I first began courting Mary. So that was what first struck me. That’s what the Camper Van Beethoven version and early Cracker demo reflects. Later I would come to appreciate the “Elegant Decay” and “Opulent Poverty” of Richmond VA. Thus the later more gentle more evocative version of the song on Gentlemans Blues.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">Finally I hope my description of Richmond comes across as honest but still affectionate. In many ways my musical career is deeply infused with the life of three places the Inland Empire, Santa Cruz and Richmond VA. </span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/james-river-live.mp3">james river (live) Camper Van Beethoven Italy March 1990</a></span></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-james-river-demo.mp3">05 James River (Demo) Cracker Sept 1990</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-james-river.mp3">04 James River-Cracker Gentleman’s Blues</a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p><strong>James River (later version)</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[INTRO & BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[Ddim]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[Ddim]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[Ddim]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>You come across <strong>[Ddim]</strong> the <strong>[F]</strong> James River <strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong> A-for a <strong>[Ddim]</strong> needle, and a <strong>[F]</strong> spoon <strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong> But would you <strong>[Ddim]</strong> come across the <strong>[F]</strong> James River <strong>[C]</strong><br>
To be my woman again <strong>[G]</strong><br>
To be my woman again</p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>You come across the old lee bridge<br>
A-For a dollar fifty in change<br>
But would you come across the James River<br>
for this heart of gold?<br>
For this heart of gold?</p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>You go to work for Ms. Kitty<br>
For a decent rate of pay<br>
But would you come across the James River<br>
To be my woman again?<br>
To be my woman again?</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>You keep a pistol in your left boot<br>
A brush and comb in your purse<br>
But would you come across the James River<br>
To be my woman again?<br>
To be my woman again?</p>
<p><strong><strong>[ENDING:]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Dm]</strong></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85468
2010-09-26T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
#54 Midnight Rider – Cracker. Unreleased Track.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/john_morand.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/john_morand.jpg?w=400&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>John Morand does not so much record bands as he “jams” with them from the control room.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-midnight-rider.mp3">04 midnight rider</a></p>
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<p>The next song that is in the queue is not this track. The next song is James River. This of course means it’s time to give Richmond the same treatment that i’ve given Santa Cruz and The Inland Empire. I’ve been working on it all day and it’s still not finished. Probably tomorrow. In the meantime here is a curious cover.</p>
<p>This “cover” of midnight rider was created out of a jam in the studio. During the Forever recording sessions in 200-2001. Johnny Hickman had stumbled across the signature crazy lick. Frank Funaro (Drums) and John Morand (Engineer/Drum Machine) started jamming with Johnny on this lick. Someone noted the similarity of the rhythm guitar part to Midnight Rider and we could never get it our of our heads. A couple times we tried to create a new song out of it, but all I could hear was Midnight Rider. So that’s what it became.</p>
<p>hope you enjoy. see you tomorrow.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85410
2010-09-25T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
#53 Tribute Albums. Blue Rosebuds The Residents. Rainy Days And Mondays. Victoria.
<div id="_mcePaste"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/richmond-city-jail.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/richmond-city-jail.jpg?w=400&h=225" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
<div><strong>Best Cracker Backing Vocal Ever Was Recorded Here.</strong></div>
<div>
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Cracker and camper van beethoven have recorded tracks for quite a few tribute albums. Tribute albums-if you have been living in a cave in afghanistan and are not familiar with them -are as you might guess tributes to a particular artist- say the kinks. Then a group of current, hip or highly successful artists is selected to re-record the important songs from the tribute artists career. For instance “Cracker” covered Victoria for the “This is where I belong” Kinks tribute album.</div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/this-is-where-i-belong-cover.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/this-is-where-i-belong-cover.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a></div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-victoria.mp3">06 Victoria</a></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven have been involved in tribute records for many artists including. The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters, Vic Chestnut and perhaps most bizarrely The Residents.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">The Residents were one of the most singularly weird and experimental of all the punk and new wave experimentalist of the late 1970′s. Yes it would have made more sense for Camper Van Beethoven to cover a Residents song. Barely. But Cracker? I mean there the Cracker cover of Victoria by the Kinks makes sense, there is a similar tone to the narrative and style in most kinks songs that seems easily imitable by Cracker. But The Residents?.</div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/residents.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/residents.jpg?w=307&h=480" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="480" width="307" /></a></div>
<div><strong>Before Jackson</strong></div>
<div><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/residents-3-eyeballs.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/residents-3-eyeballs.jpeg?w=245&h=206" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="206" width="245" /></a></strong></div>
<div><strong>After Jackson</strong></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">The truth is Blue Rosebuds like almost all of the “Cracker” tribute songs were largely a product of the Sound of Music house musicians, myself and Johnny. A curious fact about the tribute tracks is that about half were done without even the contribution from Johnny Hickman or a small after the fact contribution. Before you read anything into that most of this was due to a string of bad luck, personal tragedies, unfortunate timing or a lack of funds to put together a band that lived in 3 separate states in two different time zones. This happened over and over again. Until we began to think we were cursed. So the tribute songs occupy a weird niche between being true cracker songs and collaborations between other artists.</div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vicchestnuttimage.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vicchestnuttimage.jpg?w=434&h=244" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="244" width="434" /></a></div>
<div><strong>Vic Chestnutt</strong></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">When we went to record Vic Chestnutt’s Withering album Johnny Hickman’s youngest brother passed away and obviously was not able to attend the recording session. Members of September 67, Engineer John Morand and Myself played all the instruments.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/sept_67.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/sept_67.jpg?w=300&h=198" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="198" width="300" /></a></div>
<div><strong>Jackson also managed September 67. This was in his flatbread and hummus period.</strong></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">When we were commissioned to record The Carpenters “Rainy Days and Mondays” Johnny found himself in an inviolable period of not leaving home (Los Angeles at this point )this was imposed by he or then-wife. It was never clear to me. The compromise was we recorded most the tracks in Richmond VA. Mark Linkous fills in for Johnny and plays the most minimal guitar part, I believe it consists of two licks and then just “line hum” through his ampeg reverberocket. He insisted on playing this laying on the floor. Not to be outdone I laid on the floor and sang the vocal. Johnny Hott drops his shaker at one point and it just stops. It randomly starts again when he was able to pick it up. We then sent this to Paul Dugre and Johnny in Los Angeles the strings were overdubbed and then Johnny sings a minimalist backing vocal part equal in to the Mark Linkous two guitar licks. There was a measure of feigned disinterest through the whole song that sort of makes the thing work. But only because it is in contrast to the earnest string arrangement which actually seems to give a shit about the song.</div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/carpenters.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/carpenters.jpg?w=288&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="288" /></a></div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/11-rainy-days-and-mondays1.mp3">11 Rainy Days And Mondays</a></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">There was no budget for the Blue Rosebuds recording or travel. Also Johnny and I at that time had a general aversion to flying it came about that Blue Rosebuds was recorded by Bob Rupe, John Morand , Penn Rollins (yes Penn Rollins the pioneer of Math Rock and various progressive metal offshoots) and myself. Oh and some unknown prisoner from the Richmond City Jail?</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">Say again?</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">Right in the middle of recording this track we received a collect call from Richmond City Jail. There is an automated voice that announces it is a prisoner form the City Jail and you have to press a key to accept the call. The phone rang and John Morand answered. Suddenly he started madly searching through the cables and adaptors drawers and patches the phone into the console. None of us had any idea what he was doing until we hear through the speakers the anonymous prisoner caller was in the middle of an obscene phone call. At 1:22-1:33 you can hear the prisoners voice.That’s the genius of John Morand. <em> Always be recording. </em> You never know what is gonna happen.</div>
<div><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/a-stab-at-the-residents.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/a-stab-at-the-residents.jpg?w=400&h=355" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="355" width="400" /></a></div>
<div><strong>Worst Album Cover Ever. Weirdest Cracker Cover Ever.</strong></div>
<div id="_mcePaste"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/10-blue-rosebuds.mp3">10 blue rosebuds</a></div>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85367
2010-09-24T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
My Interview/Recording of The Hold Steady for WNRN Charlottesville
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<p>The Hold Steady in front of the New Sound Of Music Studios.</p>
<p>This is not part of the 300 songs project. Just a little filler for the weekend. I interviewed and recorded the Hold Steady when they were at Sound of Music Studios last week. Here is the first ten minutes.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/thslite.mp3">The Hold Steady at Sound of Music Studios</a></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85330
2010-09-24T12:01:43-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:41-05:00
# 52 Yalla Yalla Yall. Gallows Humor Addendum. Cracker Live in Iraq.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_1781.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_1781.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>Frank Funaro (drummer Cracker and CVB) reminded me of some of the excellent Gallows Humour while we were in Iraq. Here is Frank’s comment:</p>
<p><em>Oh, and lest we forget… When we were riding around in Iraq in armored vehicles, we all had headsets and microphones on so we could hear each other above the ungodly din these vehicles produce. The 82nd Airborne guys that were in the vehicle that David, Greg and myself were in would pepper us with questions about the band and touring, and music, etc, constantly chattering into our earpieces over the radio. This was to (as we later found out) keep our minds off the fact that at any given moment, it was entirely possible that we would get hit with a roadside bomb. Ok, that was part of their their job, can’t have any civilians gettin’ all panicky in the back of a sealed, 14 ton MRAP. But, here’s the strange thing. Every now and then, apropos of nothing, they would yell BOOM! over the radio. Talk about your professional-grade, industrial strength gallows humor…</em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">And since we are on the topic again. Here are a couple more pieces of gallows humour I overheard in Iraq. The first are normal military variety. The last is of a <a href="http://http://300songs.com/2010/09/21/49-where-the-hell-is-bill-more-smart-ass-comments-deer-skulls/">Deer Skull</a> variety be forewarned.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_1908.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_1908.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"><strong>BTW I am 6 foot tall. Foxx on the far right is really that tall. </strong></span></em></p>
<p><em> </em>First while we were traveling through baghdad by MRAP with soldiers from the 82nd airborne Frank and I must have telegraphed to them that we were okay with the gallows humor. None of the other band guys got this treatment. Once we were faced with two unattended disabled vehicles along the side of a road. The soldiers paused the convoy for a while and got on their comms. I’m not sure how this works but they were talking to Iraqi security or American forces to find out what the deal was with these vehicles. They didn’t want to proceed even though it was unlikely they were bombs. It wasn’t a long pause and eventually someone gave them enough assurances that these vehicles were okay and we proceeded past them. But before we did the soldiers began wagering on which of the two vehicles would explode. Like anyone would be alive to collect on this bet.</p>
<p>“my money is on the mini pickup”</p>
<p>“thats bullshit why would you use a pickup truck there’s no trunk, no place to hide enough explosives”</p>
<p>“it’s good enough for an Iranian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaped_charge">shaped charge</a> and stealthier”</p>
<p>The part about the shape charge may have been explained later within the safe confines of <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/saddam-iap.htm">BIAP</a> on the way out of the country. No matter how jaded these guys were I don’t think even they wanted to imagine a high velocity ball of molten metal ricocheting around inside a MRAP severing limbs.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/klingon_homeless.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/klingon_homeless.jpg?w=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><strong>I Forget Are klingons Sunnis or Shias?</strong></p>
<p>At another camp I asked one of the Soldiers what he thought of the Sons of Iraq or Sunni Awakening Councils. These were former insurgents who had now switched sides to the US. And they were now on the US payroll. We passed by their checkpoints occasionally.</p>
<p>” What do you mean what do i think? you mean how do i feel about the fact these guys were shooting at me last tour of duty*?”</p>
<p>“yeah something like that”</p>
<p>“well, this is Iraq: The next generation. They’re the Klingons” This was delivered with a disinterested shrug. A sort of “it’s not my fucking job to care” gesture.</p>
<p>Finally at one of the Army airfields in Kuwait right before we went into Iraq I overheard this very fucked up conversation. Basically two young soldiers on there way into Iraq were sitting around talking about what terrible things should happen to US army Major and Psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan. He is the guy who had shot up Fort Hood about 10 days earlier. We were all waiting around next to these pallets that we had piled our gear and duffles on. It was dusty and pretty warm. We were waiting for someone to do some kind of roll call. We would have rather been inside the airconditioned tent that served as the passenger terminal. An older NCO was listening to these two young soldiers. Whether it was the heat or the dust or he was genuinely sick of hearing these kids talk. He stood up and walked over to them.</p>
<p>“You two. Shut the fuck up.”</p>
<p>They looked at him stunned.</p>
<p>“Sorry sir-”</p>
<p>“There are probably a lot of guys here that are a lot closer to that shooting and those events than you are. I’m sure they don’t want want to hear your bullshit… besides there is a distinct positive to this event”</p>
<p>“sir?”</p>
<p>“The US Army now has a Psychiatrist with actual combat experience”.</p>
<p>JEEZ. remember i’m just repeating the story. This is less than two weeks after the shooting. So in the US Army Tragedy + 10 days = Comedy. The deer skull has been….<br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85272
2010-09-22T20:00:00-04:00
2020-09-08T02:25:47-04:00
#51 Something You Aint Got. American Minor. Caitlin Cary.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/whiskeytown_adams_cary.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/whiskeytown_adams_cary.jpg?w=205&h=280" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="280" width="205" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Caitlin Cary with one of the Backstreet Boys. I forget his name.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/caitlin-cary.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/caitlin-cary.jpg?w=216&h=199" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="199" width="216" /></a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC">April 2005 I was standing out in back of the Culture Center Theater at the West Virginia Capitol. It was a warm day for april and </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlin_cary">Caitlin Cary</a> had joined me for a cigarette and what was left of a bottle of bourbon. Someone in one of the bands had passed it on to us. We poured it into little paper cups, the kind you use for drinking fountains. It was about two shots each. Or I don’t know. Maybe Caitlin didn’t have any of it. Maybe I drank it all myself. I don’t quite remember. But it sounds more rock to say we were drinking it together. Regardless we were on the loading dock behind the theater where they record <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Stage">Mountain Stage</a>, Caitlin says the funniest thing to me.</p>
<p>“I like the way you sing your ‘s’ s”</p>
<p>“Well we should do a duet then”</p>
<p>“Okay”.</p>
<p>A couple of months later I was at my studio in Richmond VA. I was working on some demos for what would be Greenland (and also form the basis of my solo record) David Immergluck was in town and we had agreed to meet at the studio at 1pm. When we got there Caitlin Cary was in studio <strong>A</strong> working on a record. This was not so unusual, Caitlin was at our studio a lot in the mid 00′s. If she weren’t in Whiskeytown I wouldn’t have even known she lived in North Carolina. I would have assumed she was a Richmonder.</p>
<p>“Still want to do a duet?”</p>
<p>she replied “yes, let me finish this song first”.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean right then. I didn’t mean that day. As we were going up stairs to studio B David Immergluck says ”Which song”</p>
<p>” I have no idea”.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/immmy-mando.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/immmy-mando.jpg?w=334&h=500" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="500" width="334" /></a></p>
<p><strong>David Immergluck, or Immergluck, or Immy or Bindi Boy;</strong></p>
<p>We went up stairs to the <strong>B</strong> studio and I started going through my itunes. I listened to a couple of the tracks we were currently working on nothing seemed appropriate for her voice as a duet. I don’t know if I had heard the duets she did with Thad Cockerel, certainly she recorded them around that time, but I got the idea we should do a country duet. That was about the only thing I’d be able to pull off on such short notice.</p>
<p>Luckily the last Cracker record had been 2003′s Countrysides. I had a playlist that contained a shit load of country and country rock potential covers. Scrolling down the list I started to look for something obscure. I came across this little ditty:</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/american_minor.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/american_minor.jpg?w=450&h=199" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="199" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Original American Minor Members. Before the move to NYC.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/02-something-you-aint-got.mp3">Something You Ain’t Got – American Minor Sound of Music Demo</a></p>
<p>Cool little country rock song by the West Virginia band <a href="http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233343">American Minor</a>. Raw, loose all feel and attitude. Every s<span style="font-size:13.2px;">ung line is thrown away. Every guitar lick all passion, damn the technique.</span></p>
<p><em>Well the first dance cost me a quarter and the second dance cost me my heart</em></p>
<p><em>Well i’m here on this bar stool and like a circle it ends where it starts</em></p>
<p>“Wha wha wha … who’s this!” Immergluck’s booming voice in my ear. If you know him you know what i’m talking about. Immy lives his life 6 decibels louder than everyone else. Bobbing his head now. ”I’m diggin this” he bellows.</p>
<p>It’s lost on him that I’m on the verge of having a nervous breakdown or something. Something very strange was happening to me. I’m out of breath, my palms are sweating but I am weirdly euphoric. I’d heard this song a hundred times, but i’d never really listened to the words.</p>
<p><em>I woke up hung over in the squalor where I make my home</em></p>
<p><em>Ate my heart out for breakfast then I met the day stoned</em></p>
<p><em>And it goes something like this, it’s always a swing and a miss</em></p>
<p><em>well i ain’t seen you so i drank all night</em></p>
<p><em>now my eyes are black cause i fought all night</em></p>
<p><em>I come stumbling home to sleep alone but it’s alright yeah it’s alright.</em></p>
<p><em>cause hard to tell what it is and what it’s not until it is something you ain’t got.</em></p>
<p>See at this point in my life i’d been sober for about two weeks. I was having a hard time incorporating this reality back into my world. Then i start listening to this song. It was like a punch in the gut. I got it. I for the first time in two weeks didn’t feel so alone.</p>
<p>About 4 hours later we managed to have a basic track and scatch vocal laid on this song. Studio manager miguel Urbiztondo on drums, Immy on bass and me on acoustic guitar. That evening Caitlin came up stairs and nailed her part in about an hour. She is the real deal when it comes to singing. A natural.</p>
<p>A few weeks later we had Johnny Hickman and Kenny Margolis overdub the lead guitar and keyboards on this song and this is pretty much what you hear on Greenland.</p>
<p>Oh and I found this picture of Bugs and David Immergluck.</p>
<p><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bugs-n-david_immergluck_sml.jpg?w=450&h=318" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="318" width="450" /></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-something-you-aint-got.mp3">01 Something You Ain’t Got</a>— Cracker Greenland Album.</p>
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<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong></p>
<p>Well the<strong>[C]</strong> first dance cost me a quarter<br>
And the<strong>[Am]</strong> second dance cost<strong>[G]</strong> me my<strong>[F]</strong> heart<br>
Now<strong>[C]</strong> I’m here on this bar stool<br>
Like a<strong>[Am]</strong> circle it<strong>[G]</strong> ends where it<strong>[G]</strong> starts</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong> And it<strong>[Am]</strong> goes something like<strong>[G]</strong> this<br><strong>[Dm]</strong> Always a<strong>[Am]</strong> swing and a<strong>[G]</strong> miss</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Well I<strong>[C]</strong> ain’t seen you since I drank all night<br>
Now my<strong>[F]</strong> eyes are black cos I fought all night<br>
I came<strong>[C]</strong> stumbling home to sleep alone<br>
But it’s<strong>[F]</strong> all right, yeah it’s all right<br>
And it’s<strong>[G]</strong> hard to tell<br>
What it<strong>[F]</strong> is and what it’s not<br>
Un-<strong>[G]</strong>-til it is something that you ain’t<strong>[F]</strong> got<br>
It’s something you ain’t<strong>[C]</strong> got</p>
<p>Well I woke up hungover<br>
In the squallor where I make my home<br>
Ate my heart out for breakfast<br>
Then I met the day stoned</p>
<p>REPEAT BREAK</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS<br>
It’s something you ain’t got<br>
It’s something you ain’t got</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL - CHORDS AS VERSE THEN BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS<br>
It’s something you ain’t got<br>
It’s something you ain’t got</p>
<p>Cos it’s<strong>[Dm]</strong> all right, yeah it’s<strong>[F]</strong> all right<br><strong>[Dm]</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85202
2010-09-21T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:40-05:00
#50- Gallows Humor. The Antechamber of Hope. Bugs.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/screen-shot-2010-09-21-at-6-52-56-pm.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/screen-shot-2010-09-21-at-6-52-56-pm.jpg?w=222&h=278" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="278" width="222" /></a></p>
<p><strong>FrauBlücher in Young Frankenstein. Rare Color Photo.</strong><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>Cracker’s drummer Frank Funaro has a funny ritual every time someone mentions the presales for a show. Say a tour manager will say “hey they have 312 advance tickets for tonights show. Frank will say something like this:</p>
<p>“Well it’s nice weather so at least 200 of those people will show up”</p>
<p>If you don’t understand why that’s funny, you might need to know a little bit about ticket sales at a club show. Usually you get 50%-100% more sales in “walk-up” . That is people who just come to the door and buy a ticket. This is only true for club shows. Walkup is much much lower for large venues</p>
<p>So franks comment is particularly absurd. You would never get less than your pre-sales. (Unless there were a hurricane or blizzard or some natural disaster.)</p>
<p>This is a form of gallows humour. Gallows humour is loosely defined as humour that “arises from stressful, traumatic or life-threatening situations.” While the presales of a show could hardly be described as life threatening, in some cases it can be quite stressful or even traumatic. If you’ve ever been on a tour for which tickets will just not sell in the quantities necessary for the promoter to not lose their asses this can be stressful. Example the Ill-fated and Ill-conceived Cracker-Cranberries tour of 1996. The last half of this tour was canceled because there weren’t enough advance tickets sold.</p>
<p>For Cracker this was stressful because we had the fate of our record The Golden Age hanging entirely on this tour. We started this tour as the record company was executing the main part of it’s promotional push for the Golden Age. The fact that half the shows went away and many of the others were poorly attended did not help our record company push singles for Cracker. In fact the tour got a distinct dead animal smell which clung to our freshly minted album.</p>
<p>Actually most of the shows did oak, but just not well enough to cover the massive guarantee that the Cranberries demanded. And then you have one stinker show and that’s all that anyone in the business hears about. To paraphrase part of an old very profane joke. They didn’t call the Cracker/Cranberries tour the<a href="http://www.jokesgallery.com/joke.php?joke=1790&id=1">MacGregor the Bridge Builder</a> Tour. Click that link you’ll understand.</p>
<p>However we began to take a certain delight in the failing of this tour. Betting on how few would show up. How big the area they would have curtained off at The Mark of the Quad Cities Amphitheater (as opposed to the mark of the beast amphitheater). But this betting had less to do with real gallows humor than our indulging in some<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude">Schadenfreude</a>. The Cranberries and their agent had been spectacularly unfriendly towards us. First a few weeks before we started the tour, our fee per night was cut 28%. Although not committed to paper anywhere this was clearly agreed upon. And this reduction was a stunning breech of protocol if not the law. I believe there was a careful calculation on someones part that 1) it was too late for us to pull out and book another tour to support our record, 2) it was still enough money that we would still do the tour. They were right on both counts. Fucking pricks.</p>
<p>Oh also the first day of the tour, we were given a little talk about how we weren’t supposed to talk to any members of the Cranberries. There were also some other pretty ridiculous rules about dining, where to park our bus, the lights we were allowed to use (some nights we had to play with the work lights up as there weren’t any stage lights left for us). Pretty fucking disrespectful and lame. I really take no delight in the failing of anyones career except for this band. And we did enjoy it. Despite the fact they were taking us down with them.</p>
<p>So we really started to get a kick out of the fact that the places we were playing were a quarter full. When a tropical storm roared ashore in Massachusetts we hoped it would cause the show to be cancelled the next night. We secretly hoped that</p>
<p><em>“Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets”</em></p>
<p>Well not actually but any chance to quote Travis Bickle I take.</p>
<p>But none of this is Gallows humor. In mondays post, Bugs and I saw some vultures in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>If I had of pointed to the vultures circling in the distance and said “look it’s my career” that would have been gallows humour. And if i had have been with the Cracker ( or camper) guys at that moment they probably would have demanded we drive to the focal point of that vultures circle. We would have stopped the car and laid in the road like carrion. And of course asked someone to take a picture. That’s gallows humor. All real musician love gallows humor.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/ahmet.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/ahmet.jpg?w=250&h=320" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="320" width="250" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Ahmet you were one suave MF</strong></p>
<p>And here is my theory why. As artists, songwriters and musicians we spend a lot of time with failure. We spend only brief moments with success. Most of our songs are not hits. The majority of your albums are commercial failures. You are extremely successful if half of your shows sell out. The modern music business was built upon the idea that you only needed 1 hit out of every 10 albums to succeed. This was purportedly the work of Ahmet Ertegun founder of atlantic reocrds. He was widely reported to have described his successful methodology as “throw ten records against the wall and see which one sticks”. However I can find no such attribution. Regardless the royalty structure created by Atlantic and other record labels at that time suggest that this is indeed approximately the success ratio they needed.</p>
<p>Now consider every record contract wants you to deliver 10 songs per album, the success to failure ratio is more like 1 in a 100!</p>
<p>This is a lot of failure. And it creates a strange morbid psychology. The Gallows humor is a coping mechanism.</p>
<p>In some way this rationalization of the music business meant it was more egalitarian. More artists were let in the game. More artists were allowed to record albums. But suddenly most artists were failures. There were much lower odds that you as an artist ever got a hit, or even received any attention from the record label at all. Why? That slim 1% of the songs that were hits made so much money they paid all the bills. It made more sense to “throw them all against the wall” first to see what stuck and then throw all your resources at that artist or that song that stuck. you didn’t even waste a long distance phone call on an artist that didn’t “stick”. The new music business became less about crafting successful artists and more about casting a wide net. And now the web with its powerful drive towards <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermediation">disintermediation</a> has accelerated this process. Failure Failure everywhere. The market as usual has found the most cost effective way to give the people what they want. And it will continue to refine and improve upon this.</p>
<p>So every artist sits and waits for that big payoff. They wait a long time. Sometimes it never comes. But we have a lot of company. We are like a little subculture of failure. Nassim Taleb the author of The Black Swan describes this as The Antechamber of Hope. We artists sit around in the antechamber of hope and make fatalistic jokes. Why? As Nassim Taleb says:</p>
<p><em>“The person involved in such gambles is paid in a currency other than material success: hope.” </em></p>
<p>Hope of getting that one hit. BUT he continues</p>
<p><em>“The problem of lumpy payoffs is not so much in the lack of income they entail, but the pecking order, the loss of dignity, the subtle humiliations near the water cooler.”</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/taleb.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/taleb.jpg?w=450&h=500" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="500" width="450" /></a></em></p>
<p><strong>Nassim Taleb </strong></p>
<p>So we retreat into fatalism and gallows humour in good company. We bide our time. It’s all good camaraderie until it isn’t. When the van breaks down for the last time. The last record deal is lost. The last manager abandons you. The band drifts back to the straight world. If you stay are you noble, a visionary a true believer? or are you like the guy shoveling elephant shit in the circus? ”Quit? What? and get out of show business!?”</p>
<p>Then if we are weak then comes the drugs, the alcohol the self destruction and the suicides. I certainly am not anyone to point fingers. I’ve had serveral self-destructive alcoholic periods in my life. But I’ve had three suicides among my peers this last year. And everyone was starting to seem just a little too mortal. One of my closest and oldest friends I thought would be the 4th. Either intentionally or through other self destruction behavior. I mean of course Bugs.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bugs_lowery.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bugs_lowery.jpg?w=300&h=400" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Me and Bugs Backstage at Great American Music Hall</strong></p>
<p>This weighed on me heavily all this year. I have known bugs since i was 10? Something like that. He and I discovered the Beatles and Rolling Stones Together. He worked for Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven off and on through the years. And he is in my eyes a musical artist worthy of the same respect that I have been afforded. Maybe not as prolific but very intense.</p>
<p>Last week when I was in Las Cruces I met up with a very healthy, sober and very sharp bugs. I was greatly relieved. We wandered round Mesilla one of the many old spanish villages that make up Las Cruces. We walked through the pecan groves, and along the ancient irrigation ditches which channel the rio grande waters into the groves and farms. A lot of farming for an urban area! It then struck me that this was very much like the Inland Empire of our youth. The ditches in Las Cruces also are by legend haunted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Llorona">La LLarona</a>, in Redlands CA the folks of that borderland would tell their children the Orange Groves were haunted by La LLarona. And then the impossible coincidence that episodes of Canon were shot in Las Cruces as well as Redlands. I laughed when i read that. funny but true. Still I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d returned to my childhood to a more innocent time with my childhood friend. Anyway bugs then tells me this little story.</p>
<p><em>I was riding my bike in mesilla when I hear behind me. “How’s it going Bugs”. I look behind me and it’s a sheriff’s deputy. ”It’s going pretty good” I say. ”Not anymore, I got a warrant for your arrest” says the cop.</em></p>
<p>Bugs tells this story with a little giggle and a fatalistic shrug of the shoulders. Ah the gallows humor. I was glad .It meant he was back.</p>
<p>(BTW before you think bugs is a hardened criminal. He missed a court appearance while hospitalized. The warrant was a Failure to Appear).</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>Here are two of bugs’ songs. The meanings I attribute to these songs probably have nothing to do what he really intended.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/03-everyone-needs-some-love.mp3">03 everyone needs some love</a></p>
<p>This is us as we all sit in the antechamber of hope. We all need some love. This is the first song on his first record and it reflects his innocence and hope.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/05-im-still-dreaming-of-you.mp3">05 i’m still dreaming of you-Bugs</a></p>
<p>This is darker. This is much later. I recorded this with him in Richmond virginia. He had moved back to New Mexico at this point and was beginning to struggle. His idealism is gone.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85134
2010-09-20T20:00:00-04:00
2020-03-16T05:58:22-04:00
#49-Where the Hell is Bill. More Smart Ass Comments. Deer skulls.
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<p><strong>Camper Van Beethoven 1986.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/08-where-the-hell-is-bill.mp3">08 Where The Hell Is Bill-</a></p>
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<p><em>Where the Hell Is Bill</em> is probably the mother of all bust-the-balls-of-one-of-the-guys-in-the-band jokes. You do have to think about it a little bit to see it in that light. It’s an innocuous silly song. Right? Exceptwe wrote an entire song about the drummer (Bill McDonald) being late for practice. While waiting for him to show up! Then when he showed up we made him not only learn the song but made him sing it. Not just that day but for the rest of the time he was in the band. That’s some serious ball busting.</p>
<p>There is some light commentary on the different music scenes and fashion that existed in southern california at the time. Punks, Mods and the weird oingo-boingo (shudder) inspired fashions. But basically this song came about for the sole purpose of embarassing our drummer. And this is probably one sentence too many on the subject.</p>
<p>As far as plain old get-your-ass-kicked smart ass comments goes there is a better story and I neglected to include it in the last post.</p>
<p>Feb 1986 CVB had embarked on it’s first nationwide US tour. We played LA probably at the Anti-Club. Then hit the Mason Jar in Phoenix, possibly another show in Tucson AZ, Then we did what would become the very familiar run up I-35 San Antonio TX to Minneapolis.</p>
<p>We drove into Oklahoma City on a relatively warm day for February. It actually had been colder the night before in Dallas. So the weather raised our spirits and we were glad to be in a strange new city. We’d been to Texas before. Oklahoma was a new state for us. It seemed distinctly different that Texas. There was something soviet about the architecture. There were a lot of blocky apartment buildings and government structures. There were also a lots and lots of churches. We were in the very heartland of the USA. And it flet alien to us. I mean our town had a feminist marxist mayor. we weren’t even sure if any of that was even legal in this state. But i digress.</p>
<p>Unlike the dive and punk rock places we had played in Texas the place we played in OKC was kind of a grown up bar. It was a “blues” club from what I remember and we were opening for The Blasters. It was upscale compared to what we wre used to. Now me and Victor Krummenacher really loved the blasters so we were quite happy to open for them. I’m not sure if Jonathan Greg or Chris really cared about them that much. But it didn’t matter. We were excited.</p>
<p>We were not so excited when we played for their audience. Or rather their audience weren’t so excited about us. The audience was largely seated at cocktail tables. And they weren’t really hostile or anything. They were polite. But they weren’t really digging us either. They began to get impatient. That’s when we started talking to the audience. It was all down hill from there.</p>
<p>Especially in the early days of CVB we liked to kind of harass the audience. Playfully tease them. Sometimes it wasn’t so playful. And we were always sarcastic. We had launched into a little of this. It seemed to loosen the crowd up. Unfortunately it also loosened up a couple folks who really didn’t like us. We were now getting heckled. So I resorted to an old trick. I played the momma card.</p>
<p>“Hey, now, whoa, whoa, that’s too much. You can say anything you want about me, the band, how much we suck whatever but don’t say anything about my mom. my mother passed away recently and that… that is really not called for…”</p>
<p>No one had said anything about my mother. But in the commotion no one could possibly know that. Also my mother is very much alive and well.</p>
<p>There was dead silence in the room. Uncomfortable silence. You could hear a pin drop. I let it stretch out and hang there for a while then I turned around and looked at the rest of the band. Chris took this as a go signal and started counting off the next track. Suddenly i hear Jonathans voice over the PA on the upbeat of the next song.</p>
<p>“Yeah, she was on the Space Shuttle”.</p>
<p>As you could imagine this did not go over well with the crowd. First it was Oklahoma City in the very earnest and patriotic state of Oklahoma. Second the space shuttle Challenger had blown up only a few weeks before that show. Many of us had watched the event live on TV. It was fresh in all our minds. It kind of shocked even me and I was used to Jonathan’s shocking humour. Still the Andy Kaufman part of me had to laugh, I mouthed to Victor across the stage ”we are all gonna die”. He nodded in agreement and motioned towards the stage door. I guess he was suggesting the escape route.</p>
<p>We made it through the next song but were roundly greeted with a mixture of boos loud grumbling and epithets. We may have played another song, I don’t recall but the show was definitely cut short and we retreated to the dressing room. We didn’t come back out until long after the Blasters show was over and the audience had all gone home.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>One final note on Jonathan’s shocking smart ass punch line.</p>
<p>By this point everyone must be familiar with the expression <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark">“Jumping the Shark”.</a> Basically this is when a show spins off into an absurd plot line or more generally the moment or event that begins a celebrity’s downfall. In Camper Van Beethoven we have a similar concept. It’s “The deer skull has been F*cked”. Shocking! and from such a nice band!</p>
<p>It refers to Jonathan Segel’s tendency to take a slightly off color story or topic of conversation and take it way way way beyond the bounds of good taste. In particular one evening Victor was musing on Maria and Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘s sex life. The conversation was hijacked by Jonathan who then painted a grotesque and hilarious picture that ended with the govenor and first lady of California copulating with a deer skull.</p>
<p>So in general it refers to anything that has been taken beyond the boundaries of good taste.</p>
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<p><strong>Where the Hell is Bill</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHORUS:<br><strong>[A]</strong> Where,<strong>[D]</strong>where the<strong>[E]</strong> Hell is<strong>[A]</strong> Bill?<br>
Where,<strong>[D]</strong>where the<strong>[E]</strong> Hell is<strong>[A]</strong> Bill?<br>
Where,<strong>[D]</strong>where the<strong>[E]</strong> Hell is<strong>[A]</strong> Bill?<br>
Where,<strong>[D]</strong>where the<strong>[E]</strong> Hell is<strong>[A]</strong> Bill?</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[A]</strong> Well, maybe he<strong>[D]</strong> went to get a<strong>[E]</strong> sideways haircut<br>
Maybe he<strong>[D]</strong> went to get a<strong>[E]</strong> strip-ed<strong>[A]</strong> shirt<br>
Maybe he<strong>[D]</strong> went to get some<strong>[E]</strong> plastic<strong>[A]</strong> shoes<br>
Maybe he<strong>[D]</strong> went to get some<strong>[E]</strong> funny sun-<strong>[A]</strong>-glasses</strong></p>
<p><strong>REPEAT CHORUS</strong></p>
<p><strong>Well, maybe he went to get an Air Force parka<br>
Maybe he went to get a Vespa scooter<br>
Maybe he went to get a British flag<br>
Maybe he went to go Mod Ska dancing</strong></p>
<p><strong>REPEAT CHORUS</strong></p>
<p><strong>Well, maybe he went to get a mohawk<br>
And maybe he went to get some gnarly thrash boots<br>
Maybe he went to go ride his skateboard<br>
Maybe he went to see the Circle Jerks</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>REPEAT CHORUS</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/85069
2010-09-20T11:45:06-04:00
2017-02-01T15:27:10-05:00
#48 Friends – 3 Guys Walk Into A Bar In Canoga Park. Why being backstage at a low grade music festival is like being in Iraq.
