Real Life Rock (14 page)

10
WFMU-FM,
Lowest Common Denominator
,
Fall '86 (Upsala College, East Orange, NJ)
Fanzine from the left-side dial spot (91.1) already described in these pages as “The #1 Choice of Lowlife Scum.” There's an homage to Bobby Sherman, a poem about Vince Everett (Elvis in
Jail-house Rock
), serious analysis of pop trends, and, completing our survey of contemporary religion, a summation of what it means to live in a world where God is dead, “
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE FOR DODGE DARTRE
,” a flyer apparently scavenged from a telephone pole in Seattle, which plumbs the black hole of existential vertigo even better than Wire. Sartre: “In my journey to the end of the night, I must rely not only on dialectical paths of reason. I must have a good solid automobile, one that eschews the futile trappings of wordly ennui and asks only for the most basic maintenance. My Dodge Dartre offers me this basic solace, and as interior parts fall off I am struck by the realization of their pointlessness. I may not know if the window is up or down. It is of no consequence.”

FEBRUARY
10, 1987

1
Minutemen,
“ballot result”
(SST retrospective, 1980–85)
This is what was left after guitarist D. Boon lost his life in late '85: two LPs worth of demos, outtakes, stage tapes, audience cassettes, radio checks, and Mike Watt's bloody charge into Roky Erickson's “Bermuda.” A few album cuts have been thrown in for continuity, and the upshot is, if not the best Minutemen set, the most accessible and the most fun. Yes, they really were the Grateful Dead of punk (replacing karma with politics, faith with irony, boogie with rage, folkiness with artiness), and also the Beach Boys, and also their fans.

2
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, “Two Hearts,” from
Live/1975–85
(Columbia)
This ought to be a single—with a live “I'm Goin' Down” on the flip.

3
Pauline Murray and the Storm, “New Age” (Polestar, UK)
Murray sang Penetration's generic punk manifesto “Don't Dictate” ten years ago, and she's been chasing her own voice ever since: dreamy, sweet, playful, confused, lyrical, above all naïve. It's all in her tone; from “Dream Sequence” in 1980 to now, she's answered questions no one else is even asking.

4
Larry Speakes, White House Press Briefing, January 8
Which he opened by playing a tape of “That's All Right (Mama).” And continued by announcing that while he had no new information on the president, reporters could ask him “anything at all about the King.”

5
Sun Records,
The Country Years, 1950–1959
(Sun/Bear Family, W. Germany)
Unlike the Sun
Blues Years
box, which was an epic, this spectacularly packaged, over-priced ten-LP set is an ordinary story; its deepest themes aren't refusal and desire, but acceptance and routine. So you reduce your expectations, and notice small but gleaming anomalies, the product of an ordinary story being pushed just beyond itself,
or given perfect shape. This might be Howard Seratt's quiet folk-gospel, the rare sound of a man at peace with himself, or Cash King and the Miller Sisters' “Can't Find Time to Pray,” so delicate it almost hides its sting: “You must find time to die.”

6
Eddie Money, “Bring on the Rain,” from
Can't Hold Back
(Columbia)
Gene Pitney lives.

7
Julee Cruise, “Mysteries of Love,” from
Blue Velvet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Varèse Sarabande)
Sort of like Laurie Anderson's “O Superman”—as composed by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, and performed by Rosie and the Originals.

8
Muslim Gaze,
Hajj
(Limited 4, UK)
This may be the first disc inspired by the Iran debacle, and simply as an artifact, it has an ominous power. The combination of the all-knowing face of Khomeni on the front cover, what seems to be the baffled, scared face of Reagan on the back, and the title—as Mike Watt says on
“ballot result,”
“one title is worth a million lyrics,” and
Hajj
doesn't have any.

9
Los Lobos,
By the Light of the Moon
(Slash)
Fine. But not superfine.