Wednesday, March 9

In America you get food to eat
won't have to run through the jungle and scuff up your feet
you just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day
it's great to be an American

Ain't no lion or tiger, ain't no mamba snake
just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake
everybody is as happy as a man can be
climb aboard, little wog, sail away with me

sail away
sail away
we will cross the mighty ocean into charleston bay
sail away
sail away
we will cross the mighty ocean into charleston bay

in America every man is free
to take care of his home and his family
you'll be as happy as a monkey in a monkey tree
you're all gonna be an American

sail away
sail away
we will cross the mighty ocean into charleston bay
sail away
sail away
we will cross the mighty ocean into charleston bay

- randy newman

Saturday, March 5

1988, the Pixies


Frank Black (or is it Black Francis in this year? I think it's Black Francis) is sweating. So is Kim Deal, who is the most beautiful person ever to grace the electric bass with her presence. She radiates a smile at the audience as she begins to play. 'And this I know...' the smile vanishes. She giggles out the bridge, tightropewalking between exuberance and incoherence. She's wearing a huge raggedy grey smock and black francis has a dark collar of soaked shirt and they're both nodding and singing and spit is flying everwhere.

Freeze the action for a sec -
we are at a juncture in history where lovering and santiago and francis and deal weave wide streams of logic around the heads of bewildered college students. They never coalesce. They are playing four different songs. And kim deal is almost crying with the labor of the moment - she is all lips and teeth and the relentless charging of six bass notes with centuries of womanhood

nodding and singing and spit is flying everwhere, and Lovering and Santiago are suddenly there as well, and it is transfigurative. Rock and roll shining on stage, emanating from the unwashed and sweat-soaked underwear.

wb :

Blog Archive