The Zimmermann Note

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

I have always had the mind sight that punk was state of mind rather than a sound or culture. Punk is not a leather jacket, safety pins or dog chains which is sorta the ironic nature of punk is that the subculture has its own conformist nature. If Punk suggests freedom, the question would be a freedom from what?

Maybe it is a striving for a nirvana?

I find it even more impressive that Lou Reed, the Godfather of Punk (so to speak) had this occurrence as reiterated by his wife and longtime companion, Laurie Anderson:

As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

In a general sense, I think that freedom is typically giving someone another door or option that is acceptable that bucks the trends of society. The Sex Pistols looked at the trappings of England at the time as the beginning sense for the urgency in their music. It was not just the idea of playing loud and fast but lyrics, which criticized the current political scene at the time.

One can feel the epic nature of the song on opening guitars in ‘Anarchy in the UK’, as they blast through your eardrums and you hear the dire laughter of Johnny Rotten.
This is not just another punk song about kids sniffing glue. The song is a call to action for anyone that is tired of the current socio-political environment in the UK. Safety pins were not a fashion statement but to hold clothes together. There was definitive class and social warfare occurring this time.

John Lydon’s eyes could pierce through your heart. I would imagine that anyone in the establishment seeing this guy would freak by the fact they would think that John Lydon was a madman. Maybe that was what I always focused on: his eyes. The song invokes a certain level of freedom i.e. “I am the antichrist”, in my opinion does not reflect in an anti-christian mentality but I am not going to conform and I am proud of that belief.

I am me.

• The Pixies – Ana
• The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
• Japancakes – And Begun
• Of Montreal – And I’ve Seen a Bloody Shadow

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

I was reviewing my songlist for today and saw that it was a fairly abbreviated affair (only about 10 songs). One of these songs, The Minus 5’s ‘The Amazing Dolphin Boy’, was my early choice, not necessarily that I am completely fond of the song; it’s this surreal, “I am not sure what Scott McCaughey was smoking”-type of song. But I have always admired the McCaughey because he is one of these artists that has found ways to work with so many others.

He was the lead singer for the Young Fresh Fellows. He was a backup instrumentalist with R.E.M. from 1995 until they disbanded as well as performed in his other band, The Minus 5, his own collection of roughshod musicians that he would acquire outside of bars and convince them to come onstage with him. He has also a member of the Baseball Project, with Steve Wynn, who decided that they would get drunk at night, flip through old Topps baseball cards from the 70s and write songs about them.

I could go on and on about the side-projects that he has been with but there are websites devoted to that.

Coincedentally, I saw a post on my Facebook feed about the Minus 5 (Scott McCaughey) coming to Chicago on September 10, 2001, to record an album with Wilco. Anyone of course knows that this is 1 day prior to 9/11.

It was only 4 days later that the Minus 5 and Wilco hit the stage for a show at the Abbey Pub.

15 September 2001 – Abbey Pub, Chicago, IL

The Minus 5 set: Thax Douglas poem / Life Left Him There / Retrieval of You / Where Will You Go? / Daggers Drawn / That’s Not the Way That It’s Done / Days of Wine and Booze / I’m Not Bitter / View from Below / The Night Chicago Died Again (The Death of Minus 5) / (I’ve Got) A Lyrical Stance

Wilco Set : Always in Love / War on War / Pick Up the Change / Should’ve Been in Love / I’m the Man Who Loves You / Ashes of American Flags / Hesitating Beauty Passenger Side / A Shot in the Arm / She’s a Jar / California Stars / Outtasite (Outtamind) / Sunken Treasure

The Minus 5 set: Modern World /I Wish I Was Your Mother (Tweedy vocal) / Lies of the Living Dead

If you have been to a Chicago Wilco Show, you know that Thax Douglas is a stalwart for opening shows with his surreal poetry. Thax is like Santa’s dumpy brother writing poetry about Elves with keyholes in their eyes that reveal reindeer destroyed by 5 year old kids that pour battery acid on their antlers. For anyone in Chicago that does not go to poetry readings this actually makes you feel good because you feel slightly cultural.

I still remember where I was in the audience, on the right hand side by the stage. I do not remember how much I drank, which means it was probably quite a lot. I think that Scott had these funky red pants on and the band was obviously somber onstage and I do not remember Jeff Tweedy losing his temper at anyone in the audience for being a chatty Cathy. If I had a copy of the show it is obviously lost and I have not wanted to revisit it for any reason.

Yes, the night was slightly surreal; a concert 4 days after 9/11 which obviously shook our worlds.

The Minus 5 on this night of course was Scott McCaughey and Wilco, It was initially listed as a Minus 5 (with Wilco) but from what I recall, the Wilco set was slightly elongated due to the events of the past week.