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<p><strong>Patterson Hood, Johnny Hickman and I Perform Friends.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.nodepression.com/video/cracker-with-patterson-hood">alternate link</a></strong></p>
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<p>In february of 1998 Cracker was mixing our Gentleman’s Blues album. Don Smith our producer engineer had just acquired a mini estate in Agoura Hills CA. It had a smallish mansion and enough land that it cost a small fortune to water and landscape. It also had some kind of combo 6 car garage guest house at the bottom of the driveway. Don had set up a studio in the garage/guest house so he didn’t have to drive all the way to hollywood to mix his records. He got to be near his family and at the same time stay up all night mixing albums. I didn’t understand that so much then. Now I do.</p>
<p>“Costalot”</p>
<p>That was Don Smith’s playful nickname for the place.</p>
<p>Costalot was little bit of a shock for Cracker cause we were used to being right in the middle of Hollywood or Manhattan when we were mixing a record. We weren’t used to being in a gated community in the far western San Fernando Valley. We weren’t used to being in the nuevo riche suburbs with the faux mission style shopping malls, upscale restaurants and wine bars. As detailed in a previous post Johnny and I back then enjoyed our dive bars, our funky old man bars, and the general seediness of Hollywood and Downtown LA.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So one night, must have been a weeknight and late, like 1:00 am, Johnny Hickman, myself and the Austrian assistant engineer decided that we need to go find a seedy bar and get a drink. First it’s difficult to even find anything open in Agoura Hills at this hour so we head south on the 101 back into the valley. By my recollection we probably ended up in Canoga Park. We finally found a place that seemed to be a sports bar that may or may not have had a country music subtheme. Certainly some pop country was on the juke box when we walked in. And the the only other customers in the place three vaguely jock looking dudes at the bar turned and blatantly stared at us in that particular way that california rednecks stare at you.</p>
<p>To be fair:</p>
<p>1)The Austrian assistant engineer Martin Pradler was wearing tight leather pants.</p>
<p>2)I was commuting out to my cabin near pioneertown on the weekends so I was probably dressed in high desert thrift store hippy cowboy threads.</p>
<p>3)And well Johnny has always been the metrosexual of the group.</p>
<p>We ordered the usual, bourbon on the rocks and a beer. Martin may have ordered schnapps which also probably didn’t help. But the three locals went back to talking amongst themselves. So we lost ourselves in conversation discussing the various songs on the new album and relative merits of the mixes.</p>
<p>After a while i noticed that one of the locals was standing right next to me. He wasn’t the biggest of the three and he didn’t seem overtly hostile, yet somehow i knew something was up. His two friends were watching intently.</p>
<p>“Hey man” I said. I think I kind of tipped my beer towards him in a friendly gesture.</p>
<p>“Can I ask you a question?” he said as he peered around me to get a better look at martin in his leather euro-jeans.</p>
<p>“sure”</p>
<p>“Are you guys.. are you guys queer?”</p>
<p>I couldn’t believe the softball the guy had tossed my way. And before I could stop myself or consider the consequences I shot back in the most friendly manner, smiling ear to ear.</p>
<p>“No, but what did you have in mind?”</p>
<p>His two friends just about fell out of their chairs laughing. So did the bartender.</p>
<p>Johnny had initially alerted me to the guys presence when he suddenly acquired a guarded serious look and slyly palmed a glass ashtray. (you definitely want Johnny around if there’s gonna be a bar fight). Johnny now visibly relaxed and joined in laughing. The Austrian was the only one not laughing. He was convinced there was still going to be an altercation. No. When everyone laughs at you it’s over with and the guy knew it. He slunk back to his friends. His friends had completely joined our side. They kept yelling at him “yeah what DID you have in mind?”</p>
<p>I did not write the song <em>Friends</em>. Johnny Hickman did. And I’m pretty sure he was not referring to this incident specifically when he wrote these lines:</p>
<p><em>If a fight breaks out and you’re the cause of it</em></p>
<p><em>In some redneck bar where you been talking shit</em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">However it very well could have been about this fateful night in Canoga Park. </span></em></p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong> “it vas Terrrrrrrrefying” even his hair was frightened.</strong></p>
<p>But it’s not just me that has this survival threatening smart-ass gene. Virtually everyone in the band and crew has at one time or another done something like this. On reflection there are about a million of these incidents I could describe. It’s something about being in a band, being in close quarters driving around busting each others balls constantly that keeps us in this heightened state of smart-assdom. We are all always ready to pounce on the smallest opening. There is intense competition to be the first one to the punch. That’s why it’s funny when people attempt to heckle or make smart ass comments from the audience. They have no idea how practiced we are…</p>
<p>And now that I think about it not just our band. The poor austrian Martin Pradler was also involved in a milder but similar incident with the Counting Crows. That same year I hired Martin Pradler to help with the “This Desert Life” album. Dan Vickery Counting Crows guitarist had taken to purposely referring to Martin as German. This was driving Martin Crazy.</p>
<p>“I’m not German I’m Austrian”</p>
<p>“But it was once all the same country”</p>
<p>“no”</p>
<p>“Yes in World War II”</p>
<p>“No-No” Martin was getting visibly flustered ” We were invaded just like most of the european countries”</p>
<p>At this point Adam Duritz couldn’t stand it anymore and kind of runs out of the room in feigned terror waving his hands above his head.</p>
<p>” IT VAS TERREEEFYING, ZEY RODE IN ON BICYCLES!”</p>
<p>This was not only funny in a ball busting way but made a very valid historical point. Austria was annexed by germany in 1938 when German troops-many on bicycles-rode into the country and were greeted with flowers and enthusiastic crowds. Ouch.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>This trash talking and ball breaking is an important part of the band’s camaraderie. In fact the old adage is that when people stop making fun of you, you need to worry about getting kicked out of the band. So it is also important to acknowledge and repeat to others when you have been the victim of a particularly brilliant bit of ball busting. It means you belong.</p>
<p>For instance. I must dutifully report that Thursday morning I was in Las Cruces New Mexico with Bugs my childhood friend and former cracker guitar tech. We were driving back from breakfast with our concert promoter when she pointed out a bunch of buzzards circling in the distance. Bugs happily chimed in:</p>
<p>“Oh that’s just David’s career”.</p>
<p>Again all the crew guys and band members are quick this way. Relentless training and repetition. During the recording of Gentlemen’s Blues Bugs had gotten so good at these one liners that we started calling him Shecky Salcido after the comedian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shecky_Greene">Shecky Greene.</a></p>
<p>We were all in a thrift store in Woodstock NY when a parked car (with a dog in it) rolled down the hill and bumped into another parked car. An older gentleman came into the thrift store and asked</p>
<p>“does anyone in here own a blue toyota sedan with a dog inside”</p>
<p>Bugs quickly fired back “That’s no dog! that’s my wife!”</p>
<p>We were pleasantly surprised that when we went to Iraq the soldiers who transported us around Baghdad engaged in a very similar kind of trash talking and ball breaking. Within our MRAP convoy there were external and internal comms. The external traffic to things like helicopters or to destination bases was highly formal and proper. The internal comms were a profanity laden free association roast of virtually everyone and everything within view of the gunners and drivers. Iraqi women in traditional abayas became “Ninjas” and were treated with mock reverence as a lethal threat.<br>
“Number 2 you got 3 ninjas at your 2 o’clock. Prepare for some wild monkey style”</p>
<p>Iraqi policemen got some of the funniest treatments. This centered on the very specific style the high ranking Iraqi policemen adopted. Very large bushy moustache and 70′s style leather jacket. Like they’d been watching reruns of The Mod Squad. This was summed up best by one of the gunners in our convoy.</p>
<p>“We are training the Iraqi Army and the Paramilitaries. Apparently the Ensenada Police Department is training the City Police”</p>
<p>The ball breaking included us in the band as well. Sal with his thick NYC accent was for some reason a particularly inviting target. Sal also made the mistake of not buckling his 6 point harness properly when we were put in the MRAP rollover simulator. When they flipped us upside down Sal landed on his head with an audible thump. This prompted the operator to ask over the intercom “Is everyone good?”</p>
<p>“I’m not good” came Sals response over the intercom.</p>
<p>This was hilarious to the soldiers in our convoy. We could hear them laughing through the intercom system.<em> If i fall and hit my head it’s tragedy, if you fall and hit your head it’s comedy.</em> For the rest of our time in Baghdad every so ofthen someone would randomly and anonymously pop on the internal comms with an “I’m not good.” Complete with thick NY accent. This was later translated into latin “Salus Non Sum”, and when we made our official <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin">coin</a> for the cracker tour we included Salus Non Sum as our motto.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ball breaking did not stop when we returned to the states. St Patricks day we were playing in Myrtle Beach SC. A typical city street festival thing. We got word that 5 or 6 of the guys from the 82nd airborne that had escorted us around Baghdad would be coming to the show. I realized that they had only been back home in the states for a couple of weeks. I figured there would be some hard drinking that night so i put them in the VIP tent NOT backstage. I just wanted to play it safe. One of the soldiers was underage. Frank took him backstage where Drivin’ n Cryin’ invited him on their bus. This was not lost on the other soldiers. Eventually their highest ranking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-commissioned_officer">NCO</a> started bugging me to get take them all backstage. Fair enough I could tell at this point they were all pretty well behaved and didn’t need to worry about them. So I led them all backstage. At this point their sergeant looks around and says to me:</p>
<p>“This is backstage? Tents? Porta-potties? Generators? Steam trays? I can get this shit in Iraq”.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<p>Friends.</p>
<p>I’d <strong>[C]</strong> never sleep with <strong>[G]</strong> your ex-girl-<strong>[C]</strong>-friend<br>
Even if she starts to flirt with me <strong>[G]</strong> again<br>
Al-<strong>[F]</strong>-low me to a-<strong>[G]</strong>-pologise for my <strong>[C]</strong> slightly <strong>[Bb]</strong> wicked <strong>[F]</strong> thoughts<br>
But <strong>[C]</strong> that’s the kind of <strong>[G7]</strong> friend that you’ve <strong>[C]</strong> got</p>
<p>If a fight breaks out and you’re the cause of it<br>
In some redneck bar where you’ve been talking shit<br>
I would not forsake you later in that parking lot<br>
‘Cause that’s the kind of friend that you’ve got</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Through the <strong>[F]</strong> laughter and the tears<br>
We go <strong>[C]</strong> stumbling through these years<br>
A bit disfunctional <strong>[Bb]</strong> some might <strong>[G]</strong> say<br>
But I’ve <strong>[F]</strong> got the dirt on you<br>
Hey I got <strong>[C]</strong> plenty <strong>[Bb]</strong> on you<strong>[F]</strong> too<br>
So I <strong>[C]</strong> pray we stay to-<strong>[G]</strong>-gether all our <strong>[C]</strong> days</p>
<p>When you’re on a date and you finally bring that girl home<br>
you put a little captain beefheart on the stereo and disconnect the phone<br>
I’ll show up drunk and ravin’, and then i’ll pass out on the spot<br>
‘Cause that’s the kind of friend that you’ve got</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS<br><strong>[Bb]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br>
Dear Lord I <strong>[C]</strong> pray we stay to-<strong>[G]</strong>-gether all our <strong>[F]</strong> days<br><strong>[C]</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84668
2010-09-12T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:40-05:00
300 Songs On Vacation Until Sept 20th
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84669
2010-09-09T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:40-05:00
Frank Funaros favorite drum performances of all time
<p>It’s my birthday today. I’m not writing.</p>
<p>Todays Guest blogger is Cracker/CVB Drummer Frank Funaro.</p>
<p>This is something he wrote a while back. I thought i would share it here.</p>
<p><em>Hey, any list like this is sure to date me. I don’t much care for the crazy drumming the kids do today, with the dreadlocks and the Pro Tools… Hey… GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!!! Um, sorry, where was I?</em></p>
<p><em>I was asked to list my “favorite” drum performances of all time, NOT:</em></p>
<p><em>“most amazing” (think: Aja), or</em></p>
<p><em>“most influential to me” (think: Highway Star, the live version off of Made In Japan), or</em></p>
<p><em>“most signature” (think: Walk This Way, or Billion Dollar Babies, or 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover) or</em></p>
<p><em>“most likely to give me a seizure” ([I actually mean this in a good way...]think: anything by Necrophagist).</em></p>
<p><em>No. I was asked to list my favorites. They change year by year, to be sure, I mean, back in the 70′s my taste was all over the map, perhaps with the aid of a bong, some headphones and a seemingly endless amounta time to kill… And in the 80′s a lot of my taste was informed by rebellion against and/or hatred of insipid crap (think: It’s Hip To Be Square). But, year-in and year-out, these following drum performances stick with me like an earworm, and I aspire to be one tenth as good someday. Ah, the learning curve…</em></p>
<p><em>So, without further ado, and in no particular order, as of May/June 2009 – My Favorite Drum Performances Of All Time.</em></p>
<p><strong>“Lust For Life”Hunt Sales w/ Iggy Pop</strong></p>
<p>This may well be one of the most underrated drum performances of all time. (Dig my hyperbole). Not because people don’t appreciate it, but because it’s AS GOOD AS ANY DRUM PERFORMANCE IN ROCK HISTORY. (And also because I’m on my third beer).Holy crap, I’m going to listen to it right NOW. MINUS the footage of the happy family on the cruise ship. Liquor and drugs and a sex machine indeed…</p>
<p><strong>“Black Country Woman”John Bonham w/ Led Zeppelin</strong></p>
<p>Yeah, yeah, I KNOW… When The Levee Breaks is one of the most loved drum grooves of all time, and with good reason. And heavier than the heaviest Metal with a capital M. But this particular slab ‘o Bonzo has always been one of my favorites. The drumming on this? A beautiful example of delicious restraint and taste. Jeezis, how many bars before the drums even enter? And how many bars before the kick/snare drum “AND-FOUR-AND” hits you in the head with a 2X4 and brings the entire swingin’ (and I mean SWINGIN’) beat in? And how many bars did Bonham visit prior to arriving at the studio that day?</p>
<p>[Answers: a)44, b)64, c)no one knows]</p>
<p><strong>“La Grange”Frank Beard w/ ZZ Top</strong></p>
<p>Go ahead, take this song for granted. Sure is a classic rock staple, innit? Heard it a million times, haven’t you? But you show me one bar band drummer that plays this correctly and I’ll eat my hat. The Texas shuffle in all it’s greasy glory. This is before the drum machine reared it’s ugly plug and propelled these guys into the unit-shifting stratosphere. Feh. (Added fun: The one without the beard is named Beard).</p>
<p><strong>“Cold Shot”Chris Layton w/ Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble</strong></p>
<p>Speaking of the Texas shuffle in all it’s greasy glory… This groove is HUGE. TREMENDOUS. If it was any further back in the pocket, the song would start to go backward. And then my head would explode. And then, as the time-space continuum ripped like a cheap dress on prom night, all right handed drummers that shuffle this song on the hi-hat with their RIGHT HAND would be cast into the abyss with an Ipod Shuffle loaded only with “It’s Hip To Be Square”. And crazy glue in the USB port.</p>
<p><strong>“She Said She Said”Ringo w/ whatever that band’s name is, I can’t think of it at the moment…</strong></p>
<p>Any drummer that doesn’t understand that Ringo Starr is better than Neil Peart needs to have their heads examined. And confiscated.</p>
<p><strong>“Tumblin’ Dice”Charlie Watts w/ er… those guys with the singer with the big lips…</strong></p>
<p>Any drummer that doesn’t understand that Charlie Watts is a GOD OF GROOVE ought to get a couple of turntables and become a DJ. I hear they get chicks. As far as their drumsets go, I’ve got two words for them. (Hint: The first one is “Craig’s”).</p>
<p><strong>“Get Rhythm”Tommy Ardolino w/ NRBQ</strong></p>
<p>A great synthesis of straight rock and shuffle, this guy is so very swingin’ on this track. It hearkens back to them days when Jerry Lee and Chuck and Little Richard were inventing the whole damn genre, and drummers could swing like hell, but they didn’t even know HOW to play straight eights. This was the late 50′s, and nobody thought rock and roll would last. Maybe it didn’t last, I mean, Madonna is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, so, what does THAT say about the end-times, hm? Yeah, ok, I “get it”, Rock and Roll is a state of mind. But it’s also a style of music. And Mr. Ardolino is one of the last guys who still know how to play it.</p>
<p><strong>“</strong><strong>Celestial Terrestrial Commuters”Billy Cobham w/ Mahavishnu Orchestra</strong></p>
<p>Hey, I’m a drummer. I dig “over-the-top, virtuoso-type” playing as much as the next drum-geek. This is not “rock n roll”, nor did it ever pretend to be. When I first started picking up the sticks, this performance made me want to put them back down again… and go get a day job. I used to slow the 33 rpm disc down to 16 rpm, trying to learn how to play this, and it still made no earthly sense to me. These guys were ON FIRE, though. It was called fusion jazz, but it was loud and passionate. The added bonus? NO VOCALS. If you’re going to play music as intricate and complicated as this, there ought to be a law against getting some helium-voiced golden boy up onstage to prance about like a renaissance-faire-actor’s-guild moron-in-tights spouting Lord Of The Frigging Rings fantasy unicorn nonsense. There ought to also be a law against getting some only-owns-black-clothing-human-ink-receptacle mook who bases his entire vocal delivery on the vocal stylings of the Cookie Monster. If somebody had written lyrics to the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, I fear the two would TOTALLY cancel each other out into vapidity and you’d be left with – what? Billy Joel?</p>
<p><strong>Ramones (entire 1st record) Tommy Erdelyi</strong></p>
<p>You know those hackneyed expressions like “shock the world”, and “it changed my life”? Well… It did, and it did. I don’t even know where to begin. Hell, the guy behind the kit was a PRODUCER. The gangly lead singer was the drummer. Bright Idea Department: “You be the frontman, and I’ll learn how to play the drums. From scratch. In perfect time, and with groove. And, oh, by the way, we’ll do gigs in front of people while I’m learning. And while we’re at it, we’ll change the face of popular music FOREVER. Ok, guys?” I remember my right arm seizing up trying to play the speedy ones, Judy Is A Punk, Chainsaw, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue – YIKES! A whole lotta water has gone under the bridge since this came out – drummers can play so fast these days it’ll scare your cat, (hell, live Ramones gigs were even faster than the records – by a LOT), but this debut album got the eighth-note ball rolling in a big way. (Hey, I know naming an entire record as a drum perf is cheating, but… the songs were what… 40 seconds long each? Cut me some slack).</p>
<p><strong>“634-5789″(Soulsville U.S.A.) Al Jackson Jr. w/ Wilson Pickett</strong></p>
<p>Holy sh*t. Is this the best drum performance EVER? It very well could be. I mean, not even opinion here. Backbeat for DAYS. I can’t figure out how to play like this, and neither can Neil Peart. Seriously, Al Jackson grooves like a monster, a god, a genius of rhythm on this pulsing heartbeat of a track. There isn’t a way in the world the snare drum could be any further back in the pocket. That’s as far as it can POSSIBLY go.</p>
<p><em>Wait a minute. I’ve got to re-write my whole damn article now. What about Al’s playing on “In The Midnight Hour”? What about his great work with Otis Redding? With Al Green? What about the drummers of James Brown? What about the forty other songs with Ringo and Charlie on ‘em that blow my fragile-eggshell mind? What about Keltner? Moon? Scabies? I can’t turn this piece in now. I’m embarrassed. Don’t print this. Gimme one more chance, I swear I’ll pick better drum performances.</em></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84511
2010-09-08T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:40-05:00
#47 The Van Pt 2: Jump Into the Caddy Cause Touring Ain’t a Drag
<p><strong>Reminder Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven at the Echoplex in Los Angeles tonight sept 9th!</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/valian-wagon.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/valian-wagon.jpg?w=450&h=294" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="294" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>8. 1964 Valiant Station wagon. $100 without motor. (1988-1990)</strong></p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
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<p>This was the only car I owned when I returned to Los Angeles after Camper Van Beethoven broke up. It was a great vehicle for it’s age. When Johnny and I were working on our demos it was this and his VW microbus that got us around Los Angeles. When we decided to make the move from Hollywood to Richmond Virginia we packed all of our stuff in this vehicle and rented a U-Haul Trailer. Unfortunately it came up a few miles short of the Mississippi river. It threw a rod around Forest City AR. We sat along the freeway for almost 2 hours waiting for a tow. All along the freeway there are rice paddies. We were getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I didn’t want to part with the thing so we rented a Uhaul truck and a car hauler to get everything to Richmond. After spending nearly a year in Richmond and there being no release date in sight for the first Cracker album I finally decided that i would never have any money to fix the damn thing. I sold it to a junk/collectable car dealer.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vw-bus.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vw-bus.jpg?w=450&h=386" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="386" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Similar to Johnnys Micro.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1983_freevan.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1983_freevan.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>9. 1983 Ford E-150 white cargo van. $2500 (1991-1993)</strong></p>
<p>. Finally in the winter of 1991 it looked like the first Cracker album would finally be released. Jackson had found a 1983 Ford E-150 that belonged to a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Goldberg"> </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Goldberg">Gold Mountain Entertainment </a>employee. I forget his name, but the guy was very keen on telling us everyone who he had ferried around in this van. Including a “sick” Kurt Cobain who slept in the van before and after some Nirvana showcase.</p>
<p>We kept this van for a number of years even after we started using a bus. It was a cargo van so it required us to have another vehicle. For the first couple of years of cracker the crew went in this van with the gear, and we would lease a Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac Sedan DeVille for the band. This was when we were touring with Davey Faragher and Michael Urbano so we always had two sober guys in the car after the show. Handy. I enjoyed touring this way. I know most rock stars prefer buses but i always enjoyed the freedom of having a car. You weren’t always stuck at the hotel or venue. I reference this in Sweet Potato.</p>
<p>“wake up in the morning cup of coffee grab your bags, jump into the caddy cause no touring ain’t a drag”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-sweet-potato.mp3">07 Sweet Potato</a></p>
<p>While browsing for a photo of a 1983 E-150 Econoline Cargo van I came across <a href="http://www.umop.com/car01.htm">Dave Lovelace’s history of the cars</a> he has owned. You might wanna check it out. I have no idea who this gentlemen is but i found this to be engaging reading. I especially liked the part about quitting his high paying job to become a Techno artist.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/sedan-deville.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/sedan-deville.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>10. The leased Cadillacs. 1992</strong></p>
<p>Like i said my favorite way to travel. I remember we played a show in SF and the next show was in Salt Lake City. This was on the first Cracker album. The crew drove ahead of us. We stopped in reno and got something to eat. Josef Peters also bought <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintegration_(The_Cure_album)">the Cure album Disintegration</a>. In a van or bus it’s hard to listen to music. You have to play it too loud to really enjoy it. In the Cadillac it was a pleasure. I remember it was sunset when he stuck the cassette in the deck. we were somewhere on that lonely stretch of road between Lovelock and Winnemucca NV. It was a great soundtrack for the drive and the dwindling daylight. I had never really listened to The Cure since the early albums. This album has remained my favorite since that drive.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/prevost.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/prevost.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>10. Tour busses. 1994-2000</strong></p>
<p>I hate tour busses. Everybody else in the band loves them. 1200 dollars a day minimum. Noisy and once you get somewhere you are stuck. I understand why you need to use them. Especially when the drives are long. And if you want to party with your bandmates it’s awesome. It’s a party every night. It’s like living in a frat house.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1994-ford-e250-3-quarter-ton-cargo-van-right-front-view-p9963.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1994-ford-e250-3-quarter-ton-cargo-van-right-front-view-p9963.jpg?w=450&h=286" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="286" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>11. The Nick’s Produce Van. Ford E-150 1994. $4000. (2000-2003)</strong></p>
<p>Somewhere around 2000 we realized we couldn’t afford to take a tour bus out every weekend we went out to play shows. And also we didn’t have anything to move our gear around in. Also i was tired of schlepping our equipment in and out of the basement of the Sound of Music Studios. It seemed ridiculous cause we were playing mostly weekends in this period. Nick’s produce is the greek deli/produce place across the street from Sound Of Music Studios. It’s our usual lunch spot when we are recording in the studio.</p>
<p>One day I noticed a “For Sale” on the Nick’s Produce van. I talked to the owner and the next day we had this van. If we were gonna be weekend warriors at least now we wouldn’t have to load the gear in and out of the basement. I simply kept the gear in the Van out at my house in the country. This van was also a good disguise van. It had a little graffiti on it and it didn’t look like it had 30k of band equipment in it.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2002-conversion.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2002-conversion.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>12. The 2002 Ford E-250 Conversion van. 30k (2003-2006)</strong>.</p>
<p>I liked touring in this van. It was efficient way of touring. we had a trailer and this van. It was a little crowded when we had 7 people in it but we got back to a little of the cadillac type luxury ride. We could actually listen to music and watch videos. Between Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven we put just shy of 200k miles on this thing. Never had one major problem with it.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2004-dodge-sprinter.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2004-dodge-sprinter.jpeg?w=326&h=155" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="155" width="326" /></a></p>
<p><strong>13. The 2004 Dodge/Mercedes Sprinter 30k (2006-2010)</strong>.</p>
<p>The most familiar vehicle to many Cracker fans. We always rent and travel in these vans when we are in europe. Although they look exotic to americans there was a comfy homeyness to us.</p>
<p>However when you are in Europe where they are more common they are cheap and easy to have work done on ‘em. Not so in the US. Only 1 dealership in the Richmond area was allowed to do factory service on the thing. Then when chrysler nearly imploded I had to start driving 60 miles to get any work done on these things. We put about 125k on this thing and lost a transmission. I was done with it. Dave Simonette from Trampled By Turtles wanted to buy it from us.</p>
<p>“David I will not sell this thing to a friend”</p>
<p>I sold it to a car auction guy. In the owners manual I left the name and numbers of the only two sprinter mechanics on the east coast worth a shit.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2006-suburban.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2006-suburban.jpg?w=450&h=281" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="281" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>14. 2006 chevrolet Suburban. 22k. 2010-????</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong> We are now back to the most efficient and civilized way of touring. At least in my mind. I know sal doesn’t always think so. he’s 6’5”. Quiet and smooth ride. You can ditch the trailer at the club or hotel and go off somewhere in the suburban. you can actually watch a movie and listen to music. And unlike the Sprinter the thing tows the trailer like the thing is empty. Love the suburban.</p>
<p>Back to our MacGyver-like roadie/driver/car mechanic from the Camper Van Beethoven days. John Stein. He was at our last show in Denver Aug 28th. Clint our current roadie/driver and i had noticed a strange vibration the suburban would occasionally make. A lot of time it was around 30mph. but not always. It started freaking me and clint out a bit. We turned to John Stein for advice.</p>
<p>“hmm harmonic vibration, interesting”</p>
<p>“is it alignment?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know i’d have to drive it”</p>
<p>“is it a transmission issue?”</p>
<p>“Just let me drive it tomorrow”.</p>
<p>The suburban had low enough miles on it that we had a certified GM warranty, but we still didn’t want to lose the vehicle for three days while major work was done on it. And you have to understand something about John Stein. Earlier when we went to his house for dinner, He had a 1966(?)Sunbeam half assembled in his garage. But much of the car was also in his spare bedroom and den. Not the oily parts, but thing like the hardtop and fenders. John is a college professor now but he’s still the hardcore mechanic at home.</p>
<p>The next day clint and john took the suburban out for a drive. Within half an hour he had it figured out. Faulty sensor that told the vehicle it “needed” 4wd, when you had it in the AWD mode. John bypassed this and it drives just fine now.</p>
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<p><strong>Sweet Potato</strong></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="750"><tbody><tr>
<td width="750" align="left" valign="top">
<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>
<p>Be my sweet potato<br>
Be my honey lamb<br>
dance around the campfire<br>
hang around a while</p>
<p>Well, I been caught stealin’<br>
someone else’s vibe,<br>
everybody loves or hates us,<br>
but we’re still alive</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Well wake up in the morning<br>
cup of coffee, grab your bags<br>
jump into the caddie<br>
’cause this tourin’ ain’t a drag.<br>
They say overrated, educated<br>
I suppose a little jaded.<br>
When I get off this<br>
I think I’m gonna have to be sedated.<br>
So be my sweet potato,<br>
I’ll be your honey lamb,<br>
give me some black tupelo,<br>
I been caught again. Shit!</p>
<p>I went to New York City,<br>
but then I come right back,<br>
everyone was cool there,<br>
I couldn’t get no slack<br>
You seen me in the papers,<br>
You seen me in the Voice,<br>
I think I’d stay in Dixie,<br>
if I had the choice.</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84501
2010-09-07T20:00:00-04:00
2023-12-10T12:14:45-05:00
#46 The Van Part 1: When I Win The Lottery I’m Gonna Buy a New Van.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_3104.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/img_3104.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>“Rocinante” one of the Cracker Vans.</strong></p>
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<p>A few days after I wrote post #37 Circles-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I was in Denver. And as it turned out 7 of the 9 people in that van on that vegas trip were all at the same dinner party. The discussion turned to all the various CVB and Cracker vehicles and how they were an important part of our band and every band’s story.</p>
<p>Here is a short list of the Vehicles we have owned individually or collectively for carrying our gear around, getting to rehearsals, getting to local gigs and most importantly touring.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/ford_galaxie_500_1968_30.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/ford_galaxie_500_1968_30.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>1. 1968 Galaxy 500. $300. (1983-1985)</strong></p>
<p>I bought it from a friend of my dad. A GI buddy. He cut me a deal. $300 dollars. It was a shitty yellow. It had a crumpled right front fender. But it was otherwise in fine shape. It was a great vehicle and we had a lot of good times in this beast. This was the first car I ever owned. I was 23 and had only ever owned motorcycles. Any car would have seemed like a beast.</p>
<p>I don’t remember how many miles it had on it. But it wasn’t much less than 100k. I drove this back and forth from Southern California to Santa Cruz many times. It was the primary vehicle for moving around Camper Van Beethoven and Box O’ Laffs gear for two years. Did I mention it was a beast? It had a huge V8 (390?). The trunk was enormous. It could fit the entire drum setset and both guitar amplifiers. Or alternately the SVT bass cabinet and all the guitars. The drums and guitar amplifiers fit int he backseat. It eventually developed a very serious engine issue. I don’t remember if it was a thrown rod, or what but it was bad enough that when it got towed for street cleaning, i never bothered to go and get it back. At first Box o Laffs used this car mostly. We took it to LA to play shows at the Anti-Club or to San Francisco. Later as CVB became more popular it became the CVB vehicle. Mostly for gigs in town or to go to Davis or San Francisco to play.</p>
<p>The only thing that was annoying about this vehicle was it’s poor gas mileage. And it had a huge tank. When you are 23 working part time and making $8 an hour you try to keep as little gas in your car as possible. If I had a half tank of gas in the thing I felt rich. One friday after cashing my paycheck, putting a half tank of gas in my Galaxy and buying a 40 at the AM/PM I came home and wrote this ditty. It never made it onto a record until the third CVB album.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/16-shut-us-down.mp3">16 Shut Us Down</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vw-squareback.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vw-squareback.jpeg?w=277&h=182" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="182" width="277" /></a></p>
<p><strong>2. 1968 Volkswagen Squareback. $800. 1985-1988.</strong></p>
<p>This car was the bane of my existence. I was working at a farm near Freedom CA when my Galaxy 500 died. I needed another vehicle. The bus took nearly an hour to ride to the farm and i had to walk the last mile. Overall the farm was 11 miles from my house. A little to far to ride my bike. Although i often did in the summer.</p>
<p>My extremely generous (and extreme libertarian) boss lent me $800 dollars for another car. I stupidly bought a Volkswagen Squareback so I could be like all the cool Surfers who used these things. It looked about right to me. It could fit the Bass cabinet and two guitar amplifiers. But within a week the transmission failed. I rode my bike to the house of the asshole who sold it to me. He wouldn’t give me a dime back on it. So i used my bike lock to break the tops off all four of the sprinklers in his front yard. ”Hey man, very uncool! very uncool!” he sounded like Dennis Hopper. He repeated this over and over again as I merrily added 4 new fountains to the landscaping in his front yard.</p>
<p>“i’m calling the cops” he yelled after me as i rode off. I couldn’t resist i turned around and headed right back for him. I almost knocked him down with my bike.</p>
<p>“you call the cops and i’ll come back every two weeks and break all this shit again. and your car windows” pointing at his BMW. why do assholes always drive BMW’s?</p>
<p>I couldn’t help it. You can take the boy out of the Inland Empire but…he never called the cops.</p>
<p>I found a rebuilt transmission and talked a local mechanic into installing it for me after hours. We had a good run for a little while with it.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"> It had a couple annoying habits. First and foremost the hatchback door would unexpectedly pop open while driving. One time my bass cabinet slid out into the road. Richie West’s (?) french horn also went into the road, it was hit by a truck. the case was damaged but strangely the instrument survived.</span></p>
<p>But then on the way to a CVB gig in Fresno with the Meat Puppets and Minutemen the damn thing caught on fire. Seriously. One of the little hose clamps on the fuel line had loosened and worked it’s way off the carburator. This was a common VW failure. It happened to me all the time. No matter how fucking tight you clamped the hoses. I was told later this was happening <em>because</em> i clamped them too tight.</p>
<p>Usually you noticed the gas smell and loss of power right away and stopped and fixed it. This time it immediately caught on fire. We managed to put the fire out before any damage was done and get the thing on the road again. But after that i refused to use it for touring.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1972-datsun-510-wagon.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1972-datsun-510-wagon.jpg?w=450&h=193" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="193" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><strong>3. Jonathan’s 1972 Datsun 510 Station Wagon (1983-1985).</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">This was the other half of the CVB touring convoy. We needed two vehicles with my galaxy 500 or the squareback. This car came to an inglorious end when I rear ended someone on the CA17/I280 interchange in Santa Clara. In the long run this was fortuitous. The tow truck driver launched into a monologue that became the basis for the song When I Win The Lottery. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">Over the course of the 30 minute ride (to John Steins house our MacGyver like driver and roadie see post #37 circles) the tow truck driver confessed to a series of small felonies and a profound contempt for virtually every aspect of our society. most striking was his contempt for religion and patriotism. He was out of his mind but totally fascinating.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/when-i-win-the-lottery.mp3">When I Win the Lottery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/f350.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/f350.jpeg?w=259&h=194" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="194" width="259" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><strong>4. Pete C’s 1984 4×4 E-350 pickup truck. $20,000+ Dec 1st 1985- Dec 12th 1985</strong>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">We borrowed Pete C’s truck to do our first ever out of state tour. Santa Cruz to Austin. Eversince we drove this thing to Texas and back I’ve had a fascination with these things. It is the ultimate American vehicle. Lately they and their ilk (The Dodge 3500 and the Chevy 3500) have got a bad rap. These vehicles have come to represent extravagance and wastefulness. Outdated american technology. But to anyone who has owned a small business, is employed in the building trades, or owns a large piece of property these things are indespensible. And when used by small businesses and tradesman especially in the crew cab form they are really the most efficient and cost effective vehicle to own. They are also more technologically advanced then most people imagine. They wouldn’t be so popular if they didn’t make good financial sense to own. I think i’ll go and buy one now.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">Who’s Pete C ? Pete was probably the first person to watch Camper Van Beethoven and fully “get it”. We had opened for one of the minor LA paisley underground or “cowpunk” bands at the Santa Cruz Art Center. I believe this was an opening slot he had arranged for us as a favor.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">“Man you guys are on to something here. You guys could really go somewhere”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">I only knew Pete as this mysterious rich cattle rancher and former opera singer. Lately he was leading a country/nortena band with our drummer Anthony Guess. They played these strange honky tonks all over the Salinas Valley. His family had ranches in Wyoming and Argentina. But most impressive was the ranch they owned in the upper Salinas valley south of King City. I mean having a lot of land in a place like Wyoming or Argentina is one thing but California? His father was rumored to be part of Reagans “kitchen cabinet”. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">When Pete was in town he lived in this small hotel in Soquel. Above a bar notorious for it’s pot and coke dealers. Jennifer and I went to visit him a few times at this hotel. We usually ended up pretty high. He was a lot of fun. It was always a full on party with Pete. He was always surrounded by interesting people. Rich divorcees, low level movie business operators, and long haired mustachioed mexican hipsters or drug dealers. In those days it was hard to tell</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"> Also we noticed that Anthony Guess’s very young (17 or 18) year old girlfriend was often there visiting. Jennifer raised an eyebrow at me the 2nd or 3rd time we found her with Pete. Pete was about 40 at the time. Women’s intuition is a remarkable thing. Because shortly after this Anthony’s girlfriend ran off with Pete to Wyoming. It was never exactly clear if they were romantically involved but they definitely went on a huge drug and psychedelics binge. When I saw her sometime later she mentioned tripping her ass off on LSD with a bunch of cowboys in some tiny town in Wyoming. And she said verbatim to me:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">“Man watching cowboys on acid was crazy. They looked like some kind of Egyptian hieroglyphics to me. Animated like cartoons”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">And thus the song Eye of Fatima was born.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-eye-of-fatima-pt-1.mp3">01 Eye Of Fatima (Pt. 1)</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-eye-of-fatima-pt-2.mp3">02 Eye Of Fatima (Pt. 2)</a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/09/08/46-the-van-part-1-when-i-win-the-lottery-im-gonna-buy-a-new-van/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/U3vJEDL1iDA/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><strong>Jonathan Performs Jazz and Modern Dance Moves 2:10-2:14</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/75dodgevan.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/75dodgevan.jpg?w=400&h=541" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="541" width="400" /></a></strong></span></p>
<p><strong>This is how life was for CVB in Santa Cruz. Everyday. </strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;"><strong> </strong></span></p>
<p><strong>5. 1975(?) Dodge Tradesman. $3,000 (1986-1988). </strong></p>
<p>When we returned from our trip to Texas Pete’s truck was a little worse for wear. We had 3 people in the front seat and the rest of us and the gear in the back in the camper shell. We also slept back there some nights. In a sleep deprived daze i started the truck in gear and scraped a light pole with the bumper. Upon return Pete decided he was done with loaning us the truck and instead offered to loan us money to 1) buy a touring van, and 2) fund the recording and manufacture of Camper Van Beethoven’s second album.</p>
<p>This time we did our research. We found a 1978 dodge cargo van that someone had converted into a homemade conversion van. We had John Stein check it out. He crawled all around underneath of it, did a compression check and drove it around.</p>
<p>“Well it’s seems pretty good but you never know!” this would prove very intuitive when on it’s maiden voyage we lost the alternator and were briefly stranded in the Mojave. (See #37 Circles) . But after that we had little trouble with it. We also did not realize that because it was the extended version, when we piled the gear all in the back of the steering got very soft. Floaty. It was more like steering a houseboat than driving a truck. This would cause problems later. As only certain people were trusted to drive it.</p>
<p>But otherwise this was a great van. It also had this enormous utility rack on the roof. I mean it had a complete deck. It wasn’t just some crossbars. It was made of heavy duty spread metal. We strapped our luggage on it when we traveled and often used it as a party deck when we got to the gig. We dragged lawn chairs up and sunned ourselves on the roof. One night we met a young kid in Columbus OH. We invited him up on the roof of the Van. He had some dreams of becoming a indie rock touring musician. He told us he loved the Minutemen. D Boone had recently died. One of us said in an offhand manner. ”Why don’t you go out to San Pedro and see if those guys need a new singer/guitar player?” We didn’t realize that he would actually do it. This young man turned out to be Ed Crawford or Ed fROMOHIO and Firehose was born. From Wikipedia:</p>
<p><em>Firehose was formed in the spring of 1986 shortly after the untimely death of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Boon"> </a></em><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Boon">D. Boon</a></em><em> brought an end to Watt and Hurley’s previous band, </em><a title="Minutemen (band)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutemen_(band)"><em>Minutemen</em></a><em>. Crawford, a then 21-year-old Ohio State student and Minutemen fan heard a false rumor that Watt and Hurley were auditioning guitarists for the band and having found Watt’s phone number in the phone book, called him up and expressed his desire to come out to California and play with them. Still mourning the loss of his friend Boon, Watt initially was not interested and in fact had lost much of his desire to play music, however Crawford’s persistence eventually paid off when he showed up unannounced in San Pedro and asked Watt for the chance to come over and play for him.</em></p>
<p>I had forgotten all this until one day we ran into Ed again. He introduced himself as the kid that sat on the top of the van with us. He told us the whole story. I told him “dude, do you know how high we were when we told you to do that?”</p>
<p>The Tradesman van got a great nickname. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topo_Gigio">Topo Gigio</a>. I think it was our sound guy Woody Nuss who later named it this. Topo Gigio started out as a full on hippy live in van. Greg Lisher and his father modified it so that it had a bench seat, a high bed in the back with storage underneath for our gear. so only 5 people could sit. The others had to lie on the bed or sit on the floor. It was pretty cramped. That’s why we added another vehicle to the fleet.</p>
<p>Topo Gigio may have gone on to other adventures with other bands. In 1988 we donated Topo Gigio to a WFMU for charity auction.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1972volvo145front.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1972volvo145front.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>6. 1972 volvo 145. $1200 1987-1988 </strong></p>
<p>About the time we were to go on Tour with REM. We decided we needed a second vehicle. the Volvo 245 station wagon was ubiquitous around Santa Cruz. And relatively cheap. We found a 1972 for $1200. We drove that thing all over the country for 2 years. Other than changing the oil and buying tires we never did a damn thing to it. The Volvo gave us more space and since it was a car not a heavily laden truck it was easy for everyone in the band to drive. And we all really enjoyed driving it. Even Chris Molla.</p>
<p>This was the only Vehicle we ever let Chris Molla drive. Chris was the true mad scientist of Camper Van Beethoven. Some of the instrumental weirdness attributed to Jonathan is actually Chris Molla. He could also play pretty much any instrument. He was in his head a lot and that didn’t make him the best driver. So after the show with REM at University of Colorado we decided we needed to get down the road towards Lincoln NE. So the plan was to drive for a couple of hours and then get a hotel. We let chris drive the first shift. I was in the front seat and wanted to nap. Someone else in the Van had given Chris directions. ” take 36 to I 25 south then take 76 west”. I went to sleep. about an hour and a half later i woke up and we were somewhere south of Colorado Springs.</p>
<p>“um chris where are we going?”</p>
<p>“going to exit 76 then west”</p>
<p>Look on a map to see why this is funny.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/screen-shot-2010-09-07-at-3-18-15-am.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/screen-shot-2010-09-07-at-3-18-15-am.png?w=450&h=324" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="324" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1986-ford-clubwagon.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1986-ford-clubwagon.jpg?w=250&h=157" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="157" width="250" /></a></p>
<p><strong>7. 1986 Ford E150 Club Wagon. $9800. 1988-1990. </strong></p>
<p>Finally in 1988 we totally sold out. We got a loan (Formal Capital!)and got a slightly used 15 passenger van. We kept Topo Gigio but stripped it out entirely so almost the whole back was a cargo cage. Only a narrow bench/bed remained behind the two bucket seats in the front. We ran with both vans for 1 or two short tours. The most memorable moment (aside from Howie and Jackson stranding them in the Salt Flats) was Howie and I simultaneously spinning donuts in a dirt lot and behind the University of The South and briefly colliding. Nothing happened to the new van but we dented in the side of Topo Gigio. Later that tour a couple of us got inside the cargo section of Topo Gigio and popped the dent out by laying on our backs and kicking the dent out with our feet.</p>
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<p><strong>Shut us Down.</strong></p>
<p><em>Odd time signature alert in chorus.</em></p>
<p><em>[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]</em></p>
<p><em>[E] I’ve got a ‘lectric gui-[D]-tar and half a bottle of[A] warm beer[D]-[A]-[D]<br>
[E] I’ve got some<br>
funny i-[D]-deas about what sounds good[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
What sounds good[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
Better shut us down[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]<br>
Better shut us down[A]-[A]-[D]-[D] [A]-[A]-[D]-[D]</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>I’ve got a dollar fifteen and nothing better to do<br>
I’ve got a half tank of gas and nowhere to go<br>
Better shut us down<br>
Better shut us down<br>
Better shut us down (</em><em>frequent live aternative: Better pull the plug</em><em>)</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p><strong>When I Win The Lottery.</strong></p>
<p>Well I[Bm(7)] lost an eye in Mexico<br>
Lost two teeth where I don’t know<br>
[Em] People see me comin’ and they[D] move to the[A] other[Bm(7)] side of the road</p>
<p>I robbed a liquor store or two<br>
Made myself at home a few times<br>
Borrowed myself a car when I needed it</p>
<p>I got me a shack at the bottom of the road<br>
Fixin’ cars and givin’ tows<br>
Spend all my money on the lottery</p>
<p>[G] When I win the lottery, gonna[F#] buy all girls on my block<br>
A[Em] color TV and a[D] bottle of French per-[G]-fume<br>
When I win the lottery, gonna[F#] donate half my money to the city<br>
So they[Em] have to name a street or a[D] school or a[A] park after[G] me<br>
[Bm] When I win the lottery[G]-[F#]</p>
<p>Never run a flag up a pole<br>
Like Mr. Red, White, and Blue down the road<br>
But I never called myself a hero for killing a known communist</p>
<p>Now I can walk into any old bar<br>
Find a fight without looking too hard<br>
But I never killed someone I don’t know just ’cause someone told me to</p>
<p>And when I win the lottery, gonna buy the house next to<br>
Mr. Red, White and Blue<br>
And when I win the lottery, gonna buy Post 306 American Legion,<br>
Paint it red with five gold stars<br>
When I win the lottery</p>
<p>When the end comes to this old world<br>
The rights will cry and the rest will curl up<br>
And God won’t take the time to sort<br>
your ashes from mine</p>
<p>‘Cause we zig and zag between good and bad<br>
Stumble and fall on right and wrong<br>
‘Cause the tumbling dice and the luck of the draw just leads us on</p>
<p>And when I win the lottery, gonna buy all the girls on my block<br>
Silver-plated six shooters and a quart of the finest highland scotch<br>
‘Cause when I win the lottery, the rights will shake their heads and say that<br>
God is good but surely works in mysterious ways<br>
When I win the lottery</p>
<p><strong>Eye of Fatima </strong></p>
<p><strong><br><span style="font-weight:normal;">[INTRO:]<br>
[G]-[Em]-[G]-[Em]<br>
[F]-[C]<br>
[G]-[F]-[D(7)]</span> </strong></p>
<p>He’s got the[G] Eye of Fatima on the[Em] wall of his room<br>
Two[G] bottles of tequila, three[Em] cats and a broom<br>
He’s got an[F] 18-year-old angel and she’s[C] all dressed in black<br>
He’s got[G] 15 bindles of[F] cocaine tied up in a[D] sack[D7]</p>
<p>And this here’s a government experiment and we’re driving like Hell<br>
To give some cowboys some acid and to stay in motels<br>
We’re going to eat up some wide open spaces like it was a cruise on the Nile<br>
Take the hands off the clock, we’re going to be here a while</p>
<p>And I am the Eye of Fatima on the wall of the motel room<br>
And cowboys on acid are like Egyptian cartoons<br>
And no one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right<br>
But you can stay in motel rooms and stay up all night</p>
<p>[Gm]</p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84394
2010-09-06T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:39-05:00
#45 Movie Star and Get Off This-Cracker. More on Selling out. The Marc Jacobs Edition M1 Tank.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/kerosenehat2.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/kerosenehat2.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-movie-star.mp3">02 Movie Star</a></p>
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<p>If you read my last post about the cycle of Revolution to Selling Out you might wonder where I put Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker on this scale?</p>
<p>I have of course already considered this. But before I do that let me briefly review.</p>
<p>First my theory is not a real theory, just a playful framework. Don’t go all crazy on me pointing out the inconsistencies and ambiguities. Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds as Emerson once said.</p>
<p>Second the cycle is Revolutionaries>Domesticators>DeFangers>Tools Of the Man.</p>
<p>Third at all stages of the cycle there can be great artists and songs. Especially the second stage, the Domesticators.</p>
<p>Clearly Camper Van Beethoven was is in the revolutionary part of the cycle. Why? Because I say so. I made up the theory so I say we fit. Seriously there are a lot of good arguments for regarding Camper Van Beethoven as revolutionary. Let’s not have me blow my own horn. Lets assume it and move on.</p>
<p>Second Camper Van Beethoven satisfies my rule regarding what kind of capital financed these early recordings. Since we financed these records with our own meager capital, and with loans from an opera singing cowboy this is clearly informal capital.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/jewel-encrusted.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/jewel-encrusted.jpg?w=400&h=290" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="290" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Marc Jacobs edition jewel encrusted Colt .39 Free with purchase of the Marc Jacobs edition M1 tank.</strong></p>
<p>So yes, the logical conclusion is then Cracker is a <em>domesticator</em>. And i’m very proud of that. It is only within the narrow confines of (white) rock music that being commercially successful has a negative connotation. Can you imagine a gangsta rap or <em>narcocorridos</em> artist worrying about his fans thinking he is too rich and too successful? Do you think they would be hiding from their fans the fact they drive around in diamond studded gold plated Marc Jacobs edition M-1 tank?</p>
<p>I think not.</p>
<p>Being the domesticator doesn’t mean you compromised your ideals to sell more records. A lot of time the domesticators distill and refine a sound because that is the nature of their creativity.</p>
<p>In Cracker’s case we narrowed the eclecticism of Camper Van Beethoven, because Johnny and I felt more comfortable in the confines of Americana and Rock. We didn’t have a Jonathan Segel in Cracker to take us off on any ethnomusicologist expeditions. We didn’t have Victor Krummenacher for extended forays into the land of prog-rock or David Immergluck for the muscular psychedelia. If we’d tried to replicate that stuff it would have seemed like we were trying too hard. Instead we just tried to be honest with ourselves and our listeners. We played and wrote stuff with which we were comfortable. One result was we refined and distilled some of what I had started with Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>But Conversely other elements were added to the mix. For instance Johnny and I were very knowledgeable and comfortable with country music. We could incorporate the Americana elements with much more authenticity. Whereas CVB sort of had to play the country stuff with tongue in cheek. Not Cracker.</p>
<p>So this added some authenticity to the americana roots with which CVB only toyed. This resonated well with a lot of people and also helped broaden our audience. Finally Johnny had a much less cerebral lead guitar style than greg. This allowed Cracker to rock harder than CVB and this re-adjustment in course pointed us just a little more towards the mainstream rock listeners.</p>
<p>But all of these small changes came from an honest place. That’s why Cracker was successful. We were not being disingenuous. We were “just doing what we wanna”. That’s exactly what we were talking about in <em>Get Off This</em>.</p>
<p>Remember the first Cracker album was a hit. As noted before there was a bit of a backlash against Cracker for “selling out”. So this is song is my riposte. Three chord song written in an hour or two. And with a talk box solo!</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/09/07/45-movie-star-and-get-off-this-cracker/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/WbbYp7dcYFo/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-get-off-this.mp3">03 Get Off This</a></p>
<p>The other thing that Everybody misses when comparing Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker: The sea change at commercial radio. In 1990 when Camper Van Beethoven was touring Key Lime Pie there were at most 30 commercial alternative rock radio stations in the country. By the time Kerosene Hat came out there were more like 200.</p>
<p>Cracker and a bunch of other alternative rock bands had by 1993 domesticated a large new audience and a bunch of radio stations. That is peoples tastes and the institutions moved <em>towards us, </em>more than we moved towards them. This is a very important part of the domestication of a new sound or style. And this is why I have no problem claiming domesticator as a mantle. Essentially you and your fans generate enough activity and energy that others come to you.</p>
<p>I often tell people that if Camper Van Beethoven had stayed together we would have had the same success, the same kind of hits that Cracker had. The institutions and culture were moving our way. And Camper Van Beethoven and their fans always generated a lot of energy.</p>
<p>In fact the institutions and audiences were moving still moving when Kerosene Hat came out in 1993. Audiences had been exposed to a tidal wave of alternative rock acts for nearly 2 years. A song like Movie Star that might have seemed a little too punk, a little too left field for most people in 1990 was almost a little soft and pedestrian for alternative radio post Nirvana.</p>
<p>Still i enjoy the punk underpinnings of this track. I enjoy the simplicity of the arrangement. Two guitars bass and drums. Excepting a vocal and percussion overdub, the recording is all one live in studio take.</p>
<p>What is the song about? Good question! I’ve sort of been avoiding that. It’s another of those songs that is not easy to define in a couple of sentences or paragraphs.</p>
<p>First and foremost it’s got a high degree of sexuality but it’s not really easy to explain. I remember that I used to call one of my girlfriends a “beautiful animal.” Cause she often reminded me of some kind of exotic jungle or forest creature. She never took offense at this. On the contrary she enjoyed this banter. It’s also about repressed desires. The chief of police is secretly an anarchist. I know I know! More anti-authoritarianism! we should just go join an anarchist militia already. But the chief of police’s secret is treated less as political and more as some secret carnal desire. weird huh?</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/jayne_mansfield.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/jayne_mansfield.jpg?w=425&h=499" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="499" width="425" /></a></p>
<p>And then theres just the strange reference to Jane Mansfield. It manages to get the title to the song, but it really doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the song. Yet it’s evocative enough to create the strange unreality that the rest of the song needs.</p>
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<p><strong>Get Off This.</strong></p>
<pre>1. C . . . Am . . . F . . . C . . .
