All Our Pretty Songs (Redemption 2)

Is this sacrilege?

I'm so over Nirvana's "Nevermind". Used to love it, but now I never need to hear it again

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it, and I agree that it is a great album. I'll even agree that it is one of the all time MOST IMPORTANT ALBUMS EVER on a couple different levels (great album critically, hugely influential on pop music and probably as important a music catalyst to pop culture/society as rap, punk and reggae.

Even on a personal level, it re-bloomed an appreciation of pop music for me back in the early 90's. Without it, i could well have just faded away, content with my memories of the good old days and remember whens, with the occasional where are they nows. Instead, I got supercharged and reinvigorated and found a ton new bands to love (and discovered a pile of bands I should have known and appreciated back in the back in the day but never got around to appreciating). I was never that into grunge (although flannel never goes out of style, baby. ) Besides, I never really considered Nirvana grunge (that was more pearl jam I think), they were really more indie, at least to my perceptions. And "Nevermind" really opened the door to a ton of contemporary indie music much like REM and the Smiths did that in the mid 80's. But unlike the 80's, I wasn't late to this party and every week brought me some amazing new sound that I was experiencing along with everyone else (added bonus, the Nirvana zeitgeist wasn't a microculture, but something that was happening EVERYWHERE so my music geekdom didn't seem quite so solo for once).

So really, why am I happy to forget "Nevermind"?

It doesn't help that they have been played to death (myself included). And it seems like every year brings some new variety of "Nevermind"/Nirvana reissue. So there is a lot of lot of overkill. But I'm not sure how overplayed matters to me. ( I'm not sick of the beatles . I'm not even sick of the early stones who have been even more overplayed.) And I barely listen to radio anymore, so it's probably been years since I heard any variety of Nirvana on the radio (or through my own devices). So aurally, not sure that is it. But I will say Musak Nirvana (and Tori Amos Nirvana....although that could be the same thing) doesn't help anything.

There is the pop culture oversaturation. You got your cobain imagery, your church of kurt (WWKD, what would Kurt think about this or that, the being /bean-ness of Frances), courtney's latest brush with inappropriate. So there is that, and it's pretty distasteful (and I suppose now I'm contributing to that pervasiveness with this ramble, so all apologies for that).

Also, I suppose, if I want to be uncharitable and revisionist, it could argued that "Nevermind" is a handful of great singles with a lot of album filler that all sounds the same. And it is a given that the Pixies did it earlier and quite a bit better. And with really only 3 albums (and even that is a stretch) there is not a lot of legacy to mine. But even though I can see both sides to the argument; great/overated, I don't really care about the comments section on this album, and I sorta think "Nevermind" transcends rants anyway.

Admittedly, Nirvana/"Nevermind" spawned a shitload of bands then and now that I just can't stand, but whatever. If people want to worship Dave Grohl and his fool fighters, they can have at it. I can easily avoid that which I do not want to hear. So although Nirvana lit a few too many creative fires on the musical horizon, I've been able to avoid too many bad music burns (and I still sorta like Dandelion, so there is that).

Maybe, when I get right down to it, "Nevermind" is so fixed in time and place for me that I can't bring it forward. Those early 90's were a pretty tumultuous time; figuring out the edumacation thing, coming out, having a pretty serious accident (not as a result of coming out, btw), realizing that I actually would have to work to make a living (not that I wasn't working, it was more just wtf kind of work/career am I actually going to have). A lot happened, in a short period of time. and more than any other piece of music (because for good or ill, I really do define periods of my life by music) "Nevermind" seemed to capture that three or four year period of moving from Minneapolis to Eau Claireand then going to grad school in Mankato. It certainly wasn't a horrible time (in fact it was pretty great other than being broke, pelvis and cash-wise both) but I don't know that I want to relive it (well....there might have been a few things I wouldn't mind going back for).