There has always been that albatross of 9/11 that has hung around my neck regarding the album ‘Down With Wilco’, which, in my humble opinion, was not the most upbeat of Minus 5 records.

However, what are you supposed to do when it’s right after 9-fucking-11? We have to perform and get onstage in front of an audience and somehow get them into the show as well. For that I cannot complain.

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

When I was conceiving this idea for writing everyday I realized that before that I ever started that I might run into a dry patch every now and then and that I might have to go off topic from time to time to bring something else into the mix. Today was actually one of those days.

There wasn’t anything that just stood out and jumped out at me until after dinner when I had found out that there was an event with Donald Trump that played ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

Michael Stipe said it best: “Go fuck yourselves”.

Beyond this, it actually reminded me of some of the weird shit that I was thinking about earlier last week when writing about Wilco’s ‘Airline To Heaven.’ There is another Wilco/Woody Guthrie song titled ‘Christ For President’ and I thought, it would be pretty cool if I was that guy who was in control of the music and during the intros for one of these Republican Presidential Candidates to play the aforementioned song. Some of the lyrics, of course, do not exactly match up with those that have been playing in some of the conservative circles…

Oh it’s Jesus Christ our President
God above our king
With a job and pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring
Every year we waste enough
To feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
And we shoot it down with wars

It’s become commonplace that Republican candidates often get the squeeze when playing popular hits during their campaign stump speeches particularly due to the fact that many musicians and artists tend to either sway to the left or prefer that their music is not divisive and we are seeing that play out in the political arena.

Back to R.E.M. – It’s telling that in 2004 when George W. Bush was reelected president for a second term that R.E.M. opened with this song in Madison Square Garden.

Beyond the progressive nature of the band, I think that the true irony is the song actually being played, which in itself which is a stream-of-consciousness reflection of the world today. Yes, in 2004 it was not just the idea of Bush being elected but this overwhelming media grab of an event that focuses more on style and very little on substance.

It’s Time I’ve Had Some Time Alone

Beyond the music and the videos and the whirling dervish lead singer on stage, there was always a band that reminded the audience to educate yourself, to learn, to be aware. To stop by the tables set up outside the venue that promoted issues in our world today.

• The Pixies – Allison
• Yo La Tengo – Alrock’s Bells
• Panda Bear – Alsatian Darn
• The Radio Dept. – Always A Relief

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

Fairly obvious for the readers on the internet what my favorite band would be. However, what is number 2? The Velvet Underground.

There is plenty of time to talk about the Velvets but in terms of Nico, this was always my favorite performance of hers with the Velvet Underground. I think what makes it different than the others is that Nico’s performance is not just haunting but lacks any type of sympathy for the character in question.

Beyond the music festival and book named after the song, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ features Nico on lead vocals which is the reason that I am bringing you here this evening.

The thick European accent sounds morally superior (which in character seems not to be all that out of the ordinary from what I have heard).

She was iconic because she was out of place. I remember listening to her on ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’ and still remember that initial awkardness and hestitation that I had listening to the album. She did not sound like the pop singer on MTV.

You realize after time that the good ones throw all that shit in the air and make you sort it out on your own, still trying to solve it’s puzzles and riddles. Nico, got put into a pretty position by having Warhol encourage the Velvets to use her as her presence just adds to its prestige.

• George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
• Bauhaus – All We Ever Wanted
• Mission of Burma – All World Cowboy Romance
• Furthur – Alligator (Live)

Day 8 ‘All’ In Again

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

Yes, there would be something slightly romantic about sitting in a seedy bar on a Sunday night with a light crowd. You’ve probably already had too much. You’ve lost count 5 or 6 plus that shot you did with the regular earlier in the evening. You are drinking by yourself but your mind is on someone else.

There is a set of Christmas lights hastily set up behind the bar as a quarter of the strand is hanging down from the ceiling. The smell of cigarettes emanates throughout the bar from the years and years of smoking that’s built up as a thick tar on the knotty pine walls. You look out the window and snow is falling lightly and you can hear cars drive over the wet pavement outside. It’s about midnight and you know that you have to go because tomorrow is a work day.

In the background, Richard Hell and The Voidoids are on on the jukebox playing “All the Way”, to a light audience. A staple for crooners, Richard Hell’s version on the surface sounds as if he was planning on blowing up the entire Sinatra catalog. Every verse seems to have an off-key but endearing moment. It feels genuine as if Hell wrote it himself and dedicated it to someone special. You, at that moment, feel the breadth of what Hell set out to do. Your eyes slightly water as your mind wanders to her.

You pack your things and you decide to walk by her place at 1 a.m., look up at her dark window, and begin to sing…

When somebody loves you
It’s no good unless he loves you
All the way…..