e|----------------------------------------|
g|----------------------------------------|
b|-5-----5h7------------5---------5-------|
d|-----------7------5h7-------5h7---------|
2. C . . . Am . . . F . . . C . . .
e|--|---------------6-8-------6-8--------------|
g|--|-------------8-----6---8-----6------------|
b|--|---5-5-8-5-5---------8---------8-5--------|
d|5-|-8--------------------------------------5-|</pre>
<p><strong>[Tab shows the two main riffs: 1. is effectively the bassline, 2. was actually produced from one of those vox-box things that Peter Frampton liked so much, by the sound of it. Take your pick which one you want to use where.]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[INTRO (see tab):]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> All these cats with holey jeans,<strong>[Am]</strong> dirty hair and titty rings,<br>
Say<strong>[F]</strong> what your scene man, we got these<strong>[C]</strong> questions.<br><strong>[C]</strong> Is it true that you have sold your soul?<strong>[Am]</strong> I say hey man, I don’t know<br>
Lend me a<strong>[F]</strong> quarter won’t you, I’ll call my ac-<strong>[C]</strong>-countant.</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Let’s get off<strong>[C]</strong> this, and get on<strong>[Am]</strong> with it,<br>
If you<strong>[F]</strong> wanna change the world shut your<strong>[C]</strong> mouth and start to spin it<br>
Get off this, get on<strong>[Am]</strong> with it<br>
If you<strong>[F]</strong> wanna change the world shut your<strong>[C]</strong> mouth and start this minute</p>
<p>Petty little Ayatollah come around to judge and stone ya<br>
all we’re trying to do is make a fortune<br>
Yeah we ain’t got no government loans, and no one sends a check from home<br>
And get this: we’re just doin’ what we wanna</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Well the guitar player stayin’ out in Hollywood and sayin’<br>
He’s just trying’ to get some sleep, but everyone’s complain’<br>
Are you truly deeply cynical ’cause boy you know I loved you so<br>
When no one knew your name and you were pompous. Still are</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Let’s get off this, and get on with it,<br>
If you wanna change the world shut yer mouth and start to spin it<br>
Get off this, get on with it<br>
If you wanna change the world shut your mouth, shut your mouth y’all</p>
<p>ENDING (REPEAT TO FADE):<br><strong>[C]</strong> N-na na na na,<strong>[Am]</strong> n-na na na na<br><strong>[F]</strong> N-na na na na na<strong>[C]</strong> naaaa</p>
<p><strong>Movie Star</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Gsus4]</strong>-<strong>[G(add C#)]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[(i.e. no sus in the guitar break)]</strong> <strong>[ending:G]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Well the movie star, well she crashed her car.<br>
But everyone said she was beautiful even without her head.<br>
Everyone said she was dangerous.</p>
<p>Well the chief of police kept the crime off the streets.<br>
But deep in his heart, we all knew he felt differently.<br>
We all knew he was an anarchist.</p>
<p>Well I’d<br>
I’d like to devour you<br>
But you<br>
You’d prob’ly<br>
Devour me.</p>
<p>For your golden head, for your oat bran hair.<br>
Deep in my heart<br>
Girl you’re a beautiful animal<br>
I’ll put a tag on your ear.</p>
<p>Well the movie star, well she crashed her car.<br>
But everyone said she was beautiful even without her head.<br>
Everyone said she was dangerous.</p>
<p>Well the chief of police kept the crime off the streets.<br>
But deep in his heart we all knew he felt differently.<br>
We all knew he was an anarchist.</p>
<p>Well I<br>
I’d like to devour you.<br>
But you<br>
You’d prob’ly devour me.</p>
<p>Well I<br>
I’d like to devour you.<br>
But you you’d prob’ly devour me.</p>
<p><strong>Girl you’re a beautiful animal.<br>
Girl you’re a beautiful animal.<br>
Girl you’re a beautiful animal.<br>
Girl you’re a beautiful animal.</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84287
2010-09-05T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:39-05:00
#44. Club Med Sucks-Rebellion vs Selling Out. Always have a ground floor meeting with Suge Knight.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/lacross-skull.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/lacross-skull.jpeg?w=281&h=180" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="180" width="281" /></a></p>
<p><strong>I hate golf! I wanna Play Lacrosse!</strong><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/16-opi-rides-again-club-med-sucks.mp3">16 Opi Rides Again – Club Med Sucks</a></p>
<p>Todays theme is revolutionaries and rebellion in rock versus the notion of “selling out”. First of all if you think this is gonna be another tome about the evils of selling out you are mistaken. my view is that rebellion and then selling out are part of a necessary cycle in rock and pop music. It’s like an ecosystem or an economic cycle. Boom and Bust. Feast and Famine. Necessary or everything stays the same. Nothing would progress.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call my views a theory. Remember I was trained as a Mathematician so I don’t really believe that there are absolute truths or accurate models in any soft science. Further once you get down to the lower rungs of the social sciences and then go below that to pop music history/journalism, you can pretty much make up whatever you want and call it a theory if so inclined. I’m not inclined.This is just my handy way of looking at things. A playful framework. A cosmology.<br>
The story of rock and all pop music is one of a dynamic interplay between the true revolutionaries, rebels and troublemakers and those that follow. In my cosmology three distinct groups follow the innovators. Those that then <em>domesticate </em>the sound,those that then <em>defang</em> it, and those that make it a <em>tool</em> of “the man”. This is an endless cycle so as soon as a revolutionary style or movement has been completely co-opted and become a tool of the establishment a new revolutionary cycle begins.</p>
<p>Revolutionaries>Domesticators>Defangers>Tools of the Man>Revolutionaries>Domesticators>….. got it?</p>
<p>I suppose my views only differ from your typical run of the mill music critic or pop theorist in two ways.</p>
<p>I believe:</p>
<p>1. The selling out process is not necessarily a bad thing</p>
<p>2. Any of the three selling out stages can produce great music. Especially the first selling out stage: domestication.</p>
<p>In fact the “great” rock artists usually credited as innovators are actually the domesticators.</p>
<p>The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, etc etc. The great works of all these bands were built on the works of earlier and remarkably similar innovators. But there is nothing wrong with that. The genius of these bands is not only did they make the innovations more powerful and sometimes palatable, they actually moved the audience and institutions <em>toward</em>s their taste and sound.</p>
<p>Mudhoney>Pearl Jam>Stone Temple Pilots>Creed</p>
<p>Yardbirds>Led Zeppelin>Detective>Montrose</p>
<p>Too long ago? Too obscure? Ok how about over a longer period?</p>
<p>Yardbirds>Led Zeppelin>Black Crowes> Train</p>
<p>Another consideration there are also smaller cycles within these greater cycles. Subcycles. And sub-subcycles within those cycles. It’s all very <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractals">Fractal</a> if you delve into it deep enough. But that’s another discussion</p>
<p>As an example all disco music can be seen as a late <em>Defanged</em> stage of Funk. But the song Staying Alive by the Bee Gees is kind of a kick ass track within the genre. If a Disco song can be described as “powerful” this song is powerful. But the trick is it’s in the words. And when three dudes are singing in falsetto it’s hard to tell what they are saying.</p>
<p>There is another version of this song that John Morand and I mixed for the movie Kids. It brings the darkness in the song out. So within the Disco subcycle <em>Staying Alive </em>(1977) and the Bee Gees are domesticators. They aren’t the innovators but there is a lot more gravity to this song than a s song like <em>Funkytow</em>n (1980)</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/09/06/club-med-sucks-rebellion-vs-selling-out-always-have-a-ground-floor-meeting-with-suge-knight/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/Xjod-uZEIUM/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>Remember this is not an academic theory. It’s a playful framework for looking at artists within the bigger picture of Rock and pop music. Plenty of artists that were not revolutionaries or innovators have made great records. And plenty of artists that started out in the conservative part of a stylistic cycle later became revolutionaries and innovators.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>Selling out is such a loaded term. But it’s partly because there is a real financial basis to the selling out part of the cycle of innovation in pop music. Let’s conduct a little mental exercise.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/interscope.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/interscope.jpeg?w=344&h=147" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="147" width="344" /></a></p>
<p>I<strong>nterscope had the local Kinko’s design the sign in their lobby.</strong></p>
<p>Consider the company that produced, manufactured and distributed an artists first “revolutionary” record. Could that company obtain capital through bank loans or bond sales? If yes this artist is NOT likely to be a true revolutionary or innovator. It is more likely that this artist is a domesticator. Again not a bad thing. This situation suggests that their is already a commercial pathway built for this artist to spread it’s influence. Likely this was built partially on the work of other similar artists.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tupac_suge_snoop1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tupac_suge_snoop1.jpg?w=450&h=484" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="484" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Dude. There is no way in the world I’m making fun of these guys. And it’s pretty hard not to cause in this picture there is a man wearing a leather corset. </strong></p>
<p>Conversely if that company had to rely on their own meager private capital, gangsters or other informal sources of capital, (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Row_Records">like threatening to throw vanilla ice off a balcony</a>.) Then the artist is more likely to have been a revolutionary. A true innovator.</p>
<p>I know this seems crazy but my little mental exercise seems to neatly and simply highlight the innovators and revolutionaries in rock and pop music.</p>
<p><strong>Punk Rock. (an easy example)</strong></p>
<p>Informal capital: SST records Black Flag</p>
<p>Formal capital: Geffen Blink 182.</p>
<p><strong>Grunge (a subtle example)</strong></p>
<p>Informal capital: Sub Pop Records. Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Nirvana*</p>
<p>Formal capital: Major Labels. Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots</p>
<p>*theres a strong argument to make “Nevermind” the breakthrough record for Nirvana not Bleach. In this case Nirvana becomes a domesticator.</p>
<p><strong>The Paisley Underground/1980′s hollywood psychedelic and americana movement (an obscure example)</strong></p>
<p>Informal capital: Enigma records. Green on Red, Rain Parade, The Three O’clock , True West.</p>
<p>Formal capital: Slash Records. Dream Syndicate. Geffen. Lone Justice. Rough Trade (1989). Mazzy Star.</p>
<p><strong>Hip Hop (the main course)</strong></p>
<p>Informal capital: Ruthless Records NWA</p>
<p>Formal capital: Def Jam/Sony/CBS Public Enemy.</p>
<p>I got to admit this last one surprised me. I assumed i would be putting Public Enemy in the informal capital/innovator category. But i have to go with my theory. And upon reflection you are not really an innovator or revolutionary if you don’t really have a lasting influence. Ouch. But now that i’ve sat quietly and thought about it i got to say Public Enemy did not have much influence on Hip Hop. Compare the two production teams. Dr Dre (NWA) and The Bomb Factory (Public Enemy). I mean there is no comparison. Dr Dre virtually created two decades of Hip Hop.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/flavaflav.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/flavaflav.jpg?w=300&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Every year the Vikings fans get weirder and weirder. I mean I get the cheese thing with the Packers. But clocks and Vikings? I don’t get it.</strong></p>
<p>Public Enemy seemed revolutionary at the time because of a little trick. A misdirection. They were overtly political and it’s easy to fool us into thinking an artist that is literally singing about revolution is revolutionary. But it just ain’t true. Also consider that Public Enemy had a lot of appeal among white children of the privileged elite and the music intelligentsia. Obviously it’s not very revolutionary when the elites are mostly the ones embracing you. I imagine this was very frustrating to Chuck D on some level ’cause I’m not sure that this was NOT who he was trying to address. In the end Public Enemy biggest contribution to pop culture ends up being Flavor Flav.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">So finally bringing it home to Club Med Sucks. This song was in reaction to a similar situation.</span></p>
<p>By 1982 west coast hardcore was getting pretty stale. It was becoming a form of stylized rebellion. And in lieu of actual rebellion and revolution, we were getting a lot of lyrics about rebellion and revolution. Further it was the children of the privileged elite that were now embracing the punk movement. Sure signs of the inevitable decline.</p>
<p>My roomate Paul MacKinney, his girlfriend and I were all sitting in the Laundromat at College V B dorm at UCSC. The Laundromat walls were covered in punk rock and cliched lefty graffiti. It was Sunday night and we were doing our little ritual. Laundry and a can of Fosters. We were all just sitting quietly reading the graffiti. Suddenly Paul jumped up, started scrounging around in his bag and pulled out a marker. He then jumps up on the closest washing machine and scrawls across the wall “Club Med Sucks” followed by the Anarchy symbol. This was so funny that I did an actual spit take. It was perfect.</p>
<p>2 years later I was in that Laundromat again and I could still make out “club med sucks” underneath the latest whitewash. I knew then It was perfect fodder for a Camper Van Beethoven song. And more timely than ever. Within days it was a new Camper Van Beethoven Song. In the song we haveprivileged elite private school kids sing about not wanting to go to Club Med. Privileged elite kids sing about hating golf and wanting to play lacrosse. Opi Rides Again was always tagged on the front of this song to make the contrast into Club Med Sucks all the more jarring.</p>
<p>Punk is dead. Long Live Punk.<br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>OPI RIDES AGAIN: (Instrumental)<br><strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[(REPEAT x3)]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[LINK:]</strong><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>CLUB MED SUCKS:<br><strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[C(bass E)]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong> I don’t have to go to <strong>[C]</strong> school for an entire <strong>[Bb]</strong> week <strong>[C(bass E)]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> I just want to go <strong>[C]</strong> down to Newport <strong>[Bb]</strong> Beach <strong>[C(bass E)]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> Mom and Dad want to <strong>[C]</strong> tell me where to <strong>[Bb]</strong> go <strong>[C(bass E)]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> They wanna go to <strong>[C]</strong> Club Med San Car-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-los <strong>[C(bass E)]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong> Club Med sucks <strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> Authority sucks <strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> I hate golf <strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> I wanna play la-<strong>[C]</strong>-crosse <strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>The people there, they are so stupid<br>
They exploit the poor and the weak<br>
I want no part of their death culture<br>
I just wanna go to the beach</p>
<p>Club Med sucks<br>
Authority sucks<br>
I hate golf<br>
I wanna play lacrosse</p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>Club Med sucks<br>
I hate golf<br>
Authority sucks<br>
I wanna play lacrosse</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84114
2010-09-02T20:00:00-04:00
2017-02-01T15:26:22-05:00
#43 Teen Angst-Why The Third Verse Always Tells The Truth. Dive Bars on Hollywood Blvd. Pissing on Bob Hopes Star
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TybFyhlwdvU"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/teen-angst-video.png?w=320&h=240" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="240" width="320" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Teen Angst (What the world needs now) video.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-teen-angst.mp3">01 Teen Angst</a></p>
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</p><p>I don’t know if it was something that Johnny and I made up. But for a long time we had a saying. ”What’s the third verse” or “What’s his/her third verse”. What we meant by this was:</p>
<p>what are you <em>really</em> upset about, not what are you pretending to be upset about</p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.2px;">Or alternately third person:</span></p>
<p>What do you think he/she is <em>really</em> upset about…</p>
<p>We took this concept from a certain style of storytelling usually found in (but not limited) to country music. You are intentionally misdirected until you get to the third verse or sometime later in the song. Classic example is <em>He Stopped Loving Her Today. </em>The truth starts coming out in the chorus before the third verse:</p>
<p><strong>He Stopped Loving Her Today:</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/george-jones-sad-songs-spinner-220.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/george-jones-sad-songs-spinner-220.jpg?w=200&h=225" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="200" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong><br> Written by R. V. Braddock and C. Putman, Jr.<br><em><br> He said I’ll love you ’til I die<br> She told him you’ll forget in time<br> As the years went slowly by<br> She still preyed upon his mind</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>He kept her picture on his wall<br> Went half crazy now and then<br> He still loved her through it all<br> Hoping she’d come back again</p>
<p>Kept some letters by his bed<br> Dated 1962<br> He had underlined in red<br> Every single I love you</p>
<p>I went to see him just today<br> Oh but I didn’t see no tears<br> All dressed up to go away<br> First time I’d seen him smile in years</p>
<p>(Chorus)<br> He stopped loving her today<br> They placed a wreath upon his door<br> And soon they’ll carry him away<br> He stopped loving her today</p>
<p><em>(Spoken)<br> You know she came to see him one last time<br> Oh and we all wondered if she would<br> And it kept running through my mind<br> This time he’s over her for good<br></em><br> (Repeat Chorus)<br><em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">I’m mean it’s not really a big surprise, it’s not like it’s the end of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/">The Sixth Sense</a> or something. But you get the idea.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"><br></span></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/leftyfrizzell01-280x336.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/leftyfrizzell01-280x336.jpg?w=280&h=336" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="336" width="280" /></a></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">George Jones? See Johnny and I were from the Inland Empire. And it is truly culturally distinct from LA. Out there many of us were just as versed in George Jones as we were with the Minutemen catalogue. When I lived in Redlands in the early 1980′s we would drive this big ass Buick that belonged to Johnny’s ex-wife to LA to see punk rock shows. On the way there it was all Fear, Black Flag and Dead Kennedys. Amped up. On the way back it was usually something like George Jones, Lefty Frizzell or Hank Williams.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;">Picture it.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span></em>a<img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/buick.jpg?w=450&h=339" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="339" width="450" /></p>
<p><strong>The Hickman Buick. As shown in the America’s Most Wanted Re-enactment</strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"> 3:00 am and the younger kids usually all asl</span></em>eep in the back seat. I think we would put 6 or 7 of us in that thing. A back window was blown out so there was usually plastic flapping in the wind. This required us to crank the stereo. Old school country all the way back down I-10 til we could smell the orange blossoms. Then we knew we were close to home. This was no exaggeration. The smell came flooding in the window. You could have your eyes closed and you knew you were home.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.2px;">I remember one night this low rider pulled right along side of us as we crossed into colton. </span>I had the window down waiting on the orange blossoms. The stereo was blasting something kind of spooky like Rambling Man, something with Don Helms mournful steel guitar prominent in the mix. The vato driving had his arm in a stylized crook out the window. He stared long and hard at us. He then gave us the highest of compliments from low rider culture: the chin nod, a barely perceptible lift of the chin towards us. He then fell back <em>behind* </em>us. I realized he’d pulled alongside us to listen.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/mussofrank.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/mussofrank.jpg?w=339&h=394" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="394" width="339" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Habitat of Christoper Cross </strong></p>
<p>Johnny and I had been grinding away in Ashtray studios for a couple of weeks. It was now July 2010. We felt like we’d got some pretty good songs going, Satisfy You, Can I take my Gun up to heaven, St Cajetan. Especially St. Cajetan. That one was killing people. Even with just the little alesis HR 16 drum machine.</p>
<p>But there was this one song that seemed like it had potential but wasn’t really there yet. I had a chorus, ”What the world needs now is another folk singer like i need a whole in my head”. Also judging by the recording I heard of us playing it at Calebs Guitar in Redlands Ca that summer it was pretty mellow and Johnny did not have his signature riff yet. (Anyone have this recording? post here).</p>
<p>After a long hard day of smoking packs of cigarettes and recording Johnny and I would always try to get someone to go with us to Gorky’s the Russian cafeteria in Hollywood (not the downtown one). It was the cheapest place to eat per calorie. This was always the prelude to hitting the string of dive bars on the way back to the apartment on Camrose. Boardner’s (before it was a hipster joint), Musso and Franks – not technically a dive bar. 1 beer just to see who was there. Who? As in low-grade celebrity. It was usually Christopher Cross. Finally to conserve dollars the Power Station on highland. 1990 Hollywood Blvd was pretty seedy then. The Red Line wasn’t there yet and they hadn’t redone the area around Mann’s Chinese. It was so seedy that one night when Mary Jean from The Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada (who had a pathological hatred of Bob Hope) stopped squatted and pissed on his star no one did anything. Not even the cops driving by. They just pointed out the window and laughed. Even they didn’t give a shit. Wild west in those days.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bob-hope-star.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bob-hope-star.jpeg?w=289&h=174" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="174" width="289" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Lemon Drop Kid. Sorry i couldn’t resist.</strong></p>
<p>It’s weird thinking how much of the first Cracker Album was written and recorded in the underbelly of Hollywood. It’s such an Americana record! No wonder me and Johnny ended up with the Midnight Cowboy fixation. But as usual I digress.</p>
<p>One night we took CVB and Golden Age producer Dennis Herring along. He dug in his heels at Gorky’s. Dennis had come with us to some dive bar one night when a seemingly harmless old drunk head butted the bartender and knocked him out cold. He wasn’t going with us anywhere other than semi yuppie confines of Gorky’s. We had played him a few songs. The topic turned to what was then called “folk singer”.</p>
<p>“Yeah i dont’ get that, why you wasting a song on not liking tracy chapman”</p>
<p>“dude that’s not what it’s about”</p>
<p>“what is it about?”</p>
<p>I got it then. I had to make the words less subtle. It was never about not liking folk singers. It was about wanting to rock, and wanting to rock for the sole purpose of getting a girls attention. Or even better to get her in bed. I unwound the song into three neat little verses. Two misdirects about cars and drinking. Finally in the third verse we get the truth.</p>
<p>Also I just found in an old notebook with recording notes and lyrics from the first couple years. It says that Johnny and I finalized the guitar parts for Teen Angst in a hotel room in Gallup NM. This was in August of 1990 as we moved our meager possessions from LA to Richmond VA. Interesting. I’ll dig into this later.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><em><span style="font-style:normal;"><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vato.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/vato.jpeg?w=263&h=192" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="192" width="263" /></a></span></em></p>
<p><strong>Historically incorrect. Should have no Tattoos. Seriously. That came much late</strong><em>r.</em></p>
<p>*in those days low rider culture was all about driving slow, a strange machismo that required the projection of fearlessness and comfort with ones surroundings. you rolled down the street slowly to <em>own</em> every inch of the neighborhood, but you didn’t project agression. In hip hop videos now they always show this act with Agression projected. This is not what i grew up with. It was an utterly self-confident manoever. Why act like a dick?</p>
<p>For that same reason if you came up on someone and moved up to check them out. you wouldn’t then dart off ahead of them. That did not project confidence it projected recklessness or worse fear. Instead you just dropped back behind them. ”Play it cool. You own the joint. Get it güero? Pronounced “where-o”. Non offensive slang for white boy. Notice the German spelling of this mexican slang word? Another echo of the German/Mexican cultural mashup?</p>
<p>Also any good Soldier, Marine, Commanche or Yaqui will tell you: you want to be on the potential enemies flank. You don’t want them on your flank.</p>
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</p><p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/09/03/43-teen-angst-why-the-third-verse-always-tells-the-truth/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/TybFyhlwdvU/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><strong>Teen Angst.</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[Dm]</strong>-<strong>[G7]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[G7]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>I don’t know what the world may need,<br> but I’m sure as hell that is starts with me.<br> And that’s a wisdom,<br> I’ve laughed at.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the world may want,<br> but a good stiff drink it surely don’t.<br> So I think I’ll go and fix myself a tall one.</p>
<p>Cause, what the world needs now<br> is a new kind of tension.<br> Cause the old one just bores me to death.<br> Cause, what the world needs now<br> is another folk singer<br> like I need a hole in my head.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the world may need,<br> but a V8 engine is a good start for me.<br> Think I’ll drive to find a place,<br> to be surly.<br> I don’t know what the world may want,<br> but some words of wisdom could comfort us.<br> Think I’ll leave that up to someone wiser.</p>
<p>Cause, what the world needs now<br> are some true words of wisdom<br> like La La La La La<br> Cause, what the world needs now<br> is another folk singer<br> like I need a hole in my head.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the world may need,<br> and I never grasped your complexities.<br> I’d be happy just to get your attention.<br> And, I don’t know what the world may want,<br> but your long, sweet body lying next<br> to mine could certainly raise my spirits.</p>
<p>Cause what the world needs now<br> is a new Frank Sinatra<br> so I can get you in bed.<br> Cause what the world needs now<br> is another folk singer<br> like I need a hole in my head.</p>
<div><span style="font-family:Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;line-height:normal;font-size:13.2px;"><br></span></div>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/84040
2010-08-31T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:39-05:00
#42 Satisfy You- Cracker the Early Years From A Contractual Viewpoint. Ashtray Studios.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/hickman-84.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/hickman-84.jpg?w=450&h=503" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="503" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Johnny Hickman a couple years before we started Cracker. Oh and Belinda Carlisle called and she wants her earrings back.</strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/09-satisfy-you.mp3">09 Satisfy You</a></p>
<p>In June 1990 I made my way back from Morocco to Los Angeles. At some point while I was in the UK or when I stopped over in Virginia I called my old friend Johnny Hickman. I asked him if he’d consider trying to write some songs together and if that went well we would form a band. He of course said “fuck off”. Not really. It’s clear he said yes right?</p>
<p>Johnny had also been a little hard to track down. He had recently split up with his wife and was staying out near bakersfield with his brother and mother. sometimes staying with friends in Los Angeles, or even sleeping in his VW microbus. I didn’t really have a place to stay either. I just sort of moved in with my manager Jackson Haring and our attorney Brian MacPherson. I didn’t really ask. I just sort of showed up with a suitcase, guitar and slept on the couch. Jackson without the income from Camper Van Beethoven had gone back to being a process server. A process server is someone who delivers subpoenas for civil actions. His claim to fame was he served <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken">Michael Milken </a>. In relating this story toanother process server the other process server interrupted dismissively ”who hasn’t “. ( Isn’t it amazing that someone would trust their money to someone with a name that sounds like<em>Milkin’. </em>That’s as bad as trusting your money to someone who’s last name can be used in the sentence “made off with my money”.)</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/06drex-milken.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/06drex-milken.jpg?w=184&h=268" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="268" width="184" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Jackson wiped his smile right off his face.</strong></p>
<p>So basically all three of us were down on our luck.</p>
<p>My first order of business was to get some sort of deal with Virgin, so i didn’t go down the slippery slope into Day Job Land. Once you go into the land of the Day Job it’s very difficult to find the time, to write the songs to get you back out of Day Job Land. Jackson and I met up with Mark Williams Camper Van Beethoven’s A&R man. Somehow we talked Mark into giving us something about 10k, to deliver 20 demo’s within six months. This was a pretty crazy promise, but i felt like i had a couple songs under my belt already that i had been working on with CVB in mind. I thought Johnny and I could pull it off.</p>
<p>But there was also a downside to this deal. In exchange (I believe) Virgin had another 6 months to decide whether to retain me as a “Key member”. Rather than sign me as a new artist. Key member sounds great but really this is a fancy way of transferring the contract (good) to my name, along with much of the un-recouped Camper Van Beethoven debt (bad).</p>
<p>So yes we got screwed again. But i have no hard feelings about this. Look I was nearly thirty by this time and i had been a recording artist for 6 years. I’d run a label and i was quite familiar with how all this worked. I wanted the good “points” (percentage of gross sales) that Camper Van Beethoven had commanded upon signing. We had been a buzz band after all. I knew that we would get stuck with some of the Camper Van beethoven un-recouped balance as a result. In my view it was a fair trade. Good points vs bad debt.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/teen-angst-video.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/teen-angst-video.png?w=320&h=240" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="240" width="320" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Teen Angst Video. These were actors. I swear it wasn’t us dressed like that. </strong></p>
<p>So when the first album came out and Teen Angst rocketed to #1 on modern rock, and was all over MTV me and Johnny gritted our teeth a little. I mean if we weren’t carrying CVB’s debt (part of it) we probably would have seen some artist royalties from that album. But that’s okay, we started getting them on Kerosene Hat when that went platinum. Those artist royalties just started an album later.</p>
<p>The funny thing was we knew that some of our friends saw Johnny and I as “lucky”. We kept the Virgin contract. But they didn’t understand we also got a big chunk of debt. Getting the contract, getting re-signed to Virgin was a mixed blessing.</p>
<p>+++++++++++</p>
<p>So i took part of that 10k and bought 2 mics (shure 57s), 2 mic stands (atlas), 2 pre amps (alesis) , a stereo compressor (alesis) and a tascam 688 all in one mixer 8-track. This all cost a little under 3k.</p>
<p>We set up in Jackson and Bryan’s kitchen. The first day we recorded two pieces of music, and smoked a pack of cigarrettes. Clearly this collaboration was gonna work. When Bryan McPherson came home he said:</p>
<p>“Jesus, you should call this place Ashtray studios”.</p>
<p>This was a play on the name of Dennis Herrings basement studio that he called “dustbowl.” Curiously dustbowl was just one block up Camrose.</p>
<p>But we did it. First day we got two pieces of music worked out. One was the song Sunday Train. This was largely worked out in my head and was mostly written while taking trains and tube from Margate UK to Heathrow on a sunday. Very slow, long ride. This is the actual recording.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/07-sunday-train-demo.mp3">07 Sunday Train (Demo)</a></p>
<p>The second was Satisfy You. Ostensibly the song is about some high maintenance chick, a sort of <em>mala mujer</em> song. Cause when you frame anything this way it seems to work as a rock/blues/country/nortena song. But it was a barely veiled reference to the other guys in CVB and principally an examination of my own anger. An acknowledgement that i was pissed but was gonna get past it.</p>
<p>But what often crossed my mind over the next couple years was that we were singing about satisfying our Virgin debt. Even though that was in no way our intention. After we had the platinum record with Kerosene Hat I never really thought about this again (until now).</p>
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<p><strong>Satisfy You</strong></p>
<p><strong>[F#m(-A)]</strong>-<strong>[E(-A)]</strong>-<strong>[D(-A-D)]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[D(-A-D embellishment)]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[D(-A-D embellishment)]</strong><br><strong>[ending:F#m]</strong></p>
<p>As far as I know, the world don’t spin<br>
They carry you around in your bed<br>
And rearrange the stars all night<br>
to satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you</p>
<p>Could I redeem myself<br>
If I was someone else<br>
I’d walk on the water<br>
In your dad’s swimming pool<br>
Show you my bloody palms<br>
If I thought that would satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you<br>
Satisfy you</p>
<p>Now I’m not wise, and I’m not old<br>
So I’ll be bitter, and I’ll be cruel<br>
I just did it less each and every day<br>
Did I satisfy<br>
Did I saaaaaaaatisfy-ha-ah-ah-ay ha-ah-ah you<br>
Until satisfy-ha-ah-ah-ay ha-ah-ah you<br>
Until satisfy (satisfy you, satisfy you)<br>
Until satisfy (satisfy you, satisfy you)<br>
Until satisfy (satisfy you, satisfy you)<br>
Until satis–oh till I satisfy (satisfy you, satisfy you)<br>
Until I satisfy</p>
<p><strong>Sunday Train</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[intro:Am]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong></strong></p>
<p>You can place your faith<br>
in God my friend,<br>
but no one knows his plan.<br>
You can place your faith<br>
in your brother,<br>
but he may fail you.</p>
<p>So I am waiting for<br>
that Sunday Train.<br>
Place my faith in<br>
southern line.<br>
She may not be on time<br>
but she will come.</p>
<p>She once was a proud one.<br>
Stretched from sea<br>
to shining sea.<br>
She may not take you everywhere you want to go.<br>
But where you need to be she’ll agree.</p>
<p>So rest you’ll weary legs,<br>
they carried you all this way.<br>
And climb aboard that Sunday train<br>
when she comes.</p>
<p>When god banished Lilith<br>
from the garden,<br>
he gave us Eve<br>
he gave us steam.<br>
So trains climb<br>
up every mountain<br>
but never have they<br>
set me free.</p>
<p>So if your heart is weary<br>
and soul is like mine.<br>
Climb aboard that Sunday train<br>
when she comes.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83969
2010-08-31T11:13:47-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:39-05:00
#41 Sidi Ifni -Cracker. Paul Bowles, Moroccan Space Rock and Old English Queens.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/la_suerte_loca.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/la_suerte_loca.jpg?w=450&h=257" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="257" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Hotel Suerte Loca in Sidi Ifni</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/08-sidi-ifni.mp3">08 Sidi Ifni</a></strong></p>
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<p>So the last i left off the band had broken up in Sweden and we had made our way back to the UK to fly home.</p>
<p>I however had always planned to stay behind in England. My girlfriend Mary (later my first wife) had planned to meet up with me in the UK and then we were gonna spend a little time time traveling around europe. But i had two weeks to kill till she got there. the first thing i did was go and visit my cousin John in london. We methodically explored quite a number of pubs in the the grimy yet colorful area of south london where he lived. John worked nights and i learned to ride the night buses around london. A helpful skill i relied upon many times since. I’ve never understood why one of the biggest cities in the world has a subway system that doesn’t run all night. Also the London tube map has a way of distorting your perception of the spatial relationship between different neighborhoods and boroughs of London. You get a much better sense from the buses. But i digress.</p>
<p>I then headed down to the Isle of Thanet. This is the very tip of land where the south eastern thames estuary meets the english channel. This is where my mother’s people live. At least for the last few generations. I have a large batch of cousins, uncles and aunts in this area. in particular my grandfather lived in a little seaside town of Westgate-On-Sea. We then explored the various pubs of this part of the UK.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/sidi-ifni-on-map.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/sidi-ifni-on-map.jpg?w=450&h=402" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="402" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>By the time mary arrived in London i was ready to get out to of the UK. I had settled on a pretty wacky idea. A trip to Morocco. I was unwittingly taking part in a long rock tradition of visiting this cultural crossroads. Mary didn’t seem totally thrilled by the idea of visiting a predominantly muslim country, only because she had in mind more of a laying on the beach vacation, not a covering up her head, arms and legs vacation. On top of that she had spent time in Mogadishu not cause she was in the 10th mountain division but because her mother and stepfather were very ambiguously associated with the state department, always ending up in interesting places like the Mogadishu, Peshawar and Manilla. Read into that what you will.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/david-morocco-2.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/david-morocco-2.jpeg?w=450&h=325" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="325" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>On the balcony at Hotel Suerte Loca</strong></p>
<p>But go we did. Ending up in the very unique city of <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidi_Ifni">Sidi Ifni</a></em>. (To arbabic speakers: I’m aware it’s redundant to say City when Sidi is already in the name. But we notoriously monolingual americans won’t be able to find it on a map if i just say Ifni.) We went to Sidi Ifni largely because of the strange description the Lonely Planet guide to morocco. Since revised, it used to say something that began this way:</p>
<p><em>“If Lethargy and Decay can be described as charming…</em></p>
<p>Hence this line in Sidi Ifni.</p>
<p><em>we drank wine, slept off hangovers</em></p>
<p><em>lethargy decay and forgotten loves</em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ship-building-porthole-windows.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ship-building-porthole-windows.jpeg?w=450&h=325" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="325" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>“Through the porthole see an epiphany I will never leave this place alive”</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong><strong>Inspiration for that line was this apartment building designed to resemble a Ship. Sidi Ifni Morocco. </strong></p>
<p>The second reason we went to Sidi Ifni was because of it’s hybrid culture and lack of pestering “guides”. Sidi Ifni was part of Spain from 1860 to 1969. It is a strange updated remix of Spanish and Moorish. Remember Spain already contains a healthy dose of Moorish culture. The architecture of the town is this spanish/arbabic/ art decco mix. It is striking. Also when we were there, the legal status of many of the mansions in the spanish quarter left them abandoned and boarded up. That whole quarter which near the hotel suerte loca was largely vacant. There was also a Spanish Consolate, in this quarter. It was unlocked the two times we went to visit it, but no one was there. Totally eery. Another interesting feature was the grand promenade and staircase that ran down to the beach. Although the city made an effort to maintain it, it seemed to be always on the verge of crumbling and being overgrown by shrubs and vines. Finally as the spanish had land routes in and out of the city, the center of the city was a runway. At the time Mary and I were there the locals used it as a giant pedestrian thruway. Whether it was unusable or simply used so rarely it seemed abandoned was never clear. The whole town had the feel of Macondo the fictional town in 100 years of Solitude. Indeed the french couple that was staying at Hotel Suerte Loca brought it up conversation</p>
