figures on a beach

This is going to be a little different today, so please keep your comments to yourself, i beg of you. Or at least wait patiently while I do my thing here. If you'd rather, you can go occupy yourself elsewhere and i can let you know when i'm done, okay? Just this one time?
Please?

(A glare and pursed lips, giving way to a soft smile and a lifted right eyebrow. Then the door closes quietly behind.)

I'm on a kick to review some of my old music, see how it might still fit into my life, test its ability to ward off new monsters. This particular album/ cassette/ WHATEVER came into my world in the summer - or possibly early fall- of 1991. But more on that in a few minutes. Here are the ones i always sang along with as i went rocketing around Florida and Georgia.

-accidentally 4th street (gloria) -

well we're looking at the cover,
we're spending all our time
just staring at the magazine

well, look who's on the cover,
wasting all our time...
some pseudo-fascist hero-machine

well, that's no space for a human being
that man is not a hero or a saint.
when somewhere in deepest America,
grown men weep at the sound of his name
so it goes and it goes...

all the girls named gloria
sing sweetly out of key.
the sun rose in the west today,
accidents in the land of the free...

well i grew up where they showed you the body count
in color on your dinner TV
and i've been numbed so insensitive
that all i can think about is you and me
you know children from the best homes
they all have guns and butter
they have their share of murder blue
well it's not such a wiggy awesome good time
when the shopping mall militia point their cannons at you..
so it goes..

all the girls named gloria
sing sweetly out of key
the sun rose in the west today
accidents in the land of the free
i love this world harder in my imagination
than my conscience should allow
but accidents do happen
accidents will happen
don't you dare to ask me how.

now everyone believed in the stories 'bout the cadillacs
everybody's got enough to eat
and people always keep their eyes glued to the ground
when a desparate man he's gotta cling to the streets
and i swear to myself i will help them
i will be an upstanding man
well when i walk by and i hear them cry
that money just sticks to my hands
what's wrong with me?

all the girls named gloria
sing sweetly out of key
the sun rose in the west today
accidents in the land of the free
i love this world harder in my imagination
than my conscience should allow
but accidents do happen, accidents will happen
don't you dare to ask me how

----------------------- ---------------------------------
- flex-
Yeah yeah wooooohhhh yeah yeah
yeah yeah
yeah yeah

last night i had myself a dream that i was talking to the president
he said i don't know what i did or where i went but it's all gone now
all the money's spent
i said now what's the matter with you boy
thats no way to make ends meet
where did everybody go?
they're all livin' out on the street
he said
i need your help and right away
you better come out for a drive to the capitol

i said
Well i could walk there in the rain
but it would take forever in the sun
now I've got sex in my pocket
but i flex so much easier with a gun
oh yeah yo

yeah yeah oooh baby ooh

last night i had myself a life and i was talking to the one i love
i said i don't know what i did or where i went
but it's all gone now we can't pay our rent
she said now what's the matter with you boy
can''t you hold a steady job
that's no way to make ends meet and now we're livin' out on the street
i said
i need some help and yesterday
i'm gonna take myself a drive to the capitol

Well i could walk there in the rain
but it would take forever in the sun
now I've got sex in my pocket
but i flex so much easier with a gun
oh yeah yo

-----------------------------------------------------------
-(don't make me) nervous-

new turnpike a blur through telegraph wires
i'm movin' as fast as i can
i'm hungry restless and tired
but i don't need no medicine man
because i don't drink and i don't smoke
i lift weights and i live on pink hope
to take the town and wrap it 'round our fingers
come away with me darlin'...