And for me, being through that period, or beyond it, or whatever, has robbed that album of all its emotional context. So now, even as I'm playing "Nevermind" while I write this, I'm not feeling it. I remember the way it hit me back then, but it's not doing much of anything for me now. It's not even hitting me like listening to a Soundgarden album now does; RAWK OUT and all that (and I have no idea why SuperUnknown has aged so well for me. Back then, at best, I found it a pleasant diversion). I fondly recall "Nevermind", and still appreciate it, and can even understand why people still love it (either for the first time or for the 1000th), and I certainly love the roads it steered me towards, but I can not (won't?) recapture that moment in time when it meant the world to me. And I guess that's why it don't need to hear it anymore.

Weirdly, Hole's "Live Through This" still plays just fine for me. Go figure.

BTW, I never need to hear Pearl Jam's Ten again either. But it's not like I was ever so in love with that one (or if I was it was only for a methaphoric weekend.) and it's not like anyone ever really critically loved eddy vedder's gulped syllables and constipated singing. (and besides, they are still making the same damn record 20 plus years later with exponentially diminishing commercial and populist favor results---also, why on earth do I keep listening/buying their albums?)

Redemption 1 Bonus

25 of My Favorite B-Sides (non-album tracks; 45 flip sides, bonus tracks on cd singles, the occasional movie soundtrack if'n it wasn't released as an a-side single )

1.  You're My Favorite Waste of Time-Marshall Crenshaw
2. Rock and Roll Friend-Go-Betweens
3.  M-Factor-M
4. Blank Slate-The National
5. Flying to My Home-Paul Mccartney
6. Kolele Mai-Midnight Oil
7. Maidenstone-Squeeze
8. When Time Stood Still-ELO
9. How Can You Be Sure-Radiohead
10. 17 Days-Prince (i know, i know, "Erotic City" should be here)
11. You and I Part One-Fleetwood Mac (if "Silver Springs" wasn't so ubiquitous i'd have picked that one.  "Book of Miracles" is pretty great too)
12. The Retreat-Elton John
13. Needle Hits E-Sugar
14. Summer's Over-Sheena Easton
15. Faces-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
16. You Don't Miss Your Water-Eno/Cale
17. Music from Electric and Musical Industries-Hot Chip
18. The Bells-Smashing Pumpkins (not sure how i am supposed to pick from just the Mellon Collie b-sides, but this one always stands out-if i can't have Glynis or Drown, that is)
19. It-Dr. Dog
20. Soft Parachutes-Paul Simon
21. Changed and Different-Little River Band ("it's just a b-side now")
22. Sand and Ice-Fanfarlo
23. I am the City-Abba (not sure if this was ever a b-side or not, "Put on Your White Sombrero" "Under Attack" and "Cassandra" are all pretty great too)
24. Modesto is Not That Sweet-Hold Steady
25. This Girl, Black Girl-Go-Betweens (they have so many great b-sides)

Redemption (1b)

Sentimental Favorites (probably wouldn’t fit in my top 25 now, but they were sure my favorites up to college, and I still love them all):

1. Barry Manilow-Even Now
2. Billy Joel-The Stranger
3. Al Stewart-Year of the Cat
 4. Christopher Cross-s/t
5. Gerry Rafferty-City to City
6. Supertramp-Breakfast in America

And although i thought the singles were hard, albums are even harder, so you are going to have to bear with me and read through numbers 50 to 26 first (and a couple caveats: no soundtracks/no greatest hits---although i don't think either would have made my lists, and i tried to avoid putting anything on the list that came out before i was really into albums (which excludes van, the kinks, and the beatles etc, who would have maybe made the list otherwise), and basically tried to keep it to music i found for myself (otherwise miracle legion would have been on this list as well:

