Albums That Kick Ass: Dinosaur Jr. "You're Living All Over Me"

In 1987, I was finishing up 10th grade and as is customary for a 16 year old, I listened to a ton of music.  It was right around this time that I began to accelerate my drift away from radio-friendly pop and dig a little deeper into what was then being called "college rock."  To get a clear picture of this transformation that was taking place between my ears, please consider the awkward step I took into the world of CDs.

My first CD purchases were Madonna's eponymous debut, Tina Turner's "Private Dancer," and Herbie Hancock's, "Futureshock."  These long-box classics were chosen from the limited selection of the earliest CD releases, as I received my first CD player in 1985.  Only major albums from major artists made their way onto this exclusive and expensive format.  

To make CDs even less convenient, I couldn't take my music with me.  Portable CD players did not exist and I was one of the last of my friends to get a car.  Can you believe the Aries K did not have a CD player?  Because of this, my music purchases leaned towards vinyl and cassette tapes, and my preferred places to shop were Atlantic Sounds in Daytona Beach (still kicking, but someone needs to design them a better website) and a now-defunct record store in the Daytona Beach Mall (across from the long-defunct AMC 6).  

It was in these shops that I started buying stuff that, to me, bucked the ordinary sounds coming from the radio and MTV.  Think about how absolute shitty radio music was at that time (apologies to U2, who do not deserve to be on this chart):

1. "Faith".....George Michael

2. "Alone".....Heart

3. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" .....Whitney Houston

4. "C'est la Vie".....Robbie Nevil

5. "Shake You Down".....Gregory Abbott

6. "La Bamba".....Los Lobos

7. "Livin' On A Prayer".....Bon Jovi

8. "Here I Go Again".....Whitesnake

9. "Heaven Is A Place On Earth".....Belinda Carlisle

10. "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life".....Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

11. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now".....Starship

12. "I Think We're Alone Now".....Tiffany

13. "With Or Without You".....U2

14. "At This Moment".....Billy Vera and the Beaters

15. "Keep Your Hands To Yourself".....Georgia Satellites

16. "Heart And Soul".....T'Pau

17. "Open Your Heart".....Madonna

18. "Didn't We Almost Have It All".....Whitney Houston

19. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".....U2

20. "Looking For A New Love".....Jody Watley

21. "Don't Dream It's Over".....Crowded House

22. "Is This Love".....Whitesnake

23. "Shake Your Love".....Debbie Gibson

24. "Shakedown".....Bob Seger

25. "Notorious".....Duran Duran

Are all of these songs terrible?  Of course not (dude...."Shake You Down."), but The Kid was heading elsewhere.  I spent a good deal of my part-time earnings on great early-alternative stuff (and wine coolers, pot pies, and the Wendy's Super Buffet) like R.E.M.'s "Murmur," Hoodoo Guru's "Mars Needs Guitars," Public Image Limited's "Album/CompactDisk/Cassette," The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" amongst others.  But one album that really rocked my ears, challenged my taste, questioned my sanity, and helped me understand why it was I got pimples and couldn't grow a muscle to save my life was Dinosaur Jr.'s "You're Living All Over Me."

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not my favorite album.  I also continued to devour all things Springsteen.  Hell, I got stuck with an occasional Baltimora or Glass Tiger album.  But it was Dinosaur Jr.'s 2nd album that sounded like the myriad of confusing elements spinning around in my teenage head.  Who needed muscles when you could kick ass with a guitar like J. Mascis? J's command of his guitar is so powerful on this album that I am pretty sure on a couple of occasions, the guitar shit itself.

  

The album is loud without being metal, self-reflective without being pathetic, and it is filled with enough feedback to nourish the guitar hungry.  It's impossible to talk about this album and not make it a personal reflection on 1987.  A reviewer from Stylus Magazine said it best when describing their sound on "You're Living All Over Me" as a "confused mess: emotionally distangled yet intensely felt, indolent and passive yet capable of incredible fury and volume." Whiney, self-centered, loud. confused, and put together with low-end equipment.  Yep, that was The Kid at age 16 and I thank Dinosaur Jr. for somehow assisting in making that seem normal in retrospect.

1987 highlights

Don't Get AIDS

Keith Smart Makes 1987 worth living

"Tear Down This Wall"

The Care Bears

They went bankrupt.  Really?