you look like a friend to me
i will keep you sworn to secrecy
I'm gonna be somebody by the middle of the night
you can check your papers
check your t.v.
'cause i swagger like brando
dance like james brown
talk like john wayne
drive like james dean
gonna be somebody
dontcha gimme no lip
you just keep me happy
and don't make me nervous

i once had a good companion
fleshpot vegas beauty queen
she could disappear for weeks at a time
if you know what i mean
but you, you might be a different story
I could really fall for you
and tie you down and drown you in flowers
oh come away with me from ohio

you look like a friend to me
i will keep you sworn to secrecy
I'm gonna be somebody by the middle of the night
you can check your papers
check your t.v.
'cause i swagger like brando
dance like james brown
talk like john wayne
drive like james dean
gonna be somebody
dontcha gimme no lip
you just keep me happy
and don't make me nervous

now she came east to spend her time just lyin' on her motel bed
now she spends her afternoons just givin' what she doesn't have
she says pretty is as pretty does
and pretty don;t get much these days
when she went down she lost her youth in one fell swoop
check it

you look like a friend to me
i will keep you sworn to secrecy
I'm gonna be somebody by the middle of the night
you can check your papers
check your t.v.
'cause i swagger like brando
dance like james brown
talk like john wayne
drive like james dean
gonna be somebody
dontcha gimme no lip
you just keep me happy
and don't make me nervous

nanana nana now

---------------------------------------------------------
-clam diggin'-

i'm sittin' and i just don't care
taking in the salt sea air
my ship came in and i'm a-wastin' time
in a better world i'd be on an unemployment line

i'm not the kind of man who gets things done
i lie like a tomato and i ripen in the sun
always late for the starting gun
but while you're running your errands
hey! i'm on the beach and clam diggin'

went to the hamptons been to cape cod too
shot a nine at augusta went to peru
i do the things that rich folk do
i got some beach front down in malibu

i'm not the kind of man who gets things done
i lie like a tomato i just ripen in the sun
always late for the starting gun
but while you're running your errands
hey! i'm on the beach and clam diggin'

i'm the kind of guy who likes his fun
i lie like a tomato i just ripen in the sun
always late for the starting gun
but while you're running your errands
hey! i'm on the beach and clam diggin'

dig

i'm not the kind of man who gets things done
i lie like a tomato i just ripen in the sun
always late for the starting gun
but while you're running your errands
i'm on the beach and clam diggin'

i'm the kind of guy who likes his fun
i lie like a tomato i just ripen in the sun
always late for the starting gun
but while you're running your errands
i'm on the beach and clam diggin'

---------------------------------------------------------
-independence day-

this is the cruelest summer
everybody crazy with the heat
and who can keep their anger inside

i really want to reach you
could i be your brother
could i be your friend
well you just keep on pushing me harder
and i ain't gonna go to the wall for you any more

cause we're on the road to independence day
when you talk too loud you give yourself away

some people want to fill your head
tell you all the stories that you want to hear
but you always hear the whispers when you leave the room
well i don't wanna listen to that kind of talk no more

cause we're on the road to independence day
when you walk too proud you give the game away
get along yeah
woo ooh

sometimes you gotta listen to what the world is tellling you
and sometimes it hurts too much
there's a milllion ways to die and none of them look pretty
well i ain't gonna kill myself for no one any more

cause we're on the road to independence day
when you talk too loud you give yourself away

cause we're on the road to independence day
when you walk too proud you give the game away
get along yeah
woo ooh

------------------------------------------
-mystified-

seems that others will remember
every time that i forget
well if it seems i've lost the art of conversation
well it seems you go right to my head
i fall over and over again

and when the world mistreats you
don't you feel so mystified

in the mediterranean sunset
speeding train through italy
i caught you sleeping like a baby
you look like paradise to me
i fall over and over again

and when the world mistreats us
don't you feel so mystified

i won't let he world mistreat you
don't you feel so mystified
i bless the day i met you
i will always stand right by your side
'cause i love you i love you i love you

