SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Rivoli, Toronto, ON (November 11, 1989).
“This is not the best sounding show – it sounds like a 25-year-old soundboard from a small club which is what it is – It is very interesting though as it is from a poorly represented period between Greatest Hits and Melville.”
The notes also say:
It contains early versions of Northern Wish, Aliens, Record Body Count, Christopher, King Of The Past, Horses, Chanson Les Reulles, Queer and When Winter Comes. Horses refers to Ozzy getting caught on the high voltage wire. Queer doesn’t have the ending portion yet, lyrics to Soul Glue are not quite the same etc. Plus a bunch of songs which were not played often such as Seems Like, Uptake, Poor Mouth and As I Was Going Down The Stairs (which sounds like it was a precursor to Triangles On The Walls).
I don’t think it’s a precursor actually, but that’s just me.
Northern Wish has a lot of hiss and a rather disconcerting echo on Martin’s vocals. The hiss comes and goes on a few songs, but is mostly absent.
“Aliens” has some notable lyric changes. “Woodstuck” gets the CSNY intro (which he says they never do anymore). In this version they sing in silly falsetto.
Northern Wish, Aliens, Record Body Count and Christopher sounds pretty much the same (and very good), although Christopher has some interesting sounds on guitar strings–maybe from Dave?–during the solo. Christopher: “That was about Etobicoke, where we’re from.” and this [“King of the Past”] is about our trip to Winnipeg (with the disconcerting lyric change: “I won’t close my eyes–oh nevermind” instead of “I won’t close my eyes to the passage of time.”
As the intro to “Horses,” Dave asks, “Hey Mr lighting guy can you make it look like the hull of a freighter?” or “can you make me look like thee tar of the band?” “Dave Clark responds: “Yes, just turn around and show your ass.” The song totally rocks, but it’s really weird not hearing the audience sing along to “Holy Mackinaw, Joe.” I trust they responded appropriately the awesomeness of the ending of the song.
After the song they have “the ceremonial exchanging of the instruments (that we can’t play).” Martin says he got a book out of the library about ghosts across Canada. And he wrote this song about it. Dave interjects, This is dedicated to Jim Hughes. Then Martin says, “That’s the first time I’ve ever spoken on stage.” The lyric is “As I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn’t there” played with accordion, by Tim I think! (apparently the poem is called “Antigonish”). They continue with the accordion on “What’s Going On” (which gets cut off).
You gotta stand up for three minutes and 20 seconds while they play the drum-heavy “Chanson Les Reulles” (which Dave says he can’t understand). They play “Queer” and mess it all up: Clark says “don’t you hate it when the drummer counts in?” It has a really lengthy intro and no ending.
“This is a song Martin wrote I have no idea what it’s about. All you guys and girls at the bar, there’s plenty of room up front.” Seem Like” is a quiet song with some dark lyrics and a cool effects filled guitar break. “Poor Mouth” is a slow mournful ballad by Bidini (with some loud growls at the end of each section).
They say “It’s hard to tell if we stink or not.” Clark asks, “Hey Dave, if you were hiding from a guy with a gun, would you stick your fluorescent yellow flag out or would you hide it under your camouflage jacket?” Not sure if that is an introduction to “When Winter Comes” or not, but the song sounds great.
Dave then does a poem which is kind of stupid (like usual). Then they play “Good on the Uptake” they played a lot but never officially recorded. It’s got a lot of their early new wave style but with Martin’s wild guitars. It segues into a wildly chaotic “PROD.” Midway through Bidini wanders into the crowd. He tries to get the audience to sing. Some do, but one guy speaks it, “oh no, you have to sing melodiously. That’s why we came out here.”
For the final song, called “Grant’s Song in G,” Clark shouts, “Grant? Sober enough to play drums? Come on up.” It’s all silliness for about a minute and then Clark starts singing an intense anti-drug song: “well you had your chance / and you blew it / up your nose / in your arm / in the car at the end of that…” When he shouts “Take it away Marty,” the tape ends.
[READ: August 28, 2016] “Home”
I hate when the first sentence of a story throws you. I don’t know if it was the typographical layout, but I had to read this sentence three times before it sank in: “Lee was the daughter of his mother’s hairdresser.”
Once unpacked, it made perfect sense. The He is the main character of the story. Jim had heard about Lee for years. She as in an abusive relationship and finally got out. Jim’s mother told him that Lee was looking for a lawyer (which Jim is). He initially refused but then agreed to take her out to dinner because “she’s a beautiful girl.”
Jim’s ex-wife was pretty, sure, but Lee is stunning. He can’t believe that he is having dinner and then seeing her in his own house later that night.
Of course she can’t stay because her kid is with her mother (she is also living with her mother since leaving her husband).
Jim drove her home–all the lights were on in her parents’ house. Her son is screaming and her mother is super angry. She starts yelling about Lee whoring around.
Later Lee told Jim that her mother was really frustrated. She had always wanted to be an actress but it never took off. She was constantly seeing people on TV that she had auctioned with and would said “I know her.”
Then we learn about how Lee met her now ex-husband. Lee wanted to get married right away but Ken wanted to wait until he got settled.
When they finally did get married, her mother was disdainful of the whole thing: At the reception, she shouted
“Throwing your whole life away…. For what?” And then she raised her arm, drew it back as if to hurl the word. “To have sex!”
There was a gasp among the guests.
Lee paused on the small landing at the bottom of the stairs: “You stupid asshole,” she said slowly. Had her mother been in the mood to notice, she would have been pleased to discover what a fine actress her daughter might have made. “Do you think I needed to get married to have sex?” And then paused, and then said, with impeccable clarity, impeccable timing. “I’ve been having sex since I was fifteen.”
Her husband wanted to be a policeman, but he was never accepted anywhere. Until he got a job guarding the border in Arizona. So they left New York and moved to the Southwest. Which Lee hated. She was made fun of for her Long Island accent and had nothing to do all day since she couldn’t drive.
Then they moved to San Diego where her husband assumed every Mexican was illegal. The birth of their son was a terrible experience. In the hospital, she was around Mexican women. And the hatred for these women was felt both from Ken and from the nurses who were sick of Mexican women giving birth in American hospitals. [There’s some ugly racism in here].
After the boy was born, she and her mother patched things. Perhaps it was enough to get her to leave Ken–well, there was one more impetus for that.
This story is strangely bookended and goes in rather unexpected places. I really enjoyed that the main story is told to Jim by the woman who was introduced so strangely in the beginning.
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