Rap begins to ruin America

$24 for the 28th President

In spite of a long week of work-related travel, Haley and I took a road trip this weekend and headed over to Blacksburg, VA.  To be honest, there was a purpose to our adventure: the world's worst traveler, yours truly, had left his luggage at a hotel near Blacksburg on Thursday, so I had to go back to retrieve it.  Yes, this was a pain in the ass, but in the spirit of "making lemonade out of lemons," we agreed to make the best of my mistake.

On Friday, we ate at a pizza place in Blacksburg called "Backstreets," which I was disappointed to find out was in no way related to the Bruce Springsteen song.  Nothing to see here, sir, move along.  The food was mediocre.

Not sure why, but Superman was in a phone booth in front of our hotel in Christiansburg.

On Saturday morning, we shopped at a local Farmer's Market in Blacksburg.  This did not disappoint, as we came away with some good stuff to include strawberries, cherries, apples, rhubarb, butter lettuce, asparagus, radishes, garlic scapes, and oregano.  This pretty much guarantees that Haley is going to cook some sweet eats this week.   The $20 investment should pay solid dividends.  We then stopped by the Tech Bookstore (work never ends) and after that headed home.

The drive from Blacksburg to West Point was a little over four hours, so we stopped about half-way to grab some lunch.  Not being in a hurry, we stopped in Staunton, VA to see if there was any local places to grab a bite to eat (this was after we made it all the way up to a McDonald's drive-through before coming to our senses).  Staunton is a nice little mountain town, with an interesting historic district that includes Mary Baldwin College, the Frontier Culture Museum, a Shakespeare Playhouse, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.

Much like moths to the the flame, we parked the car and walked straight to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum.  I have never been to a Presidential Library, and being a History buff, this seemed like a good opportunity to experience something cool. Recently, there has been a lot of talk surrounding Presidential Libraries, to include the news that George W. Bush had raised more than $100 million for his museum (hey, don't blame me, I voted for Nader and then Kerry).

From the outside, it seemed really nice.  As we originally drove by, we saw a marble bust of the Progressive Era President in the window of a beautiful old house with perfectly manicured landscaping (and some adjacent historical-looking buildings).  We strolled up some stairs and entered the Gift Shop, which is where you start the Woodrow Wilson experience.  After paying $12 each (more than we spent at the Farmer's Market), we proceeded to the museum and subsequent tour.  I thought, "this shit had better be good for $24."  But. hey, it takes $100 million dollars to build one of these things, right?

We started by looking at his Presidential limousine (keep in mind this dude was President in the 1910's, so a car is a big deal). I have to admit, old Woodrow had a sweet ride.

We started to look around the museum, and the suspicions began to set in.  Maybe it was the foam-core board with copy paper placards next to some of the exhibits.  Or maybe it was these sweet listening stations (any idea where the theatre and/or animatronic wax Woodrow might be?).

Our mounting disappointment was interrupted by an announcement that the tour of President Wilson's "birth home" was about to begin.  Sweet, this should be good, right?  Well, come to find out, Wilson only lived in the house the first year of his life so he did not exactly leave his mark on the place.  I can barely remember any of the tour except the plastic bacon and eggs on the table in the children's dining room.  

We blazed through the slave quarters in record time, with only a brief mention that the slaves were not owned by the Wilsons, but that they came with the home, as it was a Presbyterian Manse (Woodrow's father was a minister, who by-the-way, the year after Woodrow was born moved to Augusta where he vehemently defended The Confederacy and slavery).

Somewhere around this time, I whispered to Haley, "have you ever just wanted to run?"  She answered "Run through the museum?"  No dear, "make a run for it.  You know, run away as fast as you can."  But, being the Presidential scholars that we are, we braved on and back into the museum we went.  Overall, I was pretty shocked at how amateur the whole thing was.  The marble bust?That was just plaster that was dirtied with a nice long red streak on its side.

We did learn about the start of WWI, women's suffrage, Wilson's racist leanings ("Progressive" eh?), mustard gas, labor laws, 1910's politics, and Wilson's 14 Points.  

During the 2008 elections, we heard a lot about Clinton Library donations and as I already mentioned, George W. Bush has raised more than $100 million for his.  I would have liked to judge the Woodrow Wilson Library for its books, but that part is blocked off and only available to research scholars through appointment (apparently, they were unaware that I am The Kid.) 

The Woodrow Wilson Library and Museum needs some serious cash.  Considering he is considered a major President (he isn't exactly Lincoln, but he ain't John Tyler either), can they not come up with something interesting for this place?  Maybe a theatre or some robotic WWI soldiers?  Maybe a roller-coaster with mini Presidential limousines? Real bacon and eggs? Could his birth bed shake like the one in "The Exorcist?"

