i don't often wish to be younger. i'm done. i've shot my load, so to speak. i'm content to ride the rest of this arduous trip out.
but every once in a while i get the bug.
and i itch and squirm. and wanna get out. see a show. drink a 12 pack and play a backyard bbq.
i wanna move back south. put a bubble on a week, savor it, look at it from every angle, try to figure out where it all went wrong.
the whigs 'like a vibration' makes me feel this way.
why? why the south? 'i'm dancing on your front porch', that's why. it makes me think of paul's neighbor saying 'there was a black girl dancing on their front porch'. it makes me think of lizards crawling up the wall on a warm calabash night.
and 'but my perception, of my perception, is my confederate corn, it won't do me no good now'. it's a line worthy of faulkner. or dorothy allison at least.
and the warmth, and the tar, in that voice!
i wish i was 19 and hearing this song for the first time. 'the world below us, it'll never own us', only a young man could sing that line with such conviction. because in 10 years that world WILL own him. and it won't even occur to him. or maybe it will, but only once in a while. like it did to me today.
'can't we just have some fun?' for some reason that line nearly brought me to tears today. don't know why. (just kidding. you long time readers know i don't feel human emotion.) it seemed so desperate. so sad for a young man to sing. i felt so close to it.
so this song made me feel old. but i love it. it made me feel the same way i felt when i first heard 'hold my life'. and i hope you all know how special that moment was to me.
so, fuck, yeah, here are the lyrics. but that's only part of it. you really should listen to it. listen to that voice. listen to those drums. it's youth and it's important.
p.s. i woke up in a really shitty mood today. four thirty. had to get to work. i felt bleak and hopeless. that hasn't passed yet. and i feel like maybe i shouldn't bother tomorrow. but i know the alarm will ring. it'll buzz. and i'll wake. and my head will hurt. but the clock will keep buzzing til i stop it. and i'll feel it buzzing in my toes. like a vibration.
like a vibration
my reputation is hanging around my neck
it's hanging out in bars
but my perception of my perception
is my confederate corn
it won't do me no good now
the world that calls us
it doesn't owe us
could we just have some fun?
could we just make some love?
like a vibration
no, no, no, no
so what you need now
what do you need now?
we need to realise our minds
we need to realise we'll die
the world below us
it'll never own us
I'm dancing on your front porch
you're dancing in my backyard
like a vibration
no, no, no, no
3 comments:
I think you captured that elusive aspect of those southern singers -- it's the tar in their voice, or their voice pushing through the tar, a little slower than other regions, but all the more evocative. it's like the voice is the sound of the words rubbing together.
Great post.
Nostalgia is the disease of our generation. I miss the worst times of my life. What's more pathetic than that?
I'll tell you: It's the absolute certainty that someday I'll miss today.
Still, after reading this post 3 years ago almost, I still can't get this song out of my head.
I'm 20 now, and somehow I've turned into a sad, lonely little caricature of the person I used to be. But god, does this song bring back some good feelings.
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