• St. Vincent – All My Stars Aligned
• Elf Power – All My Passengers
• Spoon – All the Pretty Girls Go to the City
• Elf Power – All the World Is Waiting

Day 6 & 7 ‘All’ In

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

Business Notes: I have telling a small fib about the setlists. The reality is that this is on “Tape Delay” so I am actually 1 week ahead of what I am writing about today. It gives me a little time to craft the items that I am writing about. Secondly, since I typically do not listen to as much of my iPod during the weekend, there might be times I will just submit a combined “Weekend Edition”. This might vary from week to week.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming where our writer just opened an old homebrew that he should have drunk a long time ago and it exploded in the sink….

I guess it is somewhat coincidental that my son’s name “Dylan” is the pen surname of Robert Zimmerman, i.e. Bob Dylan. It was never a conscious decision by either my wife or myself to name him this. I had recognized the coincidence but I cannot remember having any types of conversations with Lisa prior to Dylan being born, which is, in itself, pretty hilarious because we did spend quite a bit of time talking over and delving over the names.

We had a small whiteboard of names hanging listing possible male and female first and middle names. We allowed our close family during Thanksgiving to vote on several selections both male and female. Of course with our family, many opted to select their own write-in/third party candidates. I think that we just realized that serious votes such as this should be taken prior to anyone partaking in alcoholic beverages.

After he was born and the paperwork all filled out, it was one of those “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that!” moments. Now, we are not a huge Bob Dylan household. I have several of his albums and if there were ever a song that would represent Dylan (My Son), it was always “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.

“All Along the Watchtower”, is one of those “Oh Shit!”, moments in rock and roll. Bob Dylan is arguably the greatest lyricist of his generation and I bet you could make the case for all time in the annals of Rock and Roll. If you consider the structure of the lyrics and how they are written as well as the meaning in three verses, with the different characters (Joker, Thief, Princess, .etc) representing specifics within the hierarchy of society.

And then 6 months later, someone by the name of Jimi Hendrix takes this work and “Fucks that Shit Up”.

Obviously, I did not grow up in the 60’s. At the same time what I have seen, and I could be wrong because I do not see everything is that we are at an information overload. We are focused on our phones, our texts, our social media. It needs to hit us immediately, become an internet meme or break it entirely.

I have run into similar scenarios with music that, if it does not grab me immediately, it might end up getting played again. I think about this because you hear about it amongst musicians who might pick up a piece of music and listen to it ad nauseam to gain some type of greater philosophical understanding of the world.

I think back to Dylan (My Son) in writing this. At his age he has access to more information than I ever had. Will there be another one like Dylan? Will there be songs that are written on the same level but musically and lyrically like “All Along the Watchtower?” Have we taken our eyes off the prize?

• PJ Harvey – All & Everyone
• Dream Syndicate – All Along The Watchtower
• Nirvana – All Apologies
• The Walkmen – All Black and White

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

If I am Jeff Tweedy and a knock comes on my door about a potential to write songs using the lyrics of Woody Guthrie, my response would be simple: “Fuck Yeah!!”

There is no doubt that up until this point that Tweedy’s work in both Uncle Tupelo and Wilco was still on the up-and-up. His role as a lyricist in Uncle Tupelo was a part time job that his colleague seemed to abhor. Lyric-writing in Wilco, I think, took notice with ‘Being There’.

What came out of it was a host of songs that focused on a concept of America that had been sorely forgotten in the mainstream. While Billy Bragg, his cohort on the Mermaid Ave. project focuses on more culturally significant topics, Tweedy, on the other hand directs his energies to a host of religious themes.

‘Airline To Heaven’, feels like it was a song that was played by an opening act of a traveling Faith Healing Revival show, however, there are lyrics that suggest otherwise, suggesting faith rather than religion. The essence of the song is the energy it provides, exhibiting and almost innate sense to clap along while using lyrics from Guthrie, using technology i.e. airline plane as it’s reference and something deeply personal as its calling point.

It is something that is regrettably forgotten too much whereby we put a value on sins, we popularize the preacher and forget the inner peace we might receive from faith.

• Menomena – Air Aid
• The Besnard Lakes – Alamogordo
• Pink Floyd – Alan’s Psychaedelic Breakfast
• Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Alison (Live)

The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.

I know that as I progress down this path there might be some songs that might be appearing on this iPod greater than 10 times. That is what happens when you are a fan of a band and not just own their entire collection of music but a fairly significant bootleg collection as well. Up until this point, 94 songs in, I had not experienced more than 2 instances of a song.

Today is ‘Ages of You’, which featured the studio version, demos as well as a couple live versions from back in the day. Listening to 5 different versions of a song is not as bad as you might think. It becomes a montage when you start to pick out the nuances as the song has developed, i.e. how it was played live and begins to carry a little bit more importance than just the 1 off song.