<p>“Is Gabriel Garcia Marquez translated into English?”</p>
<p>“You mean this city reminds you of Macondo?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/steps-sidi-ifni.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/steps-sidi-ifni.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>“Vines and Shrubs grew between the steps from the Spanish town to the African sea” </strong></p>
<p>Another character at the Hotel Suerte Loca was an gay englishman of indeterminate age . Everyday he’d sit out on the balcony at 5pm to listen to the BBC worldwide service. We’d often join him with a bottle of the local sulfite heavy headache inducing wine. He had been in Morocco for some time. He had been a composer of some kind. This strangely mimicked the writer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bowles">Paul Bowles</a> history. He makes appearances in both Dr Bernice and Sidi Ifni.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/12-dr-bernice.mp3">12 Dr. Bernice</a></p>
<p><em>Dr Bernice:</em></p>
<p><em>“The Soundtrack is played by some aged british queen on BBC radio one”</em></p>
<p><em>Sidi Ifni:</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<div id="_mcePaste">“We’d awake to the BBC</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">An old English queen, on the balcony”</div>
<p>There was an air of sadness to this man. Or perhaps i projected my sadness from the demise of CVB onto him. Alone at the very edge of civilization. And this time i really mean the edge of civilization. This isolated coastal enclave hemmed in by the trailing edge of the Atlas mountains. Only accessible by dirt road through the mountains via Tiznit or Guelmin. The climate along the coast was like San Diego or Ensenada, but just south of us the Atlantic Ocean meets the sand of the Sahara. It was as if we were at the end of long skinny peninsula between two seas. Or with some poetic license between the Sea and the moon.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/david-cig-morocco.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/david-cig-morocco-e1283285348867.jpeg?w=450&h=621" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="621" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Between the sea and the moon. Doing my best sheltering sky pose.</strong></p>
<p>Finally the Hotel Suerte Loca. This lovely and friendly place was our home. The family that ran it had two adult sons who took an interest in the fact i was a musician. They took me out and introduced me to other musicians. They also had considerable knowledge of the western rock music and introduced me to many Moroccan and Magreb (western arab world) artists. Most of these artists played traditional or arabic and berber pop music, but a couple of the cassettes i brought home were moroccan “space rock” bands. Indeed many young moroccans would proudly tell you the influence that their music had on various icons of 60′s and 70′s rock music. The music to the song Sidi Ifni also references the sound of these moroccan space rock band. This was a conscious choice to do this rather than reference the traditional music of Morocco.</p>
<p>The phrase “Suerte Loca” means wild luck. Or crazy luck. I loved that this hotel was named this. So i also dropped this phrase into the song The Good Life.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-the-good-life.mp3">01 The Good Life</a></p>
<p> </p>
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<p><strong>Sidi Ifni</strong></p>
<table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="750">
<strong><br>
[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong>We walked <strong>[Em]</strong> down a long prome-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-nade<br>
Down a winding <strong>[A]</strong> stair, wide as boule-<strong>[Em]</strong>-vards<br>
Vines and shrubs grew between the <strong>[Bm]</strong> steps<br>
From the Spanish <strong>[A]</strong> town to the African <strong>[Em]</strong> sea
<p>We drank <strong>[D]</strong> wine and toasted to the <strong>[C]</strong> day<br>
When she was the <strong>[Em]</strong> Queen, before the long decay<br>
We drank <strong>[D]</strong> wine, slept off hango-<strong>[C]</strong>-vers,<br>
Lethargy, de-<strong>[Em]</strong>-cay, and forgotten loves</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong></p>
<p>We’d awake to the BBC<br>
An old English queen, on the balcony<br>
Wander round abandoned consulates<br>
An old broken chair on the marble stair</p>
<p>And from the roof see Canary seas<br>
The discarded runway of Sidi Ifni<br>
We drank wine lying on our backs<br>
On the warm tarmac, in a bowl of stars</p>
<p>Well I went down, mostly on my own<br>
‘Til I was alone in that shipwrecked house<br>
Through the porthole sea, an epiphany<br>
I would never leave this place alive</p>
<p>I drink gin with the old ex-pats<br>
We are broken things from a broken past<br>
And it comes near, but just out of grasp<br>
The alchemist words that would bring her back</p>
<p><strong>[ENDING:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="//www.the-van.co.uk/img/bit.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="10" width="15" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><br><a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/1580/"><img src="//feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/davidclowery.wordpress.com/1580/" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a> <img src="//stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=300songs.com&blog=14696341&post=1580&subd=davidclowery&ref=&feed=1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" />
David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83870
2010-08-29T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:39-05:00
40-Sad Lover’s Waltz-Camper Van Beethoven. A Viking Funeral Pyre.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/sundsvall_in_sweden.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/sundsvall_in_sweden.png?w=328&h=714" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="714" width="328" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Sundsvall A Viking Santa Cruz.</strong></p>
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<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p>In May of 1990 Camper Van Beethoven unexpectedly* broke up while on tour in Europe. We were up near the arctic circle in Sundsvall Sweden. This beautiful and remote town on the Gulf of Bothnia seemed a fitting place for an ending. Figuratively and literally at the end of the road. Yes I know the E4 continues past Sundsvall but it seemed to me at the time it was about as far north as you could go before you left the refined “cultured” Europe and entered the wilder arctic region. Sundsvall, with it’s university, banks, shipping, industry and tech is one of the places where the Nordic arctic integrates back into the rest of Europe.</p>
<p>Sundsvall also has a habit of burning down. At least 4 times in the last 400 years. And I do mean the whole town burning down. So for two reasons we could not have picked a better place for the band to break up.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hotel-baltic.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hotel-baltic.jpeg?w=240&h=210" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="210" width="240" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Hotel that was the scene of the dissolution of CVB</strong></p>
<p>We made this strange dispirited trip back to the UK. We weren’t speaking to each other but we had to ride together for 3 days and several ferry rides back to London. Our tour manager Howie, made us play one more show in ÖrebroSweden. Just so we had enough funds to make it back to London. We would have run out of cash otherwise.</p>
<p>The traveling minstrel business™ is not what people think it is. You make very little money on the road, and you have these enormous up front costs. And if for some reason you don’t get 90% of the way through a tour you usually lose money. That’s why I hate it when these new media music theorists opine about songs being promotional tools for touring and then the musicians are supposed to make all there money from touring revenues. It’s an iffy proposition that you make any money on a tour, even when you plan it carefully. All it takes is one broken arm or skull fracture. Every band on tour in Europe is always one makeshift toboggan ride with a drunken Finnish transvestite away from financial disaster.</p>
<p>A lot of people are surprised at Cracker and Camper Van beethoven’s frugality when we tour. Minimal crew, no tour bus, vans and trailers, budget hotels etc. But consider that the idiots running around playing the same size venues we play in tour busses (at $1000+ a day) are going home with no money. Or worse owing their record companies and managers money. Part of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven’s longevity is due to our business model. Another part is the Fission-Fusion(insert link) cycle that Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven unconsciouslydeveloped. But that’s another story.</p>
<p>So breaking up in Sundsvall Sweden was an unmitigated disaster. Without the last 2 1/2 weeks of tour revenues the band fell short almost $20,000 of what was expected. Further the tour was already a net loss even as planned. Virgin records had agreed to make up that shortfall. approximately another 30,000 dollars. The record company gives you a check at the beginning of the tour, and a final balance when you complete the tour. This is called <em>tour support</em>. This was very common in the day, and a figure like that for a two month tour of europe was not uncommon. The tour support was actually a loan against OUR royalties from sales of our CDs/Cassettes/Albums in europe. So like most bands we viewed it as an almost fair trade-off. Certainly nothing to quibble about. If we could achieve the same level of popularity in Europe as the states we would be sitting pretty. In order to do this we needed to extensively tour the continent. Tour support was viewed as a way to prime the pump. Also because of the way royalties are figured artists are almost always un-recouped. Unless we went gold or platinum we weren’t gonna see any record royalties anyway. It was like monopoly money in a way.</p>
<p>But since the band broke up a funny thing happened. Buried in the fine print of our tour support agreement were a couple clauses that really screwed us. First the record company was not obligated to pay the balance of the tour support agreement. And really why should they? We didn’t finish the tour. Second the tour support loan was now re-coupable against ALL royalties owed to us. Including what is called publishing royalties.</p>
<p>Publishing royalties are monies due to the songwriters. They are for everything from radio play, television and film licensing. Also-and most importantly- the record companies have to pay the songwriters for each cd/cassette/album/download sold. Whether the record is recouped or not. These royalties are substantial. In some cases larger than the Artist royalty. Notice the distinction. <em>Songwriter</em>s as opposed to <em>Artists</em>. They are often not the same thing. They might overlap but not exactly.</p>
<p>The publishing royalties were very much not monopoly money. There were publishing monies due to us for sales of albums the last couple years. A funny quirk of the music business only 50% of sales are counted at the time of sale. the rest are doled out over a period of two and 1/2 years. In order to account for returns. And since i was the principal songwriter a disproportionate share of these royalties were mine. As soon as the band broke up, those publishing royalties disappeared. $30,ooo dollars of non-monopoly money.</p>
<p>With the net loss from the tour about $40,000 dollars evaporated.</p>
<p>Back to the traveling minstrel business for a moment. So we weren’t making money from records. We were no longer getting the subsistance <em>per diems</em> and stipends for touring and now the publishing money had gone away. Our band bank account was wiped out. We returned to the U.S, unemployed and dead broke. I didn’t even have an apartment to return to as I had let mine go and put all my stuff in storage. My parents were of very modest means and i couldn’t rely on them for a handout. If i wasn’t such a thrifty Scot and managed to tuck away 5k the previous couple years i would have ended up homeless. I very nearly did anyway. It was by and far the single stupidest thing we ever did as a band.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/2009-4-22-viking_funeral.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/2009-4-22-viking_funeral.jpg?w=450&h=299" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="299" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>That fateful day in Sundsvall we should just piled all the instruments, amplifiers and luggage in the long boats set them ablaze and pushed them into the Gulf of Bothnia. A true Viking funeral. It would have been more enjoyable way to lose 40,000 dollars. And it would have enlivened the miserable trip back to the UK.</p>
<p>The last song Camper Van Beethoven ever played in it’s first incarnation was Ambiguity Song. That was the last song of the encore in Orebro Sweden. However in that set we played another lovely song from one of the early records. <em> Sad Lover’s Waltz</em>. I remember that this was the song that that evening put a lump in my throat.</p>
<p>*It’s hard to say any band unexpectedly break up. It’s amazing that you can hold together a group of 5-6 young men and women in their twenties for an extended period of time. When the band is a collective rather than a single person or two to three person partnership the band is bound to break up. It’s just a matter of time. Longevity is also highly dependent on the power hierarchy of a band. Flatter structures are less stable. Note that i’m not saying longevity of itself is always a good thing. Solo artists have the longest longevity but are prone to go through the longest cycles of bad records.</p>
<p>traveling minstrel business™ is a trademark of zendixie™</p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-sad-lovers-waltz.mp3">03 Sad Lovers Waltz</a></p>
<p><strong><br>
[INTRO & BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong> One step for boys,<strong>[C]</strong> one step for girls, step a-<strong>[G]</strong>-way<br>
One step for you,<strong>[C]</strong> one step for me, step a-<strong>[G]</strong>-way<br>
Don’t take the third step, ‘cuz<strong>[D]</strong> that’s just the sad lovers’<strong>[C]</strong> waltz<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
Don’t take the third step, ‘cuz<strong>[D]</strong> that’s just the sad lovers’<strong>[C]</strong> waltz<strong>[Bm]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>One step for anger, one step for pain, step away<br>
One step for right, one step for wrong, step away<br>
Don’t take the third step, ‘cuz that’s just a sad lover’s waltz<br>
Don’t take the third step, ‘cuz that’s just a sad lover’s waltz</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>One step for boys, one step for girls, step away<br>
One step for you, one step for me, step away<br>
One more step makes three, and three steps a waltz<br>
Don’t take the third step, cuz that’s just a sad lover’s waltz</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83689
2010-08-26T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:38-05:00
#39-Around the World. Racing the Cargo Vans On The Bonneville Salt Flats.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dodge-tradesman-1978.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dodge-tradesman-1978.jpg?w=400&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>I am living in a van down by the river.</strong></p>
<p>There really hasn’t been much time the last couple of days to work on the blog. The two shows and two soundchecks etc etc have left little time for anything. And although we have mobile internet it tends not to work in some of the more remote places. Look at the map. We are driving from Lake Tahoe to Steamboat springs. A little over 900 miles. I-80 East. Reno, Elko, Wendover, Salt Lake City, Park City then US40 across the high country into western Colorado. Not much.</p>
<p>But right now we’re driving across that big stretch of salt flats in western Utah. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_Salt_Flats">The Bonneville Salt flats</a>.</p>
<p>Which reminded me of a story. On the US tour for Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart we had to shuttle our two vans and equipement to the midwest from Northern California. Jackson Haring our manager and this Howie this english hippy crew guy that we sometimes used decided THEY would drive the two vans across 80 to Omaha(?) to meet the band. The band would fly. We were on Virgin Records now and we’d been touring for a few years. We were fairly confident about people actually coming to our shows, so we started doing things like flying instead of all of us driving 1600 miles.</p>
<p>Jackson and Howie were a dangerous combination in some ways. They both liked extreme driving. Either fast things or driving dangerous things or in dangerous places. So they had our two vans. And these guys were driving them across country?</p>
<p>Our older van had been nicknamed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topo_Gigio">Topo Gigio</a>. This was our original touring van. It was a homemade conversion van, but as it got older and less reliable we bought a new van. We repurposed Topo Gigio gutted it and used it as the cargo Van. I think Topo Gigio was a 1978 Dodge Tradesman? We had just bought a much newer E150 for the band to ride in. That was also part of being on a major label. New van. But we all had a fondness for the old Van. I personally liked driving Topo Gigio. So did Jackson.</p>
<p>And this is where the trouble starts. Jackson and Howie saw those glorious salt flats and had visions of Bonneville Speedway. Jackson found an exit and went charging off in Topo Gigio into the salt flats. Howie followed him. Apparently they were having a great time racing around in the two aerodynamically challenged vehicles when they both sunk up to their axles in the salt mud. You can’t really tell which parts of the flats are dry or wet. They are all white. This is a common beginners mistake on these salt flats. They may also have been doing this at night. I never got much of a straight answer out of the two of them. They were pretty sheepish when we met up. Somehow they got an offroad recovery vehicle out there and 500 dollars later They were on the road again to meet the band.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/saltph26.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/saltph26.jpg?w=450&h=294" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="294" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Bonneville Salt Flats.</strong></p>
<p>In <em>Around The World</em> I sing:</p>
<p><em>“Say hello to Howie and say hello to spike”</em></p>
<p>This is the Howie. I’m in london as i’m singing this song.</p>
<p>Spike was the other half of our Euro road crew. Spikes real name was <a href="http://www.scotland.org/features/item/the-italian-connection/">Dino Gallasso</a>. Which seems to be an italian name despite the fact he was Scottish. And not just Scottish but Glaswegian. The Glaswegian accent is incomprehensible to americans. Spike was the sound man. For the first week he was on tour with us we never could tell if he wanted Chrispy to play the Kick drum or there was a ”plate of cake” that he was excited about, and was announcing it to us over the monitor system.</p>
<p>” Chris! plate of cake! plate of cake!”</p>
<p>Later that very week we had a similar experience with our record company press officer. She was also scottish. She announced that ”Aye Broad Yacht A Kick”. She was very emphatic. This sounded dangerous. And Piratey.</p>
<p>So we were slowly backing away from her as she continued to emphatically repeat, ”Aye Broad Yacht A Kick”. We assumed this was her way of telling us we needed to take her seriously. Finally she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to a table at the front of the pub.</p>
<p>On the table was lovely <em>cake</em> that the record label had made for us.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/27/39-around-the-world-racing-the-cargo-vans-on-the-bonneville-salt-flats/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/HGGtiJ2WMuA/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>Around The World.</p>
<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p>Well is it<strong>[Am]</strong> such a sin to linger with the maga-<strong>[F]</strong>-zines<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
I want a<strong>[Am]</strong> chocolate bar made with something<strong>[F]</strong> sweet<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong><br>
I want a<strong>[Am]</strong> stranger with your face<br>
So I<strong>[D]</strong> followed her to this place<br>
It’s<strong>[F]</strong> been so long – I’ve<strong>[G]</strong> been around the world<strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p>I say hello to Howie, say hello to Spike<br>
‘Cause the canals in Camden are filled with bottles tonight<br>
To watch the ripples fade away<br>
To feel the rain upon my head<br>
So I could say, I’ve been around the world</p>
<p>And how I wish I was in your apartment tonight<br>
To hear the rain come down, down upon your roof<br>
To see your clothes beside, clothes beside your bed<br>
To lie and listen to your breath<br>
Instead, I’ve been, I’ve been around the world</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>And how I wish I was in your bed tonight<br>
To taste the salt upon, salt upon your neck<br>
To feel your body press, pressing down on me<br>
Instead of being, I’ve been around the world</p>
<p>Yeah I’ve<strong>[F]</strong> been around,<br>
I’ve<strong>[G]</strong> been around the world<strong>[Am]</strong><br>
Yeah I’ve<strong>[F]</strong> been around,<br>
I’ve<strong>[G]</strong> been around the world<strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[BREAK x3 (FADE ON THIRD)]</strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83624
2010-08-25T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:38-05:00
#38 Circles-Camper Van Beethoven. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cvb-in-hair-metal-phase.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cvb-in-hair-metal-phase.jpg?w=450&h=290" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="290" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Camper Van Beethoven In Our Hair Metal Phase.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
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<p>As long as I lived in the Inland empire I had never been to Vegas. Not until 1985, That was the first time Camper Van Beethoven went to Las Vegas. Very Briefly. We played at a Record store I remember the guy who owned it. Wayne Wheeler. I can’t remember the name of the store, I think it was the Record Exchange. But they had a giant mural of the first album on the wall. We played for free, got burgers and hotdogs and lots of beer. It went really well and we decided we should come back to Vegas. In fact we got sort of fascinated by Vegas. But we had to got to albuquerque so we split.</p>
<p>In early 1986 we got a real gig in Vegas. So there weren’t a lot of choices for places to play. I don’t remember if Wayne found the gig for us, but somehow we ended up playing in a place that was a little odd. I mean it was in some industrial park. And we were opening for a band called<a href="http://www.perrisrecords.com/interviews/paulblack.htm"> The Jones</a>es which featured LA Guns frontman Paul Black on drums! I just looked this up and was surprised by this myself. It was probably more of a metal club. I remember the owner was walking around wearing a sidearm in a holster.</p>
<p><important update from greg in next paragraph></p>
<p>So we all took acid. I mean everybody, the whole band, my girlfriend jennifer, our sound guy andrew, our friends john stein and edie. We played some fairly psychedelic stuff for a somewhat mystified crowd. I’m thinking it was stuff like Circles and Interestellar OD and ZZ Top Goes To Egypt. Greg couldn’t get his amp to work. But we had a very short time to play, so we just kept playing. Greg was trying everything. Finally he found the drummer in the very first band. I’m not making this up-The drummer had no legs but was totally eager to help greg. He went to his van and came back in his wheelchair with an amp on his lap. By the time he got his borrowed amp plugged in and working the sound man shut us down. I mean like shut the whole PA off mid song and killed the power to the amps.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/16-zztop-goes-to-egypt.mp3">16 Zztop Goes to Egypt</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/12-circles.mp3">12 Circles</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/15-intersteller-overdrive.mp3">15 Intersteller Overdrive</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-cowboys-from-hollywood.mp3">02 Cowboys From Hollywood</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/spring.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/spring.jpg?w=411&h=700" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="700" width="411" /></a></p>
<p>Jennifer had wandered outside into the parking lot. When i found her she was barefoot and kicking around a giant spring. Like a suspension spring for a heavy duty truck or some other piece of equipment.</p>
<p>“I love this spring. I love the sound it makes”</p>
<p>Oddly I knew exactly what she was talking about. I took turns rolling the spring around with my foot.</p>
<p>“No, no no! you have to take your shoes off. It’s better that way”</p>
<p>About then Andrew or Jonathan told me we had to come in and settle the show. Which means get paid. This was a problem all 3 of us were very high at this point. We went into the office anyway. The owner wearing the sidearm was very nice, but kind of odd. One of us just tried to accept the money and walk out.</p>
<p>“No i want you to count it. I don’t want you coming back and saying I cheated you”.</p>
<p>“We trust you”</p>
<p>“No count it”</p>
<p>Do you know how hard it is to count 500 dollars in 5′s and 1′s when you are high on acid. Especially when there are three of you trying to count the damn money.</p>
<p>Eventually we got out of there without a pistol whipping. We went out to the van. I climbed way in the back with Jennifer. She still had the Spring. She was holding it like a kitten, or baby. I know i’m really making Jennifer sound insane. She wasn’t and is extremely smart. But she was pretty quirky.</p>
<p>We were still out back in the van when some kids approached us. They were CVB fans. They started talking to us and after a while asked us: Hey you guys are really high aren’t you? We replied. “wow how can you tell!”</p>
<p>They told us that they needed to be our guides, cause vegas is an evil place. so what did we want to do? Jonathan said he wanted to go to Circus Circus.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/normal_circus-circus-las-vegas2.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/normal_circus-circus-las-vegas2.jpg?w=400&h=320" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="320" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Circus Circus. Scary enough stone cold sober.</strong></p>
<p>WE DROVE TO CIRCUS CIRCUS! WOW! who drove? Jonathan says he did. WOW! We wandered around Circus Circus for a while. Casinos are weird anyway. To walk around in one when you are tripping is a whole other experience. It felt like that underworld experience I had in Victoria BC. ( Brides of Neptune #31) It’ best if I let Jonathan tell the story:</p>
<p><em><strong>as we entered the circus circus, i saw many old people who appeared to be biologically attached to slot machines, they looked like they were vomiting forth coins that went through the machines with all the little tunes the machines played and then dripped out like chyme into a stomach-trough below, drip drip drip, where they were ingested again by the ancient cyborg to be vomited through the machine again. frightening.</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong> </strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>we came upon a band playing, they had nice expensive new instruments that we were impressed by, but then after finishing “china grove” they proceed to humorously insult one another as their schtick (“that’s Jose, our utility musician, he’s the spic in the group”) and then said they’d be back in 20 minutes for their 5th set of the evening. I looked across the audience area and saw Victor and we silently made eye contact and an unspoken pact to never become that.</strong></em></p>
<p>After a while some plain clothes security types came up to us. They didn’t like that Jennifer was carrying around this 25 pound spring. Or they just didn’t like our looks at all. But mostly i think it was the spring.</p>
<p>Eventually we all managed to get back in the van. Not before Jennifer kicked her spring around for a little while longer in the parking lot at Circus Circus. John Stein began driving. We had to play the next night at Berkeley Square in Berkeley. John decided we should just drive overnight.</p>
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<p>About 5:30 AM I woke up. We were stopped alongside the road. Highway 58 somewhere a few miles short of the Mojave. It was cold and raining. John Stein informed us the Alternator was dead and he was trying to make it to Mojave. We came up a few miles short. He put on a coat and started walking up the road. Jennifer woke and got out of the van. She kicked her spring around for a while, but it wasn’t the same when she wasn’t tripping.</p>
<p>John Stein did a couple tours with us as our driver. He was like MacGyver. He walked up the road to a junkyard. Stripped an alternator out of a truck, hitchhiked back and installed it in our van. This whole process took about 3 hours.</p>
<p>Greg lisher did not wake up the entire time. However somehow he lost a shoe. I guess he took them off before he went to sleep, and with all the getting in and out of the van it ended up along the side of the road. I am assuming. When we got to Berkeley Square to play Greg discovered he really really really had lost his shoe. It was not in the van anywhere. He’d been looking for it fitfully the last couple hours of the drive. ”What are you gonna do Greg?” we all asked.</p>
<p>He played the show with only one shoe on.</p>
<p>post script: greg says he didn’t play with only one shoe. he went across the street to the pharmacy and bought some slippers. Still for a man who cares about footwear this was quite embarrassing.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
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<p><strong>1985. There was a severe stylist shortage in Santa Cruz at the time. The Govenor rushed stylists to Santa Cruz from Los Angeles but it was too late for Camper Van Beethoven.</strong></p>
<p>Circles is based on the song the CVB song Oh No. We are playing along to the original recording backwards. We were kind of making fun of the LA Neo Psychedelic Movement. ie The Three O’Clock, Rain Parade, The Long Ryders. AT THE TIME we didn’t relate to these bands, as we thought they were more about the look than the music. We didn’t find their music psychedelic at all. But you got to understand we had Ray Farrell and Bruce Licher feeding us Kaliedscope and West Coast Experimental Pop Art Ensemble compilation cassettes. Of course they wouldn’t compare. Much later I developed an appreciation for all these bands. I mean it was LA. They had to have a look! And look how crappy we were dressed. A little too much authenticity.</p>
<p>Cowboys from Hollywood is also about the related cowpunk/country rock scene that was going on in LA at the same time. They overlapped somewhat. I mean cowboy hats crept into the neo-psychedelic scene via flying burrito brother/ the byrds. cowpunk? well they came equipped with cowboy hats. We played with Rain Parade and several other bands in downtown LA in late 1985. We were driving our friend from Wyomings 350 diesel 4×4 pickup. One of the guys (who may or may not have been in rain parade, but there was a psychedelic western theme to his clothing) asked us: Are you guys really from wyoming. Jonathan was chewing tobacco as usual. “Yep” spitting a stream of tobacco juice to the ground. Me being the smartass said ” are you cowboys from hollywood?” or something to that effect. it’s just kind of stoner humor to sing a song with nothing but that as the words.</p>
<p>ZZ Top Goes To Egypt is called that because it sounds like that. it’s purely a descriptive title. However later we learned of Billy Gibbons was an amateur Egyptologist.</p>
<p>Intersteller Overdrive is based on the Pink Floyd Song of the same name. It will get it’s own post as it involves Eugene Chadbourne.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83554
2010-08-24T20:00:00-04:00
2022-05-30T23:45:23-04:00
#37 I Need Better Friends-Cracker
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/09-i-need-better-friends.mp3">09 I Need Better Friends</a></p>
<p>In sum this song is like the germ of a mid life crisis that hadn’t happened yet. A general feeling of malaise about ones life. Wishing that you could go back in time. Not to completely start over, but to do more than change a few minor details. Like who you decided to go into business with, who you decided to marry, where you decided to live, what you do for a career. And mid-life crisis aren’t all about sports cars and younger girlfriends with boob jobs.</p>
<p>For instance in my germ of a midlife crisis: Item one was I would not have been a musician. I would have just become a writer or continued as a mathematician.</p>
<p>Or any kind of scientist. I would have very much enjoyed hanging around in labs. Late at night. Beakers, my ipod on shuffle. Books on tapes. Corduroy blazer and the school tie.</p>
<p>Failing that as far as Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven goes I would have very much enjoyed being the Brian Wilson guy in the band. Write the songs and record them. Even tour but never actually go to any of the shows. Get some cheesy glad handing guy that will sit at the bar drinking with the fans until every last one of them is gone. I tell the guys in Cracker this all the time. They should just get that guy and leave me out of the whole public persona thing. (They are often very distressed i can’t be more of a traditional lead singer)</p>
<p>No the band, management record label and whoever else around us thinks that there is a solutions for problems like this. And it’s always this: be someone you are not.</p>
<p>What i love about the touring and the live show is not what the Lowest Common Denominator of the audience enjoys. So no we will never be hugely popular. There will always be way too many people that don’t get us/me. We will have to tour around the country in a van and trailer for the rest of our lives. No tour busses. Directly as a result of my inability to do the “rock” persona. Fuck it. Yes tattoo it on my forehead. I- the bum-lost. I accept it. It’s a fair tradeoff.</p>
<p>I love giving the audience a good natured ribbing. Last night I had a great time with the Arcata crowd. And no one seemed to mind. (But how many places like Arcata/Eureka re there?)I also like talking about obscure things, like the the origination of obscure berries and the circus animal smell of the Tule Elk. But I understand most of America doesn’t understand this. You are supposed to say the alteranative rock/indie rock/americana equivalent of ” are you ready to rock!”. The more “tastemaker” the audience the more you have to adhere to this protocol. Often I launch into an important story about the difference between the mustaches of Canadian custom officers and US custom officers one of our “fans” yells ”shut up and play your guitar”. I mean do you talk to your family that way? A variation on this occurs every night. Next time you’re at a Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven show and i start to tell a story that most of you will find interesting, watch how many times some fucking drunk dumbass interrupts or talks to me like that.</p>
<p>My English aunt Wendy told me presciently in 1986:</p>
<p>“That’s a dangerous business you got there”</p>
<p>“Excuse me? You mean rock and roll business?</p>
<p>“NO, using irony in America”</p>
<p>It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s not that I’m not social. I have a very supportive group of friends with which i’m very close. But it’s a small tight knit group. I’m just not interested in having lots of acquaintances. I don’t mind talking to strangers. I walked all around Arcata today, talking to people in Northtown books, in the French cafe, and at the hardware store where I went to get a reverse threaded nut and bolt to fix a design flaw in my laptop stand.</p>
<p><strong>And I was drinking jasmine tea<br>
When the goon squad came for me<br>
It was all my drunken friends<br>
they kicked down my front door again</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>I just never signed up to hang out in bars for hours after the show. That’s what this stanza means. And why would anyone expect I would do this? You think Mick jagger does that? Shit you think Will Oldham does that? You think the guy in Deer Tick does that? (Actually he probably does if you buy him drinks.) John Doe is the consumate professional and he is always out the backdoor and gone. Bret Michaels charges $200 dollars to get into his meet and greet. I never understood why certain CVB and Cracker fans expect me to do more than what i’ve already done:</p>
<p>spend 200 days on the road a year for 25 years and record twice as many albums and songs as The Beatles.</p>
<p>I don’t want to talk after the show. I understand if you want me to sign some stuff, but i’m too tired to talk. Also usually i look like shit after the show so i hate having my picture taken. Unless you are a kid or it’s your birthday. No pictures. From now on. I’m checking IDs. I’ve been in this place since 3 or 4 in the afternoon, you got there at 9;30pm. I’m sweaty as shit from playing 3 hours. I’m tired of untagging shitty photos on facebook.</p>
<p>Also since when have people demanded the same kind of access to a muscian that they get to the Animals in a Petting Zoo. . This newish phenomenon is getting steadily worse as our fans age. Younger people do not do this.This last week:</p>
<p>I was punched in the shoulder, like i would punch my cousins when i was a teenager, hard enough to leave a fucking bruise (Crested Butte).</p>
<p>“Handcuffed” which is when some one usually drunk shakes your hand but then won’t let it go often moving up your arms to clasp your wrist(Seattle and Vancouver).</p>
<p>Patted on the head like a dog (Portland)</p>
<p>Had my glasses taken off my face and tried on (Eugene)</p>
<p>Physically pushed into a corner, and blocked from leaving so that some “fan” could talk to me in private about something really important, and of course the best time to do this is after a show when you are so drunk you can’t even talk(Glacier).</p>
<p>Dude no one is supposed to tolerate this shit.</p>
<p>So in my song that’s the first thing. I’m re-evaluating this. I was seriously thinking of just releasing Greenland and say that’s it, The assholes at the show are right. I’m not a true rock and roller cause…</p>
<p>I need to just shut up and play my guitar.</p>
<p>Learn to drive around in a van 200 days a year talking about Keith Richards guitar licks and Led Zeppelin bootlegs from the Fillmore.</p>
<p>Let rock consume my every hour of my waking.</p>
<p>Develop a wish to die in a hotel room on the road as one of my bandmates professes he would prefer to die.</p>
<p>So get off the stage? That’s what i was planning to do after greenland. But later i said. Fuck that. I enjoy playing and i enjoy the shows. Why should i let the Lowest Common Denominator dictate what i do with my life. So i suffer through the bullshit so i can get a hearty laugh from the audience in portland when we describe our love hate/relationship with Eugene. Or we tell the Vancouver audience about our fantasy about the ferry boat sinking while on the way to Victoria BC. Or just play atranscendental version of All Her Favorite Fruit, or Gimme One More Chance.</p>
<p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p>So the first part of that germ of a mid-life crisis I rejected, came to an uneasy compromise, or am still struggling with. The jury is still out. Yikes! The second part is less complicated. It also ultimately has a happier ending.</p>
<p>Around the time I wrote this song, I drove down the coast of California with my longtime friend Velena Vego. We also had worked together for a long time. And a long time ago we had been romantically involved. Later as friends she had run my label and also acted as a informal advisor for years. At the time she had just taken over managing Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. We were having a great time working together again, and traveling around.</p>
<p>I started playing the what if game in my head. What if we had gone out? gotten married? What if I was with someone who was in the business? Not a civilian?</p>
<p>It took a few years but eventually Velena and I ended up together. Now we’re like the Indie rock Sharon and Ozzy.</p>
<p>Although we were actually driving down the Central Coast of California. I have a bias towards the Lost Coast so I sing</p>
<p><em>From Point Arena to Stinson Beach</em></p>
<p><em>From Arcata to Bodega Bay.</em></p>
<p>It’s a much better setting for a “what if” romance. It’s certainly the location i would use if it were a movie.</p>
<p><strong>I Need Better Friends.</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong><br>
[INTRO:]</strong> <strong>[A/Asus4]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>[Fm]</strong> I was<strong>[E]</strong> drifting down the<strong>[A]</strong> coast<strong>[A/Asus4]</strong><br><strong>[Fm]</strong> With the<strong>[E]</strong> girl I loved the<strong>[A]</strong> most<strong>[A/Asus4]</strong><br>
But it’s<strong>[D]</strong> not<strong>[D9]</strong> what<strong>[Asus4]</strong> you might<strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> think<br>
It’s a<strong>[D]</strong> long and<strong>[D9]</strong> tragic<strong>[Asus4]</strong> histor-<strong>[A]</strong>-y<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>When will this shit<strong>[Fm]</strong> end<br>
I need better<strong>[A]</strong> friends<br><strong>[D]</strong> But for now it’s<strong>[A]</strong> fine<strong>[A/Asus4]</strong></p>
<p>And I was smoking lots of weed<br>
Trying to forget what you meant to me<br>
Hanging out with folks just half my age<br>
Buying analogue synthesizers<br>
sometimes reissues of those vintage synths</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[C#]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[C#]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[C#]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[E (bass E-D-C-B)]</strong><br><strong>[A/Asus4]</strong></p>
<p>And I was drifting down the coast<br>
With the girl I love the most<br>
From point arena to stinson beach<br>
From Arcata to bodega bay</p>
<p>When will this shit end<br>
I need better friends<br>
But for now it’s fine</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>And I was drinking jasmine tea<br>
When the goon squad came for me<br>
It was all my drunken friends<br>
they kicked down my front door again</p>
<p>I need better friends<br>
But for now it’s fine</p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83488
2010-08-22T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:38-05:00
#36 Where have those days gone- Arcata, Eureka and the Lost Coast of California.
