"Stan Ridgway [b. 1954] is equal parts Raymond Chandler and John Huston, Johnny Cash and Rod Serling" -- New Musical Express.
Ridgway writes what is essentially flash fiction melded with music and poetry. Interesting guy, certainly, with a dark vision of the American Dream, represented by Wall of Voodoo's "Call of the West" (1982). Ridgway was also the lead singer for the group and has continued to make interesting art right up to the present, as far as I can tell.
Given that Mr. Bush reserves the right to read our postal mail, our email, our blogs, and our instant messages and websites, that he gives himself to right to listen in on -- and make transcripts of -- our phone calls and conversations without a search warrant or probable cause, maybe he'll become literate after all. If so, I hope he enjoys Stan Ridgway's little tale of modern America:
Call of the West (excerpt):
He heard the click of a rifle bolt and found
Himself peering down the muzzle of a weapon
Held by a drunken liquor store owner.
"There's a conflict," he said.
"There's a conflict between land and people . . .
The people have to go.
They've come all the way out here to make mining
claims, to do automobile body work, to gamble.
To take pictures, to not have to do laundry, to
Own a mini-bike, to have their own CB radios and
Air conditioning, good plumbing for sure, and to
Sell Time-Life books and to work in a deli, to
Have some chili every morning and maybe . . . maybe
To own their own gas stations again and to take
Drugs and have some crazy sex, but above all,
Above all to have a fair shake, to get a piece of the
Rock and a slice of the pie and to spit out
The window of your car and not have the wind blow
it back in your face."
Now from the high timber line to the deserts dry
Who'll risk dangling on some hangman's tree
To stake their claims on these prairie plains
While they say this lunch is not had for free?
Just like the spokes of a wheel
Who'll spin 'round with the rest?
They'll hear the drums and the brush of steel
And I'll hear the call of the West
Call of the West!
Today's Rune: Defense.
Yippie-Aye-Eh!
3 comments:
This Stan Ridgway dude is ahead of his time. I love the "Call of the West" excerpt. Damned good piece of writing ... and SO VERY TRUE!!!
The frontier myth is deeply embedded in American culture.
Erik, I know him now - he did that song, Camouflage, which I thought was done by a Tom Petty/Tom Waits hybrid. Cheers for bringing him up.
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