From the Office of Peter Buck:

‘This is kind of a companion piece to Burning Down. When we got tired of that song, we kept the two pieces that we like and rewrote the rest to come up with Ages Of You. We got tired of that one also. Recorded for Reckoning. Also remixed by Steve (Fjelstad).’

I have always had a soft spot for ‘Burning Down’ as the prototypical early R.E.M. by numbers jangly R.E.M. song. Lyrically, it’s nothing all that special. ‘Ages of You’ is the bastard son to ‘Burning Down’ and of course featured on ‘Dead Letter Office’ as a choice B-Side of those early years.

It doesn’t exhibit Michael Stipe’s lyrical genius, or so you think. Search a term like Pristine Indigo on Google and you find what would appear to be a record company by the same name. I have not done exhaustive research on the concept but I think I would immediately put 2 and 2 together that this phrase inspired someone. It’s 2 words put together that made people take notice. However, with Stipe, there were these mumbled phrases strewn all throughout their songs that caused people to sit on their asses and try to make out the fuck he was saying.

It’s just a fucking B-Side, however. Nothing to see here. A track that the band said, ‘Eh, we’re sick of it’.

• R.E.M. – Aftermath
• Deerhunter – Agoraphobia
• Mucca Pazza – Agushev Cocek
• Jane’s Addiction – Ain’t No Right

I am reminded that during one particular vacation and I cannot remember which, that upon arriving back home, noticed that the song Toto – ‘Africa’ was being played on repeat over 500 times on iTunes. This would not be such a bad thing other than the fact that my last.fm account was live. This was all thanks to my generous brother-in-law who knew that I subconsciously admired this song and wanted to share that with the rest of the world. If you look at the account now you will notice that I have deleted these hundreds of plays, the same way a jilted lover burns letters and mementos of current object of betrayal.

The song is completely a child of the ‘80s, blessed by all the MTV gods and deities of that era. The video has the look and feel of something both fairly cheaply made and yet exotic in a mundane sort of way. Remember that 1981 it’s still on the early side of the music video revolution whereby the music video concept is still being developed. As catchy as it might be, it’s even more kitschy. It’s very white-centric, i.e. a video of a white male researching “Africa” while there is a black librarian about the entire continent of Africa, something that even today our nation has subconsciously viewed this area of the world.

How in the hell do you sing this line?

“As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti”

The above line is written at a 4th grade level and isn’t even accurate. My understanding is that it is impossible to see the Serengeti from Kilimanjaro.

The song has at times inspired me to think about telling others about my secret love for “Soft Rock” and begin to dig the soft rock lifestyle of that era, i.e. shoulder pads, mullets and doin it Miami Vice style.

Maybe then I’ll start a band that writes tunes “inspired” by that soft rock sound because that would be totally fucking original. I am not going to be putting an Air Fucking Supply poster on my wall. Steely Dan? Actually if there was one I would be sleeping on the couch because my wife wouldn’t allow it.

Growing up in the 80’s there’s a slight nostalgia aspect to ‘Africa’ and others but in many ways I just see the blinders that we exhibited during that time.

• Darker My Love – Add One to the Other One
• White Fence – Afraid of What It’s Worth
• Toto – Africa
• Yacht – The Afterlife

The transition of Day 1 into Day 2 saw the first duplicate song played by 2 different artists: Mission of Burma/R.E.M. – Academy Fight Song. Mission of Burma is a band that by the time they were getting a tiny bit of notoriety, they ended up breaking up due to Roger Miller’s tinnitus, however, not before releasing a solid single, EP and studio album.

I think one of the reasons that I was fond with R.E.M. was their tendency to dig deep for bands that they believed deserved a bit of notoriety. Their cover was never more than something they played during their Green Tour, as well as ending up on their Holiday Single to fans of the band. There is no doubt that this kind of exposure can still play into the success of the band.

On a completely separate note, as pondering this song tonight for the Z-Note, I read an article about the great Vin Scully “Raging” on and I thought to myself what would it take for Vin Scully to replace Clint Conley on vocals and proceed to sing Academy Fight Song….

Walk into my room
Ask me jerky questions

The genteel nature Vin Scully washed away in the urinals of Chavez Ravine; instead a loud, overbearing, herky-jerky, performance filled with plenty of passion by an 88 year old god of journalism, which is not necessarily far from the original as Conley received a degree in broadcast journalism after Mission of Burma broke up.

Rock and roll cannot be taken too seriously.

Back to our story at hand. Not much to say in terms of the quality between the R.E.M. and Mission of Burma versions. Mission of Burma’s clearly superior here as R.E.M. turned their version into a catchy pop song – i.e. Vin Scully on nitrous.

• R.E.M. – Academy Fight Song
• Guided By Voices – Acorns and Orioles
• U2 – Acrobat
• Wire – Adapt