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<p><strong>Hotel Arcata. You can check out any time you like but you can never bathe. Still Culturally and physically in the State of Jefferson</strong>.</p>
<p>CRACKER CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN AT HUMBOLT BREWS TONIGHT. ARCATA CA.</p>
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<p>I started this blog saying the songs have been randomly selected. Largely still true but I have delayed a couple of these so that I would be in the proper town when I wrote about these songs. Today we drove the long and winding route 199 from Grant’s Pass down through the Siskiyou Mountains to Crescent City California, then down the coast to Arcata. Now that we are safely ensconced near the Hotel Arcata I can tell you the strange and wonderful tale of the song <em>Where Have Those Days Gone.</em></p>
<p>Actually there is no strange and wonderful tale. There are several small and important stories in this song but not exactly anything coherent. If anything this song and much of the album Greenland are a portrait of ”The Lost Coast” of California. Technically it is a very specific inaccesible part of the coast. From Wikipedia:</p>
<p><em>The Lost Coast is a mostly undeveloped section of the California North Coast in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties, which includes the King Range. The steepness and related geo-technical challenges of the coastal mountains made this stretch of coastline too costly for state highway or county road builders to establish routes through the area, leaving it the most undeveloped portion of the California coast.<br>
Thus, the region roughly spans from Rockport to Ferndale. At the south end, State Route 1, which runs very close along the coast for most of its length, instead turns inland at Rockport before merging with U.S. Route 101 at Leggett. At the north end, State Route 211 begins its journey at Ferndale, heading towards Highway 101 in Fernbridge. Section 511 of the California Streets and Highways Code still says that “Route 211 is from Route 1 near Rockport to Route 101 near Fernbridge”, but it is very unlikely that the portion south of Ferndale will ever get built.</em></p>
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<p>But like many Californians I use it to generally describe the Northern California Coast from Stinson Beach to Eureka/Arcata. Also much of the Adjacent inland areas of Sonoma/Mendocino and Humbolt County. Basically the areas of California most prominently associated with pot growing.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t include the tonier parts of Sonoma county. Especially those areas dominated by wineries and vineyards. But i’d include the funkier parts of Petaluma, Santa Rosa and especially Sebastopol. The Northern parts of this region including Arcata/Eureka were part of the proposed State of Jefferson. Culturally the Lost Coast should include Crescent City and Coos bay in Southern Oregon but much of the intervening coast is really wild and rough. It’s more like Alaska. So for now we’ll say it stops at Arcata. The lost coast is sort of a Kurdistan. Parts of it are in the State of Jefferson and parts of it are in California. It belongs to both.</p>
<p>I became fascinated with the greater Lost Coast because what I had once loved about Santa Cruz seemed to have been pushed north into Mendocino and Humbolt county. Pushed north into The Lost Coast. And i’m not talking about weed. Santa Cruz was a great sleepy college slacker town when I moved there in 1981. When I left in 1989 it was “silicon beach”. The vast fortunes that were being made over the hill in silicon valley were driving all of the slackers, artists and bands out of Santa Cruz. Many people were moving to San Francisco cause there were jobs and the rents had now become the same. But San Francisco was a big city. It had a totally different feel than Santa Cruz. Even though most of my friends now lived in SF it just wasn’t the same.</p>
<p>Of Course not everyone went to San Francisco. Chris Pedersen, drummer for CVB moved north of San Francisco to Petaluma. So did my ex-girlfriend Jennifer. A number of other friends and acquaintances went up there as well.</p>
<p>As Santa Cruz began to feel less like the old Santa Cruz, the Lost Coast started to remind me more of the old Santa Cruz. Especially Eureka/Arcata. Tonight as Victor Jonathan and I sat in The Alibi one of the many bars on the square it seemed like a flashback to 1986 in the Asti Cafe at the bottom end of Pacific in Santa Cruz. Weird.</p>
<p>So in 2005:</p>
<p><em>I took a trip to California to see where those old days had gone.</em></p>
<p><em>And the girl that went with them- it’s curiosity that’s all I swear I swear.</em></p>
<p><em>In Mendocino County thought I saw Thomas Pynchon at the end of the bar</em></p>
<p><em>no that’s just Rob Brezny writing his real astrology column</em></p>
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<p><strong><em>Camper Van Beethoven kept Astrologer Rob Brezsny on retainer to advise on release dates for Albums as well as to get a proper Astrological Balance on the road crew. Too many Virgos and they’ll spend all night perfectly winding guitar cables.</em></strong></p>
<p>Well Thomas Pynchon is easy. I’ve always said I wanted to write songs like Thomas Pynchon wrote books. And the book Vineland is set pretty much in the area I define as The Lost Coast. I was hoping if I named dropped him enough the famously reclusive Pynchon would reveal himself to us at a Camper Van Beethoven or Cracker Show. It hasn’t happened yet. So as playful parody of my expectations it turns out that it’s “only” Rob Brezny.</p>
<p>See Rob Brezny was our local astrologer in the local Santa Cruz weekly. He would do readings at the local coffee shops if you were so inclined. He also fronted two bands. One called Tao Chemical another called World Entertainment War. Anthony Guess who was Camper Van Beethoven’s drummer for while was also the drummer for World Entertainment War. And I am also told, although I find no independent verification, that Rob like myself also lived in Redlands California before moving to Santa Cruz. See we didn’t know that Rob had become a internationally recognized astrologer. Not until the first Camper Van Beethoven national tour in 1986.</p>
<p>“Hey what is Rob Brezsny’s Astrology column doing in the Iowa City weekly”</p>
<p>So that’s why I say “only” Rob Brezsny.</p>
<p>Also I would like to settle a bet right now with one of my old bandmates. According to wikipedia (which has been known to be wrong) Rob Brezsny’s Astrology Column was indeed called Real Astrology before it was called Free Will Astrology. You know who you are …. pay up.</p>
<p>If you aren’t familiar with Rob Brezsny’s funny yet serious astrology columns you should acquaint yourself with them. Also his strange positive self actualization manifestos are quite interesting reading. He should also be given credit for setting the stage (at least in santa cruz) for Camper Van Beethoven to blur the boundary between Hippy and Punk.</p>
<p><em>Headed up the coast with my only Jewish Mexican friend<br>
Found a bar in Arcata it was the means to an end<br>
In the alley for a smoke got beat up by some aryan goons<br>
Lying in my blood I said “hey Juan does this mean I’m gringo”</em></p>
<p>I did not make this trip up the coast with my only Jewish Mexican friend. I don’t know why I put him in the story. I guess cause the incident that this is based on was kind of a strange episode I had all by myself. It didn’t seem so crazy if I put someone else in the car with me.</p>
<p>In 1998 or 1999 I was playing a small role in a movie. It was being filmed in San Francisco. The schedule got all fucked and I had a couple days off. I got it in my head I would go and visit my ex-girlfriend in Petaluma. I didn’t call her or anything. I just rented a car and drove up that way. This was of course a bad idea and by the time I got north of the Golden Gate bridge I knew it was a bad idea. So I just decided to keep driving. The farthest north I had ever been in that part of California was the Russian River. Camper Van Beethoven once played a show in Guerneville CA. I decided I would go farther. All the way to Eureka/Arcata. Rumor had it Arcata was now very much like Santa Cruz in the early 1980s.</p>
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<p>I arrived sometime after 10pm on a weeknight. Wednesday? I walked quite a ways down to the main square where all the bars are gathered. Until the 1960′s this area was a frontier. Wild west lumber camps, and Arcata/Eureka were the only nearby big cities. The city of Arcata put all the bars together on the main square to corral all the trouble into this one little area. Plus they could sleep it off in the park.</p>
<p>So right next to Hotel Arcata are these 6 little dive bars. I randomly walked into one and got myself a beer and a shot. I wasn’t there for long before I attracted the attention of a couple of skinheads. Basically they made me feel pretty uncomfortable so I got up and left. They followed me out. I ended up having to run to escape them.</p>
<p>(hmm I wonder if I could have stopped them by explaining that I wrote “take the skinheads bowling?”)</p>
<p>A group of running men in a small town like this quickly attracted the attention of the police. I could see the blue lights flashing behind me on the the darkened store window ahead. I had done nothing wrong. I don’t know why i kept running. The skinheads scattered, dispersed so the police didn’t know who to chase. They settled on me. I rounded a corner and ducked behind a car. The police car sped past. It slowed half way down the block and began to back up. The spot came on and started probing the other side of the street. I scuttled across the sidewalk and tried to squeeze myself between a fence and an old garage. It was all overgrown with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olallieberry">Olallieberry</a> vines. I forced myself into the brambles and waited for the Police to leave. No one ever hit me or hurt me. Aside from the scratches i received from the vines and thorns, I escaped unscathed.</p>
<p>And the aborted trip to visit the ex-girlfriend? curiosity that’s all I swear I swear.</p>
<p>And that is Lauren Hoffman singing the backing vocals with me.</p>
<p><em>So we crawled towards the ocean through brambles of olallieberry thorns<br>
While blue lights they flailed, sirens wailed, we were ripped and we were torn<br>
Don’t know why we were hiding, never could make that girl wanna stay<br>
It made sense to then, it’s curiosity that’s all I swear</em></p>
<p><em>Where have those days gone</em></p>
<p><em>Where have those days gone</em></p>
<p><em>Where have those days gone.</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p><em> <a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/03-where-have-those-days-gone.mp3">03 Where Have Those Days Gone</a></em></p>
<p>And before you say “hey wait what about the other lost coast song on greenland!”tomorrow i’ll do <em>I need better friends.</em></p>
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<p><em><br></em></p>
<p>Took a<strong>[A]</strong> trip to California to see<strong>[Asus4]</strong> where those old days are<strong>[A]</strong> gone<br>
And the girl that went with them – curi-<strong>[Asus4]</strong>-osity, that’s all I swear<strong>[A]</strong> I swear<br>
In<strong>[D]</strong> Mendocino County thought I saw Thomas Pynchon at the<strong>[A]</strong> end of the bar<br>
But<strong>[C#]</strong> that’s just Rob Brezsny<strong>[D]</strong> writing his real astrology<strong>[A]</strong> column</p>
<p>Headed up the coast with my only Jewish Mexican friend<br>
Found a bar in Arcata it was the means to an end<br>
In the alley for a smoke got beat up by some aryan goons<br>
Lying in my blood I said hey Juan does this mean I’m gringo</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[F#m]</strong> Where have those days<strong>[E]</strong> gone<br><strong>[D]</strong> Where have those days<strong>[C#m]</strong> gone<br><strong>[Bm]</strong> Where have those<strong>[E]</strong> days<strong>[A]</strong> gone</p>
<p>So we crawled towards the ocean through brambles of olallieberry thorns<br>
While blue lights they flailed, sirens wailed, we were ripped and we were torn<br>
Don’t know why we were hiding, never could make that girl wanna stay<br>
It made sense to me then, it’s curiosity that’s all I swear</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL:]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D6]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D6]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D6]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D6]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[C#m]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x3</p>
<p><strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[Dm]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83431
2010-08-21T20:00:00-04:00
2019-03-22T12:52:06-04:00
#35 Don’t Frak Me Up With Peace And Love-Cracker. Eugene Oregon. Playing with the Grateful Dead.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/photo_eugene.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/photo_eugene.png?w=450&h=273" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="273" width="450" /></a></p>
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<p><strong>Eugene Oregon</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/11-dont-fuck-me-up-with-peace-and-love.mp3">11 Don’t Fuck Me Up ( With Peace And Love )</a></strong></p>
<p>Frak? Yes i watch the Sci Fi Channel.</p>
<p>As I write this I am in Eugene Oregon all the way down at the end of the Willamette Valley. It’s part of the climate zone that is known as the Marine West Coast. In brief it has mild temperatures, little snow and is relatively wet. The scenery around here is absolutely beautiful. Lush green rolling hills and mountains opening up to the farmland of the willamette valley. This end is a little sunnier than the Portland end of the willamette Valley so there are even vineyards. Eugene is sometimes called the Emerald City. I always assumed cause it’s lush and green. But some locals think that it refers to the pot culture/industry prominent in the surrounding hills and mountains. The geography says it belongs to the land and people north of here, portland etc. Culturally it’s part of the proposed State of Jefferson. (see post #21 Hey Brett)That is the rougher poorer mountain culture of Southern Oregon and extreme Northern California. But the overwhelming hippy/alternative lifestyle/ college town vibe qualifies it as the cosmopolitan capitol of the state of Jefferson. But state of Jefferson nonetheless.<br><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jefferson1941jpg-107346454efd6dc4_large.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jefferson1941jpg-107346454efd6dc4_large.jpg?w=432&h=266" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="266" width="432" /></a></p>
<p>I’m very familiar with Eugene. I’ve been coming here for 25 years. And it has not changed in that quarter of a century. My old girlfriend was from here. Well sort of. It was one of the three places that she grew up. Three places on the very fringes of Civilization. Fayetteville Arkansas, Petersburg Alaska and Eugene Oregon. Eugene was and remains more of a slacker town than Santa Cruz ever was. I dare say it is one of the few slacker towns left in the US.</p>
<p>So Jennifer and her sister Heather showed up in Santa Cruz fully trained to live in a slacker/hippy/punker college town. Because they were from the mecca of slacker towns. They were like slacker <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensei">Senseis</a>. They were junk store Ninjas. Garage sale <em>xiansheng</em>, flea market virtuosos. They were Free-gan before it was a word. While I thought I was clever shopping at the thrift stores and wearing vintage rayon shirts and cowboy boots, they taught me that you didn’t even have to buy this stuff at the thrift stores. All you needed to do was just go and visit the Goodwill drop box after hours. Say 8pm. We weren’t technically stealing anything mind you. It’s just people would illegally leave there donations after hours outside of the Goodwill drop station. So there were always bags of clothes, rooster alarm clocks, fiesta ware knockoffs, and the occasional console stereo or couch to be dragged back to our dilapidated victorian. Jen and I lived in the attic. Accessible only by a ladder! Yet somehow we managed to get an amazing amount of stuff up into the attic.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/men-s-mexican-poncho-618-p.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/men-s-mexican-poncho-618-p.jpg?w=411&h=581" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="581" width="411" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/men-s-mexican-poncho-618-p.jpg"></a>One day Jennifer and I were determined to rid our attic of all our ironic ponchos, bowling shoes, embroidered squaredance jackets and eiffel tower curtains. We loaded up the 1968 Galaxie 500 (A great rock car! It fits an SVT cabinet in the trunk or and entire drumset and at 500 bucks way cheaper than a van). We dragged all this shit back to the Goodwill drop box. After hours of course. Then to reward ourselves we went out to dinner at our favorite mexican joint. When we got back we found her sister Heather and her boyfriend sitting in a pile of ironic ponchos, bowling shoes, embroidered squaredance jackets and eiffel tower curtains.</p>
<p>“Look at all this cool shit we found at the goodwill drop box!”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies1.jpg?w=450&h=301" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="301" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Eugene 1994</strong>.</p>
<p>So back to Eugene Oregon. Cracker played here with the Grateful Dead. 3 shows in Autzen Stadium. We are talking U2/Stones size venue. The Grateful Dead on their home turf at the height of their popularity! It was 1994 and we were hot on MTV/Alternative and Rock radio. Our song Low was popular at the time and seemed to be talking about weed AND we covered The Jerry Garcia Band song <em>The Loser. </em>We also had our old fiddle player Morgan Fichter join us for a few songs.Hell yeah the Deadheads dug us.</p>
<p><em> </em>BTW I’m often incorrectly corrected by Deadheads – “it’s called Deal man, The song is called Deal”. Usually in a very passive agressive manner. And this is kind of the theme of todays post . Passive agression. Passive aggressive or outright aggressive hippies. Would you expect anything less from a song called <em>Don’t Fuck Me Up With Peace and Love.</em></p>
<p>The vast majority of Deadheads are/were mellow and quite affluent. But there was always a panhandling, cigarette bumming knife fighting underclass that followed around the Dead. And something about Eugene being right up against the wilder parts of southern Oregon amplified that contingent. When we were here for those three days in May 1994 I always felt like i needed to be on guard. A little more so than usual. This was not like seeing the dead at Irvine Meadows, or Shoreline. This was especially true because part of the time in Eugene we were tripping on mushrooms. But that’s another story.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/autzen.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/autzen.jpg?w=450&h=351" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="351" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Autzen Stadium</strong></p>
<p>We got to play with the Grateful Dead! That in itself is a milestone few bands have achieved. I always get a kick out the fact there are all these jam bands emulating the Dead touring around the country these days. And they never played with the Dead. Probably never even saw a show. But little ol’ cracker did. And I think we managed to play with the Dead not because we had a song that vaguely referred to smoking weed, not because we were on MTV and they needed a “current” band to round out the show. Not even the fact that we covered The Loser on Kerosene hat. (Although i’m sure that didn’t hurt.) I think we got the opportunity to open for the Grateful dead largely becausewe mined the same vein of american roots, folk and country that The Dead mined. Just in a different way. So someone over there thought their audience would enjoy us. Or at least not hate us. We had the same DIY Northern California ethic. And at least with the Robert Hunter penned lyrics there are certain vague similarities in the narratives, especially the reliance on “the unreliable narrator.” Check the lyrics to The Loser, or Wharf Rat. (It should be noted “we”includes CVB because shortly before CVB broke up there were informal inquiries about CVB playing with the Grateful Dead.)</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/22/35-dont-frak-me-up-with-peace-and-love-cracker-eugene-oregon-playing-with-the-grateful-dead/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/eTmnfDR5-h4/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><strong>Cracker Performs Loser at Mystic Hot Springs Monroe UT 2010.</strong></p>
<p>I saw Jerry Garcia from afar the first day we played with them. I also saw him watching us from the side of the stage briefly. It wasn’t til the next day i met Jerry Garcia. I was waiting in line for the porta potty that was at the bottom of the steps to the stage. Who walks out of the porta potty but Jerry Garcia. Immediately friendly and warm grabbing my hand to shake and then holding it.</p>
<p>“oh hey man nice show yesterday, I love Eurotrash girl, such a great country rock song, people dont’ do that stuff anymore. mind if we cover it?”</p>
<p>“i’d be flattered beyond belief”. I stuttered and stammered as i answered.</p>
<p>20 seconds at most. And then he just wandered off.</p>
<p>I’m not making this up. That’s what he said. He observed what few have observed about that song. It’s all twang. The other thing about that conversation that was weird. At least on my part. The whole time he shook/held my hand i kept thinking “there is no sink in a porta potty”</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies2.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies2.jpg?w=450&h=301" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="301" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Eugene 1986.</strong></p>
<p>In 1986 Camper Van Beethoven played in the venue we are playing tonight. The W.O.W. hall or Woodmen of the World Hall. Here again is a flashback to the the Anarchistic anti-authoritarian separatist past of this region. Not much different than a Knights of Columbus hall. But still unique in it’s own way. We were supporting the 10,000 Maniacs.They had managed to sort of screen part of the side stage off so that you couldn’t actually see Natalie Merchant approach the stage. Otherwise it was the same old WOW hall that had been doing reggae/punk and hippy shows for years.</p>
<p>This story like friday’s story also involves Jackson Haring, our manager 1986-2000. He grew up in the wilds of southern Oregon. Specifically Medford Oregon smack in the heart of the state of Jefferson.</p>
<p>Every story involving Jackson is usually funny. Not cause he was a clown. But precisely cause the guy was an audacious and smart guy housed in the (not unimpressive) frame of a cuddly hippy stoner dude.</p>
<p>At the end of Camper Van Beethoven’s set we had managed to fill the entire hall with fog machine smoke. We had come across and arena sized smoke machine a few months back. It was like SFO in July. You could barely see your hand in front of your face by the end of the set. Somehow in the chaos of set change over, someone had grabbed my delay pedal off the front of the stage. I mean like pocketed it. The fog had helped the sleazebag grab it. In 1986 a $200 dollar delay pedal was about the average monthly income of a family of 4 in southern Oregon (and half the CVB stipend). I flew into a rage. I ran backstage to find Jackson. Jackson was making a sandwhich from the deli tray. He calmly walked out of the dressing room and scanned the crowd. I don’t know if it was just that he was from the area but he seemed to know exactly what type of person he was looking for. He focused in on a group of three dudes. They looked a lot like Jackson. Fluffy hippy frat boy ne’er do wells. They aroused his suspicion even more when they quickly sat down on the folding chairs lining the walls of WOW hall. Jackson walked up to them and said. ”My guitar player is missing an effects pedal”. Like i said Jackson is kind of a big guy and I think he made one of them nervous enough that his eyes darted to his right. Jackson leaned down and looked under the seats a few feet away. There was my pedal. At this point i realized that Jackson still had the sandwich in his hand because he took the top piece of bread off and began methodically screwing/smashing the sandwich into the closest ones face. All the while staring the nervous one directly in the eye. Don’t fuck Jackson up with that peace and love bullshit.</p>
<p>After making sure that Jackson and I weren’t about to be beat with metal folding chairs I grabbed the pedal off the floor and darted back into the dressing room. Southern Oregon is scary.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies3.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11a-hippies3.jpg?w=450&h=301" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="301" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Eugene Oregon 2010</strong></p>
<p>Skip forward 24 years and it’s 2010 and we are playing in Eugene Oregon. The WOW hall of course. And again great place but a little passive aggressive. The show starts with a crazy hippy guy in dress shirt and tie yelling “you better be fucking worth it!” Wha? also what was up with the dress shirt and tie? Especially since the entire W.O.W smelt like body odor. As if the entire audience needed a bath. It was like playing a logging camp. So when the 82nd airborne is finished with their humanitarian effort in Haiti perhaps we can send ‘em into Eugene OR and have them hose down the entire population the way they do circus elephants. “Yeah and uh check their teeth while you’re at it.”</p>
<p>“You better be worth it!?” That is the rougher southern oregon mountain culture talking.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure…. It should be noted that Eugene is also the second largest city in Oregon. It’s more urban and crime ridden than you would think for a place called the Emerald City. And with the gentrification of the formerly seedy Portland OR (remember drugstore cowboy) there has also been flow of portland’s port town seedy underlife back up the willamette river to Eugene. The hippy guy was from the mountains.</p>
<p>Now the punker/neck tattoo gang kids who were tailgating on the back of our equipment trailer in the parking lot of WOW hall were probably part of the portland backflow. The little pricks tagged our trailer also. I didn’t notice at the time or i would have gone inside and made a sandwich.</p>
<p>After the show i was out on the loading dock. A punker kid wandered by. He wanted a cigarette from me. I didn’t have any. He didn’t say “thanks anway” he says “do you know who the fuck has a cigarette around here”. I pointed up the street to some dark figures on the next corner. I was secretly hoping they were the thugs that were tailgating in the parking lot earlier. . He dutifully went off to ask them for a “fucking cigarette”. When it appeared that thee wasn’t gonna be an ass whipping i went back inside.</p>
<p>+++++++++++++++++++++</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hippy-finger.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hippy-finger.jpg?w=170&h=114" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="114" width="170" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Which finger was Jerry Garcia Missing?</strong></p>
<p>People in this part of the word say fucking a lot. For an area that has a reputation for hippies, PC politics and alternative lifestyles there is a lot pissed off cursing. You expect it in NYC. but here? And they do it twice as much. I shouldn’t single out Eugene. The same aggressive pan handling gimme some of yours culture is all the way down the coast, Eureka/Arcata, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. Especially Santa Cruz back in the 80′s. A guy asked me for money once and i gave him the 17 cents i had in my pocket. he counted it and then threw it back at me.</p>
<p>I laughed heartily In 1996 when Bob Rupe Cracker’s bass player took a different tack. He told a panhandler in Santa Cruz ”i’ll give you a quarter for every push up you do.”</p>
<p>So you see what I’m getting at with Don’t Fuck Me Up With Peace And Love? Post Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker’s more rock more country persona allowed me to say “No, fuck YOU” right back. Like every reasonable thoughtful citizen of the northwest secretly wanted to do. I nor anyone else really believed all that peace and love bullshit that these hippy/punk street kids were spewing. It was nice to just get in their face and say “you know what I’m sick of your shit, you little shit so FUCK YOU”. It was quite liberating.</p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-we-saw-jerrys-daughter.mp3">06 We Saw Jerry’s Daughter</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-we-saw-jerrys-daughter.mp3"></a>Camper Van Beethoven also wrote a tune called <em>We saw Jerrys Daughter</em>. She was rumored to have attended one of our shows in Eugene OR where she was a student. This was also around 1986. or 1987. We didn’t need it to be confirmed for us to write a song about it. This was camper Van Beethoven after all. I’m sure she is a lovely lady. No offense intended.</p>
<p>Reading back over this I’m not sure that i made it clear enough that I am a fan of the Dead. I only saw the Dead a handful of times, and I never really “got” the Dead until I was recording Key Lime Pie in Hollywood. Again with Jackson Haring. He came back to our apartment in Hollywood late at night. He thought i was out of town and he put on a mixed cassette of live GratefulDead and Jerry Garcia band. It woke me up but i remember that was the first time i really listened to the Dead carefully. When Loser played i got out of bed and asked him what record that was from. I of course scared the shit out of him cause he thought I wasn’t home. He may have been doing The Seaweed or the Sun-Grow. Anyway a few months later we started covering Loser with CVB. There are some versions on Archive.org. The Cracker version is far superior. Not taking sides or anything.</p>
<p><strong>Don’t fuck me up with peace and love lyrics.</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> Now here I am, the youngest old<strong>[G]</strong> man in the world<br><strong>[Am]</strong> And I have come to bring you my<strong>[F]</strong> burden<br><strong>[C]</strong> Of every sleepless night without<strong>[G]</strong> you in my arms<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Of being bored and calm and sometimes<strong>[F]</strong> sober</p>
<p><strong>[D]</strong> Don’t mess me up by being<strong>[F]</strong> kind<br><strong>[D]</strong> Don’t mess me up by being<strong>[F]</strong> wise</p>
<p>Now here I am, I am the angel of Earth<br>
And I have come to bring you my burden<br>
Now here I am, I am the game warden of love<br>
’til someone took away my gin and tonic</p>
<p>Don’t mess me up I’m on a roll<br>
Keep being wise, I’ll be inspired</p>
<p>Don’t<strong>[C]</strong> fuck me<strong>[G]</strong> up with<strong>[C]</strong> peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love when I<strong>[Am]</strong> haven’t<strong>[D]</strong> got it<strong>[Am]</strong> in me<strong>[D]</strong><br>
Don’t<strong>[C]</strong> fuck me<strong>[G]</strong> up with<strong>[C]</strong> peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love when I<strong>[Am]</strong> haven’t<strong>[D]</strong> got it<strong>[Am]</strong> in me<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong> I haven’t got it<strong>[D]</strong> in me<br><strong>[Am]</strong> I haven’t got it<strong>[D]</strong> in me,</p>
<p>Any-<strong>[C]</strong>-more<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[F]</strong> love<br><strong>[C]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[F]</strong> love</p>
<p><strong><strong>[C]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love (no don’t fuck me)<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[F]</strong> love (no don’t fuck me)<br><strong>[C]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[G]</strong> love (no don’t fuck me)<br><strong>[Am]</strong> Don’t fuck me up with peace and<strong>[F]</strong> love (no don’t fuck me)<br></strong></p>
<p><strong>We Saw Jerry’s Daughter</strong></p>
<p><strong><br><strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>[B]</strong> We were walkin’<strong>[G#m]</strong> down the road at ni-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-ght<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong> And all the<strong>[G#m]</strong> brothers and sisters<strong>[C#m]</strong> they were goin’<strong>[E]</strong> nowhere<br><strong>[B]</strong> Peace and<strong>[G#m]</strong> love were not aro-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-und<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong> Trouble and<strong>[G#m]</strong> strife was everywhe-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-re<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[B]</strong> We saw Jerry’s,<strong>[G#m]</strong> we saw Jerry’s<strong>[E]</strong> daughter<br><strong>[B]</strong> We saw Jerry’s,<strong>[G#m]</strong> we saw Jerry’s<strong>[E]</strong> daughter</p>
<p>Now peace and love were all around<br>
And the brothers and sisters are free to go where they want and be who they wanna be<br>
And nobody wears flowers in their hair ’cause flowers are<br>
Everywhere, flowers are everywhere</p>
<p>We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter<br>
We saw Jerry’s, we saw Jerry’s daughter</p>
<p><strong><strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[("SURPRISE TRUCK" BEGINS)]</strong></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/68329
2010-08-19T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
#34 Portland Oregon: Hairspray Meets Satyricon. The Musical.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/aquanet.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/aquanet.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a><br><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/19-no-more-bullshit.mp3">19 No More Bullshit</a></p>
<p>I’ve been saving this one for Today since we Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven are playing tomorrow at Aladdin Theatre in Portland</p>
<p>In april of 1986 Camper Van Beethoven had just returned from their first proper national tour. We started in the Southwest and made a loop around the country, through texas, straight up to minneapolis, across the northern midwest to the northeast, down through the south and back to Santa Cruz. Conspicuously absent were any shows in the Northwest.</p>
<p>We were very fortunate to have been picked up by Venture Bookings in New York as our agency. Their roster in the mid 80′s reads as a who’s who of influential artists of the the late 80′s and 90′s. We were curious as to why we didn’t go up to Portland and Seattle. I remember our agent saying something to the effect that it’s just so far and the clubs are kind of shitty. Which in their defense was true at time. The only bands that <em>regularly</em> ventured up that way were hardcore punk bands or the old guard metal bands. BTW this goes a long way to explaining the development of Grunge.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/satyricon-bathroom.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/satyricon-bathroom.jpg?w=450&h=335" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="335" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The bathroom at the Satyricon was an exact replica of the bathroom at CBGBs.</strong></p>
<p>Still we were so close to the Northwest we wanted to go up there. There was this kind of funny big blond dude who had been hanging around us. We knew he was from Oregon. His name was Jackson Lee Haring which is a funny name for a Croatian. The only clue that he wasn’t southern gentry was his big blond ‘fro. He looked like he was from some lost tribe of Arab surfers.</p>
<p>I remember asking Jackson if he knew of any venues in Portland or Eugene Oregon we could play. Jackson replied:</p>
<p>“As a matter of fact I have a company that books tours in the Northwest.”</p>
<p>About 6 weeks later we were playing a show in Corvallis Or. Our first Northwest tour. Jackson had come along on the trip. We were standing by our old 1978 Dodge Tradesman homemade conversion van. It was one of those rainy grey spring days in the willamette valley. He had on a big pilled green sweater. He was smoking a big fatty and some of the ash was burning in the pills of his sweater. He seemed oblivious to the fact it was raining. He was also oblivious to the fact that his sweater was on fire. I brushed the ash from his sweater.</p>
<p>“You’ve never done this before”</p>
<p>he looked at me blankly.</p>
<p>“You’ve never booked a tour before”</p>
<p>“Nope”</p>
<p>He then begins to laugh.</p>
<p>“You should be our manager”.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/satyricon.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/satyricon.jpg?w=400&h=297" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="297" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Satyricon In Portland Oregon. Pandemonium ensued when no one brought any cigarettes to the Restarts gig. 300 Cigarette bummers and Zero cigarette bummees.</strong></p>
<p>Why does this post start with a picture of a can of Aquanet?</p>
<p>Well Aquanet is very useful if you want to set the following things <em>briefly</em> on fire while on stage: The drummers Cymbals, Victor Krummenacher’s boot, the mic stand or a telecaster knockoff. You would spray a thin coat on your guitar and then you would put a match to it and you get a nice cool flame that would last 15 or 20 seconds. It was important to do this while there was some crazy guitar solo, freak out or noise section in a song.</p>
<p>So that night at the Satyricon we were playing No More Bullshit, and in the crash and burn guitar stops, i was down on the floor spraying my guitar with Aquanet. When i went for my lighter i dropped the can of Aquanet which rolled towards the front of the stage. As i was coaxing the blue flame upward on my guitar A punker chick picked up the can of hairspray and started spinning in a slow circle spraying a cloud of hairspray onto everyone around her.</p>
<p>I was of course oblivious of this until the 6 foot ball of hairspray drifted downward and intersected with the blue flame on my guitar. The resulting fireball burned off my my eyelashes, most of my eyebrows and the hair on my arms. There were some cheers and a smattering of applause from the small crowd as if this was part of the show.</p>
<p>No more bullshit. No more MTV. Yeah right. The next year we were on MTV an signed to Virgin Records. What a trip.</p>
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<p><strong>The scene at the Satyricon is re-enacted for Americas Most Wanted.</strong></p>
<div><strong><br></strong></div>
<p>NO MORE BULLSHIT.<br>
No more bullshit<br>
No more bullshit<br>
no more MTV<br>
no more rock stars</p>
<p>No more bullshit<br>
No more bullshit<br>
No more MTV<br>
No more bullshit</p>
<p>no more bullshit<br>
No more bullshit<br>
Elvis Presley died<br>
and no-one knows why</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83291
2010-08-18T20:00:00-04:00
2022-05-08T04:48:13-04:00
#33 &1/3: It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself-Cracker.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/roy-lott-ken-berry-nancy-berry.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/roy-lott-ken-berry-nancy-berry.jpg?w=350&h=201" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="201" width="350" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Some of the People that used to use the office furniture that is Virgin Records</strong>.</p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/aint-gonna-suck-itself.mp3">It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself- Cracker</a></p>
<p>Continuing -at least musically- with the theme of the borderlands this slice of Tex-Mex is our parting shot at Virgin Records.</p>
<p>But let me be clear. Being mad at your record label is like being mad at an inanimate object. Record labels are like those unstable 1970′s south american dictatorships. Every 2 or 3 years, the entire upper level of executives is summarily executed and a whole new team is brought in. If only they had the mustaches, uniforms and weaponry of the those great latin american coup leaders!! That would be interesting! No it’s just some dumbass in loafers who loves golf, replaced by some teabag (english) with bad teeth and bordeaux stained blazer, replaced by some dweeb from jersey or florida with a penchant for cavorting with large breasted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa">shiksas</a> that are not their wives.. on and on and on.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/office-furniture.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/office-furniture.jpg?w=300&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Virgin Records. The office furniture has a longer lifespan than the executives.</strong></p>
<p>There is no actual Virgin records other than some office furniture, bank account and a stream of royalties from the back catalogue that pours in no matter which idiot/genius is running the label. So the office furniture-bank account known as Virgin records has dibs on the royalty stream that comes from 7 of my most succesful studio albums.</p>
<p>I like the bank account. I like the office furniture. it sends me checks every once in a while. But the main reason i like that bank account/office furniture is because Johnny Hickman and I won a bet with it. A very large bet.</p>
<p>In 1995 ag the height of our popularity virgin became concerned that we would challenge their contract under the california 7 year personal services statute. They re-upped our contract. They offered us a lot of money per album. Ever since then our records have been un-recouped.</p>
<p>Wow that’s bad isn’t it?</p>
<p>No that’s good. Virgin records bet us we would sell a lot of records. We didn’t and therefore we won the bet. We got paid more than we were worth.</p>
<p>In fact if you sell enough records that you are getting royalties you should fire your lawyer and manager. Because that means they “sold” your rights for too little.</p>
<p>Cause as an artist your royalties are a small percentage of gross. Between 12 and 25%. And you pay all the recording/video/tour support costs from this 12-25%. So if you eventually manage to pay all this back out of this sliver of gross. The record label has made a fortune on the other 75-88%.</p>
<p>In derivatives trading terms. In 1995, Johnny and I went Short Volatility on our career. We sold a Call to virgin record against our future sales. And we won on that trade.</p>
<p>I don’t even know Roy Lott. I don know that he was part of the Crew that nearly bankrupted Virgin. Purportedly they made such onerous deals with Mariah Carey and Robbie williams that they had to slash expenses. They didn’t slash their salaries though. Instead they did things like put out the Cracker Forever Album but cut off all marketing funds for the album. Actually worse they had a list of artists/albums that employees were forbidden to work.</p>
<p>I had a little bit of music and a ridiculous chorus. ”It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself”. Well when this all this happened i suddenly had my target and story.</p>
<p>I chose Roy Lott to mention by name, ONLY because like a lot of music executives he has a big enough ego to credit himself as Executive producer on albums. This makes him a public figure so therefore i can legally parody him in song without worrying about libel or slander.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-19-at-7-29-29-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-19-at-7-29-29-pm.png?w=300&h=225" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Jackson Haring with the world’s only mennonite music agent, Frank Riley.</strong></p>
<p>Finally the one person who is not happy about being portrayed in this song is Jackson haring. Jackson was Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven’s manager 1986-2000. We still count him as a dear friend.</p>
<p>At some point in time Jackson worked for Bill Graham Presents. At a Bill Graham presents show for The Residents, ”A prop Eyeball was stolen backstage from The Residents.” In my story “A rumour went around that Jackson was the thief.” Apparently Jackson actually did work for Bill Graham when this theft in real life happened. So some people really think Jackson stole one of the Residents Prop Eyeballs.</p>
<p>When i sent this song to Kenny Margolis, Cracker’s Accordion player and gunslinger, he immediately said “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Sahm">Doug Sahm</a>“. That germ of an idea from Kenny and Johnnys Tex-Mex Guitar stylings really make this song something other than a silly record company kiss-off song.<br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>Lyrics. to It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself.</p>
<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
I say<strong>[A]</strong> baby, it ain’t gonna suck it-<strong>[E]</strong>-self<br>
Virgin Re-<strong>[D]</strong>-cords, it<strong>[E]</strong> ain’t gonna suck it-<strong>[A]</strong>-self<br>
I say baby, it ain’t gonna suck it-<strong>[E]</strong>-self<br>
What you<strong>[D]</strong> waiting for? It<strong>[E]</strong> ain’t gonna suck it-<strong>[A]</strong>-self</p>
<p>Well I flew<strong>[E]</strong> out from Virginie on the very first day<br>
I heard my<strong>[A]</strong> record company exercise my pay to play<br>
Went to<strong>[E]</strong> see Mr. Lott but his assistant said no<br>
(Brandy) Se-<strong>[A]</strong>-curity will escort you to the parking lot<br>
It was<strong>[D]</strong> 102 degrees I was feeling kind of hot<br>
So I<strong>[A]</strong> walked across the street for one of those Mexican frozen popsicles<br>
Couldn’t<strong>[E]</strong> buy just one so I bought myself a box<br>
When I come<strong>[A]</strong> back the assistant she’s standing in the parking lot</p>
<p>No hard feelings do you want one of these?<br>
But she looks at me like I was speaking Chinese<br>
The security man walks up he helps himself to one<br>
Coincidently Chinese and hot from standing in the sun<br>
Then he helps himself to another he puts it in her hand<br>
But she looks at it like it was a piece of crap<br>
Or a dead and dying bird she didn’t understand<br>
So I was just<strong>[E7]</strong> trying to be helpful when I said…</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Baby, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
Oh Virgin Records, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
(Brandy) I beg to differ cousin, it should be, it ain’t gonna lick itself<br>
I do believe you’re right cousin: It ain’t gonna lick itself</p>
<p>Well I’m standing in the parking lot waiting on my ride<br>
His name is Jackson Haring and he’s still inside<br>
He went in through mailroom for some record company swag<br>
But this Virgin Records there ain’t shit to be had<br>
And the halls they was empty because everyone was laid off<br>
And he took a wrong turn ends up in the tape vault<br>
Only one thing to do when you?re standing face to face<br>
With the Sticky Fingers, Let It Be master tapes</p>
<p>You’ve got to stick them in the satchel and head on the down the hall<br>
Saying these will go nicely with that Residents eyeball<br>
Many years ago while working for Bill Graham Presents<br>
A prop eyeball was stolen backstage from The Residents<br>
And the rumor went around that Jackson was the thief<br>
But that’s neither here nor there and I was sitting in the jeep<br>
Looking at the Sticky Fingers master tapes<br>
My popsicle?s dripping on the seat so I throw it out the window – it lands at the feet of Roy Lott</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Hey Roy, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
Ah Virgin Records, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
And one time for the ladies, It ain’t gonna lick itself<br>
Ah Virgin Records, it ain’t gonna suck itself</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL: CHORDS AS VERSE]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Baby, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
Everyone at Virgin Records, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
One for the ladies, it ain’t gonna lick itself<br>
What you waiting for, it ain’t gonna suck itself</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Mr. Lott, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
Everyone on Foothill Road, it ain’t gonna suck itself<br>
Just so we’re not totally sexist, it ain’t gonna lick itself<br>
Virgin Records, it ain’t gonna suck itself</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83196
2010-08-17T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:37-05:00
#32 Poor Mexico so far from God; So Close to Camper Van Beethoven
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/porfirio_diaz_in_uniform.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/porfirio_diaz_in_uniform.jpg?w=450&h=592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="592" width="450" /></a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>“¡Pobre México! ¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!” -José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori. President of Mexico 1876-1911.<br>
Poor Mexico, So Far from God, and so close to the United States.</p>
<p>In #22 I ride my bike. I briefly mentioned the borderlands of California and the Southwest. This is as important as the Inland Empire and Santa Cruz to the identity and development of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven.<br>
So I Should explain the concept of a Borderland a little better.</p>
<p>Borderlands are a concept from Geopolitical theory. It comes in handy when trying to describe California. Borderlands are regions where the immigrant population is still culturally and economically anchored to their nearby ancestral homeland. The classic example is Mexican immigrants in the Southwest of the US. Coachella valley, large swaths of LA, the southern Central Valley. All borderlands. These pockets are neither US or Mexico or both depending on your viewpoint. While physically part of the US they are culturally and economically tethered to nearby Mexico. If you slide into one of these pockets from Mexico or from the the southwest of the US there isn’t really much of a process of adaptation.</p>
<p>Contrast these with the large pocket of Arab immigrants around Dearborn Michigan. The weather alone would require adaptation. But this immigrant population is isolated economically and culturally from ancestral homeland. Sot this population is firmly part of the United States. Exotic and unusual but not a borderland.</p>
<p>So this is what the members of Camper Van Beethoven and Johnny Hickman grew up around, these transnational pockets called Borderlands. Jonathan, Greg and Chris Pederson grew up near these borderlands. Victor, and Chris Molla across the street from the Borderlands while Mike Zorn, Anthony Guess Johnny Hickman and I grew up inside one of these transnational pockets. This was especially true of Anthony Guess.</p>
<p>BTW Guess is really his last name. It was not a stage name. More than any other member of CVB Anthony was the most immersed in the borderland culture. He grew up in the farming and ranching town of King City California way “up” (south) the Salinas Valley. He showed up in Santa Cruz at the ripe old age of 18 and quickly gained a reputation as the great drumslinger in town. First we grabbed him to play in Box o’ Laffs. Later we talked him into playing in Camper Van Beethoven. He was a nut. In a good way. His music options in King City were limited so he learned to play everything. Rock, Country and of course the Norteña or Conjunto music. When we asked him to play with CVB he agreed only if he could play Conjunto style. I had no idea what he meant. But to him it meant he would only bring a kick drum, snare drum, high hat and sometimes a cowbell (pre-irony) or tambourine. The entire first CVB record is played with kick drum high hat and snare. Nothing else. Genius.<br>
Not only did anthony play drums like he was from the borderlands he also talked the talk. His speech sounded vaguely chicano and he sometimes threw in spanglish phrases.</p>
<p>Camper Van Beethoven already had a little subset of norteña influenced ska:</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-border-ska.mp3">01 Border Ska</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-yanqui-go-home.mp3">04 Yanqui Go Home</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/11-tina.mp3">11 Tina</a></p>
<p>But when Anthony Guess came into the band this stuff really started sounding very cool. Like i said we all lived in or near the borderlands so it was as if we were culturally fluent in this stuff anyway. Anthony Guess just took it to another level. Even the flat footed folk of Tina took on a Conjunto edge.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-heart.mp3">01 Heart</a></p>
<p>But long after Anthony Guess had left the band we continued to occasionally dabble in this style. Heart was re-recorded in 1987 with Chris Pederson and still retained it’s borderland feel. Although technically it was played more in the Tex-Mex style which was a later offshoot of Norteña.</p>
<p>A quick but important aside. Some people are confused by the this lineage?Norteña before Tex Mex? Norteña is very old. It goes back to the 1850s and those german settlers bringing their music into northern mexico. But it keeps being re-invented. Every 20 or 30 years. Just when it’s about to become old folks music it transforms itself. And always by attaching itself to the most dangerous and edgy elements of the borderlands. Most recently in the 70′s by groups like Los Tigres del Norte, and in the 80′s by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcocorrido">Chalino Sánchez</a> (who was born in mexico but spent more than half of his life in california ie a borderlander) In both cases these artists re-invented Nortena by popularizing the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcocorrido"> Narcorrido</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/chalino-sanchez.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/chalino-sanchez.jpg?w=300&h=223" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="223" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Damn it feels good to be a gangster. Chalino Sanchez while performing in Coachella CA was attacked and shot onstage. Still standing he pulled his own gun and shot and killed the would be assassin. It was The federales that finally got him in Mexico.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/02-laguardiente.mp3">02 L’Aguardiente</a></p>
<p>The song L’aguardiente nods towards this as well but it was actually more of a play on South american and European music. This track was recorded in Vienna Austria in 1990. Note how enthusiastically the Austrians embrace the Waltz section of the song. That in itself illustrates my earlier German/Czech/Texan/ Northern Mexican musical connect the dots.</p>
<p>Finally there is a Camper Van Beethoven song that addresses the concept of The borderlands directly. Or at least treats it as the real geographical entity it is. <em>Borderline</em> from <em>Key Lime Pie</em>. Like all the songs on this album it’s bathed in melancholy and a dreamy figuratives. But it’s a couple driving from east to west, and west to east across the borderlands. Not into and out of the US and Mexico. They are observing that nothing is changing, they remain in this transnational space between the two Nations. The song even suggests that the Nations are fiction while the Borderland is real. Not to divagate too far but if the people of borderland are bound together voluntarily (which i understand is arguable) their transnational state is as legitimate as that of the US or Mexico. My Anarchist and Libertarian friends might say <em>more </em>legitimate.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-borderline.mp3">06 Borderline</a></p>
