Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Spiel Wagon Mix

Time Marches on and now it is April - though it feels like June here. It's almost time for our March Band of the Month poll so stayed tuned and be sure to vote.

Two longer songs made up today's shuffle so I threw in a bonus track. 

Both of the songs have come up before, and yeah, they will come up again. 

Bob Dylan was about 34 years old when his classic album Blood on the Tracks was released (1975).  I can't remember how old I was when I first heard Tangled Up In Blue but the song got into my impressionable mind and, er, well, made an impression.  I loved the feeling of the song and the story that wasn't exactly clear and linear, but which was so evocative. The lyrics were (in a twisted way) the inspiration for the title of my (unpublished novel) Scent of Revelation.  In the novel, one of the characters takes the line, "There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air" to mean that they was a literal scent of revolution which could be detected by those who are open to it.  This character, Kevin, who incidentally is the character portrayed in my profile picture, believes a revolution is at hand, and that he can detect an underlying "scent" of revolution in the air. Another character, Jerry, muses that maybe it's a scent of revelation... 

   

(Blood on the Tracks @ Amazon - click the album cover)

The thing that means the most to me about Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Stooges etc.) is the respect he has and has had for history.  In songs, like History Lesson Part I & II, Disciples of the Three-Way and today's song, Drove Up from Pedro from his star-studded 1995 album Ball Hog or Tugboat?. The significance of music and inspiration and defining moments have always been important to me. Going to a certain show, hearing an album or a song for the first time... and the way something which might be insignificant or of little importance to someone else, can change the entire trajectory of one's life (either internally, externally or both). 

 what the germs did at that gig
made him do what he finally did.
he fit the thunderbroom to the thundertune,
stuffed the thing in the hole.
drove up from Pedro, from Pedro he drove.

Even though I never saw the Germs play live, I recall seeing Penelope Spheeris' documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization and being transported from my 80s small town to the LA punk scene circa the late 70s.  And it also makes me recall rushing home from a show (Rollins Band and Corrosion of Conformity) and having to write a short story (not so much about the show itself, but about the feelings in brought up).

 

(Ball-Hog or Tugboat? @ Amazon) 

 

Finally our bonus song: It's Guerrilla Radio by Rage Against the Machine.  Just because, although my revolutions have mostly been internal, I do have a bit of the revolutionary in me.  

 

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Affiliated Links:

Tangled Up In Blue (Digital Sheet Music) "By Bob Dylan. For piano, voice, and guitar (chords only). Folk; Pop; Rock. 4 pages. Published by Hal Leonard - Digital Sheet Music"

Online Diaries: The Lollapalooza Tour Journals of Beck, Courtney Love, Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Mike Watt The tour journal eliminated the rock critic middle man and created a direct, living and breathing, multiple-perspective story-telling that couldn't have been done by a newspaper, magazine, radio or television. "A scathing take on Lollapalooza." Sam Pratt - New York Post

Molotov Cocktail Classic Rage Against The Machine! The front spells it out the band name simply in white and the back has a logo of hands lighting a molotov cocktail on fire. Maroon 100% cotton.