26. Icehouse-S/t-Primitive Man (again, these two are so intertwined, can’t possibly pull them apart)
27. Sun Kil Moon-Ghosts on the Great Highway
28. Graham Parker-The Mona Lisa’s Sister
29. Art Garfunkel-Watermark
30. Strokes-Is This It
31. Hold Steady-Boys and Girls in America
32. John Cale-Paris 1919 33. Clientele- Strange Geometry
34. Mountain Goats-The Sunset Tree
35. Jazz Butcher-Fiscoteque
36. Father John Misty-Fear Fun
37. Sufjan Stevens-Illinois
38. Jellyfish-Belly Button
39. White Stripes-White Blood Cells
40. U2-The Unforgettable Fire
41. Smashing Pumpkins-Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
42. Prince-Purple Rain
43. Arcade Fire-Funeral
44. Robin Hitchcock-Element of Light
45. Elvis Costello-Armed Forces
46. M-Official Secrets Act
47. Yes-90125
48. Paul Kelly-Under the Sun
49. Everything But the Girl-Idlewild
50. LCD Soundsystem-Sounds of Silver

 and then finally, the top 25:

1. Midnight Oil-Diesel and Dust (probably always #1)
2. Radiohead-The Bends
3. The National-Alligator (I came in a little before this (Wasps Nest) so naturally this is the one.  If I'd come in at Boxer or High Violet, they'd have been my favs.  All three are just so close for me)
4. Smiths-The Queen is Dead (between junior and senior year---summer of 86---- I had a crappy job working for Daig out in Minnetonka—now part of st. jude---but there was a cool (handsome too) janitor who’d always play music and he had the best taste. He turned me onto REM and The Smiths that summer.)
5. REM-Lifes Rich Pageant (I love a lot of their other albums, but this is the one that still gives me goosebumps)
6. Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I am an American aquarium drinker)
7. Magnetic Field-69 Love Songs (but you used to love me that way)
8. My Morning Jacket- It Still Moves (no idea how I stumbled across this album, but it immediately stuck and spun me backwards through their discography. And I’ve loved how they’ve progressed….easily could have been Z here as well)
9. John Grant-Pale Green Ghosts (maybe it won’t stand the test of time, but there has been no other album in the last 10-15 years that I have listened to front to back so compulsively than this one)
10. Sinead O’Connor-I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (give a listen to the second half of this album and tell me it doesn’t still chill)
11. Marshall Crenshaw-s/t
12. Cure-Disintegration
13. Blue Nile-Hats
14. Eno/Cale-Wrong Way Up
15. Woodentops-Giant
16. Go-Betweens-16 Lovers Lane/ Grant-Watershed (cheating, but I totally can’t pull these two apart)
17. My Bloody Valentine-Loveless (the first 2 or 3 times I heard this album I got a terrible headache. I’m not sure why I kept coming back to it, but I sure am glad I did)
18. XTC-Skylarking
19. Kate Bush-Hounds of Love
20. Grizzly Bear-Vekatimist
21. Rickie Lee Jones-s/t (the most as you’ll ever know…)
22. Waterboys-Fisherman’s Blues
23. 10,000 Maniacs-In My Tribe
24. Prefab Sprout-Atlantis: The Comeback
25. Bon Iver-s/t

Redemption (1a)

Ok. so this was harder than i thought. But first, before i list out my 25 (sorry, i ended up with 26, because it was hard enough to get down from the 150 with which i started) favorite singles of all time (or at least what i think of as singles), i have to list out a couple bonus tracks that provided my essential single education.

• Rose Garden-Lynn Anderson (no idea why i love/loved this song, but i did and i still do)
• Sing-Carpenters (make it simple to last your whole life long--second grade music class)
• Both Sides Now-Joni Mitchell (we sang this in music class in first grade, even had to print out the lyrics in class, i still really don't know clouds.  at all.)
• Joy to the World-Three Dog Night (my performance solo in the back seat of our red car, i belted out that "Jeremiah was a bull frog, he was a good friend of mine" at full volume, shocking my parents and annoying my older brother and sister to no end. win and win. can't necessarily say i remember if i remembered any of the other lyrics, but i had that bull frog part down pat)