<p>Politicians and Military strategist worry mightily about borderlands. Perhaps rightfully so. These areas tend to explode into violence and chaos. They tend to be flash points for much greater wars. But no one seems to learn from these episodes. We are always given two false choices. Make these areas part of one nation or another. The more obvious and successful choice: Why not let them be? These borderlands have been with us throughout history and oftentimes-not always- they are places of great innovation, thought, music, art and even prosperity. From my political perspective it is often because of the very weakness of the official states in these areas. The governments have limited influence on the culture and economy. People often enjoy extra liberty. Grey market labor, less taxes, fewer regulations and contraband not available in the firmly controlled areas of the nations. They often enjoy less security. But not that much less.</p>
<p>If these areas manage to stay peaceful (an iffy prospect mostly because of interference byt the nearby nations). They are often powerful economic engines. I would say that this is generally true of the borderlands of the US, even if the wealth is unevenly shared. I know this sounds crazy if you look at the headlines in the newspapers. It’s stories of drug smugglers and violence. But the vast majority of the people who live in these regions live peacefully and contribute greatly to the wealth of both countries on either side of the border. And most of the Borderland is not lawless. There are some marked exceptions. Juarez which is firmly part of Mexico (and so technically not a borderland) is currently bordering on anarchy. Some of this spills into the real borderlands of El paso and Las Cruces, but Baltimore is more dangerous than El Paso.</p>
<p>There i go again looking at the big picture.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/460px-yaqui_indians.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/460px-yaqui_indians.jpg?w=450&h=585" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="585" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaqui">Yaqui Nation</a></strong><strong> straddled the border of the US and Mexico. They were still fighting to remain independent of the Mexico in 1918. My Niece who is very much a All-American Californian girl is 1/4 Yaqui, should she go back to Mexico?</strong></p>
<p>Finally shouldn’t we say “immigrants” with quotation marks because a large portion of these immigrants are <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo">mestizo</a></em>. that is mostly Amerindian. Their ancestral homelands straddle both sides of the border. In fact we should probably go even further putting quotation marks around “Mexican”. For many of these people’s ancestors could have just as easily identified themselves as Americans or Texans had history been a little different. Indeed many of their ancestors did identify themselves as such. The recent self-identification of many of these Mestizo people as Mexicans was the result of manipulative nationalists on both sides of the border.</p>
<p>Note in our New Roman Times story Texas has neatly dealt with the situation. Aztlan the semi-autonomous republic within texas is made up largely of the borderland region of the southwest. And in our story it is assumed that these people identify themselves as Tejanos rather than Mexicans, yet still remain culturally distinct. In the story the Texans and Aztlans are comfortable with this arrangement. In reality i don’t know if that would have been the case. But one can hope.</p>
<p>Oh and since i love flags so much the Yaqui have a Flag.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/flag_of_the_yaqui_tribe.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/flag_of_the_yaqui_tribe.png?w=150&h=103" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="103" width="150" /></a></p>
<p>As a historical note. During the Mexican Revolution many of the great Mexican corridos were recorded in San Antonio Texas. Texans in general are more comfortable having a border and shared cultural traits with Mexico than the rest of the western states (except New Mexico). This is instructive.</p>
<p>And indeed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Douglas_Quintet">Sir Douglas Quinte</a>t did in the 60′s in texas what CVB dabbled in 1980s. 20 years before. basically because they were Trxan.</p>
<p>Cracker pays tribute to Sir Douglas Quintet on this track.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/aint-gonna-suck-itself.mp3">It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself- Cracker</a></p>
<p>And don’t worry Cracker heads. i”ll devote an entire post to It ain’t gonna suck itself.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kenny.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kenny.jpg?w=450&h=639" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="639" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Kenny Margolis. It’s not the Violin that is the Devil’s Instrument. It’s the Accordion. And Kenny keeps his DI in a Holster. At least we think it’s a DI. Now that i’ve read about Chalino Sanchez I suspect it’s his pistol.</strong></p>
<p>Finally Kenny Margolis accordion player for Cracker had this idea to take the Bruce Springsteen song Sinaloa Cowboys and make it a Nortena song. This song is very much about the borderlands of California.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/04-sinaloa-cowboys.mp3">04 sinaloa cowboys</a></p>
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<p>Todays words and music.</p>
<p><strong>Borderline.</strong></p>
<p><strong><strong>[INTRO & ENDING:]</strong><br><strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[Emaj7]</strong><br><strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong><br><strong>[Emaj7]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[Emaj7]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>I will <strong>[G#m]</strong> sing<br>
I will be <strong>[F#]</strong> passed on over <strong>[G#m]</strong> now <strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[Emaj7]</strong><br>
Take the <strong>[G#m]</strong> wheel<br>
Take me <strong>[F#]</strong> down<br>
Let me <strong>[G#m]</strong> sleep till we have <strong>[B]</strong> disappeared <strong>[C#m]</strong><br>
‘Cause we’re <strong>[Emaj7]</strong> moving from east<br>
to <strong>[C#m]</strong> west<br>
Across the <strong>[B]</strong> grain, it’s meaning-<strong>[E]</strong>-less<br>
On the <strong>[F#]</strong> borderline nothing is <strong>[Emaj7]</strong> real except for <strong>[G#m]</strong> you and I</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>I have silver<br>
And I have dollars<br>
And papers, too<br>
Bring me a mango from the south<br>
Pour me a drink from the bottle<br>
And one for you<br>
‘Cause we’re empty as the desert<br>
As we drift from west to east<br>
On the borderline everything is empty, even you and I</p>
<p><strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong> Yeah? <strong>[B]</strong> OK <strong>[Emaj7]</strong><br><strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong><br><strong>[Emaj7]</strong>-<strong>[C#m]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong><br><strong>[F#]</strong>-<strong>[Emaj7]</strong>-<strong>[G#m]</strong></p>
<p>‘Cause we’re <strong>[Emaj7]</strong> moving from east to <strong>[C#m]</strong> west<br>
Across the <strong>[B]</strong> grain, it’s meaning-<strong>[E]</strong>-less<br>
On the <strong>[F#]</strong> borderline nothing is <strong>[Emaj7]</strong> real except for <strong>[G#m]</strong> you and I</p>
<p><strong><strong>[ENDING]</strong></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/66133
2010-08-16T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
#31 Brides of Neptune-Cracker. Did the ferry sink? Is this the underworld? Or is it just another gig in Victoria BC.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cracker-forever.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cracker-forever.jpg?w=450&h=450" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cracker-forever.jpg"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-brides-of-neptune.mp3">01 Brides of Neptune</a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>In summer of 2009, Cracker was doing a Northwest run with our sister band McCabe and Mrs Miller (Victor krummenacher). It was 4th of July Weekend. A terrible time to play anywhere in the US except right before a fireworks display. So as we weren’t booked at any fireworks displays our agent sent us up in to Canada for the Weekend.<br>
It had been at least 13 years since I’d been to Victoria with Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven. So we didn’t really know what to expect. Victoria (which is confusingly on Vancouver Island and Vancouver City is not) can be an insular place. It’s a college town/government town. It’s only reachable by ferry and aside from provincial government types and college students, the only visitors it gets are those peculiar weird tourists that visit the islands of washington.</p>
<p>The Northern part of the island is also very wild still. Parts of it can be very Northern Exposure. Our promoter was from somewhere up north on the island. It may or may not be a giant hydroponic pot growing operation. Which is especially weird cause there is seems to be some kind of police training centre on the island as well.</p>
<p>But when you are downtown in Victoria, it’s a fairly cosmopolitan place. which by nortwestern or Cascadia standards that means there are some Fluevogs mixed in with the Birkenstocks. The couple times we played there when i was in Camper Van Beethoven it reminded us favorably of 1980′s Santa Cruz.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-17-at-1-34-25-am.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-17-at-1-34-25-am.png?w=450&h=372" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="372" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>A clown cemetary. All sad clowns now.</strong></p>
<p>But back to our story. The ride on the ferry from the mainland was spectacular. We all sat out on the deck took pictures of each other , it was hot by BC standards, 75, and i realized i probably should be wearing sunscreen. How do people get to live in this part of the world? They must have done something very good in a past life: Pushed a pram of quadruplets out of the path of an oncoming bus. damn. Victor Krummenacher and I Reminisced about doing this same trip with <a href="http://http://www.catheads.com/">The Catheads</a> in 1986 or 1987. Mark Zanadreas and I were so hungover we quickly became seasick and ended up vomiting over the railings in tandem. Much to the horror of our Canadian hosts. We were young so i’m sure by 7:00pm we felt completely normal.</p>
<p>But back to our story. When we arrived at the venue in Victoria July 4th 2009 we were a little surprised. It wasn’t really in the quaint victorian downtown but on the outskirts of town. It was a pretty weird place. Just a gigantic cinderblock box. It was a combination venue, hotel, and liquor store on the ground floor. Around back in the basement it also had a strip club and a chinese restaurant. We were pretty early so we all checked into our rooms. About and hour after we got to the hotel, the local promoter called jason our tour manager.</p>
<p>“I just drove down the Island, hey do you mind if i come to your room and take a shower”</p>
<p>And then it started to get weird. There was also some sort of event center in the hotel and it appeared to be preparation for a wedding. And not just any wedding.</p>
<p>I’ve always marveled at how multi-cultural is Canada. Toronto Ottowa and Montreal are of course famous for this. But the west also has it’s own pan-commonwealth queens dominion polyculture. I can not think of any proper way to say this that is politically correct. It appeared that preparations were underway for an Indian-dot/Indian-feather wedding. Or at least the two largest pluralities at the wedding appeared to come from these two subsets of Canadians. It was like a Fellini movie, paper mache elephants, people painted blue , heavily embroidered vests and many variations on the bear claw pendent. Cowboy boots and Saris.</p>
<p>hmm interesting.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/v-lounge.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/v-lounge.jpg?w=250&h=188" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="188" width="250" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/vlounge-with-band.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/vlounge-with-band.jpg?w=250&h=188" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="188" width="250" /></a></p>
<p>And when we went into the club it appeared to have a model of the Parthenon for a stage except there were multiple television sets in the walls between the columns. The overall effect was that of a Russian mobster nightclub in Azerbaijan. That night as we began to play to the handful of people who had shown up, I noticed at the door that one of the doorman had some kind of Bulldog or Pitbull Mix on a leash.</p>
<p>It was then that the devastating reality sunk in. We were in the underworld. While crossing the Strait of Georgia clearly the ferry had sunk and we had all drowned. For some bizarre reason in my minds eye i briefly saw us being accidentally torpedoed by the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23). ( I’d recently seen a clip of it being launched or something.) And now like the crew in the song Brides of Neptune we had drowned but did not realize that we were dead.</p>
<p>The dog at the door? Well that was Cerberus. Greek underworld. Remember the greek Parthenon behind us? Also it seemed that the greek underworld shared space with the Indian-dot afterlife, as i was sure that at some point i’d seen Shiva walking around the hotel. It wasn’t a wedding after all!</p>
<p>And now for eternity we would be playing this nightclub every night. Well nearly every night. When Shiva needed more room for a special holiday or if there was a sudden influx of visitors due to a disaster up on the Indian subcontinent: Move over greek underworld! And Hades would summon the ferry. And that ferry would take us to the usual Russian-Azerbaijani nightclub only this time in Elysium, the Asphodel Meadows or Tartarus.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/seafarers-memorial-homer.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/seafarers-memorial-homer.jpg?w=450&h=309" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="309" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>And the reason the ferry had sunk was all my fault. I had not remembered to play the song Brides of Neptune in Vancouver and Vancouver is a port city. This was a superstition that i had developed. Or maybe it was more like an OCD tic: Touch the doorknob twice with my left hand before opening it with my right or there will be a axe murderer in my hotel room when I open the door. That’s more of a tic right?</p>
<p>My superstition went something like this. If we don’t play Brides of Neptune in a port city, then one of the ships that leaves the next day will sink, or a sailor will drown. I developed this superstition as Johnny, and I stood in front of the Seafarers Memorial in Homer Alaska sometime in 2001 or 2002. I felt so stupid. Some showbiz know-it-all writing about sailors lost at sea. There were over 100 names on the bricks and the population of Homer AK at that point was about 5,000. What did i know about the sea? and the lost seafarers.</p>
<p>Nothing except that i seem to mention the sea and sailors a lot in my songs. And the english side of my family were mostly sailors. And my grandfather was torpedoed either 2 or 3 times in WWII. I suppose that is the reason i mention sailors and the sea so often:</p>
<p>I want everything</p>
<p>Saint Cajetan</p>
<p>Take me down to the infirmary</p>
<p>Dr. Bernice</p>
<p>Minotaur</p>
<p>Be my love</p>
<p>there must be more right?</p>
<p>I also have the sneaking suspicion that i was a sailor in a past life and drowned at sea.</p>
<p>Alas the sea is also some kind of allegory for me. A great and immense sadness. The place where all things are eventually lost. We crawled from the sea in the distant past. But it waits for us in the quick and near future. And now I’ve mixed Hades with Poseidon. When you die you become a Bride of Neptune. Neptune is just the Roman name for Poseidon.</p>
<p>But i can’t help thinking of the sea as the immense sadness when i hear this song. For this is one of the songs that i worked up with Mark Linkous. This is a song that he plucked from a pile of small unfinished ideas i kept on cassette tapes. each titled something like “work tape oct 1997″. These were snippets of song about 30 seconds to 3 minutes long. I’d record them onto an old cassette recorder I always kept handy. We were listening in the basement of my studio when we came across this one. ” I like that one, let’s make that a song”. So we did. The only words i had were “brides of neptune cross the waters bring us your sons and bring us your daughter”. We created the music first and then eventually the story came to me. And you can totally tell that this is Mark Linkous playing the bubbling gurgling keys and guitars. It’s his signature sound.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/3nmzinua0hta_m.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/3nmzinua0hta_m.jpg?w=445&h=255" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="255" width="445" /></a></p>
<p>I think of the sea as this immense sadness in this song because March 8th 2010 Mark shot himself in the heart. He had an immense sea of sadness in his soul.</p>
<p>I don’t have that. That darkness. I understand it mind you. But it isn’t me. We are all lost at sea, but it’s not a tragedy. It’s a black comedy. A giant clown cemetery with The Catheads just too damn hungover to dance on our clown graves.While i don’t exactly dance around the seafarers memorial in the video, I talk to the lost and dead seafarers. I send them on a inscrutable voyage with monkeys and pot head mermaids. I send the dead out with a mysterious cargo that they can never get near because it’s “<a href="http://300songs.com/2010/07/16/3-guarded-by-monkeys/">guarded by monkey</a>s” (see post #3 guarded by monkeys). But they aren’t really sad. They are lost but not sad. Understand the distinction?</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/17/31-brides-of-neptune-cracker-did-the-ferry-sink-is-this-the-afterlife-or-is-it-just-another-gig-in-victoria-bc/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/j8TYkP0Goio/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>In the US and many other navies there is an ancient traditon known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony">The Line Crossing Ceremony</a>. It is a complex ritual in which the sailors (regardless of rank) who have crossed the equator before (shellbacks), ritually abuse and mistreat the sailors who have not crossed the equator before (pollywogs). The simple chorus of Brides of Neptune came to me after my ex-brother in law who was a young US navy officer related to me his ordeal during his first crossing of the Equator. It is too complex to explain here. But your best hope is that you become a Bride of Neptune.</p>
<p>Finally we come to the <a href="http://horseandcow.com/">Horse and Cow</a>. I am not far from the Horse and Cow Bremerton WA as i write this. The Horse and Cow is a bar frequented by Submariners. Neptune is often portrayed followed by a Horse and Cow. Insuperstition sailors would sometimes tattoo a horse and cow on each ankle. So they wouldn’t be sunk at sea. In WWII this was especially common. The fear was very high that they would be sunk by a submarine. Somehow the submariners adopted the Horse and Cow as their symbol. Both of the related artists i have mentioned in this post, Sparklehorse and the Catheads worked Submarine into their album titles. Both albums i produced.</p>
<p>Also i distinctly remember Mark Linkous telling me that the spanish flotillas would throw there horses and livestock overboard if they thought they were in danger of sinking. And consequently spanish sailors believed the sea to be haunted by ghost horses. (see reference in the song Be My Love) i’ve googled this but to no avail.</p>
<p>However I am superstitious. A clear indication I must have been a sailor in a past life. I am going out now to get a horse and cow tattooed on each ankle.</p>
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<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> She says this is my movie,<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Em7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> so you’ll do what i tell you.<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Em7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> There’s a mixup in Bali -<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Em7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> you get chased by a monkey.<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS<br><strong>[D]</strong> Brides of Nep-<strong>[Em]</strong>-tune cross the wa-<strong>[C]</strong>-ter,<br>
bring us your<strong>[G]</strong> sons and bring us your daughters.<br>
I won’t forsake<strong>[Em]</strong> thee deep in the blue<strong>[C]</strong> sea;<br>
I’ll take you home.<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> I tried dating a mermaid;<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> she buys pot from the first mate.<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Em7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> That mysterious cargo<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[Em7]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> is still guarded by monkeys.<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Gmaj7]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong></p>
<p>Then<br>
REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL SECTION: (Chords as intro)]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x2</p>
<p>Brides of nep-<strong>[Em]</strong>-tune<strong>[Cm]</strong><br>
Brides of Nep-<strong>[G]</strong>-tune<strong>[Gmaj7]</strong><br><strong>[REPEAT CHORD SEQUENCE THROUGH ENDING]</strong><br>
Brides of Neptune<br>
Guarded by monkeys</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83081
2010-08-15T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:37-05:00
#30 New Roman Times Album part 6: We Would Fight For Hippy Chix.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hippy-chick-1.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hippy-chick-1.jpeg?w=265&h=190" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="190" width="265" /></a></p>
<p><strong>At Least Her Friends Didn’t Write “Kick Me” on Her Back</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>Yesterdays post brought out quite a few Starbucks defenders. Let me be clear. I enjoy starbucks coffee. I make our Crew stop two or three times a day on tour at Starbucks, or Peets or Caribou. And in editing yesterdays post i made it less than clear i was talking about <em>new</em> albums or recordings. If you are selling your <em>new </em>album or recording through starbucks it usually sucks. Old stuff at least 20 or 30 years old tend to be a little better. i bought the Beatles re-issues there and i also have a great english/mod compilation from Starbucks. But this only re-enforces my point. After 20 or 30 years the edginess of something has worn off. . Our cultural anti-bodies have come out and neutralized the threat. Even starbucks or at least Espresso “sold out”. I remember when we used to tour in the 80′s CVB had to plan where to stop to get a latte. Going from DC to Nashville I-81 to I-40, We knew there was little place in Harrisonburg VA off hte square, next there was a place in Roanoke by the old market., but you had to wait till you got to the joint across from UT in Knoxville after that. And that was a long 4 1/2 hours. Even in the early 90′s when Mark Linkous was crackers roadie, He would care a little suitcase with an espresso machine inside of it. he’d set it up in the venue, hotel even at a rest stop in Nebraska once. A large thunderstorm that looked suspiciously like a tornado was bearing down on us, but we had to have our espresso.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/17-hippy-chix.mp3">17 Oath of the CVB (Hippy Chix)</a></p>
<p>Moving along. Our protagonist has now successfully contacted the CVB. He is whisked away to Santa Cruz to be indoctrinated and screened by the CVB. He meets Field Marshall Nine Mile Beach at Artisans Christmas annex on the pacific garden mall in Santa Cruz. As it turns out Field Marshall Nine Mile beach is really just a Hologram. ”they’ve got this Alien technology he’s just a hologram”. For his own safety he is being projected into the room for the meeting.</p>
<p>Field Marshall Nine Mile Beach? Well all the officers in The CVB use the names of famous Surfing spots on the California Coast. Sometimes they are Surfing spots from parallel universes. Something to do with the quantum encryption scheme mentioned in part 3.</p>
<p>The highest ranking member of the CVB he meets in person here is Major Dogpatch San Onofre. And he is pretty distracted trying to chat up the sales girls.</p>
<p>Regardless our protagonist takes the Oath of the CVB:</p>
<p><em>I would fight for hippy chix, </em></p>
<p><em>I would die for hippy chix, </em></p>
<p><em>I might stop and surf a bit but i would die for hippy chix,</em></p>
<p><em> I might stop and skate a bit, but i would die for hippy chix</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wilhelmhoyt.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wilhelmhoyt.jpg?w=166&h=200" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="200" width="166" /></a></em></p>
<p><strong>Extraterrestrials Love the Knuckleball</strong></p>
<p>After this he is lead into the basement where he meets a trio of Grey Aliens. The three aliens inexplicably go by the names Hoyt Wilhelm, Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter. In their short time on Earth the Greys have become fascinated with baseball. They love it so much they’ll even listen to recorded broadcasts from the 1950s. Since their real names are not pronounceable by humans, they all adopt english names. Baseball pitchers are a favorite choice.</p>
<p><strong>INTRO]</strong><br><strong>[E7]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[E7]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[E7]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[E7]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E7]</strong> I see a winter scene in-<strong>[A7]</strong>-side a tiny plastic<strong>[E7]</strong> globe<strong>[A7]</strong><br><strong>[E7]</strong> Old European castles,<strong>[A7]</strong> a sinister Santa<strong>[E7]</strong> Claus<br><strong>[C]</strong> The salesgirl’s really hot,<strong>[D]</strong> but I can’t talk to her right<strong>[E7]</strong> now.<br><strong>[C]</strong> I’ve come to meet Field Marshall<strong>[D]</strong> 9-Mile Beach from the C. V.<strong>[E7]</strong> B.</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[E7]</strong> I would die for<strong>[G]</strong> hippy chicks<br><strong>[C]</strong> I would die for<strong>[A]</strong> hippy chicks<strong>[D]</strong><br>
I would fight for hippy chicks<br>
I would die for hippy chicks<br>
We might stop and surf a bit<br>
But I would fight for hippy chicks<br>
We might stop and skate a bit<br>
But I would die for hippy chicks</p>
<p>9-Mile Beach he’s so crunchy wearing skater’s knitted caps<br>
He takes my oath but doesn’t even seem to smile or laugh<br>
They’ve got this alien technology he’s just a holograph<br>
Projected next to me while TBI aims at my traitor ass</p>
<p>CHORUS 2:<br>
We would fight for hippy chicks<br>
We would die for hippy chicks<br>
We would fight for hippy chicks<br>
We would die for hippy chicks<br>
We might stop and surf a bit<br>
But we would die for hippy chicks<br>
We might stop and skate a bit<br>
But we would die for hippy chicks</p>
<p>They bring the greys into the room, man I say this just ain’t for real, ah<br>
True Christian Church of Texas teaches aliens are the devil (ha ha ha ha ha ha)<br>
The greys they tell a different story of humanity upon the brink<br>
Of ecological disaster they have come to save our ass-es</p>
<p><strong>[BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS 2</p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/civil-disobedience.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/civil-disobedience.jpg?w=300&h=154" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="154" width="300" /></a>a</strong></p>
<p><strong>I had no idea the corporate management of Ben Franklin Crafts stores were such radicals.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/18-civil-disobedience.mp3">18 Civil Disobedience</a></p>
<p>This song originally came from a solo album by Jonathan Segel <em>Edgy Not Antsy</em>. So yet another song that was sort of finessed into the concept after the fact. The lyrics explain the plot points well enough. The protagonist is grappling with the consequences of his betrayal of Texas. This end has one of my favorite Camper Van Beethoven Guitar Solos.</p>
<p><em><span style="color:#ccffcc;">Originally released on Jonathan Segel’s solo album “Edgy Not Antsy”. Vocal track changed to David Lowery, and additional guitar overdubbed.</span></em></p>
<p><strong>[INTRO/BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> When they<strong>[G]</strong> come to your<strong>[Bm]</strong> home<br><strong>[C]</strong> You know they’ll<strong>[G]</strong> never leave you a-<strong>[Bm]</strong>-lone<br><strong>[C]</strong> You know<strong>[G]</strong> your on their<strong>[Bm]</strong> list<br><strong>[C]</strong> I guess you<strong>[G]</strong> weren’t the one they<strong>[Bm]</strong> missed</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>Have you been doing something wrong?<br>
Well I guess you’ve known that all along<br>
So when they come to take you away<br>
Are you gonna go with them on that day?</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[G]</strong> Will you<strong>[D]</strong> know what to do?<br><strong>[G]</strong> Will you<strong>[D]</strong> know what to do?<br><strong>[G]</strong> Will you<strong>[D]</strong> do it?<br><strong>[G]</strong> Will you<strong>[D]</strong> do what you know how to do?</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>When they come into your house<br>
Are you gonna hide like a, like a little mouse<br>
You know you’re in their file<br>
But I guess you’ve known that for a while</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>There’s no room for folks like you<br>
What can you say, what can you do?<br>
So when they come to take you away<br>
Are you gonna go with them on that day?</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK x many]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/16/30-new-roman-times-album-part-6-we-would-fight-for-hippy-chix/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/owrnv9uNPWQ/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/19-discotheque-cvb.mp3">19 Discotheque CVB</a></p>
<p>It’s an instrumental so it’s about whatever we say it’s about. Right? The idea here is that after several years of being a double/triple agent our protagonist is at a CVB retreat. It’s a kind of a strategy session mixed with a party. This is the end of the story. The party ends with an explosion. A suicide bomber has infiltrated the CVB.</p>
<p>The video is Camper Van Beethoven’s Manager Velena Vego (and my Girlfriend) dancing to the song. Anyone been to the old Luna Lounge on ludlow in manhattan? This is simply the camera feed of the stage that is shown in the bar. We put the song on the PA and Velena got on the stage and danced to the song. I play the creepy guy that comes to the front of the stage and watches her dance. Minimalist music video. Nothing happens for almost 2 minutes.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/20-hey-brother.mp3">20 Hey Brother</a></p>
<p>Post Script. After the explosion. The scene is in a TexIntelSecuriCorp conference room. An unnamed operative with aviator sunglasses and terrible mustache puts a disc into a video player. Several executives and a Northern Californian Army officer are gathered around a table.. It’s the suicide bombers tape. He is saying his farewells and stating the purpose of his mission Behind him is the yellow banner of a breakaway extremist mormon sect. Also next to the banner is a picture of the sects prophet Ezekial Weiland. The implication is that TexIntelSecuriCorp has manipulated this young man into becoming a suicide bomber. The song is from the suicide bombers perspective. The second implication is that the Northern California Government has sold out the CVB. The CVB had become too radical and anti-authoritarian for the power brokers in Sacramento.</p>
<p>I told you this wasn’t a happy ending.</p>
<p>Finally, I hope none of our mormon friends and fans were offended by this last part. I grew up in the Inland Empire with many mormons. I was in a mormon boy scout troop. My wildest friends in high school were mormon kids gone feral. Perfectly normal people. Every religion and sect has it’s weirdos and extremists. The reason that Mormonism is played up in this story is simply because of the land. Most of the story takes place in Deseret. Everyone knows the Spanish, Mexican and American contributions to the development of the Southwest, but the Mormon settlers also had a great and largely unheralded role. They bravely settled some of the harshest most remote terrain in the West. In this story, (however backhanded) I tried to give them their due.</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Hey<strong>[G]</strong> brother, we’re on our<strong>[C]</strong> way<br>
Hey<strong>[Am]</strong> sister,<strong>[C]</strong> we’re on our<strong>[G]</strong> way<br>
Hey brother, don’t be afraid<br>
Hey sister, we’re on our way</p>
<p>Cos if we<strong>[D]</strong> stay true to our course<br>
And have<strong>[Em]</strong> faith, keep out of<strong>[C]</strong> court<br>
We shall be re-<strong>[G]</strong>-warded<strong>[C]</strong> very<strong>[G]</strong> soon</p>
<p>For when we spite them with our swords<br>
In the name of our just lord<br>
We do bring glory a-to his name</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Cos from this fire I am reborn<br>
Like the phoenix of ancient Rome<br>
I will be cleansed of all my sins</p>
<p>And on a spiral I will rise<br>
As the flames reach to the sky<br>
To sit forever, on the right hand of the lord.</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Finally when we debuted songs from this album at SXSW in Austin Texas we covered La Zona Rosa with these Wanted Posters of the Members of Camper Van Beethoven. Enjoy!</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wanted-vk.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wanted-vk.jpg?w=450&h=696" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="696" width="450" /></a></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/83020
2010-08-14T20:00:00-04:00
2019-05-27T16:42:41-04:00
#29 New Roman Times part 5: I Hate this Part of Texas.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hatethispartoftexas.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hatethispartoftexas.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hatethispartoftexas.jpg"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/16-i-hate-this-part-of-texas.mp3">16 I Hate This Part Of Texas</a></p>
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<p>Band dressing rooms are famous for their graffiti. Most of it is pretty is juvenile. But on occasion there are gems. A long standing tradition is just to simply write on the dressing room wall “I hate this part of Texas”. This piece of graffiti is usually written in the dressing room at some venue outside of Texas. My favorite incidence of this graffiti was on the wall of a dressing room in Bergen Norway.</p>
<p>As I was born in Texas i am familiar with your average Texan’s overbearing pride in their home state. They don’t really know that most of us don’t sit around thinking about Texas. Texas enters our mind mostly when there is a hurricane or some other natural disaster. Or mass shooting. Sometimes I fear that this graffiti was originated by prideful Texans who view all the world as somehow a lesser part of Texas.</p>
<p>Other times i think this graffiti originated with bands who have played the notoriously shitty venues in Texas. More than any other state the venues in Texas suffer from cramped or no dressing rooms, bad PA’s and surly staffs. Sorry Texas but it’s true. I remember the first time i walked into the Liberty Lunch and thinking ”This is the famous Liberty Lunch”? It was December of 1985 and Camper Van Beethoven was opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Chili Peppers being from LA had the total old school rock crew. So their crew used to working for Motley Crue or Night Ranger had staked out the entire Backstage. The venue gave us some folding chairs that they placed along the wall along the side of the stage. I watched the Chili Peppers thinking “that Flea guy is a great guitarist, But why is he playing guitar parts on Bass?” All the while Rock historian then just a journalist Ed Ward was rattling in my ear about how “unprofessional” Camper had been that night because Jonathan had complained about how cold it was in the venue and he couldn’t keep his violin in tune. While the Chili peppers were “consumate professionals putting on a great show” full of stupid double entendres and flat footed funk that only a drunk UT Pi Chi might find revelatory. I was polite but only because i had no place to hide from him.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/240px-ed-ward-paris-mcb.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/240px-ed-ward-paris-mcb.jpg?w=240&h=305" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="305" width="240" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Rock Historian Ed Ward. Big RHCP fan.</strong></p>
<p>In some ways Ed Ward was right. The Chili Peppers were consumate professionals and were rewarded for that with massive success. But “rewarded” may not be the right word. It’scertainly not the kind of success that i would want. I’m not sure that i would want the kind of audience that thinks “Yeah Yeah Yeah Oh No, No No Oh Yeah” is a chorus. I mean what would i say to our fans? What would we talk about? ”Hey i don’t like getting hit in the head with a stick, do you? do you like Ice Cream headaches? i don’t !”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/50636hitsareforsquare-lg.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/50636hitsareforsquare-lg.jpg?w=150&h=133" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="133" width="150" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/starbucks_sonicyouth.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/starbucks_sonicyouth.jpg?w=300&h=300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" /></a></p>
<p>This and having your CD sold in a Starbucks is one of the most dubious distinctions in rock music. It means your music and career has acquired the stink of faux of credibility; the Pleather™ sheen of stylized rebellion and pleasant sleepaid gurgling of empty sloganeering. Or as David Cross and Bob Odenkirk so succinctly put it ”<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se1b3Vh_VhU">Break the rules, but don’t really break any rules”.</a></p>
<p>Bizarre story. I walked into a Starbucks in Grapevine California. It was december and freezing. The wind was blowing a zillion miles an hour down the grapevine and so know one would even dare to get out of their cars to actually go to the counter. The drive thru was packed but i was the only one in the store. At the counter was a Starbucks Compilation of Sonic Youth songs chosen by such celebrities as Marc Jacobs (the clothing designer!?) Wow that is so punk rock dude. The Chicana behind the counter was pretty chatty and a little bit of a smart-ass so i thought she’d be good to engage in conversation. Holding up the Sonic Youth CD:</p>
<p>“Do you know who this band is?”</p>
<p>“No”</p>
<p>“Do you know what they sound like?”</p>
<p>Squinting “Are they …were they..some kind of Boy Band?”</p>
<p>“Has anyone bought this CD”</p>
<p>“Not during my shifts”</p>
<p>” Do you know any of the celbrities that picked theses songs?”</p>
<p>“um…Portia de Rossi–Are you from Corporate Headquarter?”</p>
<p>“No i’m just an asshole”</p>
<p>Even Thurston Moore The Third knew how weird this was. Check out how he keeps laughing nervously in this <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/26991-starbucks-to-release-sonic-youth-celebrity-compilation/">pitchfork interview.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-14-at-4-51-27-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-14-at-4-51-27-pm.png?w=300&h=267" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="267" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Grapevine California. Sonic Youth Hotbed.</strong></p>
<p>Camper Van Beethoven writes music that could never be played in a Starbucks unless the clerks managed to splice their iPods into the pipe that drizzles the music, like low calorie icing in from the Seattle Headquarters. And this is probably one of the top 5 Camper Van Beethoven songs least likely to be played in a Starbucks. Even if Portia de Rossi swore up and down cross-my-heart-hope-to-die-stick-a-needle-in-my-eye “this is the best song in the world” it would not make it past the censors at Corporate. I’m proud of that. In fact i am proud that there is no song in my entire catalogue that could possibly make it onto a Starbucks CD. ( And i dare Starbucks to prove me wrong. he he)</p>
<p>Aside from that Sonic Youth mistake. Which was weird enough that the Traders on CNBC’s Fast Money mentioned it in connection to Starbucks stock price, someone at Corporate in Starbucks is very good at picking out fake edgy bands like Death Cab For Cutie. Band’s that are really the equivalent of 70′s mustachioed soft rock. Bands “that break the rules but don’t really break the rules.” Bands that if they were ground up and loaded into shotgun shells that then a drunken Dick Cheney fired in your general direction and one small piece of a Death Cab for Cutie song lodged next to your heart the doctors would not operate. In a press conference in their spiffy white coats they would announce :</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pressconf.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pressconf.jpg?w=300&h=201" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="201" width="300" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>“The small fragment of the Death Cab For Cutie song is so innocuous, so bland and devoid of roughness, sharp edges or any dangerous ingredient, we think the safest course is just to leave the fragment next to the heart. Thank you.”</strong></em></p>
<p>******************</p>
<p>I hate this part of Texas. What is this song? in the context of the story of New Roman Times, it’s our protagonist really high on some extra strong flower, trying to get his Los Tigres contacts to put him in touch with either Mexican Intelligence services, Grey aliens or The CVB. He is going over to the other side.</p>
<p>Again what is this song. Like post #1(The chemist said) this is one of those songs that came about because Engineer John Morand was listening to a song backwards (The Long Plastic Hallway). He really enjoys doing this. He of course found an engaging melody and pointed it out to us. Eventually we figured out we could sing “I hate this part of Texas” to this Backwards melody.</p>
<p>It’s fun to be Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>And as a Bexar county born son of Texas. I got to say this on behalf of Texas: If Starbucks were based in Texas at least the damn CDs would suck less and they’d have a beef brisket BBQ sandwich.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82945
2010-08-13T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
#28 New Roman Times part 4: Unabomber as Folk Hero. Steve Reich as Pop Star
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/camper_van_beethoven_-_new_roman_times.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/camper_van_beethoven_-_new_roman_times.jpg?w=450&h=441" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="441" width="450" /></a></p>
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/06-might-makes-right.mp3">06 Might Makes Right</a></p>
<p>I don’t know how i can top that last story. <em>That gum you like is back in style</em>. I’m not even gonna try.</p>
<p><em>Might makes Right </em>has our young Texan on patrol with his unit in the Middle East. He is slowly growing disillusioned with his role and his units mission. In particular he was entered the Army a fairly devout christian. He actually bought into a lot of the the notion that God was on the side of Texas. After 9 months in the middle east he has come to doubt many things. The lyrics tell the story well enough.</p>
<p><strong>[INTRO/BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[F#7]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong><br><strong>[Bm]</strong> <strong>[F#7]</strong> <strong>[Bm]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Yeah might makes<strong>[G]</strong> right<br>
Yeah might makes<strong>[D]</strong> right<br>
They say that<strong>[F#7]</strong> god is on our side and made us<strong>[Bm]</strong> mighty<br>
Yeah might makes<strong>[G]</strong> right<br>
Yeah might makes<strong>[D]</strong> right<br>
They say that<strong>[F#7]</strong> god is on our side I don’t believe them</p>
<p>I’m<strong>[Bm]</strong> crawling through the under brush, we’re<strong>[F#7]</strong> teched up to the hilt<br>
Compared to us these poor guys should be<strong>[Bm]</strong> wearing shorts and kilts<br>
I’ve got a living breathing shadow crossed up in my scope<br>
My partner gives the signal, pull the trigger, then there’s smoke</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
They say that god is on our side and makes us mighty<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
They say that god is on our side I don’t believe them</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
I guess that god is on our side and makes us mighty<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
They say that god is on our side I don’t believe them</p>
<p>They want us from the villages, they want us from the towns<br>
Who could really blame them, shit blows up when we’re around<br>
We fly above their houses with our Huey double-props<br>
We scare the crap out of their kids, their mothers and their flocks</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
Might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
I guess ’cause god is on our side it makes us mighty<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
Yeah might makes right<br>
They say that god is on our side I don’t believe them</p>
<p>Also here is a video that John Croxton did for the song. He interpreted it differently. He did a sort of Fight Club thing to it.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/14/28-new-roman-times-part-4-unabomber-as-folk-hero-steve-reich-as-pop-star/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/2yQi1y81jBo/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span><br><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/unibombertedkaczynskisketch.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/unibombertedkaczynskisketch.jpg?w=246&h=328" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="328" width="246" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/07-militia-song.mp3">07 Militia Song</a></p>
<p>This is another of the songs that had been around before we came up with the concept for New Roman Times. It was originally titled The Unabomber song. Cause clearly it was written about T<a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski">ed Kaczynski</a>. And as a basic idea, it had been kicking around in my head since he was caught. I was kind of fascinated by some of the details of his life. It didn’t hurt that he was a mathematician. I mean that always gets me interested. I also developed a weird fascination with his manifesto cause excerpts printed in the papers started to make sense to me. I was starting to freak myself out. The guy was a violent terrorist and very nearly succeeded in bringing down a passenger jet. Not to mention the innocent people he killed and maimed. And i was developing an unhealthy empathy for the guy.</p>
<p>And then there were the just plain weird details. When his brother turned him in, a brief profileon CNN mentioned that his brother had “lived in west texas in a hole in the ground”. As if that was a normal biographical detail.</p>
<p>In the alternate reality of New Roman Times. The <em>Unabomber song</em> is a favorite underground country songpopular w with the right wing militia set in Deseret, Texas, and Southern California. These groups were very instrumental in supporting the Mormon Uprising in California. Like the infamous <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rodeo-Song-Original-Hit-Explicit/dp/B000S57Z00">Rodeo song</a> many artists have covered it and there are many variations, some quite vulgar and all politically incorrect.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-that-gum-you-like-is-back-in-style.mp3"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/10-new-roman-times.mp3">New Roman Times- Camper Van Beethoven</a></p>
<p>We discussed this in the first post. But this is our young protagonist loses a leg while on patrol in the middle east. He comes home, a bitter broken man. begins to drink heavily and finally runs away from his young wife and family to occupied California. Las Vegas California to be exact.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/11-the-poppies-of-balmorhea.mp3">11 The Poppies Of Balmorhea</a></p>
<p>Balmorhea is a famous spring in the arid country of West Texas. In our story The Poppies of Balmorhea is a bar in Las Vegas, frequented by members of the Texan intelligence community. It’s an Oasis -get it- for the hardcore black bag and private intelligence contractors. BTW there are no Deseret Intelligence folks here as they don’t drink, they do however set up shop at the Jamba Juice directly across the street in case their Texan allies deign to speak to them.</p>
<p>It is here in this bar that he is recruited by agents from the quasi private TexIntelSecuiCorp (Doo Dah). They are the sleaziest and most ruthless of the lot. The plan is for him to become a double agent. All he needs to do is play himself: a bitter and disgruntled wounded former soldier in the Army of Texas. They want him to either infiltrate the Los Tigres Trafficante organization or the CVB. Since he has recently developed a taste for the barely illegal “Flower” he accepts. But he also has a vague sense that he can somehow exact revenge. On who he’s not sure? But it’s not the Los Tigres or the CVB. He has no beef with them.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hunter.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hunter.jpg?w=450&h=338" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="338" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/12-the-long-plastic-hallway.mp3">12 The Long Plastic Hallway</a></p>
<p>In the song the protagonist goes to LA with his TexIntelSecuriCorp handlers. He is wined and dined. He is partying like a rock star. He meets aliens and movie stars. It’s crazy.</p>
<p>But again this is one of the songs that at least partially was written before the concept of New Roman Times album came about. And the true story it’s based on happened in 1984.</p>
<p>First the Long Plastic Hallway is from a quote widely (mis)attributed to Hunter S. Thompson:</p>
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<ul>
<li>
<em>The music business</em> is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”</li>
</ul>
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<p>Second the song is a metaphor for selling out. For doing the wrong thing for money. For selling your soul. And finally doing stupid stuff for your own vanity.</p>
<p>Thirdly there is the true story that goes with this song. That in real life involves flying saucers and aliens. And it’s a Doozy. It deserves it’s own separate post. Stay tuned.</p>
<p>Finally the video is only evocative of the theme of the song. Not literal. The child represents the innocence that will be lost. Drag queen Manley Lennox represents our protagonist. He of course is “cross dress” his allegiances.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/14/28-new-roman-times-part-4-unabomber-as-folk-hero-steve-reich-as-pop-star/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/sE0kXNSJDL0/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hemp-washington.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hemp-washington.jpg?w=450&h=362" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="362" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/13-i-am-talking-to-this-flower.mp3">I Am Talking To This Flower- Camper Van Beethoven</a></p>
<p>In this song the protagonist is working with Los Tigres. Trying to get information about the CVB and Mexican informants in Southern California. But mostly he’s thinking out loud. He is essentially talking himself into joining the CVB. His bosses of course think this is a good idea He is supposed to be a double agent after all. But he has his own plans. He intends to join the Rebels for real. I guess that makes him a triple agent. He is at this point completely disillusionedwith his own government. He also is feeling the effects of the Flower. He’s got a plan it’s just not quite clear….</p>
<p>Also while researching odds and ends for this post I’ve discovered there are a lot of people who believe that Marijuana really is a plant that Extraterrestrials brought to Earth. <a href="http://www.illuminati-news.com/marijuana-conspiracy.htm">Here is one such nut.</a></p>
<p>The song starts with a sample from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Out_(Reich)">Steve Reich’s Come out to show them.</a></p>
<p>(sampled voice:)<br>
I had to like, open the bruise up and let some of the blues blood come out to show them…</p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong> I’m working California<strong>[D-Em-C]</strong><br><strong>[G]</strong> Tex Securintellicorps<strong>[D-Em-C]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong> And I’m smoking lots of<strong>[C]</strong> flower<br>
‘cos I’m really<strong>[G]</strong> bored<strong>[D-Em-C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p>I’m talking to my contacts<br>
They’re el tigres traficantes<br>
They always bring me flower, for known intelligence</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
And if I<strong>[D]</strong> weren’t high on the flower<br>
I<strong>[C]</strong> could not work for the power<br>
that<strong>[G]</strong> stands for nothing decent any-<strong>[F]</strong>-more<br>
Yeah if I<strong>[D]</strong> weren’t high on the flower<br>
I would<strong>[C]</strong> walk into a<strong>[A7]</strong> tower<br>
Do some-<strong>[G]</strong>-thing<strong>[D-Em-C]</strong> nuclear, or worse<strong>[C]</strong></p>
<p>I’m talking to this flower<br>
So what ya lookin’ at?<br>
Texas bureau little crew cuts<br>
You need me much more</p>
<p>I’m talking to this flower<br>
Without me he’d be lost<br>
Maybe I should join the rebels<br>
At least the chicks are hot</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/stevereich.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/stevereich.jpg?w=357&h=400" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="357" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Republic of California Pop Star Steve Reich.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/14-come-out.mp3">14 Come Out</a></strong></p>
<p>Well going back to the alternate universes and pop star theme: in our New Roman Times reality <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Reich">Steve Reich</a> is a pop star. He plays a sort of highly repetitive hypnotic blues rock. Often singing one phrase over and over again. In California and Mexico where there is a lot of Flower smokers he is especially popular. This song he makse in reference to a martyred mormon separatists famous last words to his followers ”Come out to show them”. This song is playing on the radio as our protagonist drives back from Fresno CA to LA.</p>
<p>This song was really just a tag on the end of <em>I am Talking to this Flower, </em>we hadn’t developed a proper ending and one take David Immergluck, Jonathan Segel and i just kept playing. Some how i got inspired to start singing “Come out to Show them” over the end. It accidentally developed into a this strange plot point.</p>
<p>Tomorrow part 5.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82946
2010-08-12T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
#27 New Roman Times. Part 3. Start smoking weed now cause by the time you get to the end of this one you need to be really high to understand it.
