Monday, March 09, 2009

What Are We Doing Here?


Why on Earth was I remembering late 70s bands like Pere Ubu* and John Vomit & the Leather Scabs? Is this "Spring Forward" jet lag? And why, as we get older, do so many of us remember so many more details about our younger days? Look at Philip Roth, going back to his childhood days in The Plot Against America (2004), and so on. Well, the answer's probably obvious when the world today seems to suck, even with a cool president and all that jazz. Just natural, I guess. Takes a lifetime to absorb half a lifetime; may have to get to the rest of those memories on the other side.

God bless Debbie Harry, is all I can say now.

Today's Rune: Defense. *Pere Ubu is still in the mix; their album The Modern Dance (1977-1978) is one of my faves from the late 70s -- utterly wild and different.

6 comments:

Erik Donald France said...

Life stinks
I'm seeing pink
I can't wink
I can't blink
I like the Kinks
I need a drink
I can't think
I like the Kinks
Life stinks

Pere Ubu 1978

Anonymous said...

from Pere Ubu, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1975):

Toy city streets crawling through my sights,
Sprouting clumps of mushrooms like a world surreal
This dream won't ever seem to end,
And time seems like it'll never begin
30 seconds,
And a one way ride
30 seconds,
And no place to hide
30 seconds over Tokyo

the walking man said...

Obviously Erik, you have not many reasons to repress memory. ha ha ha ha

Joe said...

Random impressions:

I never realized how much the singer from Pere Ubu resembled Vincent D'Onofrio.

Only at a certain time in the 70's would you have gotten that particularly diverse group of musicians together on a TV show.

Philip Glass? On TV?

Erik Donald France said...

Thanks for the comments, y'all!

Mark, anything "repressed" is for the sake of the implicated and only for the time being -- ex-wives, peers in sensitive jobs, friends who've gone bankrupt or do drugs or are high boozers, the works. There's no shortage of material, certainly.

Bubs, right on.

Charles Gramlich said...

OK, you're kidding the country boy right. There never were such bands in real life.