1. Pop Muzik-M (naturally, my manifesto and a perfect song.  do you read me?  loud and clear.)
2. We Can Get Together-Icehouse (i recorded this from the radio on a little cassette player to share with Shelley Christianson-my fellow top 40 fan--before catchecism.  I don't think she was too impressed.  but i still am)
3. Easy Come, Easy Go-Grant (could have been cattle and cane, streets of your town, right here, trapeze boy or practically anything, but this one gives me the most goosebumps per surface area)
4. Undercover Angel-Alan O’Day (alllll-right)
5. D.W. Suite-Lindsey Buckingham (if we go,, go insane, we will all go together)
6. Video Killed the Radio Star-The Buggles (oh, oh, oh oh oh)
7. Bloodbuzz, Ohio-The National (abel, mr. november, apartment song, fake empire; there are so many, but this is the one i go back to the most)
8. Speed of Sound-Chris Bell (i liked it better when this was just my little secret song, but i guess it's nice to hear it unexpectedly, so let the masses enjoy)
9. Beds are Burning-Midnight Oil
10. Sir Duke-Stevie Wonder (music is a world within its self, with a language we all understand)
11. Cars and Girls-Prefab Sprout (something hurt more, much more than cars and girls)
12. Perfect-Fairground Attraction
13. Follow You All Over the World-Marti Jones
14. The Whole of the Moon-Waterboys (I saw the crescent, you saw the whole of the moon)
15. Blue and Grey Shirt-AMC (so why didn't you call?)
16. Running Up the Hill-Kate Bush
17. Hey, Jack Kerouac-10,000 Maniacs (have the boys all grown up, there beauty faded)
18. Biggest Fool of All-Cock Robin
19. Never in my Life-Babyface (pretty hokey and maudlin i know, and nobody else knows it.but they were from Eau Claire and it was such an ear worm for me)
20. Everyday, I write the Book-Elvis Costello (even in a perfect world, where everyone was equal, i'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel)
21. Bring on the Dancing Horses-Echo and the Bunnymen
22. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want-the Smiths
23. True Faith-New Order
24. Throw Your Arm Around Me-Hunters and Collectors
25. Better Be Home Soon-Crowded House
26. Brother Sport-Animal Collective (open up your throat)

*I reserve the right to add/subtract to the this list as whim and weather strike me.

Let's Sing a Song of Ten

How many is ten?

Top Ten Singles:

1. Blurred Lines-Robin Thicke
2. Get Lucky-Daft Punk
3. Upstarts-Johnny Marr
4. Royals-Lorde
5. Grace for Saints and Ramblers-Iron and Wine
6. Uncle Ace-Blood Orange (That guitar step down and then the woozy horns at the end...oooh)
7. Recover-Chrvches (could have been Mother or Gun just as easily)
8. Doin' It Right-Daft Punk (featuring Panda Bear)/Giorgio by Moroder-Daft Punk (featuring Giorgio)
9. I Should Live in Salt-The National
10. New-Paul Mccartney

Top Ten Albums:

1. Pale Green Ghosts-John Grant (Top Ten of all time!  Pretty much have to listen to this all the way through everytime i put it on)
2.  Foxygen-We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
3.  Phosphorescent: Muchacho
4. Frightened Rabbit: Pedestrian Verse (maybe only one dud on the album, plus we get another whole album's worth of b-sides and i love love love "Oilslick")
5. Neon Neon-Praxis Makes Perfect
6. Volcano Choir-Repave
7. David Bowie-The Next Day ("Where are We Now? Where are We?  Now!)
8. Fitz and the Tantrums-More Than Just a Dream (love me some hall & oates)
9. OMD-English Electric
10. Sky Ferreira-Please Look at My Boobs

This Christmas

In the spirit of the season, some holiday faves (Shockingly, no real surprises and apologies for all the ads, ugh----and the awful sound in the Elton tune):

Last Christmas- Wham!  (i know, who'd have figured i'd love this one....incidentally, i have zero recollection of this song when it actually came out)


Christmas Day-Squeeze (how do i love thee, Squeeze?  Let me count the ways; great singles (reminding me of kisses), great albums (reminding me of plans), great b-sides (tonight, it's love by the fire) and an awesome christmas song (would you make me feel so).  Brilliant.