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<p>The album New Roman Times. A song by song explanation of the plot. Yes i know it varies a bit from the liner notes of New Roman Times. And seriously this gets pretty silly by the end.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-prelude.mp3">01 Prelude</a></p>
<p>An instrumental meant to invoke growing tension. It climaxes with a backwards piano chord. Meant to symbolize the catastrophic events that sets all the events in the story in motion. A terror attack like 9-11 from a country in the middle east. This causes Texas and it’s allies The CSA, Quebec, and Deseret to send troops to the middle east. Despite their mutual defense pact California declines to send troops.</p>
<p>In parallel a Waco type event in California. Fundamentalist Mormon offshoot in California Republic end up in a bloody clash with California Paramilitary Civil Guard. This provokes an uprising among the large Mormon population in the Las Vegas, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Ensenada and San Diego Provinces. A state of insurrection exists. There is widespread sympathy towards Texas in these Provinces. Especially with regards to their military campaign in the Middle East.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/02-sons-of-the-new-golden-west.mp3">02 Sons Of The New Golden West</a></p>
<p>A shadowy Cabal of Southern California business leaders, politicians, paramilitary and military officers. They have pro-Texas sympathies. With the terror attack, the Mormon uprising, and the President of California Paul MacKinney refusing to honor the mutual defense treaty with Texas they challenge the constitutionality and legitimacy of the Government of California. The leaders of The Sons of The New Golden West set up a parallel government in Pasadena. Much of the paramilitary California Civil Guard, and key elements of the California Military side with the Pasadena Government. The entire California Air Force defects or stands down. But most importantly Admiral Krummenacher in La Paz allows the entire Texan Pacific Fleet out of the Bay of California. In support of the Government in the Pasadena, the Texas Navy defeats the California Navy at San Diego and seizes the Port of San Diego. Admiral Krummenacher is rewarded by being appointed Minisister of Defense for the Pasadena government. California is now effectively divided into two separate countrys. The Pasadena government controls the coast from Monterey to Cabo San Lucas. The Pasadena Government controls all of the central valley south of sacramento. The south also controls the cities of San Jose and Fremont in the South Bay. The provinces of Las Vegas, San Bernardino are occupied by Deseret Troops. Texas also send troops to support the Pasadena Government. The Civil War/Invasion last for about 3 weeks. Then for reasons that are not entirely clear The Grey aliens intervene and destroy half of the Texan Pacific Fleet and most of their Aircraft using highly advanced energy weapons. The Greys and Blues then force a truce upon the warring factions. The aliens revealing themselves publicly is a big shock to most of the population of the world. However most governments had long been aware of their presence in the deserts of California.</p>
<p>But wait this is an instrumental. Yeah exactly. So we can say it’s about whatever we want. If it were real opera the dancers would act all this out. Oh yes and Chris molla wrote this song and just emailed it to us. we did loosely describe that we needed a whole tone instrumental that had a very warlike feeling. Or something like that. It’s a fantastic piece of prog-rock in my opinion. We kept parts of Chris guitar and keyboard parts from the demo. He wasn’t actually in the studio with us ever. He actually also sent us the sheet music, because the damn thing is totally complex. it took us days to learn to play the melodies. Kudos Chris Molla.</p>
<p>Also Chris Molla cleverly combined the Masons-like “Sons of the New West” and the pancake restaurant “Golden West Pancake House”, to come up with the name of this Cabal.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/03-51-7.mp3">03 51-7</a></p>
<p>This is where you meet the protagonist, the young Texan. He is eager to join the an elite Texan military unit known informally as “The 51-7″</p>
<p>The Lyrics tell the story well enough.</p>
<p>I’ve been through all kind of changes<br>
Cut my hair dyed it black in stages<br>
Been in trouble with the law, but that’s all over now<br>
I’m ready for the big time: 51-7</p>
<p>Left home don’t think my five brothers ever noticed<br>
Mom half-baked on weed and scientology<br>
My father if I ever find, well don’t you never mind<br>
I’m ready for the big time: 51-7</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
You think you’re strong enough<br>
You think you’re tough enough<br>
You think you’ve got what it takes to be 51-7<br>
You think you’re smart enough<br>
You think you know everything<br>
But you don’t know anything ’til you’re 51-7<br>
51-7 51-7 51-7 51-7</p>
<p>Nothing to believe in except God and country<br>
Can’t stand to see ourselves pushed around or fucked with (clean alternative = or disrespected)<br>
Well give me a chance to show the world what I’m made of<br>
Come on, come on, 51-7</p>
<p>CHORUS (x2):<br>
You think you’re tough enough<br>
You think you’ve seen everything<br>
But you ain’t seen anything ’til you’re 51-7<br>
You think you’re smart enough<br>
You think you know it all<br>
But you don’t know anything ’til you’re 51-7<br>
51-7 51-7 51-7 51-7</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/04-white-fluffy-clouds.mp3">04 White Fluffy Clouds</a></p>
<p>The young Texan is deployed to the middle east. When he arrives the older more experienced soldiers sing the praises of their favorite weapons system.</p>
<p>The music in this song deserves some mention. The instrumental passages are a tip to the great 70′s prog rock bands. In particular the later King Crimson albums <em>Larks Tongue in Aspic </em>and <em>Red</em>. Also if the original Camper Van Beethoven broke apart into pieces (like a urinal cake remember). This was me trying to incorporate the pieces back into the whole. This song is all about exploiting the prog-rock leanings of The Monks of Doom.</p>
<p><em><span style="color:#ccffcc;">Also known as “My Baby Is A White Fluffy Cloud”. Weapons: OH-58 (a Bell helicopter), JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munition – thanks Rob Buntz for this info!) M-9 a little handgun, hence lowly. The 3rd verse is omitted from the version on New Roman Times, but is present on the iTunes digital MP3 EP release and on earlier demo version.</span></em></p>
<p><strong>[INTRO:]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>My baby’s in the<strong>[A]</strong> white fluffy clouds<br>
She’s<strong>[D]</strong> miles above but she drops<strong>[A]</strong> J.<strong>[G]</strong> DAM.s<strong>[E]</strong> down<br>
My baby’s an OH-<strong>[A]</strong>-58<br>
She’s<strong>[D]</strong> like a flying rough rider<strong>[A]</strong> mo-<strong>[G]</strong>-tor-<strong>[E]</strong>-bike</p>
<p>My baby’s an M-4 Carbine<br>
Good for close combat gets you home alive<br>
My baby’s an M-24<br>
Put a condom on the muzzle keep the desert out</p>
<p><strong>[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[REPEAT CHORD SEQUEUNCE]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p>My baby’s an 82-A<br>
for less than ten dollars take a jet plane down<br>
My baby’s a lowly M-9<br>
When you’re left-handed it works mighty fine</p>
<p><strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[E]</strong> <strong>[B]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[REPEAT CHORD SEQUEUNCE TO FADE]</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/05-that-gum-you-like-is-back-in-style.mp3">05 That Gum You Like Is Back In Style</a></p>
<p>Meanwhile back in California Northern sympathizers in the occupied regions of the southern California have formed an underground insurgent group known as The CVB. It is never clear why ” CVB” but it is rumored to be a reference to a very poplular band from a parallel alternate reality. How is that for being self-referential! The entire song is a Crypto key. OK?</p>
<p>Well i suppose i do have to explain it: a Cyrpto key is something that allows you to encode and decode messages. The CVB and the northern California government have developed an unbreakable quantum encoding system. They use this to communicate intelligence and other information. The CVB and Northern Californians learned this method from the Mexican Intelligence Services. The Mexicans in turn probably learned this technology from the Blue or Greys.</p>
<p>As an aside Mexican scientists have been making extraordinary breakthroughs in genetics, mathematics materials and guayabera shirt technology at an unusual rate. It appears they alien races are specifically helping the Mexicans or they have access to a super strong versions of the new Marijuana known as “Flower” or “Chocolate” that dramatically increases intelligence. This marijuana in turn likely came from one or both of the alien races as they are Chronic Flower smokers.</p>
<p>Back to the crypto key. It’s a little too hard to explain in great detail. Suffice it to say that it’s based on small seemingly insignificant differences between two parallell universes. For instance the crypto key being used here based upon Three distinct <em>Variation Axes</em>.</p>
<p>1.Differences between the plot lines of Twin Peaks in two different parallel universes. In one universe this line is spoken in a dream by the familiar bright green Doberman Pinscher, in another it’s spoken by a little person.</p>
<p>2. Differences in autobiographical details of one of the main dancers in Cirque Du Soliel franchise at Morongo Casino in Cabazon. In one alternate reality she suffers an episode of Bells Palsy and for the rest of the 6 week engagement she paints her face in the manner of a Sad Clown.</p>
<p>3. Differences in the career of the obscure English 60′s Garage Rock group The Beatles. In one parallel universe the lead guitar role is not filled by guitar legend Keenan Wynne, instead that role is (bizarrely ) filled by Conservative British Prime Minister George Harrison (1989-1992).</p>
<p>Now of course this is all made up after the fact. This is one one of a handful of songs that existed before the New Roman Times album was even conceived. This is the story that we made up to fit the song into the album. The truth is, like many of my songs, the words don’t mean shit. They were meant to evoke a mood. In this case a very werid david lynch type mood. Further this song was actually written by Cracker guitarist and co-founder Johnny Hickman and myself. It should have been a Cracker song i suppose. But it was so much more a part of the Camper Van Beethoven ouevre that it got thrown to Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>Tomorrow in Part 4 we’ll finish it up.</p>
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<pre>This is the PEDAL STEEL intro, as played by David Immergluck and transcribed by John Lockney (thanks for this John!)
. D A Em G D A Em
1 __________|___________|_____3__________|______|_______|________|_________|
2 __________|___________|_____3__________|______|_______|________|_________|
3 __________|___________|__3_____________|______|_______|________|_________|
4 __________|___________|__3____3___3____|_3__3_|_5__5__|__5_ 5__|__5~__3__|
5 __________|___________|_______3~A_3~A__|_3__3_|_5~_5A_|__5A~_5_|__5~__3__|
6 __________|___________|________________|____3_|_5~_5B_|__5B~_5_|__5~__3__|
7 __________|___________|________________|______|_______|________|_________|
8 __________|___________|________________|______|_______|________|_________|
9 __________|___________|________________|______|_______|________|_________|
10__________|___________|________________|______|_______|________|_________|
. G D
1 ____3_______|___________|
2 ____3_______|___________|
3 _3__________|___________|
4 _3___3______|___5__5____|
5 _____3__3___|___5~_5A___|
6 ________3___|___________|
7 ____________|___________|
8 ____________|___________|
9 ____________|___________|
10____________|___________|</pre>
<p>INTRO<br><strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> aah<strong>[A]</strong> aah<strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[D]</strong> That gum you like<strong>[A]</strong> is back in<strong>[Em]</strong> style, again<strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> Haven’t seen<strong>[A]</strong> ya for awhile,<strong>[Em]</strong> my friend<strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[A]</strong> Spent all of saturday pining away<strong>[Em]</strong><br><strong>[A]</strong> For that strange Quebecoise girl in Cirque du Soleil<strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong></p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>I was daydreaming of better days<br>
At the Chelsea Hotel before I scared you away</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p><strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> <strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> aah<strong>[A]</strong> aah<strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong><br><strong>[D]</strong> aah<strong>[A]</strong> aah<strong>[Em]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong></p>
<p>Who could be calling waking me from my dreams<br>
Of John, Paul and Ringo with Keenan Wynn (no George)</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS x3</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82947
2010-08-11T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:34-05:00
#26- New Roman Times Album- Camper Van Beethoven Pt 2.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/nrt-north-america1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/nrt-north-america1.jpg?w=400&h=614" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="614" width="400" /></a></p>
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<p>Last Post i put up my beautifully annotated map and never really explained it’s significance. Let me explain the map and the backstory to New Roman Times. This backstory was created by Jonathan Segel and I over a couple of weeks via email exchanges.</p>
<p>As a counterpoint to the Red State/Blue State theme We divided North America up into 13 distinct Nations. So North America looks more like south America. We did this based on our experiences touring. Calgary with it’s cowboy heritage and country music; Edmonton with it’s oil patch politics seemed part ofTexas. Greater Texas if you will. The western half of South Dakota, for similar reasons is part of Greater Texaas. Half of South Dakota is green farms, restaurants advertising Swedish Meatballs and polka nights. The Sunday sermons listed on the Lutheran Churches seem fairly pragmatic and don’t suggest any snake handling is going on inside. But you cross the Missouri river and it’s range land, cowboys and off- brand evangelical churches in old storefronts. Their signs scream “Repent Sinners”. You also get weird billboards urging the US to leave the UN cause it’s part of the Anti-Christ’s plan for one world government.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/saint-marks-lutheran-sign.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/saint-marks-lutheran-sign.jpg?w=450&h=348" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="348" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/billboard-us-out1.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/billboard-us-out1.jpg?w=350&h=263" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="263" width="350" /></a></p>
<p>So therefore Texas includes all the high plains and front range grasslands. All the way up to Canada’s arctic oil patch. Texas also includes the other North American oil patches in west texas, Louisiana, and the Mexican gulf coast down to Veracruz.. And a good bit of the Commanche, Apache and Navajo Country. The latter as part of the semi-autonomous Aztlan. Similarly Louisiana (Acadia ) is semi autonomous as well as parts of the Yukon and Canadian arctic.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/texas-state-flag-full.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/texas-state-flag-full.gif?w=270&h=180" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="180" width="270" /></a></p>
<p>Texas is the most powerful nation in North America. It is the only Country with access to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. It also controls most of the oil and gas resources of North America.</p>
<p>Texas is closely allied with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Deseret">Deseret the Mormon natio</a>n which occupies much of the Great Basin of the intermountain west. It is also closely allied with The Confederate States of America.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-12-at-5-14-08-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-12-at-5-14-08-pm.png?w=270&h=282" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="282" width="270" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Hey that’s from The Onion. I just couldn’t resist reposting. And you know what Georgia you deserve it for having an entire race for Govenor that centered around increasing the size of the Confederate flag on the Georgia state flag. Suck it up Georgia.</strong></p>
<p>The Confederate States of North America are occupy the exact area that you imagine they would. Except they’ve managed to annex Cuba, The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.</p>
<p>Maritime Canada is it’s own nation Nova Scotia. This seemed to make sense to us as Maritme Canada seems much culturally closer to Scotland, Ireland or England. And few Americans realize that Labrador and Newfoundland were not part of Canada until the late 1940’s.</p>
<p>Quebec is where you would imagine. The United States is basically everything above the mason Dixon line and East of the Missouri river. There are a couple of notable exceptions: Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Franklin ( a new state formed by union loyalists in Eastern TN and Western NC) Kentucky, Missouri parts of Northern Arkansas, Washington DC and northern Virginia north of the Rappahanock river are all part of the United states.</p>
<p>Cascadia is most of Oregon, Washington State, Northern Idaho and parts of Montana, British Columbia and Alaska. Cascadia was established as a separate English colony after President Millard Fillmore ceded the most of the great plains west of the Missouri to Texas and the Pacific Northwest to England. It was rumored but never proven that president Fillmore and some of his cabinet received enormous bribes from the British and Texan Governments. (White or Tsarist Russian Alaska joined Cascadia in 1922 after the Bolshevik Revolution.)</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wpdms_deseret_utah_territory_legend.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wpdms_deseret_utah_territory_legend.png?w=300&h=360" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="360" width="300" /></a>\</p>
<p><strong>In Reality Reality This was the Proposed </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Deseret"><strong>State of Deseret</strong></a>.</p>
<p>Texas then encouraged the Mormons in parts of the Northwest to rebel against the British and establish their own polygamous nation. Texas also allowed Mormon areas of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and eastern Oregon to secede and join the Mormon state.</p>
<p>Earlier Texas had wrested much of this area from Mexico in the second Texan-Mexican War of 1845. At this time Texas also helped California (including Baja California) break away from Mexico. California at first was a virtual colony of Texas. But as many Union loyalist from the Northwest, Deseret and Plains filtered into California it became more and more independent. This division between the chiefly Texan Confederate and Mormon settlers in the sparsely populated and impoverished Southern California and the wealthy Union loyalists in the North would come back to haunt California.</p>
<p>Indeed this is how our story begins. In 2004 parts of Southern California try to Secede from the Republic of California and a civil war ensues. The Republic of Texas and The Mormon republic Deseret opportunistically intervene on the side of the Southerners.</p>
<p>Deseret hopes to expand their borders to include the large mormon communities in the Las Vegas and San Bernadino Provinces of California.</p>
<p>The Texans gain control the Pacific ports at Ensenada and San Diego. This is important because previously their Pacific Fleet was based out of Rocky Point or Puerto Penasco on the bay of California in the semi-autonomous Aztlan region of Texas. Mexico and California could effectively “bottle up” the Texan fleet in the Bay of California.</p>
<p>And also about this time It is revealed that two distinct Space Alien races have established secret bases in the California. The “Blues” in Baja California near Loreto. And the “Greys” just outside of Las Vegas. At area 51.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/648372_f260.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/648372_f260.jpg?w=260&h=585" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="585" width="260" /></a></p>
<p><strong>A Grey Alien. Blues are Camera Shy.</strong></p>
<p>The Blues and the Greys who had taken a hands off approach to Earthling politics up to this point intervene to enforce a truce on the two warring sides. The conflict becomes a simmering insurgency. The northern Insurgents call themselves The CVB. No one is sure exactly what the acronym stands for.</p>
<p>There is also this new genetically altered weed that is floating around. It actually increases ones intelligence and it may have come from the aliens. It may also explain Californias sudden technological advances. It’s called Flower in English or Chocolate in Spanish. It’s distribution is controlled by a Mexican gang (Los Tigres Trafficantes) operating with the complicity of the Mexican intelligence services.</p>
<p>See my post on Jo stalins Cadillac for the Camper Van Beethoven patented songwriting formula. But I believe we have the three main elements.</p>
<p>Aliens. Check</p>
<p>Pot or Psychedelics. Check</p>
<p>Crazy conspiracy theories. Check</p>
<p>Seems like a Camper Van Beethoven Album to me.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/15-los-tigres-traficantes.mp3">Los Tigres Traficantes- Camper Van Beethoven</a></p>
<p>In reality Jonathan recorded this guy selling chocolate on a street corner in Lima Peru. He chopped it up and put it to this instrumental.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/13-i-am-talking-to-this-flower.mp3">I Am Talking To This Flower- Camper Van Beethoven</a></p>
<p>The young Texan Soldier is now working for Texintelsecuricorp. A private intelligence company in Texas. He’s supposed to be gathering intelligence on the CVB and Mexican operatives in Southern California but he’s really just spending most of his time smoking Flower with Los Tigres Trafficantes.</p>
<p>Also TexIntelSecuriCorp is none as a “Doo Dah” in other words it has the same cadence as “Camptown Races five miles long”. Frank Funaro Cracker’s drummer can hear any instance of this cadence. He quickly says “Doo Dah”. I was singing practicing pronouncing TexIntelSecuirCorp when Frank Funaro shouted across the room “Doo Dah”.</p>
<p>In part three I will do the songs and the story chronologically.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82948
2010-08-10T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:35-05:00
# 25 New Roman Times-Camper Van Beethoven. Part 1 The Republic of California vs The Republic of Texas.
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<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/10-new-roman-times.mp3">New Roman Times- Camper Van Beethoven</a><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p>This is the title track of the Camper Van Beethoven album of the same name. It was released in 2004. Remember i told you that CVB reformed in 2000 and we didn’t really tell anyone? In fact the band began to release new material as if it were “lost” and rediscovered tracks. We did two albums this way:<em>Tusk</em> and <em>Camper Van Beethoven is Dead Long Live Camper Van Beethoven</em>. In 2003-2004 we recorded the third of our post reunion records <em>New Roman Times</em>. This one of course was the official reunion record. The one that got all the press and fanfare. And it was a good thing because it was an extremely ambitious record. It would have been a shame to waste that on Tusk (as much as i love Tusk).</p>
<p>New Roman Times is a Sci-Fi Alternate Reality Rock Opera. It is intended as a political farce. A sarcastic commentary on the whole notion of a Red State/Blue State america. It is not directly a commentary on the Iraq war although i realize much of it reads that way.</p>
<p>It was 2003 and much of the media and our political elite seemed intent upon dividing us. God fearing Christians on one side vs decadent secularists on the other. Conservatives vs Liberals. Pro-war Hawks vs Anti-War Doves etc etc. It was relentless and with it we kept getting this map flashed on the TV screens. You’d see it on the TV screens in the airport, in bars, in the lobbies of hotels, always with the sound down and the closed capitoning crawl (with it’s occasionally hilarious mis-captions). A map of the US with a bunch of states colored red and a quite a few less (the ones with most of the population) colored blue. It was presented in the most somber manner. Like a holy artifact. Like the key piece of evidence in a trial.</p>
<p>That’s us? I mean stand in the Atlanta airport a while and look at the vast sea of humanity. You can really break it down into that? You can do the same at O’hare or DFW. Further most of this Red state Blue State stuff got all tied together into one nice neat little flaming shitball package centered on the invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>The war in Afghanistan did not require such divisions and manipulations. There was a general -but not unanimous-sense Al Qaeda was a menace and we should probably do something about it. But Iraq did not enjoy that kind of semi-consensus. So a lot of coercion huffing and puffing was required. By 2003 it was like a virtual Civil War was being fought on the US airwaves.</p>
<p>So my natural reaction was to take this notion and exaggerate it. To follow it to an extreme conclusion. With tongue firmly in cheek I made an alternate reality where the Christian Republic of Texas opportunistically intervenes in the Republic of California’s Civil War. The story of course is told through the eyes of a young soldier in the Army of Texas. Of course my sympathies are more naturally with the Republic of California but as usual i wanted to tell the story through the eyes of ‘the other’ the Young Texan. Actually that’s a little too simplistic. I was torn. In real life i was born in Texas but raised in California. So once again it’s me doing battle with myself. All fiction is autobiographical.</p>
<p>Most conservatives would accept Texas as a symbol of the triumph of Individual rights and Freedoms. Most liberals would see California as that. In reality both are gross mischaracterizations, no matter what your political leanings. I was being mischievousand playful by pitting these two against each other.</p>
<p>And you know what? it was really fun to make this record. Once we had the concept the record came together really quickly. It was nearly effortless. It was like Camper Van Beethoven had not been dormant for 10 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cvb-with-stuffed-animals.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cvb-with-stuffed-animals.jpg?w=450&h=303" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="303" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong> Tinky Winky was banned in the Christian Republic of Texas. Elmo required a special permit. The Republic of California fined Jonathan Segel for holding his rabbit improperly.</strong></p>
<p>As an aside. Always be afraid when the politicians and the elites chatter on about doing something in the “National Interest.” Or something that is in the best interest of Civilization, the Economy the Common Good etc. Beware anything and anyone that groups us all together and then applies “interests” to us as a group. This is almost always the beginning of some sad chapter in our history. There was a lot of talk like this in the lead up to the Iraq war.</p>
<p>Conversely from time to time our politicians or courts have stepped in to protect or expand an individual right. Often in the face of an argument that it was against the common good. It was often the beginning of a good chapter in our history. Think of various civil rights rulings.</p>
<p>Yet this talk of national interests and collective good is always seen as noble, despite it’s lousy track record. But when someone advocates for a particular individual right, they are oftentimes seen as dangerous, selfish or somehow immoral.It’s a weird contradiction that few (except those on the political fringes) seem to notice. I’m not saying we don’t have actual common interests. But if we don’t naturally and without coercionof any kind assemble as <em>individuals</em> around our “common interests” they are usually not our common interests. The false division of us into Red and Blue states of mind, was -IMHO- evil not because it was some divide and conquer ruse. It was evil because it re-enforced the false narrative about a “common good” that was actually just in the narrow interest of a powerful elite.</p>
<p>That’s what really got my dander up. This ends today <em>divagation.</em></p>
<p><em><br></em></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dont_tread_on_me_california_bear_flag_tote_bag-p1491979244740610282w92h_400.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dont_tread_on_me_california_bear_flag_tote_bag-p1491979244740610282w92h_400.jpg?w=400&h=400" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="400" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Official tote bag of the Army of the Republic of California.</strong></p>
<p>The Song New Roman Times picks up in the middle of our story. It starts with the young Texan deployed somewhere in the middle east. A small war. A small intervention. Not unlike somalia or maybe afghanistan. He has been there for some time. He’s quite adept having been made a member of an elite unit ”The 51-7″. He is however disillusioned by the war and his experiences. Possibly because he is distracted in this way he steps on a land mine or IED and loses a leg. He is discharged back to texas where he returns to his hometown in the Rio Bend region of west texas. He is bitter and starts drinking heavily. His life there becomes a disaster and he makes his way to the texas occupied part of California to start over. Like so many before him. Las Vegas California.</p>
<p>My map is poorly drawn and the Republic of California should include a little more of southern nevada including Las Vegas.</p>
<p>The video for this doesn’t exactly stick to our story. It however is very evocative of the wounded soldiers plight.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/11/25-new-roman-times-camper-van-beethoven-part-1-the-republic-of-california-vs-the-republic-of-texas/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/R1cWb3e42AY/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>Finally the chorus with the children singing “my daddy’s got your back my mommas got your back etc” was inspired by something i saw on the eve of the Iraq invasion. We were on tour and we stopped in a truck stop in northern georgia. All along the hallways down to the shower were dozens of drawings by children. They were portraits of their parents who were members of the National Guard (not regular army) that had been deployed to Iraq. One boys handwriting below the picture of his mom said. ”my momma’s got your back”. It was quite striking.</p>
<p>In parts two and three i’ll cover the backstory and rock opera story in more detail.<br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="750"><tbody><tr>
<td width="750" align="left" valign="top">INTRO x2:<br><strong>[A]</strong> <strong>[D]</strong> Ba ba ba<strong>[A]</strong> ba<br><strong>[D]</strong> Ba ba ba<strong>[A]</strong> ba<br><strong>[D]</strong> Ba ba ba ba ba ba
<p><strong>[F#m]</strong> I’m sitting<strong>[E]</strong> in the sand<strong>[A]</strong> staring at my<strong>[D]</strong> shoe<br><strong>[F#m]</strong> The birds they<strong>[E]</strong> sing tweet-tweet but<strong>[A]</strong> I don’t hear that<strong>[D]</strong> tune<br><strong>[F#m]</strong> Sargeant<strong>[E]</strong> says something<strong>[A]</strong> close to my<strong>[D]</strong> face<br>
Bells they<strong>[A]</strong> ring,<strong>[D]</strong> they ring and<strong>[A]</strong> ring<strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>My daddy’s got you back<br>
My mama’s got you back<br>
My brother’s got you back</p>
<p>Hello Morpheus I think I’m going down<br>
Ezekiel’s wheels spin I’m borne upon a throne<br>
By Red Cross crusaders who wave from Galilee<br>
Assyria, Samaria</p>
<p>My brother’s got you back<br>
My sister’s got you back<br>
My poppa’s got you back</p>
<p>REPEAT INTRO x2</p>
<p>The day we came home it was a shitty day<br>
No ticker tape parade we rolled down Congress in the rain<br>
And as we crossed across that Colorado bridge<br>
The bats flew out darkened the sky</p>
<p>My brother’s got you back<br>
My sister’s got you back<br>
My poppa’s got you back</p>
<p>Living in a town on the big Rio bend<br>
My case worker she’s always drunk and my wife don’t give a shit<br>
I take a plane out to the province of Las Vegas<br>
California, occupied, the Republic of California</p>
<p>My brother’s got you back<br>
My sister’s got you back<br>
My poppa’s got you back</p>
<p>REPEAT INTRO x4</p>
<p>(Child’s voice:)<br>
I don’t wanna sing no more,<br>
I just wanna dance!</p>
</td>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82949
2010-08-09T20:00:00-04:00
2018-02-01T11:59:02-05:00
#24 Low- Cracker: Musings On Why Hits Are Written Fast. Big Dipper Was Slow. KOL and our Special Ops Pigeons.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cracker-low-front.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cracker-low-front.jpg?w=320&h=319" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="319" width="320" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-low.mp3">Low- Cracker (not tom petty you windowlickers)</a></p>
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<p>Statistically it’s not that odd that we got to this song so quickly. It’s occurrence in the 24<sup>th</sup> post is well within 2 standard deviations and given that the song appears on at least 5 albums, (and so it appears multiple times on my list of 300 songs) it’s occurrence so early is barely statistically odd. Barely beyond one standard deviation. Spock wouldn’t even raise one eyebrow. Did I lose you? Good.</p>
<p>Low or as it’s usually listed on file stealing sites LIKE-BEING-STONED_TOM_PETTY is the biggest hit of all my hits. This is the song that made the album Kerosene Hat a platinum record. It is played pretty regularly on the radio in the US and Canada still. 17 years on the radio! It has become something that radio folks call a gold or recurrent record. The fascinating thing about this is that it adds up to almost as many spins as a record that is a current hit. Cumulatively it is a bigger revenue generator than your typical top forty pop hit. It has produced a steady stream of income for Johnny Hickman and I for 17 years. ”Base-a-ball been berry berry good to me.”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/snl-chico-escuela2.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/snl-chico-escuela2.png?w=335&h=266" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="266" width="335" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Chico Esquela. Baseball was very profitable for him.</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes people walk up to us and say, don’t you ever get sick of playing Low? No we don’t. There is a certain zen to playing the same song thousands of times. It involves making yourself play it as if it’s a brand new song. You clear your head of all thoughts. A moment of visualization before you start the song and then you go. It is approached with the same mindset that one approaches a well rehearsed Karate move. This Zen-like approach to the song reveals a deeper more transcendental beauty to the player. Therein lies the secret.</p>
<p>Of course we get fucking tired of playing the song.</p>
<p>Not every night am I in the mood to play this song. However I do understand that there are many people in the audience who know this and only a couple other of our songs. They paid good money to come to see us, so we better play it and we better play it like we mean it or we should get off the stage. There are only a handful of times that Cracker has not performed this song. I’m kind of put off by artists that won’t play their hits. Fuck ‘em they should be<em> shat on by pigeons</em>. If this were a Thomas Pynchon novel at this point there would be a little snippet of song sung by the steno pool girls.</p>
<p>Sung to the chorus of Guarded By Monkeys:</p>
<p><em>you are so pussified</em></p>
<p><em>you should be shat on by pigeons</em></p>
<p><em>fake rocker diva fit. </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kings-of-leon-kings-of-leon-2686188-511-400.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kings-of-leon-kings-of-leon-2686188-511-400.jpg?w=450&h=352" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="352" width="450" /></a></em></p>
<p><strong><em><a href="http://http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/07/kings_of_leon_cancels_st_louis_show_pigeon_bird_shit_july_23_2010_jared_followill_missouri_heat.php?page=2">Kings of Leon cancelled their St Louis show </a></em><em>after a 3 songs because they were shat on by pigeons. I guess the scarf didn’t help. Cracker played a radio festival show in Florida where the radio station gave out commemorative license plates to the audience. These quickly became metal frisbees. WE didn’t leave the stage. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><br></em></strong></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>But alas I <em>divagate</em>. I’m always divagating. Especially when the subject is Divas. I shouldn’t apologize. Some people seem to enjoy my divagations. In fact I often divagate during my divagations. Like this: I just checked my spelling with the built in Apple dictionary app and here is the usage example for the word divagate:</p>
<p><em>Yeats divagated into Virgil’s territory only once</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whiskey-tango-foxtrot">Whisky Tango Foxtrot!</a> Yeats again. It truly must be a sign of <a href="http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html">The Second Coming.</a> I mentioned this Yeats poem once on purpose then it pops up two more times all on it’s own!</p>
<p>Low was written in about 2 minutes and 12 seconds. Which is pretty remarkable since the song clocks in at 4:36. Did we perform some sort of matrix-like time bending to achieve this or am I exaggerating? Here’s a clue: I am always lying.</p>
<p>The weird thing about hits is that they are often written very quickly. I’m serious. Wham Bam Hit Song Mam. They just sort of fall together. Also they never seem like hits at the time. They just seem like simple and fun little songs to play and you move on to something else. It’s always a surprise when the <a href="http://www.timeisonourside.com/SOTheUnder.html">Under Assistant West Cost Promotion Man</a> says “that’s your hit”. Bands don’t relate to their songs the way civilians* do.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/10/24-low-cracker-musings-on-why-hits-are-written-fast-big-dipper-was-slow-kol-and-our-special-ops-pigeons/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/nbN_jhkWlU4/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p><strong>Notice I Slyly avoid explaining the autobiographical details of this song. Suffice it to say it’s a portrait of Santa Cruz circa 1985 embedded like some Rolling Stone reporter in a song of unrequited love.</strong></p>
<p>Conversely I probably worked on the song Big Dipper over a period of 3 or 4 months. I had the idea and some of the words, and the general melody of the music but It took a long time to shape that into a song. Then one night Ben Mize got me really stoned in the kitchen of Barrie Bucks house and played me the song <em>West of Rome</em> by Vic Chestnut. It wasn’t even released yet. I asked for a cassette copy. That got me over the first hump. I figured out the narrative voice and finished the words two nights later. This song also was a difficult song to arrange for the full band. And even harder to get that arrangement to work on tape.. Producer Dennis Herring, who will typically not stop working on the arrangement and overdubs until he’s worn the tape so thin you can see right through it, called this one a bitch. We estimated 25% of the time we spent recording the album <em>The Golden Age</em> was this song.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/giant-dipper.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/giant-dipper.jpg?w=450&h=361" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="361" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz. Big Dipper is antiquated slang for any roller coaster. And the Giant Dipper is often infested with Cracker Special Ops shitting seagulls. They turned on their master once while i was standing in line (before i pushed that dull turnstile) KOL beware!</strong></p>
<p>Low? Well we were jamming at sound check in Portland Oregon. La Luna or whatever it happened to be called that week. Something was going wrong with the front of house so Johnny, Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano and I were jamming and began to fall into this groove. Johnny searched around for some licks for a while and by the time the front of house was fixed the music to this song was done, and I even had a chorus “be with you girl like being low…” It was about 30 minutes.</p>
<p>When it came to recording. It was the second song that we recorded for Kerosene Hat. I remember Producer Don Smith saying “let’s do something easy how bout that being stoned song”. 3 or 4 takes later we had virtually the entire recording. My lead vocal is live. The only overdubs are the little harmony on the chorus and Johnny Hickman’s guitar “solo”. In fact the Guitar solo took longer than anything else.</p>
<p>Sometimes when it comes time to overdubs Johnny’s brain grows dramatically in size until he resembles one of those space aliens. The size of his brain demands most of the body’s blood flow and oxygen. It thus interferes with the functioning of his limbs. By this i mean Guitar Lead Overthink ™. This disorder is not unique to Johnny. Every lead guitarist is afflicted with this disorder to one degree or another. It’s also sometimes called George Harrison’s Syndrome. As soon as you say the words “overdub the solo” they feel sudden and intense pressure. Now instead of riffing up a spontaneous burst of raw guitar inspiration. It’s as if they feel required to write a <em>part</em> and that part must be Masterpiece. It must be:</p>
<p>A guitar solo that will redefine rock music.</p>
<p>A guitar solo that will be a turning point in human history.</p>
<p>A guitar solo that will bring about a new age of enlightment and prosperity.</p>
<p>Lead guitarists can’t help it. Overthink is hardwired into the neural pathways in their brains That’s why it’s best to distract them by placing them in front of a live audience.</p>
<p>I’m listening to the lead right now. I think eventually Don Smith turned on 3 or 4 different versions of the lead at the same time and ran it through the <a href="http://www.retromedia.net/timecube.htm">Cooper Time Cube</a>.</p>
<p>(BTW if Don Smith had not have passed away earlier this year i’m sure he would be laughing his ass off at my description of Lead Guitar Overthink™ )</p>
<p>But back to Johnny and his lead. And back to heartily defend him!</p>
<p>Johnnys motto is “ Even Mariah Carey is inspired. You must go beyond inspired to disturbed” And it’s hard to get there sitting in a chair in the control room or playing the same snippet of song over and over again while wearing headphones.. Guitar solos should never be overdubs. Because they then become parts. And then terrible things happen. Don’t believe me? Just listen to the end of Hotel California.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/coopertimecubeopen.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/coopertimecubeopen.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Cooper Time Cube Doubles as Garden Hose Storage Device. This was a huge breakthrough because before the invention of the Cooper Time Cube audio engineers never had a place to store the control room garden hose.</strong></p>
<p>Finally one note on the strange phenomenon that some idiots believe Low to be a Tom Petty song. The only conceivable way this could be happening is if you owned only an illegal MP3 or CD copy of the song. Otherwise you would look at the CD and provided you can read (a dodgy assumption) you would say “oh wow dude this is a cracker CD”. However if you go to any of the file stealing services and search “like being stoned tom petty” you will find thousands incidents of Crackers low mislabled. So I guess when it pops up in a thief’s iTunes library the bootlegger has labeled the song “Tom Petty”. And it becomes Tom Petty to these idiots. This song is so blatantly bootlegged that there are constantly idiots posting on our Youtube page claiming this to be a Tom Petty song. We are quite merciless with these folks as they are idiots AND they stole the song from us. Please feel free to visit our YouTube channel Crackerrocks and heap abuse on these people. We prefer to call them Windowlickers as it really gets their ire up and often they will offer to meet you somewhere so that they might engage you in <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=man%20dance">The Man Dance</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-09-at-6-18-33-pm.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-09-at-6-18-33-pm.png?w=619&h=406" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="406" width="619" /></a></p>
<p>*Civilians is our slang for those outside the music business. Those who actually buy are songs and don’t play in bands. English musicians and crew prefer the term punters. But we find that is a little disrespectful to those who are providing us with a living.</p>
<p>Finally here is the Video for Low. Directed by Carlos Grasso. Co-Starring Sandra Bernhardt.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://300songs.com/2010/08/10/24-low-cracker-musings-on-why-hits-are-written-fast-big-dipper-was-slow-kol-and-our-special-ops-pigeons/"><img src="//img.youtube.com/vi/jywZEjSiCBM/2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></a></span></p>
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<p><strong>LOW</strong></p>
<p><strong>[D(add E)]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[throughout]</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes I wanna take you down.<br>
Sometimes I wanna get you low.<br>
Brush your hair back from your eyes.<br>
Take you down let the river flow.</p>
<p>Sometimes I go and walk the street<br>
Behind the green sheet of glass.<br>
A million miles below their feet<br>
A million miles, a million miles</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
I’ll be with you girl<br>
Like being low<br>
hey hey hey like being stone.<br>
I’ll be with you girl<br>
Like being low<br>
hey hey hey like being stone.</p>
<p>A million poppies gonna make me sleep.<br>
Just one rose and knows your name<br>
The fruit is rusting on the vine<br>
The fruit is calling from the trees</p>
<p>Hey don’t you wanna go down<br>
Like some junkie cosmonaut<br>
A million miles below their feet<br>
A million miles a million miles</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Blue blue is the sun.<br>
Brown brown is the sky.<br>
Green green of her eyes.<br>
A million miles a million miles</p>
<p>Hey hey don’t you wanna go down<br>
Like some disgraced cosmonaut<br>
A million miles below their feet<br>
A million miles a million miles</p>
<p><strong>Big Dipper</strong></p>
<pre>: Am . C . F . G . Am . C . F . G .
