Wednesday, January 7, 2009

You let me drink your blood, I'll let you lick my wounds


The post about Love yesterday stemmed from an article in the Oxford American music issue about Arthur Lee after Forever Changes. There are two actually, one a survey of his post 1970 career, the other an account of being in Lee's final band lineup, both worth reading. I recognize it is a continuation of vanity to keep touting that magazine I am in, but really, the OA music issues are all ones I keep reading, and they continually send me places I wouldn't likely find on my own.

And, just to underscore that, the reminder about the launch party on Jan 23 at the Ground Zero Club in Clarksdale popped up in Facebook. And the CD for that issue was sitting next to my computer at work as I pondered what to listen to. I think letting an informed wind blow you around is large part of experiencing the forever that is always, always changing.

That's what compilations and these subscription services should do: sucker you in with the one loose connection you have, a tiny link analogous to that among amino acids forming proteins which, and use that link in the same manner to form a life. So an errant track by garage art-rock curiosity Insect Trust (featuring the late, great blues and music journalist Robert Palmer on recorder) coexisting on the OA CD and It Came from Memphis Volume 2 (lala) which contains its own treasures. For example, bear witness to the blues rock psychedelic mayhem of Moloach

A quick detour from searching for volume one led to this succinct psychobilly couplet from The Fat Dave Crime Wave (lala), which in their blunt rawk manner, sums up the hunt

You let me drink your blood, I'll let you lick my wounds
You write the words, I'll come up with a tune
and Howlin' Wolf, on the opening track of I Am the Wolf (lala), offers this reflection about experience that could be applied to the trophies on one's wall

Man, you know I've enjoyed some things that kings and queens will never have
In fact, kings and queens can't never get
And they don't even know about

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