Don’t they know it’s Christmas time-Band Aid (still chills-plus i'm going to have to break out the Ultravox now)

Happy Xmas (War is Over)-John Lennon (i dunno why i was such a political kid.  but this song sure fired me up.  and i almost appreciate the Yoko vocalization these days)

Christmas time is here-Charlie Brown Christmas Special (this shouldn't break my heart, but it does)

Step into Christmas-Elton John (even though i once went to a christmas party where this song played on a continuous loop out in the front yard---i still love it---might also help that i made out with someone in said front yard while song was playing)

Wonderful Christmas time-Wings (i love me some paul mccartney- this always put me in the holiday mood)

Merry Christmas Everybody!

They Don't Write 'Em Like That Anymore

Dateline October; middle of the month wheneverish, Place; Natick, Massachusetts, Event; all day DRA improvement Kaizen (Yes, this was my third Kaizen of the year-although the first two were more or less the same instantiation---also do you feel my work pain just a little when you hear Kaizen and then you see I’m using “instantiation” in the same sentence albeit with a few too many ellipses?).  So…whatever, the day is done (cue the Flinstone’s opening credits here).

Now it’s hard day’s journey into night (evening, really) decision: Do I dine out at the Cheesecake Factory with co-workers or do I go cd/vinyl shopping?  OK so the answer is easy and pretty much 11 times out of 10 I’m going to opt for truffle hunting (but for the record, I was traveling with some enjoyable co-workers and I really did try to do both.  Blame it on the rain and the fact that the shuttle was both pretty undependable and kind of limited in range).

Not that Natick, Ma had all that many destinations for used cd/vinyl stores.  I was traveling vehicleless, so that reduced my options considerably.  If all Boston was my oyster, I’m sure I’d have gone elsewhere, but for the sake of a car, the pearl would have been lost.  So just by random luck (and a quarter of an inch difference on a pretty dubious front desk map), I got lucky; Déjà vu records (an offshoot of the Déjà vu brand in downtown Minneapolis no doubt).  Somewhere to the left and down of the Natick downtown (Natick downtown you exclaim?  Yes, I nod my head and roll my eyes at the same time---and yes I know, eventually they will stick that way).

This will surprise you, but I even called ahead to make sure the store would be open (and to make sure the store would actually even be there).  “Yes,” the voice on the other end of the line replied in an eastern european accent (I’m going with Polish, but I don’t really have an ear for it), “Ve vill stay open.  Vhen vill you be here?  How long are you in town?”  ( also, I might dispense with the phonetic spelling, because it’s slowing me down, and I don’t think I’m getting it correct anyway, just add your own eastern European accent to anything I’m attributing to the proprietress of said establishment (and you can imagine a flat Wiss-cahn-seine aaaaaaac-sent to anything I’m supposedly saying if that helps move this along at all).  

Particulars nailed down (I had until 7, but being that it was 5.15 and the place was only a half inch away on said dubious front desk map I wasn’t too worried.) I had the front desk call me a taxi (apparently, I have the front desk do everything when I travel) and then call me another taxi when 15 minutes ticked away with no first taxi (I sure hope they cancelled the first taxi….i never did go back and check).  Finally, second taxi arrives and I’m off to the record store.  (I’m only going to briefly touch upon my irrational fear that every taxi driver I’ve ever had has been taking advantage of my pocketbook by taking every side track/detour/random route to my destination to run up the bill when I’m sure it just seems that way because of my unfamiliarity with areas)  Clock ticking, meter ticking (also, why does the meter keep rising when we are sitting dead in traffic? Also, why is there so much traffic in “downtown” Natick at now nearly 6pm on a Wednesday night (also also I thought I was being super conservative by saying I could easily be there by 6.15 but sheesh it’s gonna be close)?  