e|--------0---1-0--|----1p0-----------0h1|0-----0----|--------------------|
B|----1-3---1-----1|--------0h1-3-1-3----|-----------|----0h1-3-1-0-------|
G|--2--------------|---------------------|--2-----0--|--2-----------2-0---|
D|-----------------|---------------------|-----------|3-------------------|</pre>
<p><strong>[SECTION 1 (see tab):]</strong><br><strong>[Am]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Am]</strong> Cigarettes<strong>[C]</strong> and carrot juice<strong>[F]</strong>-<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong><br>
And get yourself a<strong>[Am]</strong> new tattoo<strong>[C]</strong> for those sleeveless<strong>[F]</strong> days of<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> June</p>
<p>I’m sitting on the Cafe Zinho steps with a book I haven’t started yet<br>
watching all the girls walk by</p>
<p>Could I take you<strong>[F]</strong> out<br>
I’ll be yours without a<strong>[Dm]</strong> doubt<br><strong>[C]</strong> on that big<strong>[G(sus4)]</strong> dipper</p>
<p>And if the sound of this it frightens you<br>
we could play it real cool<br>
and act somewhat indifferent</p>
<p>And hey June why did you have to come, why did you have to come around so soon<br>
I wasn’t ready for all this nature</p>
<p>The terrible green green grass, and violent blooms of flowered dresses<br>
and afternoons that make me sleepy</p>
<p>But we could wait awhile<br>
before we push that dull turnstile<br>
into the passage</p>
<p>Where thousands they had tread<br>
and others sometimes fled<br>
before their turn came</p>
<p><strong>[REPEAT SECTION 1 x2]</strong></p>
<p>And we could wait our lives<br>
before our chance arrived<br>
before the passage</p>
<p>From the top you can see Monterey<br>
or think about San Jose<br>
though I know it’s not that pleasant</p>
<p>And hey Jim Kerouac brother of the famous Jack<br>
or so he likes to say “lucky bastard”</p>
<p>He’s sitting on the cafe Zinho steps with a girl I’m not over yet<br>
watching all the world go by</p>
<p>Boy you are looking bad<br>
Did I make you feel that sad<br>
I’m honestly flattered</p>
<p>But if she asks me out<br>
I’ll be hers without a doubt<br>
on that big dipper</p>
<p>Cigarettes and carrot juice<br>
and get yourself a new tattoo for those sleeveless days of June</p>
<p>I’m sitting on the cafe Zinho steps<br>
I haven’t got the courage yet, I haven’t got the courage yet,</p>
<p>I haven’t got the<strong>[ending Am]</strong> courage yet</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82950
2010-08-08T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:36-05:00
#23 Ms Santa Cruz County-Cracker: Who were the Blue Ladies? Ode to Santa Cruz.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/blog-marilyn-monroe.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/blog-marilyn-monroe.jpg?w=381&h=400" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="381" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/06-miss-santa-cruz-county.mp3">Miss Santa Cruz County-Cracker</a> Forever Album.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ms-santa-cruz-county.mp3">Ms Santa Cruz County-Cracker/Leftover Salmon</a> From O’ Cracker Where Art Thou?</p>
<p>So this is a Cracker Song from the 2002 album Forever. And in the last episode we were with Cracker in Southern California about 1992. Cracker never had any direct connection to Santa Cruz. So why are we in Santa Cruz now? And why are there at least 3 Cracker songs that reference Santa Cruz? While CVB had zero (Until New Roman Times). Well we have to go back to the early days of Camper Van Beethoven to explain this properly.</p>
<p>If the Inland Empire was a wonderfully weird and cheap place, a mecca for the poor cast offs of the midwest the south, Santa Cruz was the the land of a wierdos and nut jobs from the affluent enclaves of the east and west coast . In some ways it was a great place to be in a band. It was full of all kind of counter-cultural types. There were a ton of musicians and other creatives. There were 5 or 6 venues that we could play. And the town was loaded with college kids. This seemed like the perfect place for Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
<p>But let’s back up a moment. Camper Van Beethoven was formed in 1983 in Redlands California in the IE. Chris Molla and I were students at UC Santa Cruz at this point. But the economy was just so dismal we couldn’t find summer jobs and had to go back home for the summer and live with our parents. We had no choice. And since we had no work there either we formed Camper Van Beethoven with a mutual friend David McDaniel and someone my little sister knew, Victor Krummenacher. We quickly got a lot of other people involved. Bill McDonald as in Where the Hell is Bill on drums. Mike Zorn who sometimes called himself Zachary All(after a chain of men’s clothing stores in the Inland Empire) and Daniel Blume on violin. We worked up a nifty little collection of songs, (some borrowed from our earlier bands like Sitting Duck and the Estonian Gauchos). We played exactly two public shows and they were not really that public. House parties. And then Chris Molla, Victor Krummenacher and I left the rest of the band behind and went back to Santa Cruz in the fall.</p>
<p>There exists one recording of this incarnation of the band. it was basically a 4 tracked rehearsal. Until this point i’ve never let anyone hear it cause i found much of it embarrassing. It was recorded in Victor’s living room. What i find interesting about this tape is i sing relatively few of the songs. I was just one of 4 singers. Chris Molla, Zachary All, David McDaniel and myself take turns singing leads. We were like CSNY crossed with The Fugs. Some real desert hillbilly stuff. This is a full thirty minutes. You may want to listen to a little and come back to it later.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/01-1983-demos.mp3">1983 Camper van beethoven rehearsal</a> (takes about 20 seconds for the band to start)</p>
<p>Balalaika gap</p>
<p>Lassie ( Vox David McDaniel)</p>
<p>Vegetables (Vox David Lowery)</p>
<p>White Riot (vox Mike Zorn ?or Chris Molla?)</p>
<p>‘Fore I met you (vox David Lowery or chris molla?)</p>
<p>I was so wasted (vox david lowery)</p>
<p>take the skinhead bowling (vox david lowery)</p>
<p>i don’t see you at all (vox david lowery) (this was originally a sitting duck song)</p>
<p>The songs that follow are actual 4 track recordings. not from rehearsals.</p>
<p>border ska (instrumental) this recording is just me and chris molla in 1982. recorded on my dokorder 4 track.</p>
<p>skinhead stomp. this may actually be Estonian Gauchos. or a different Camper Van Beethoven Recording session.</p>
<p>I can’t take it anymore (vox David McDaniel and Chris Molla)</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/santa-cruz-ca-map1.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/santa-cruz-ca-map1.gif?w=400&h=400" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="400" /></a></p>
<p>Once back in Santa Cruz Chris Molla and I went back to our much more poplular ensemble Box O’Laffs. Chris Molla, Chris Pedersen, and Anthony Guess were also in this group. Not all at the same time. Camper Van Beethoven sort of went dormant. That is until we one of us saw Jonathan Segel walking across the quad at College 5* carrying a violin case. (This college was later renamed Porter College). It was suggested that he come and jam with the dormant Camper Van Beethoven. Richie West and Chris Molla were on the drums at this point. We had a few rehearsals and realized that we could reform Camper Van Beethoven in Santa Cruz. We played a couple gigs opening for Box O’Laffs and we realized that Santa Cruz really liked CVB. Within a few weeks we were recording demos on my dokoder 4 track reel to reel. We were fortunate that we had a built in following because of our association with Box O’ Laffs. This band formed in 1981 had developed quite a following by 1984, and played in not just Santa Cruz but also San Francisco Fresno and LA. (See future post on Long Plastic Hallway). But it was the quirky demos that we recorded on four track that really got things going for us. This was the tape that got Bruce Licher from Independent Project Records to suggest we put out an album. But i’m getting ahead of myself.</p>
<p>Santa Cruz really embraced Camper Van Beethoven. If we’d stayed in the Inland Empire we would have never gotten this far. The UC Santa Cruz students embraced us like a normal university would embrace it’s sports team. A funny rumor began and we did nothing to correct it. Remember College 5 where Victor lived and we met Jonathan? Well Victor lived in College 5 or V B dorm. All of the furniture in the dormitory had stenciled on the bottom CVB. The rumor was we took that TLA (Military slang for Three Letter Acronym) and then just expanded it to the band name. Good enough for us. Nevermind that at that point he bands official name was Camper Van Beethoven and the Border Patrol. It had not been shortened yet.</p>
<p>Getting back to the theory that logistics and real estate have a much greater influence on a music scene consider this:</p>
<p>Unlike the IE in Santa Cruz it was difficult to find a place to rehearse. Once we got Jonathan in the band the problem was solved because we could rehearse at this fairly large McMansion that he and about 137 other college kids rented. Then Victor moved into the Hubbard Street house. Hubbard street was a house that pretty much only musicians ever lived in. It was really really funky, but you could rehearse there without the neighbors complaining. So suddenly Camper Van Beethoven had much better rehearsal options and we began to overtake Box O’ Laffs. We developed a more accessible sound, we were better rehearsed and we started to have a lot of songs.</p>
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<p>In 1984 Santa Cruz was full of weirdos. Yes i’ve already stated that. But i just can’t say it enough. Unless you lived there you have no idea.</p>
<p>Perhaps the crowning moment of weirdness in the entire history of Santa Cruz weirdness is the story of the Blue Ladies. I can not vouch for all details of this story, Some of the key details are unverifiable. And some are surely urban myth. But regardless the verifiable parts are weird enough.</p>
<p>If San Francisco was the gay man’s Mecca, Santa Cruz was the lesbian Masjid al-Nabawi. Okay that reference is a little obscure for most of you infidels. Let’s rephrase. Santa Cruz was a little Isle of Lesbos. It was part of what made Santa Cruz so interesting. We didn’t have to go to the circus to see a bearded lady riding a bike.</p>
<p>The Blue Ladies were not bearded. In fact they were strangely clean cut and very normal looking in a way that a pastor who runs one of those Mega churches look “normal”. Me and my girlfriend Jennifer called them The Blue Ladies because they always wore light blue athletic gear and rode old street style ten speeds with the ram horn handlebars. Their hair was short but not too short. They were sort of sinewy. They wore wire rim glasses and reminded me of the sinewy kind of East German lady olympians or John Denver. Judging by what they bought at the local health food co-op they followed some extreme new age religion and/or diet. They were always together. They would cycle past our house regularly and Jennifer would come excitedly bounding into my studio room to announce a new Blue Ladies sighting. “One of them had a Mother-in-law-tongue plant on her bike rack!” A shared appreciation of the Blue Ladies was part of our bond.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.2px;">One year we went to a halloween party and were surprised and shocked when two of our friends showed up in costume as The Blue Ladies. Light blue tracksuits wire rim glasses and vintage ten speeds. “It’s The Blue Ladies!” everyone kept saying. I remember looking at Jennifer and feeling slightly betrayed: <em>you told them our secret name? </em>Of course she didn’t. The moniker was obvious.</span></p>
<p>A few years later we heard that one of The Blue Ladies died. And the circumstances were very weird. These are the details for which i can not personally vouch. There are no details in the Santa Cruz Sentinel to verify this part of the story. But a friends brother who was a paramedic swore this was all true. Pneumonia or some such treatable illness befell one of the Blue Ladies and it was not treated by doctors. Instead meditation prayer, herbal remedies.crystals or some such bullshit were used for treatment. Of course the patient died. But then for some reason the paramedics or police were not called for another day or so. Some say the other blue lady and her housemates were still trying to revive her.</p>
<p>HER?</p>
<p>This is the weird part of the story. It turns out that the dead Blue Lady was not a Lady at all. The deceased Blue lady turned out to be a man. This freaked us all out. Did we make a mistaken assumption they were some lesbian couple? or was it an act they were putting on? Thinking back on The Blue Ladies it was obvious which one was the man. Why didn’t we see it at the time? But wait they frequented all the lesbian hangouts. Didn’t they? Polling my friends from the time we are convinced that the Blue Ladies were posing as a lesbian couple. It doesn’t make any sense otherwise. Also some accounts of the unverifiable part of the story have surviving Blue Lady freaking out that her partner turns out to be a man. They were platonic new age lesbians in this version of the story. The whole episode is almost like some dream that sticks with you all day. You keep trying to turn it this way and that to try to figure out it’s true meaning. But the meaning is obvious: Santa Cruz was full of Wackjobs.</p>
<p>Johnny Hickman loved this story. There is an incident of Hermaphroditism in his family and for this reason is fascinated by the people who <em>choose</em> sexual dysphoria. Think about this before you accuse me and Johnny of suggesting homosexuality and transgender people are making a lifestyle choice. We are not. The Blue Ladies story – in it’s most extreme telling- is a case of at least one person making some very weird choices. To Johnny this was classic Santa Cruz. And so it was very easy to get him on board to write an epic ode to Santa Cruz based on The Blue Ladies. He’d make a movie about it if he had the wherewithal.</p>
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<p>Also Ms Santa Cruz County has a small nod to Marilyn Monroe who was the Artichoke Festival Queen in nearby Castroville California. In the song it is a modern day pot growers daughter that is Miss Santa Cruz County and the Artichoke festival Queen. And yes I do know that Castroville is just over the line in Monterey County. Poetic license at work.</p>
<p>Also Also. “Lola came from Mesilla”. Is a reference to my childhood friend, former cracker roadie and recording artist in his own right “Bugs”. Mesilla is one of the original spanish pueblos that make up the city of Las Cruces. typically this is where bugs hangs out. one year at a (New years?) party bugs got showed up in drag. His nom de drag was Anita Bebidas. Sort of a Spanglish pun: I Need a Drink.</p>
<p>Also Also Also. In response to someones comment. The bridge. How could i forget. Yes it is a nod to Sweet Virginia by the Rolling Stones. First Chords and all.</p>
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<p>INTRO:<br><strong>[Dm]</strong> So let’s all<strong>[C]</strong> be someone<strong>[F]</strong> else<strong>[Bb]</strong><br><strong>[Dm]</strong> I’m tired of<strong>[C]</strong> being my-<strong>[F]</strong>-self<br>
Let’s<strong>[Bb]</strong> all be someone<strong>[F]</strong> else<br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[F]</strong> You could<strong>[C]</strong> be someone<strong>[Eb]</strong> else<strong>[Bb]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> I know you’re<strong>[C]</strong> tired of your-<strong>[Eb]</strong>-self<strong>[Bb]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> You say you’re<strong>[C]</strong> so bored you could<strong>[Eb]</strong> cry<br>
Well let me<strong>[Bb]</strong> tell you, so am I<strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Eb]</strong> <strong>[Bb]</strong></p>
<p>Well, Lola came from Mesilla<br>
She sometimes called herself Anita (background shout: Bebidas)<br>
But no-one ever knew why<br>
But things just seemed to work out right, right, right</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[Dm]</strong> So let’s all<strong>[C]</strong> be someone<strong>[F]</strong> else (do do do<strong>[Bb]</strong> doo do do do)<br><strong>[Dm]</strong> I’m tired of<strong>[C]</strong> being my-<strong>[F]</strong>-self (do do do<strong>[Bb]</strong> doo do do do)<br><strong>[Dm]</strong> So let’s all<strong>[C]</strong> be someone<strong>[F]</strong> else<br>
Let’s<strong>[Bb]</strong> all be someone<strong>[F]</strong> else<br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[F+F#]</strong></p>
<p>The blue ladies rode the bikes<br>
And what they were, we assumed rhymed with bikes<br>
But them one day one did not get out of bed<br>
She was dead, and a guy, that’s what the paramedic said</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>MIDDLE SECTION:<br><strong>[Bb]</strong> So come on<strong>[G7]</strong> down Miss Santa Cruz<strong>[F]</strong> County<br>
Won’t you<strong>[Bb]</strong> come on down from your<strong>[G7]</strong> daddy’s hydroponic<strong>[F]</strong> farm?<strong>[F7]</strong><br>
‘Cause there’s<strong>[Bb]</strong> no shame in being<strong>[G]</strong> seen as the<strong>[F]</strong> Artichoke Festival<strong>[Bb]</strong> Queen<br>
You know we<strong>[F]</strong> like what you’ve be-<strong>[Bb]</strong>-come<br>
You know we<strong>[F]</strong> like what you’ve become</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>So let’s all be someone else (do do do doo do do do)<br>
I’m tired of being myself (so tired)(do do do doo do do do)<br>
Let’s all be somebody else<br>
Let’s all be someone else</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS</p>
<p>Let’s<strong>[F]</strong> all be someone else<strong>[Bb]</strong><br>
Let’s<strong>[F]</strong> all be someone else<strong>[Bb]</strong><br>
Let’s<strong>[F]</strong> all be someone else<strong>[Bb]</strong><br>
Let’s<strong>[F]</strong> all be someone else<br>
Someone else</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82951
2010-08-07T20:00:00-04:00
2021-03-24T07:20:11-04:00
Mystic Hot Springs Monroe UT vs Swing Auditorium San Bernardino California.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/mystic-hotsprings.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/mystic-hotsprings.jpg?w=450&h=301" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="301" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>The Rainbow has Jumped the Shark.</strong></p>
<p>I’m not writing today. I’m playing a concert today with Cracker in remote area of Utah. <a href="http://www.mystichotsprings.com/">Mystic Hot Springs</a> near Monroe UT. No internets and it’s too hard to babysit my blog.</p>
<p>Instead i’d like to invite you to read this story about Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino California. Those of us in Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven who grew up in this area have very fond memories of this venue. True Story: It was the first place the Rolling Stones ever played in the US.</p>
<p>Follow link below to one of my favorite blogs Rock Prosopography 101. This piece dovetails nicely with my musings on the Inland Empire from friday.</p>
<p><a href="http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2010/08/swing-auditorium-san-bernardino-ca.html">http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2010/08/swing-auditorium-san-bernardino-ca.html</a></p>
<p>Oh and he mentions my last blog so hopefully this doesn’t cause some kind of terrible Blog feedback loop that destroys all our computers.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82952
2010-08-06T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:37-05:00
Jonathan Segel is funny. Interview for Lake Tahoe Cracker/CVB Show Aug 25th.
<p>Taking a couple days off from 300 songs blog. I’m in fairly remote area of utah and colorado. Instead Jonathan said i could re-post his Lake Tahoe Interview.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jonathan_segel.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jonathan_segel.jpg?w=420&h=315" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="315" width="420" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.2px;">JONATHAN SEGEL IS A FUNNY GUY.</span></p>
<p>1) You live within driving distance of Tahoe. Ever come here for personal R&R?</p>
<p>Well, yeah! I grew up in Davis, so i learned to ski up at Tahoe, though I admit as an adult it’s only an occasional trip to ski (time and money and all that) but regardless, living in the Bay Area now, we go up to Tahoe in other seasons as well just to hike around. I love coming up in the fall to see the Kokanee Salmon spawning! My wife’s parents are from Sweden, we took them up to Tahoe last spring to show them some real mountains!</p>
<p>2) The term “1980s college rock-darlings” is so overused when describing Camper in print, and one could argue that it really doesn’t mean anything anymore. How would YOU describe Camper to someone in Tahoe who may not be familiar with your music, but may be thinking of coming to the show?</p>
<p>We’re a darn good rock band, though admittedly a bit odd. I’ve never been good with the instant commercial description, but a bit of history could tell the story – Camper initially broke up in 1990, and David Lowery started Cracker thereafter. During the 1990s, some of the guys continued in an avant-prog band called the Monks of Doom, I made my own CDs as Hieronymus Firebrain or Jack & Jill, later under my own name. By the mid-90s, Victor Krummenacher was also making his own solo cds, and later Greg Lisher also. When CVB started again in 2000, we brought all that to the table, while David brought a decade of very successful Cracker experience. We played our first shows as CVB in 2002, and already it was obvious that since we’d all continued to play and grow as musicians, we were all the better for it. This past decade has proven that we weren’t simply riding on nostalgia at all; when we play, we’re better than we had been, and when we worked on new material it was prescient and contemporary and held all the experience that we all continued with since the 1980s. It sure was funny, though, to play Reagan-era songs during the 2nd Bush administration and have them be completely coherent politically…</p>
<p>3) Any plans for new material from Camper? It’s been six years since the last album, New Roman Times.</p>
<p>We have planned to but we keep getting sidetracked! One thing about it is simply that the current state of trying to (pay to) make and sell albums is difficult. Maybe we should make singles? To be quite honest, we’re not very commercially successful. Eventually…</p>
<p>4) Are you currently working on any solo projects?</p>
<p>We all have been! One sidetrack in the making of a new CVB record is that even David Lowery is making a solo record this year. Victor has been doing shows and CDs under both his own name and McCabe & Mrs Miller (with Alison Faith Levy) (see http://www.victorkrummenacher.com ). My last CD was a couple years ago (“Honey” http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/segel10 ), a rocking electric guitar CD, small pressing with hand-silk-screened covers, and I’ve been slowly recording another in the past year, but need a new label to put it out, so that may take a while–if ever!<br>
Most of our stuff is available here:</p>
<p>http://www.pitchatent.com</p>
<p>http://www.cdbaby.com/all/magneticmotorworks/</p>
<p>5) Bob Dylan’s here in Tahoe the same week you are (Dylan performs at the Harvey’s Outdoor Arena on the south shore on Aug. 22). Are you a fan?</p>
<p>Of course, who isn’t a Bob Dylan fan? In almost 50 years of work there’s got to be something everybody likes (check out the surreal video he made for “Must be Santa” from his Christmas record last winter!) His band is always amazing as well. Needless to say, I heard Dylan very early in life because my parents had some LPs, so he’s been there all my life.</p>
<p>6) Is there a discernible difference between Cracker and Camper fans?</p>
<p>Cracker fans more likely to have a tractor and/or beer hat, Camper fans more likely to have the same hat, lined with tin foil.</p>
<p>7) Cracker, Camper: Who’s on first? Do you rotate who gets to take the stage first?</p>
<p>It depends on the year, I think, and the city. Cracker has the more recent cd, so they’re headlining these days!</p>
<p> <img src="//s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_cool.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="8)" /> There are lots of opportunities for Camper and Cracker fans to co-mingle: the tours, the annual Camper/Cracker Campouts. Do out-of-control rivalries ever arise between Camper fans and Cracker fans?</p>
<p>It’s actually very seldom that there are people who are adamant about liking one band and disliking the other, and honestly when those same malcontents actually hear a concert of the “other” band, the music usually clears that single-mindedness away.</p>
<p>9) Kings of Leon recently had to abandon a show mid-set due to a barrage of pigeon feces let loose from above the stage. Between Camper and Cracker, who do you think would hold out the longest when faced with such a situation?</p>
<p>hmm. this is a difficult question. Frank Funaro, the drummer for both bands is a bonafide germophobe, so right off the bat we’d have no backbeat. Both lead guitarists (Johnny Hickman and Greg Lisher) are fairly cleanly as well, so they would be the next to leave. My guess is the next would be Sal Maida, the Cracker bassist, who would definitely be opposed to sullying his suit.<br>
I think David, Victor and I might stick it out, so that would ostensibly be Camper Van Beethoven.</p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82953
2010-08-05T20:00:00-04:00
2017-01-13T14:43:37-05:00
#22 I Ride My Bike-Cracker. The Inland Empire: A Love Story.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/inland-empire-map.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/inland-empire-map.jpg?w=370&h=415" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="415" width="370" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/88-i-ride-my-bike.mp3">I Ride My bike- Cracker</a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/88-i-ride-my-bike.mp3"></a></p>
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<p>****************************************************</p>
<p>Blatant Plug: Don’t forget to buy your Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven Campout Tickets. Only those that by advance tickets get the cool laminate. Sept 10th and 11th Pioneertown California in the fabulous Joshua Tree region of the Inland Empire. Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, Gram Rabbit, The Bellrays, Miss Derringer, J Roddy Walston and the Business, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Ashley Raines, The Dangers, Jonathan Segel, Johnny Hickman, The Dangers and more.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ticketalternative.com/Events/11679.aspx">Buy tickets here.</a></p>
<p>***********************************************</p>
<p>In early 1992 shortly before we released the first Cracker record we went back to the Inland Empire to rehearse. Five of the key members of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker were from the Inland Empire. John Hickman, Victor Krummenacher, Chris Molla, Davey Faragher and myself. In a way it’s the spiritual home of both bands. It was where we first learned to play where we started our first bands and it was where most of our families still lived.</p>
<p>The Inland Empire? Sounds exotic. Not really. I briefly described it in an earlier post. But let me go into a little more detail.</p>
<p>First the Inland Empire of California consists of the far eastern exurbs of Los Angeles, much of the Mojave Desert, the San Bernardino Mountains and the Coachella Valley. But what you really need to know is that the Inland Empire is to Los Angeles what New Jersey is to Manhattan. And it is held in the same contempt. The Inland Empire is not ”The Valley” as in valley girls. The Valley is relatively affluent and sophisticated compared to the Inland Empire. From here on out we refer to this area as the locals do, it’s “The IE.”</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ca_reginland.gif"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ca_reginland.gif?w=450&h=446" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="446" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>The IE starts as you enter the San Bernardino valley. After the long hill on I-10 past Covina. The San Bernardino valley finished a poor third when the giant postwar migration to California began. The suburbs of the San Fernaando valley and the San Gabriel valley were preferred choices of eastern immigrants. They were also more expensive. The San Bernardino Valley was dry semi-desert and hot as hades in the summertime. Bucolic ranches, vineyards and citrus groves yes, but alongside industrial decay, steel mills, chemical plants, and the general detritus that surrounds all military installations. There were at least 7 military bases there when I was growing up in the early 70’s. So we got the poorer immigrants, the less affluent, a lot of southerners, and folks fleeing the driest coldest parts of the great plains.</p>
<p>You continue east on I-10 and around Colton you begin to hit the barrios, and you feel that you are now in The Borderland. That area that is neither the US nor Mexico. It covers a large areas of the southwest. Mostly along the border but it is not contiguous. So here even 100 miles north of the border there are pockets of The Borderland. (Borderlands is a real term used in Geopolitical theory i didn’t make it up)</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/prairie-inland-empire.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/prairie-inland-empire.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Ranch land in the eastern San Bernardino Valley.</strong></p>
<p>Continue further east on I-10 and just as you go up into the San Jacinto pass you realize you have definitely left Los Angeles and are in The West. You might as well be in West Texas. The buttes, the steeply cut dry creekbeds, the chaparral, the brushy hillsides with horses and cows scattered in the distance. Same if you head north towards Las Vegas through the Cajon Pass.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kaiser-steel-demo.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kaiser-steel-demo.jpg?w=450&h=343" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="343" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/orchards.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/orchards.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>This was a wonderfully weird place to grow up. It was a place in constant transition. But more importantly balkanized. One moment you were driving through an abandoned industrial site the next minute you would be in a beautiful orange grove. Fragrant and like an Eden with running water in the stone lined irrigation ditches. The ditches themselves ancient. Dug hundreds of years ago by the Spanish missionaries and the Indians.</p>
<p>You would exit the gates of Norton Airforce base and immediatel pass the row of strip clubs and bawdy drinking establishments, then old postwar cinderblock houses long in decay, now barrio and part of The Borderland, then suddenly more farmland ranchland and orchards. Here and there gleaming pockets of McMansions. They seemed to pop up overnight like mushrooms. The new residents seemed to always be peering warily over their fences at those of us who lived in the older decaying serttlements amongst the dying vines and orange trees.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dev_inlandempire_cs_20080624153254.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dev_inlandempire_cs_20080624153254.jpg?w=257&h=392" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="392" width="257" /></a></p>
<p>Every once in a while a dying orchard would be bulldozed. Every day as young teens we stood and watched. Eventually the area was flattened into the neat outlines of streets and houses. The day the surveyors came and planted their flags was the moment for which we were waiting. For that evening after dark we would creep out of our neighborhoods and pull up the surveyors stakes. We didn’t know why. Something told us those were OUR groves and the surveying stakes only brought those that peered warily over their fences at us.</p>
<p>Our older brothers were more devious and cunning. They would carefully move the surveying stakes a foot or so. Wrecking the squares and rectangles. Leaving behind subtle trapezoids.</p>
<p>We lived in places like Okieville, Mentone, Greenspot, Crafton and East Highlands. The newcomers lived in developments like Rio Vista or Hacienda Heights. They came from Los Angeles and Orange County. We came from dull and poor towns in the Midwest and South.</p>
<p>There were constant booms and busts. I remember at least four times my parents modest lower middle class neighborhood suddenly emptying out. The cul de sacs dotted with overgrown lawns and bank repossession signs. In the late 70’s a new development up the road failed and entire cul de sacs were empty. But it was nothing new. It’d been going on for centuries.</p>
<p>The Cahuilla and Serrano came and failed. The Spanish missionaries the Mexican ranchers came and failed. Then came the Mormons who settled this area, prospered for a time and then suddenly abandoned this godforsaken place. Railroads came and failed. The steel mills came and failed. the defense companies came and then failed. Even the military bases. But each wave left a few people behind. Generally the weakest and the misfits. And this created a strange patchwork, a balkanized country.</p>
<p>No one is from the IE. Your family came here usually to escape something. To erase the past and start anew. To quote Joan Didion:</p>
<p>“Here is the last stop for all those who come from somewhere else. For all those who drifted away from the cold and the past and the old ways”</p>
<p>(Curiously that quote I just found is in a book of her essays titled “Slouching towards Bethlehem” also a quote from The Second Coming)</p>
<p>The weather here is brutal. It’s not uncommon to have temperatures in the summer of 110 or 115 degrees. In the fall and winter brutal and strangely warm Santa Ana winds whip down through the passes at 70 miles an hour. It is a startling experience the first time it blasts you in the face. From may through september the mountains lock in the smog and dust from Los Angeles. The sky and the land are often grey and a horizon can’t often be distinguished. And then there are the terrifying wildfires. They would often blacken the sky so it was like night in the middle of the day. A snowstorm of ash would cover the cars and sidewalks.</p>
<p>Pretty gim right? Not really it was a fun and diverse place to grow up. We rode bikes on the empty roads and abandoned places. Skateboarded in abandoned pools and reservoirs. We shot bb guns in the citrus groves or chased the wild peacocks through the chaparral. I kissed a Mexican girl under a backyard trellis’ of bougainvilleas climbing roses, another I met secretly at night along the eucalyptus windbreaks that demarcated the ancient settlements. Yes even the plants were immigrants, and balkanized.</p>
<p>And it seemed that a curiously high percentage of us played music. Sometimes at night from my bedroom I could hear two or three competing bands. There was the Tex-Mex/Norteña(or Conjunto) band a block to the north. A latin rock ensemble to the west and 2 doors down a Steely Dan knockoff.</p>
<p>*********************************</p>
<p>In an earlier post I mentinoned the blog Rock Prosopography 101. One of the writers of that blog has a theory that there is an inverse relationship between the vitality of a music scene and property values. In other words cheaper towns and suburban areas produce more bands and musicians (as long as they don’t become outright ghetto).</p>
<p>In my experience this is very true. For when we were young teenagers and we wanted to start playing electric guitars and drum sets, we would just set up in the garage, or the family room of some sprawling rancher and play. If our family didn’t tolerate us, there was always some old barn, empty storefront or farmhouse that some kind adult would let us use. As we got older and more serious we often rented little spaces. They became our little clubhouses. One was the unused office at the front of an industrial park $50 a month in 1980. Another was the old waiting room at an unused train station. I think we payed $75 dollars a month for that one 1982. And then there was always the older brother or stoner friends that had the little farm cottages in one of the semi rural areas like Devore or San Timeteo Canyon. you could stage a full on PA and blast away like you were Led Zeppelin. Johnnys band actually rented and practiced in an old bar deep in the barrio in Riverside. They also put on their own underground shows their and a lot of the time the drummer lived there.</p>
<p>When I went away to college in Santa Cruz I realized what a great advantage this had been for me. I had many cool friends. I wanted to play music with some of them cause they had such advanced tastes. But they were always much less experienced than I. These folks had grown up in places like San Francisco, New York City or Boston. They just hadn’t had their hands on the equipment very often. So when the CVB guys came to Santa Cruz we were more experienced than our peers and this seemed to give us an advantage. (Jonathan segel grew up in Davis in the central valley and had the same advantage we did). I also get the sense that the IE produced a fair number of hollywood studio “cats”. I mean just check the discography of two guys that went to my high school John Jorgensen and Davey Faragher.</p>
<p>So looping all the way back to the beginning of the story. Davey Faragher, Johnny Hickman, Josef Peters and I decided that we would meet up before some Cracker tour and rehearse for a couple days in Redlands CA in the IE. And this is the way we did it in the IE: We didn’t rent a rehearsal space. There weren’t any. We just called around until Johnnys brothers found some friends who had a little house out in the old sheep pastures. They were just your usual Southern California Heschers*. Rockers of no real denomination. Pot-heads, harmless ne’re do wells. We could rehearse in their converted garage/ party room as long as their friends got to come over and party and listen. Mind you these rehearsals were in the middle of the day. We spent a day refreshing the songs from the album. The second day we got into this trippy jam. I mean it had a couple really good guitar riffs and chord progressions the kind that made a traditional punk song. But then we kept trying to get it to explode into this freak out middle sections. Punk rock riffage into a 1969 bad acid biker jam. It wasn’t the window pane acid jam. It was the shitty stuff that came later. the stuff cut with speed. Angrier. Post-Altamont. And at some point we nailed it. We walked outside into the bright December or January sunlight, the grass was impossibly green. ( In the IE our grass is green in the winter). A couple of the Hescher dudes followed us out “Dude that shit was trippy”. Yeah it was. It was the song <em>I Ride My Bike</em>.</p>
<p>And that’s the Inland Empire. And that’s the story of <em>I Ride My Bike</em>. Almost. I forgot the most important part of the story.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/honda-xl250r-82.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/honda-xl250r-82.jpg?w=450&h=302" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="302" width="450" /></a></p>
<p>In the IE we also rode motorcycles. Small on off road bikes. Yamaha and Honda 250 four strokes. They were ubiquitous and everywhere. It was part of the fabric of everyday life. There was nothing like riding one of these bikes through the narrow orchard roads late at night. Especially in the summer when the only cool air in the entire IE was trapped in those groves. It was liberating. Especially half buzzed. That is what this song is about. A simple incantation to take me back to this time. ”I ride my bike, I drive my car take me back to you” The rest of the song isn’t really intended to describe that place and time. But to just evokes the general feeling. A feeling and an energy I associate with that place.</p>
<p>*Heschers are sort of surburban white trash but also rockers. Despite what urban dictionaries say I believe it was a slang word originated by a small group of punkers in the IE. And i may be able to prove it. It believe it to be a mispronunciation of our word “Hessian”but this is for another post.</p>
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<strong><br>
[INTRO & BREAK:]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong>-<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong>
<p><strong>[REPEAT BREAK]</strong></p>
<p>VERSE 1:<br><strong>[Em]</strong> And I<strong>[F#m]</strong> ride my<strong>[G]</strong> bike<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> And I<strong>[F#m]</strong> drive my<strong>[G]</strong> car<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> I drive it<strong>[F#m]</strong> all a-<strong>[G]</strong>-round just to<strong>[D]</strong> take me back to<strong>[Em]</strong> you<strong>[F#m]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[D]</strong></p>
<p>VERSE2:<br><strong>[Em]</strong> And I<strong>[F#m]</strong> comb my<strong>[G]</strong> hair<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> And I<strong>[F#m]</strong> wear a<strong>[G]</strong> dress<strong>[D]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> I wear it<strong>[F#m]</strong> all a-<strong>[G]</strong>-round just to<strong>[D]</strong> take me back to<strong>[Em]</strong> you</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br>
I ride my<strong>[A]</strong> bike,<strong>[G]</strong> take me<strong>[D]</strong> back to<strong>[Em]</strong> you<br>
I drive my<strong>[A]</strong> car,<strong>[G]</strong> take me<strong>[D]</strong> back to<strong>[Em]</strong> you<br><strong>[Bm]</strong> I ride my<strong>[F#m]</strong> bike,<strong>[C]</strong> I drive my<strong>[G]</strong> car,<strong>[D]</strong> take me to<strong>[Em]</strong> you<br><strong>[Bm]</strong> I ride my<strong>[F#m]</strong> bike,<strong>[C]</strong> I drive my<strong>[G]</strong> car,<strong>[D]</strong> take me to<strong>[Em]</strong> you</p>
<p>REPEAT BREAK</p>
<p>REPEAT VERSES 1 & 2</p>
<p>REPEAT CHORUS<br><strong>[Bm]</strong> I ride my<strong>[F#m]</strong> bike,<strong>[C]</strong> I drive my<strong>[G]</strong> car,<strong>[D]</strong> take me to<strong>[Em]</strong> you</p>
<p><strong>[MIDDLE SECTION:]</strong><br><strong>[Em(Em+6 and Em7 embellishments) throughout]</strong><br>
This is a story about a dog, a dog<br>
When I ride my bike<br>
And my hair is blowing straight back<br>
I think of you wearing that brown mohair sweater<br>
Soft mounds of breasts underneath<br>
Or better yet one of those spindly aluminum lawn chairs<br>
I’m putting sun tan lotion on your long legs<br>
A-wearing a broad rim straw hat<br>
Pair of Mickey mouse sunglasses<br>
Looking just like lolita<br>
Looking just like lolita<br>
White sheets hanging on the line<br>
White sheets blowing in the wind<br>
A satellite dish pointed straight up at the heavens</p>
<p><strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong><br><strong>[Em]</strong> A satellite dish pointing stright up at the<strong>[G]</strong> heavens, Isis!<strong>[A]</strong> (Isis)<strong>[C]</strong> (Isis)</p>
<p><strong>[Em]</strong> Isis!<strong>[G]</strong> Isis!<strong>[A]</strong> (Isis)<strong>[C]</strong> (Isis)<br><strong>[Em]</strong> (Isis)<strong>[G]</strong> Isis!<strong>[A]</strong> Isis!<strong>[C]</strong> Isis!</p>
<p><strong>[Em]</strong> Isis!<strong>[G]</strong> Isis!<strong>[A]</strong> Isis!<strong>[C]</strong> Isis!<br><strong>[Em]</strong> Oh yeah! (Isis)<strong>[G]</strong> arrrrrrrrrr<br><strong>[G#]</strong>-<strong>[A]</strong>-<strong>[A#]</strong>-<strong>[B]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[C#]</strong>-<strong>[G]</strong>-<strong>[C#]</strong>-<strong>[Eb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[Eb]</strong>-<strong>[C]</strong>-<strong>[Eb]</strong>-<strong>[E]</strong>-<strong>[(random sliding bar chords above 12th fret)]</strong><strong>[(FADES INTO:)]</strong><br><strong>[E]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Bm]</strong> I ride my<strong>[F#m]</strong> bike,<strong>[C]</strong> I drive my<strong>[G]</strong> car,<strong>[D] take me back to</strong> <strong>[Em]</strong> you X4<br><strong><br></strong></p>
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David Lowery
tag:davidlowerymusic.com,2005:Post/82954
2010-08-04T20:00:00-04:00
2021-05-23T19:46:34-04:00
#21 Hey Brett You Know What Time It Is-Cracker: The Ballad of Brett Netson. The Center Cannot Hold. Also The Wobblies vs Wombles.
<p><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/brett-netson.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/brett-netson.jpg?w=450&h=337" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="450" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Brett Netson of Built to Spill. Not to be confused with Brett Nelson of Built to Spill. Really i’m not making this up. Two guys in same band. Names vary by one letter.</strong><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"></a><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/09-hey-brett-you-know-what-time-it-is.mp3">Hey Brett (You Know What Time It Is)-Cracker</a><br>
Camper Van Beethoven was on tour with Built to spill in September of 2006 (2007?). This was our second tour with them and we had become pretty familiar with everyone in the band. So one day guitarist Brett Netson (not brett nelson) walks casually into our dressing room. He was staring at his cell phone. I don’t know if it was a text message or what. But he doesn’t look up, he just says “will we know when it’s time to start dragging the rich and the powerful from their cars?”* All of us in CVB are possessed with the smart-ass gene and so someone quickly blurted out “ yes you will get a text from us”. ‘Us’ meaning Camper Van Beethoven. This little exchange stuck in my mind</p>
<p>But wait this is a Cracker song right? Well yes. <em>Hey Brett (You Know What Time it is</em>) is on Cracker’s album <em>Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey</em>. About a year later Cracker was working on music for a new record and we had this one riff we thought was pretty catchy. We were looping it and I was just making up stuff to sing. At some point I started to sing “Hey Brett You Know What Time It Is” in reference to the Brett Netson incident. At some point Frank Funaro,– who is both Cracker and Camper Van Beethovens drummer— stopped and said “are you saying ‘Hey Brett you know what time it is’” I nodded my head yes. First he laughed but then he became mocked concerned “but he’s expecting that in a text”</p>
<p>I’ve never really asked Brett Netson about his politics, but I assume he is generally on the left. Most people in rock bands are-with the apparent exception of Ted Nugent. But i would like to point out that once i got into the songwriting i dispensed with the real brett netson and began to create a fictional character and narrative. In the song the protagonist is a 4<sup>th</sup> generation Boise Idahoan. A veteran, hard working in his own way: “trying to make a living playing on my SG Gibson tending bar and sometimes selling herb.” But not getting his due. “we live like serfs in this new feudal land we pay the bills we fight the wars”. He’s rightfully angry.</p>
<p>But heres the twist. I wanted to use the language of the right. Because the right is oftentimes better at distilling and identifying many of the injustices and problems in our country than is the left. The left may have a good point but it’s often so convoluted and nuanced it doesn’t have the same emotional impact. They don’t work as well in song lyrics. This was not always the case, think Woody Guthrie.</p>
<p>I realize the right also spends a lot of time on useless fantasies as well. Death panels, Fema concentration camps, forged birth certificates take up an inordinate amount of airtime on right wing talk radio. (Come to think of it, much of this makes good song lyrics –see the camper van Beethoven song writing formula in Joe Stalin’s Cadillac).</p>
<p>The bigger picture is that in our country the center is now hopelessly out of touch with the plight of the common man. Our center is solidly Corporatist, it’s designed to preserve the status quo. But for humans to survive, for our lives to become better generation after generation we must constantly innovate. And that includes our political ideas. We can’t have a static status quo. That is why it is only at the “extremes’ of the political spectrum that you are hearing at least some concern for the average persons plight. For the plight of future generations.</p>
<p>I know i am freaking a lot of you out. Rest assured I’m aware there are ideologues on the left and the right that exploit and manipulate people. Many are shills for powerful interests and when they gain power they’ll forget the concerns of the common man and become a sort of fith column for the elites. And many of their prescriptions are wrong and dangerous. But i don’t care about the leaders. We don’t need leaders anymore. That’s so 1998. This is a networked decentralized world.</p>
<p>I’m more interested in the rank and file followers of these so-called right wing or left wing ideologues. And here is why: when I talk to the individuals that identify with political ideas outside the mainstream (with the exception of racists and religious fanatics-let me be absolutely clear) I almost invariably find that they possess more compassion and empathy for their fellow citizens than you will find from virtually any elected official in this country. Further they tend to be thinking about the big long term problems we face as a country, as a civilization.</p>
<p>For this reason this song is a celebration of so-called extreme viewpoints. For weren’t, the Abolitionists, the Suffragettes, the civil rights leaders, Franklin and Jefferson all extremists in their time? We are in a time when “the center can not hold”. In our country’s history this often marks the beginning of an upheaval that on average and over the long term is for the the common good. I know that some like the Civil War were appallingly nasty. Fortunately most weren’t.</p>
<p>Most people do not share my qualified but positive view about these wrenching upheavals that occur when “The Center Cannot hold”. Indeed let’s examine the verses from The Second Coming by Yeats from which i borrow this phrase:</p>
<p><em>TURNING and turning in the widening gyre<br>
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;<br>
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br>
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,<br>
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br>
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;<br>
The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br>
Are full of passionate intensity.</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>Surely some revelation is at hand;<br>
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.<br>
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out<br>
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi<br>
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert<br>
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,<br>
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,<br>
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it<br>
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.<br>
The darkness drops again; but now I know<br>
That twenty centuries of stony sleep<br>
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,<br>
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,<br>
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?</em></p>
<p>Thats some real end times stuff right there. But read more closely. To me the “wrong” is not that “the worst are full of passionate intensity” it is that “the best lack all conviction”.</p>
<p>But my protagonist is subtly more positive (like myself). ”I ain’t no wobbly no pinko commie. let’s start the end times right now” By this he means he is NOT calling for a violent and bloody confrontation, an armed revolution. After all he is a pot smoking guitar playing counterculture type. But he is passionately asking for change and upheaval. Judging by our history most likely this “upheaval” will take place within the bounds of civilized society. Usually the good ideas from the “fringes” move to the center creating a sea change that realigns our politics. There is turmoil but violence is rare.</p>
<p>But yes i am saying our corporatist center can no longer hold. And that is a little scary.</p>
<p>Finally the one line in this song that everyone asks me about ” i ain’t no Wobbly, no pinko Commie”. what is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World">wobbly</a>? They were a radical anarchist founded labour movement that began in the first part of the 20th century. They had a radical union model, the wobbly shop model, with recallable delegates, radical self-management, a flattened hierarchy. Totally anti-authoritarian. Of course they quickly morphed into a more traditional socialist labor movement. Their lumberjack offshoot in the pacific northwest was particularly effective. Perhaps Brett had a great grandfather in the movement.<br><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/images.jpeg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/images.jpeg?w=225&h=225" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="225" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Members of the Radical Anarcho-Syndicalist Labor Movement the Wombles.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/220px-t_jefferson_by_charles_willson_peale_1791_2.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/220px-t_jefferson_by_charles_willson_peale_1791_2.jpg?w=220&h=309" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="309" width="220" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Some Old Dude. He invented Ice Cream.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/800px-jefferson_state_flag.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/800px-jefferson_state_flag.jpg?w=450&h=274" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="274" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Proposed Flag of the State of Jefferson</strong></p>
<p>And i am writing this blog as we drive into Idaho. How appropriate. Also later on this tour we spend a couple of days in the <a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Jefferson">State of Jefferson</a>. This is an area of southern Oregon and northern California that very nearly seceded from Oregon and California to form their own state. Some accounts suggest offshoots of the Wobblies were important in this movement. While in modern times the idea has been embraced by Libertarians. It is not so far fetched. Thomas Jefferson himself purportedly imagined the Pacific Northwest being it’s own separate nation. I can only guess that it was because he couldn’t imagine Washington governing such a distant part of the North America. There is a modern day secessionist movement in the Pacific Northwest that would like to call the proposed nation<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)"> Cascadia</a>.</p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/500px-flag_of_cascadia.png"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/500px-flag_of_cascadia.png?w=450&h=270" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="270" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Proposed Flag of the Republic of Cascadia.</strong></p>
<p><strong><br></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/humbolt-county-flag.jpg"><img src="//davidclowery.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/humbolt-county-flag.jpg?w=450&h=318" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="318" width="450" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Actual Flag of Humbolt County California.</strong><br><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZRDYJLXS7RTC"><img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Please make some donations" /></a><br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p><strong>[Am]</strong> My people came out of the<strong>[C]</strong> forests and the mountains<br>
In-<strong>[F]</strong>-to this unpromising<strong>[Am]</strong> land<br>
Scratched out a living in this<strong>[C]</strong> desert valley<br>
Hard<strong>[F]</strong> living for any man</p>
<p>It weren’t no Eden – As cold as Sweden<br>
Like Hades in the summertime<br>
We built the cities, we dug the ditches<br>
We picked the fruit from the vine</p>
<p>CHORUS:<br><strong>[F]</strong> Hey Brett,<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> you know what time it<strong>[C]</strong> is?<strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> Hey Brett,<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> you know what time it<strong>[C]</strong> is?<strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> Hey Brett,<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> you know what time it<strong>[C]</strong> is?<strong>[Am]</strong> <strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[F]</strong><br><strong>[F]</strong> Hey Brett,<strong>[C]</strong> <strong>[G]</strong> you know what time it<strong>[C]</strong> is?<strong>[Am]</strong></p>
<p>Skip forward four generations, comes a great first world nation<br>
But I’m living in the third</p>
<p>Trying to make a living playing on my SG Gibson<br>
tending bar and sometimes selling herb</p>
<p>We live like serfs in this new feudal land<br>
We pay the bills and fight the wars</p>
<p>I ain’t no wobbly, no pinko commie<br>
Let start the end times right now.</p>
<p>Hey Brett, you know what time it is?<br>
Hey Brett, you know what time it is? You know what time it is?<br>
Hey Brett, you know what time it is? You know what time it is?<br>
Hey Brett, you know what time it is?</p>
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David Lowery