But all was not lost.  I did receive an invitation to the 1912 Democratic National Convention.  I think that I might be a little late.  Then again, I do plan on voting for Eugene Debs anyway.....

Also, I invented something today.  I call it "pickle on a potato chip."

John Tyler

Pickles

Ranking the Presidents

Presidential Humor

Bruce Springsteen: Hershey Park, PA 5/15/09

To truly know and understand Kidjite, you must know Bruce Springsteen.  To say that Bruce is my favorite artist is like saying that oxygen is what I like to breathe.  When I did a DNA test a while back, they found that I had the "E Street Chromosome."  For the 2nd time on the "Working On A Dream" tour, I saw Bruce Springsteen live, this time in Hershey Park, PA, "the land of candy."

There is one person on Earth that I know for a fact understands what Bruce means to me, and that is my big brother, David.  David and I have been to a bunch of Bruce shows over the years, beginning with a pilgrimage to Miami in 1985 for the "Born in the USA" tour.  For more than two decades, The Brothers Johnson have congregated for a rock and roll baptism led by the house-rocking, pants-dropping, brain-shocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, lovemaking, sexifying, electrifying E Street Band! So, it is only fitting that I attended this show with David.

  (David outside Charlottesville show)

Almost immediately upon arrival, it was obvious that this was not going to be an ordinary Springsteen show.  First of all, the setting was remarkable, almost surreal.  Getting to Hershey Park around 5:30 meant that while Bruce disciples were just starting to get antsy with anticipation, the adjacent amusement park was winding down for the day.  Balding, pudgy, young-at-heart fanatics heading one way and exhausted families toting leftover cotton candy and queezy stomachs slinking the other.  The show was, of course, sold out, which meant that a crowd of 30,000+ would be on-hand to see the first outdoor concert of the tour.

(see how excited I was?)

Hershey Park Stadium is an odd place, built in the 1950's and serves mostly as a high-school football stadium.  The facility itself is uh....shitty....with horrible bathrooms, narrow entrances, and only bleachers in the stands and folding chairs on the field.  But as Bruce proclaimed during the middle of "Working On A Dream," their mission was to "take desperate times and build them into a house of love...use the bad news and make it good news," so as soon as the house lights went off and the band walked on stage to chants of "Bruuuuuuce," that facility was incidental.

Tonight was Jay Weinberg's 2nd full show as the E Street drummer and just like his Dad, he brought the thunder.  In fact, the 18 year old (who bears a striking resemblance to Animal from Sesame Street) brought a level of energy and enthusiasm that you could tell even Bruce appreciated.  Jay's performance was impressive and provided yet another "sideshow" in this carnival of rock.  Patty was once again absent (cheers from some) from the band, but the addition of two background singers more than cover for her.  Clarence, sometimes sitting in a throne off to the side, was his usual awesome, especially during his whistling solo.

Bruce and the band played for nearly 3 hours and 27 songs, starting with the stadium anthem "Badlands" and finishing with a heartfelt "Bobby Jean."  Highlights included "Twist and Shout" (crowd request), "Trapped", "Rosalita," "Thunder Road", and of course "Born to Run."  As is becoming a live staple, Nils Lofgren wowed the crowd with a strong guitar solo during "The Ghost of Tom Joad," spinning, twisting, and squeezing every ounce of rock from his guitar.  Several times I felt that spine tingling, nearly tearful wave of emotion that I only feel with Bruce on stage and my brother nearby.  Two moments that get me every time: when "Thunder Road" breaks into the line "what else can we do now, except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair" and the anticipatory pause in "Born to Run" before Bruce screams "the highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power-drive."  

It's hard to believe that Bruce is nearly 60 years old.  His energy would shame the youngest of rock bands.  Shit, its hard to believe I am 38 and David is 40.  But once again, my faith in the healing powers of music, brought to us by my longtime hero, rejuvenated my spirits and rocked my face off.

Now, about that horrible gas that David had on the way home.....

Setlist:

Badlands
Spirit In The Night
Outlaw Pete
Radio Nowhere
Out In The Street
Twist & Shout
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Give The Girl A Kiss
Trapped
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Backstreets
Kingdom Of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

Hard Times
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Land Of Hope And Dreams
American Land
Rosalita
Bobby Jean

Video from the show:

Outlaw Pete

Trapped

Thunder Road

Born To Run

The shirt I paid too much money for: