A Song

I haven't thrown any tunes at you lately. Since I'm checking out Sonic Youth tomorrow, I figured I'd put up an old favorite that I don't expect them to play tomorrow as it's so old (right click, save as).

I am reminded that, in those old days, if you wanted to steal music, you couldn't just get on your highspeed internet connection and browse through a vast array of peer-to-peer networks. Heck, Napster wasn't even around yet; Shawn Fanning would have been like six years old. Any way, in the old days, if you wanted to steal music you had to walk into a record store or a book store and shove vinyl records or cassette tapes down your pants when no one was watching and walk out. It happened a lot, but back then Rhea didn't care. Heck, people even copied cassette tapes to blank tapes and went so far as to make their own compilations. For some people, this would prove an effective way to win friends, influence people, and get laid.

Sister and Evol were the first two Sonic Youth albums that I ever acquired. This music was completely new and different to me. It took me a couple of listens to really come love Sister, but I was helped along by the seductive photograph inside the cassette sleeve of the small-breasted girl sprawled out on the hardwood floor, naked from the waist down. You could see nothing more than her bare hip, but her short hair, that wild look in her eye, and the suggestion of what was just beyond what the camera had captured did it for me everytime. The song contains the lyric, "Her light eyes were dancing; she is insane. Her brother says she's just a bitch with a golden chain. She keeps coming closer saying, 'I can feel it in my bones.' Schizophrenia is taking me home." I always felt sure that the picture inside was meant to capture that look.

I can't say for certain that my love of this song accounts for all of the crazy women I have dated in the years since (dating would follow some time well after my introduction to Sonic Youth), but I can't rule it out completely either.

Jonathan 6/26/2006 08:03:00 PM