Finally, we arrive at a little strip mall (the cabdriver seems as surprised as I am that we’ve reached our destination-and a little disappointed that he didn’t run my fare up to $50).  Déjà vu Records!  Hooray.  I hop out of the cab(van), pay the fare (outrageous!) and go to the front door and……it’s locked!  GRRR.  But wait….lights are still on…is there someone still there?  No, but where is she?  Oh wait, stop panicking. (also, OMG look at all the vinyl and cds packed into that place, racks on the walls, bins on the floor, stacks of vinyl all over the place, and cds here there and everywhere, I MUST GET IN THIS STORE!)  oh wait…..There’s a note you missed.  “Be back at 6.30”  OK.  Fine.  Just wait.  Stop pacing.  It’s a nice night out.  Look at the amazing sugar maple across the street.  It’s catching the sun (now setting) just right and is practically glowing (even the crappy picture my cell phone took has brilliant color.)

6.20.  6.25.  6.30 (I’m not impatient, just like to keep track of time in regular intervals) 6.35.  6.36.  6.37.  ah here comes a van and getting out of the van is a little old lady (clearly not from Pasadena)  Now I’m thinking Romanian instead of Polish, or maybe Czech (not that I’m saying she reminds me of my grandma or anything, but maybe a little).  She’s short, really short, old but maybe not as old as I think (or maybe way older), but brisk, short graying hair (but glasses, no glasses?  I can’t remember).  She gives me a big smile and points to me and says “You are the one who called, yes?”  I nod, and step aside to let her open the shop.  “you have been here before,” she asked.  I say nope and she gives me a quick rundown, the jist of which is that the place is wall to wall (floor to floor, ceiling to ceiling, I don’t want to say music hoarders, but there could be an A&E episode here, and I couldn’t say I didn’t see myself just a little in the place) music and that if there is a structure or organization to the place, it defies my western sensibilities.  But it is amazing.  The first thing that caught my eye was a Cybil Shepard album from the 70’s.  not saying that interested me (or that it has any value) but that’s what I saw. 

And then it all becomes a blur.  I asked if I could see her cd’s and she led me to racks towards the back of the store.  Three big shelves stacked every which way with music.  I’d no sooner finished the first row of the first rack when she dropped a box of cds at my feet and said, “More music in here.  You like Led Zeppelin?”  so I started pawing through that box.  Then she hauled another box from behind the counter.  “More here.”  Once I got through those boxes (interesting, and some close calls, but no holy grails), I went back to the racks and she hauled a handful of more cds back to me, “You want Classical? (No), “You want Jazz?” (not really but I need to look just in case), “You want Rap” (I’m getting the feeling that these aren’t really questions anymore but declarative sentences.)  “You want 60’s” (ah, what have we here, Chad Mitchell Trio on Collector’s Choice….thank you very much.  “You like box sets.” and shows me a shelf with a ton of boxed sets all akimbo.

Now I’m starting to get in the zone.  (is there music playing?  I don’t think so.  Just the fevered beat of a record hounds breathing) I’m able to get a row or two looked at while she is rummaging around the store looking for more random cds to have me look at.  (also, I forgot to mention, the driver of the van that brought her back to the store?  Apparently a customer, that she bummed a ride from, cos he’s digging through vinyl at the front of the store and she’s keeping him in steady supply as well (but it’s really me she giving all her attention to cos he’s a young punk customer who doesn’t love music like I love music)  Time blurs, space distorts, I’ve contorted my body into alternative dimensions to see every angle of music presented to me; spines upright, flat, angled, full on, backwards, I shape to the music.  Not sure why I am in a rush, guess I have this 7pm close time in my head and I want to get through everything before she tells me she has to close shop for the night  and I’ll have missed some vital piece of music I have wanted all my life and it was just on the one shelf I didn’t get to, stacked sidewise behind the donna summer anthology that I’m holding in my hands (didn’t get it, but I should have maybe…although I don’t think there is anything unusual on that collection).  THUNK, she drops another box of cds at my feet and starts handing me mitts full of cds.  “You like this?  (I think it was a cd of the ray coniff singers or somesuch, or maybe it was a herb alpert-which would have been good 5 years ago). 

