Sixteen, I fell in love with a girl as sweet as could be
It only took a couple of days till she was rid of me
She swore that she would be all mine and love me till the end
But when I whispered in her ear, I lost another friend
— Led Zeppelin, “Good Times Bad Times” from the album Led Zeppelin I (1969).
Love, sex, pain, confusion, suffering
You’re there crying, I feel not a thing
Drilling my way deeper in your head
Sinking, draining, drowning, bleeding, dead
— Alice In Chains, “Confusion” from the album Facelift (1990)
“It is always nice to see you,”
Says the man behind the counter
To the woman who has come in
She is shaking her umbrella
And I look the other way
As they are kissing their hellos
And I’m pretending not to see them
And instead I pour the milk
— Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner” (1987)
Here’s some Bach. Classical guitar duet. These people can really play. I am also amused at the radically different ways they hold their guitars. And I find myself wondering if her hair ever interferes with her fretting. The video is two minutes and forty-six seconds long.
“Here Come the Bastards” by Primus (1991). An anthem for our times, that came out over thirty years ago. I think it was an anthem back then, too.
Here’s a YouTube video. 12.5 minutes. SnappyDragon is a person who sews, and is into historical fashion. I don’t watch all of her content, but she is always entertaining when I do tune in. Here she’s talking about the prevalence of corset lacing torture scenes in period dramas. I enjoy her take on this cultural phenomenon. Maybe you will too!
“Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction. A song that came out in 1990. Far and away the band’s biggest commercial hit, spent four weeks at no. 1 on the Modern Rock charts. The entire song blatantly glorifies shoplifting. (See Culture 12 for a sample of the lyrics.) Why did we not hear about this song? Why weren’t they preaching up and down the halls about it? The shitheads completely flip their lids about “Suicide Solution” back in the Eighties, but a far, far more subversive song comes out, and everybody’s like, “Enh, whatever.” I’ve never understood this. But it’s a great song from one of my favorite bands, and I love it. And the video is excellent.
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
— Richard Harris, “MacArthur Park” (1968)
“Volcano” by The Presidents of the United States of America (1996). I love the word play in this song. And in many other POTUSA songs as well. Almost always puts me in a good mood. Ironic, really, since the song is about hellish death. I mean, it’s not really about hellish death, but hellish death is definitely part of the subject matter.
Ethan Abides 