(blogger’s note; This post was originally an e-mail sent to a few close friends of mine that Colin thought would make a good Pencil Storm entry, so I’m going with it. I have been informed that it is potentially offensive to the faint-of-heart, so if you fit that category PLEASE stop reading right now, I don’t need the grief. The song is politically incorrect, but certainly not obscene. I suppose the song is sexist, as - let’s face facts - A LOT of good rock & roll before our oh-so-homogenized/desex-itized 21st century was; but I was raised by The Rolling Stones, The MC5 and The Patti Smith Group, so just live with it, capice?)
As some of you know, my lovely wife Debbie is away for three weeks visiting her family in New Jersey. As such I have found myself pulling out 45 rpm singles I haven't listened to IN YEARS, blasting them through the condo and (likely) annoying the neighbors no end.
In that circumstance I’ve GOTTA SHARE this single with all of you.......
FACT: When I was 16 in 1968 I loved The MC5 AND Joni Mitchell the exact same amount. As much as I enjoyed having my brain melted by the bone-crunching proto-punk/metal POWER of Rob, Fred, Wayne, Michael & Dennis, I also dearly LOVED Joni's melodies & lyrics. Were they rock & roll poetry? No, they were lyrics, there's a difference; something that - tragically - jag-off rock writers of the Jann Wenner ilk didn’t seem to realize. Therefore lightweight singer/songwriter hackmeisters from David Crosby to that guy who calls himself Iron & Wine got christened as "rock poets."
THIS is rock & roll poetry.......
"You know that things will never be the same
When I give you my last name
And just because you let me play with your poozle
Don't mean I'm the type to bamboozle"
Lenny Kaye / 1980
Ladies & gentlemen, cats & kittens, I present to you Lenny Kaye; right-hand man of (rock poet) Patti Smith and rocker extraordinaire.......
ps. While we’re on the subject of rock & roll and sexism; The Rolling Stones dropped “Brown Sugar” from the set in their current tour because of “racist & sexist overtones” in the lyrics, but KEPT “Midnight Rambler” - a song largely about raping & murdering women - as a CENTERPIECE of the show?
What is up with that? And - simultaneously - thank you Keith & Mick.