OH BUT WAIT….WHAT HAVE WE HERE?  “Hard to Find 45’s on CD”  Volume 1.  unopened?  Well…all right, then.  That’s a nice one (I would have texted Melloy, but I’m pretty sure that not only is this place full of 70’s music, it actually is the 70’s (some kind of weird time well) and cell phones haven’t been invented yet or it’s just an extension of the fact that I didn’t have much cell phone coverage anywhere in Natick).  So I’m getting a little stack going, and I’m looking at stuff faster and faster (in the zone, in the zone) and I’m keeping an eye on the clock and I’m also thinking about my co-workers at Cheesecake Factory (but not thinking about Cheesecake Factory if you get my drift).  And I start to think, what is that funny feeling in my lower back, what time is it, where am I and how did I get here and oh my god, it’s dark outside and I sure hope I can get back to the hotel from out here in the middle of nowhere (a mile from Natick city center). 

So I stand up and kind of check my surroundings and think I could get lost in this place if I keep at it.  Seeing me pause, the owner (at least I assume she’s the owner) pulls a binder off the counter and brings it to me.  “You no find what you want?  Maybe you find it in here.  What are you looking for?”  I mention something about “Buckingham/Nicks” vinyl and she gets a faraway look in her eyes and taps the bridge of her nose.  “I might have it.  You look at book, I check in closet.”  This book is filled with all kinds of requests for vinyl from across the world.  People apparently send her wish lists and when she finds something she mails it out to them.  (I get the impression she isn’t on amazon or ebay, like I said…70’s baby, 70’s)

Alas, she can’t find the Buckingham/Nicks album.  “You make list and send to me and I put in book and mail you when I find,” she says assuredly (and I know she would find it an mail it to me.)  I’m maybe winding down a bit from my rush, so I just start randomly browsing the vinyl bins.  Melloy would freak out.  Tons of cool vinyl (Martin Briley, Van of course,….ooh, I’m tempted, but such a drag to transport).  She brings me out another little stack, “Good stuff, good stuff,” she states as I flip through it.  It is some fairly new stuff (and good at that---a couple MFSL things I should have grabbed but didn’t) but I can tell I’m saturated and winding down.  “I think I’m done looking,” I tell her and I fell like she’s just getting started and is disappointed I’m such a record slacker (her driver is still going full bore).  “How far is it  to the city center from here?”  “You are done,” she states, clearly thinks I can’t be serious.  “You not find what you want?”  (now I feel like I’ve let her down personally.)  “This is great,” I reply, but I need to get back to the hotel.  “oh, ok,” she says, still not at all convinced that I have seen everything (clearly I haven’t scratched the surface of this place).  “I call you cab, they pick you up.”

Once she’s rung me a cab, I show here the cds I’ve grabbed (only 4 surprisingly, for all the stuff I’ve looked at) and she kinda sniffed at them, like she expected more of me (although I am very delighted with all my choices).  “How much,” I ask. And she looks again and says, “two, three dollars.” So I give her three fives.  “No No,” she goes, all together.  Well that’s just crazy, but she won’t take my money, so I pull a five out and give her ten and she takes that (which is still completely crazy.)  but I guess we are both happy.  So I’m just idly flipping through vinyl and enjoying the store, waiting for my taxi.  She gives me a little sheet of paper with the contact info on it and tells me to make her a list of what I want and she will find it and to definitely come by again if I am back in town.  As the taxi arrives I negotiate the vinyl stacked pathways through the front of the store and head off into the night.

What a cool, fun store.  Reminds me of when the twin cities used to have mom and pop music stores all over the place (Garage d’or, platters, rockit records, northern lights) and that first rush when I’d go there, not knowing the place or what they’d have and what I might find.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my cheapos, fetuses and even my down in the valleys, but there used to be so much more to it all (and I sure wish I could go back to me too when it was all so new and I was being shaped by the music so much more).  But still…Déjà vu was so wonderful, not so much for what I found music wise (although I found great stuff and I’m sure there’s still great stuff there waiting to be discovered) as for what I found spiritually I guess (if that’s not too religious or anything).  The owner was so great and appealing and seemed to be having as much fun as I was having.  Gotta file that one away for a rainy day, and if I ever had a music store (or at least a music store in my mind) I’d hope I’d have a little bit of what she was giving away.