2 posts tagged “los angeles”
I wrote before about the Streetlight $20 Challenge by the Young Ones (self-described as 2 hookers and a blow job queen). I added another 3 albums and I'm still above the $10 mark.
The first purchase, clocking in at $3.95 is a CD release by X, with their first two albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift.
Your Phone Is Off The Hook, But Your'e Not!
X ~ Los Angeles
I chose this opening track principally because for thousands of us, these opening chords and Exene's wailing and minor-key harmonies ushered something different, something that would not only influence, but infect music for decades to come. Besides, there has never been a cooler name for any band, anywhere. Never.
I was prepared to go with the better known title track of this album, as it's such a great story of disillusionment with L.A. This sentiment is paralleled in my wife's favorite song of all time - Midnight Train To Georgia. Same idea of failing in the 'big' pond, executed as differently as could be. Nobody cares enough to follow this one when she leaves.
The second purchase, at $1.95 is a compilation by the Isley Brothers, with the funk anthems "Fight The Power" and "It's Your Thing", worth the price of admission alone. Add to that the ultra smooth groove of "For The Love Of You" and you've struck gold for under 2 bucks. This is my third favorite "cruising an L.A. freeways late at night in my uncle's sweet Lincoln Mk.V" song...more on this later...
The Streetlight Challenge rolls on. Hop in, I still got more than $10 on this mofo.
400 Bucks
Reverend Horton Heat ~ Holy Roller
I had a great childhood. Growing up in the OH10 ruled, but we didn't realize it at the time. Our family was tight, my parents very benevolent, and hard working. They always and encouraged us, instilling a work ethic and providing the opportunity to work ourselves through college.
My grandparents had some land in the country and a "farm" that routinely lost money, leaving them to rely on their industrial day jobs and pensions. They had little money, but a few horses, a couple of cows, chickens, and a new litter of dogs every spring. Helluva fun hobby, if you didn't mind outdoor plumbing clear through the 1980s. For us kids, this regular exposure to animals and untamed nature (much of the land was untillable) was truly a great gift. We were richer than any city kid.
Ohioans, (like denizens of other states, I'm sure) had the uncanny ability to be AWARE of the rest of the world, inspiring most of its spawn to flee, due in a large part to industrial prosperity coupled with union benefits and (hard-earned) wages to fund college educations and subsequent exodus.
I'm sure I'm not the only kid who SURELY knew where the action was...California. I mean, we learned about it on TV. All the old car magazines. Where do you think that Hot Rod cover shot was taken? We guessed Glendale or somewhere with lots of talented aerospace fabricators with union wages and disposable income. We thought this normal in California!
My aunt lived in L.A. and we used to visit every five years. For us kids, this was THE BEST. She lived on Sycamore St. a few blocks from CBS and the Farmer's Market. She grew up sweet as pie in Ohio, arriving in L.A. the day before JFK was assassinated. A decade later, she was hard-drinkin', foul mouthed, jaded as hell and drove a sleek, metallic gun-metal grey Studebaker Hawk. In short, the coolest aunt in the world!
Curse words, racial epithets, diner discourse on gang wars, freeway etiquette and a deep distain for religious fervor were polite dinner conversation. Not P.C., by any stretch of the imagination, but some entertainment!
One group she never criticized were gays. She had tons of friends who
were gay and she loved them like her own family. She once described
this amnesty from cynical condemnation, "It's none of my fucking
business what you do in your personal life. What matters is whether
you're a good person, not like all these 'Me first!' types we've got
out here."
Besides, when we were 15, she'd let us have beer, or Kalua if we hadn't the taste for bitter resentment yet. In the decades that followed, her door was always open and any friend of ours was a friend of hers, subjected to force feeding ham sandwiches or freshly-grilled ribeye steaks at midnight and emptying half a refrigerator shelf of Michelob Pure class.
She's irreverent, profane, and outspoken...with a heart of gold.
