I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ALLEN BAEKELAND-“Drinkin’ Ex and Askin’ Why” (Moose: The Compilation, 1991).

Back in the 1990s, it was common to buy a compilation or soundtrack or even a band’s album based on one song.  Only to then find that you didn’t really like anything else on it.

Maybe that single sounded like nothing else on the album.  Maybe the movie was almost entirely one genre, but they had that one song that you liked over the credits.  Or maybe the compilation was for something but a song you really wanted was on it, too.

With streaming music that need not happen anymore.  Except in this case.

I bought this compilation used recently exclusively for one song, Rheostatics’ “Woodstuck.”  The compilation was not well documented, so i didn’t know what the other bands on it might sound like.

This is a country song.  You can tell by the fantastic title “Drinkin’ Ex and Askin’ Why”  But it also contains everything else about a country song–slow, kinda mopey, pedal steel guitar and bad grammar with lyric about beer.

There is one saving grace that elevates this above a typical country song. Allen Baekeland is from Toronto and not the south of the U.S.  So his voice doesn’t twang.

This actually sounds kind of like a Negativland song–like a parody of a country song, even though it’s not.

And because it’s from Canada, it’s amusing to hear the line “yea I’m a grown man so I won’t cry / instead I reach into my two-four / for one more / and sit here and get pissed.”

In the 1990s Allen Baekeland started The Rembetika Hipsters who are still active today.

[READ: July 21, 2019] “She Said He Said”

In this story Sushilia was walking in the park.  She saw Mateo and his male assistant sitting on a bench.  Mateo worked for her husband Len for over ten years.

Mateo was very drunk though, and he greeted her by kissing her checks and then asking if she would sleep with him–right now, at his place.  He said he’d always found her sexy but was too nervous to say anything to her.

Obviously, she was shocked by this.  She was friendly with Mateo’s wife Marcie and considered her a confidante.  She chalked this behavior up to drunkenness.

But the next morning Mateo saw her again in the supermarket.  He was sober and yet he reiterated his desire.  He said she must be bored with Len after all these years. She kept her temper but pointedly refused his advances.

Then she called Len and told him what happened.

Len confronted Mateo but Mateo had no explanation or excuse for his behavior.

Len decided to talk it over with Marcie.  Marcie and Mateo were still married although living apart.  She had been very ill lately and Len felt bad telling her this while she was  in this state but he wanted her opinion.

When Len got home and told Sushila about talking to Marcie, Sushila was furious with him. It wasn’t even his story!  What was he doing?  Len said that Mateo had insulted him as well.  He would never forgive himself if he hadn’t said something.

She told him to calm down.  That women had to put up with this kind of thing all the time.  She also told him that Marcie and Mateo weren’t passionate with each other anymore.  This made Len think that maybe that’s why Mateo was aggressive to women now.

The following week was Mateo’s birthday and Len and Sushila were invited. She asked Len not to say anything–the party wasn’t the place.

But when they arrived Mateo quickly came up to Len. He looked entirely different–shaved his beard and cropped and dyed his hair–and he was angry at Len for telling everyone about what happened.  There were rumors circulating everywhere about that.

Len had to wonder if the world was crazy or if he was.