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-get serious-

they're on my lawn
they're on my lawn
i got the pink flamingoes rockin' on my lawn
i'm goin' out of my mind in my mobile home
get serious
get serious

now i'm out on my own and i'm all alone
i'm watching reruns from the twilight zone
i got big floppy shoes and i need to roam
and get serious
get serious

so lets go throw 'em down and won't you pour me a round
bartender?
and deliver us from evil and give us our daily bread

well the news came down on my radio
we're gonna get attacked by a white tornado
time to hitch up the trailer and take ourselves a ride
and get serious
get serious

so come out of your closets
crawl off of your shelf
crawl under the table and express yourself
that twister's a-comin' down M-59
and it's time it's time to get serious

so let's throw 'em down and won't you pour me a round
bartender?
and deliver us from evil and give us our daily bread
well it's closing time and that's a time when a man should get serious
i get serious when i think i'm goin' out of my head

change!

i am a stranger here and
i want to go where the big boys go
won't you take me to a place where the man sings like the boy who came from tupelo
well it's the same old story
when my search for love and glory runs against the wall
well i will change that story
no more hope for love and glory
but when i pay my mastercard you will hear me squall
woooh!

so let's throw 'em down and won't you pour me a round
bartender?
and deliver us from evil and give us our daily bread
well it's closing time and that's a time when a man should get serious
i get serious when i think i'm goin' out of my head

whose head what head my head
baby

--------------------------------------------------------
-green-

here's a lesson i have learned
play with matches and watch them burn
see the trouble darkened skies
close to my heart the things i hide
seems i've wrecked the honeymoon
found my chance but played too soon
which one? this one? that one? mine?
i can't tell the truth from lies

it started out green but it turned out blue
i can't do the things that love wants me to
i try my best to make it up to you
it started out green but it turned so
blue

and words that slither from the skies
have lost their power to mesmerize
well i was too on fire to know
did i strike some fatal blow
so this is how our story ends
well that's the way that you lose a friend
the room that spins when the loss sets in
what do i know? you gotta bite the hand that hits you every time

it started out green but then it turned out blue
i can't do the things that love wants me to
i try my best to make it up to you
it started out green but it turned so
blue

and broken hearts can mend
it's a long way back from no where
willows don't break they bend
and some dreams they never end

it started out green but then it turned out blue
i can't do the things that love wants me to
i try my best to make it up to you
it started out green but it turned so
blue
oh oh oh

-----------------------------------------------------------

Good tunes for fighting the demons which slither in and out of my psyche. My body needs something to groove on while my brain is trying to sort through the demons crouching in and around the invisible trees. I think i should just burn the damn forest down, get rid of those trees once and for all.. but that is not an option. First, there would be too much collateral damage, too much loss of that which i still love, too much. Second, the invisible forest is infinitely large, impossibly vast, too monumental to completely demolish. So it's track down the monsters, one by one, cut down the trees as they block my path, one by one, using music that isn't even mine, music i have only on a tape cassette.

Sigh. I had forgotten how much i enjoy this band.
As i said, I didn't ever hear of them until 1991, and by that time the figures had sought out different beaches and the band was defunct. The quintet was from Detroit and had a local following such that they put out two albums, but they only had one single that got any national airplay and the regional regional interest wasn't enough for a living. But the michigander i was dating introduced me to their music - as well as that of many others in the ensuing years - and i'm pretty sure he did so because he knew my musical tastes so well. Now, he has the album and i have the cassette and i'm sure i got the better deal, as neither of us have a turntable. Still, i would like to have it on cd, just for durability, you know?

(Door opens and a head peeks in.)
Ta da!!!

You've returned! Very good!

Even better! I come bearing you a gift. I have found a store that sells their tunes, both the album you know and the first album, of which you know naught.

Awesome! How very nice of you to do that for me!

(Holds up a hand.) And, for you, i have purchased the tunes from their self-titled second album, the one you have enjoyed so much over the years, the one which has "Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)", their sole single.

Wow...thank you so very much....

Myself, i would have introduced them to the world with "Get Serious" or "(Don't Make Me) Nervous".
But, hey, no one asked and the point is fully moot.
Enjoy, dear. And time for some shut-eye.