Bradley's Buzz

Today's Bubbatune - Concrete Blonde

Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano is a goddess in my eyes. She has a way of taking a three-minute rock song and transporting you into a crazed little world where only the strong can survive. Through out her long career, Johnette has turned her attentions to her love/hate relationship with the city of Los Angeles. Now I've always wanted to be a part of that city, so it's with great joy I declare, "I'm Still In Hollywood" but there was a time when I thought I was going to end up shipped back to Wisconsin, so let's listen to Concrete Blonde and take a journey back in time to summer 2000, when my dreams of living the La La Life in La La Land forced me to have a sabbatical in Lancaster, CA.

CONCRETE BLONDE - Haunted In Hollywood 1986-2002
Album art design by Bradley Jacobson

Track List:
01. Heal It Up
02. Ghost Of A Texas Ladies'Man
03. Tomorrow Wendy
04. TRUE
05. ...Long Time Ago
06. The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden
07. Rain
08. Someday?
09. Little Sister
10. Free
11. Probably Will
12. Still In Hollywood
13. Happy Birthday
14. Take Me Home
15. 100 Games Of Solitaire
16. Little Conversations
17. Roses Grow
18. Joey
19. God Is A Bullet
20. Everybody Knows
21. (The Only One Can) Make Me Cry
22. Why Don'tYou See Me?

THE STORY -
I moved to Los Angeles in May of 2000 riding the Greyhound from Spokane with only a suitcase, $60 in my pocket and a dream. Luckily, I had a place to stay as my good pal Brian had just moved into his own swinging bachelor pad, and I had one last paycheck coming from my job as a mental health worker (don't laugh) so I figured I'd be all right.

The problem with having a great attitude and firmly believing things will all work out is that sometimes life gets in the way of that ideal, and fucks you up. If not forever, at least for a little while, and so it was when I came to LA.

It was with great enthusiasm I arrived in Los Feliz. We walked into Brian's one room bachelor apartment with no kitchen, no furniture, only a stereo and an array of classic literature but I felt it was Heaven for I was in Hollywood!

After only a week in town, I had received several phone calls for job interviews. I had an interview in Santa Monica and actually got the job so I thought I was meant to be in town. However, due to a bad bus route (typical LA) I didn't make it to my first day of work and figured if it was so damn easy to find a job in LA,
I'd have no problem finding something else.

I was wrong. Of course it didn't help that those resumes stopped warranting phone calls. But that's all for another story for this is a take on something else.

As I waited day after day in Brian's little one room apart endlessly waiting for a job, there was one obstacle neither Brian nor I had counted on - none other than the very worst of the immigrant building managers, Brian's next-door neighbor Roget.

Roget, it seems had been watching me for the course of my visit at Apartment #1. In Roget's managerial mind was the fact the lease stated explicitly that any visitor over 15 days is subject to a 15% rent increase. That would add $160 to Brian's rent. Of course with Brian owing $600 to the city of Beverly Hills for an earlier ordeal involving Brian stomping on a police officer's foot, he didn't have the money. So that left little Brad without a car, money or home. Needless to say it was when the shit hit the fan, only this time I was the feces heading towards the blades.

Luckily, we had one last resort - our friend Toby who lived across the Apple Valley in the land of Lancaster, CA. Lancaster is a small shit hole of a town in the desert - no offense to those people who live there, but Gawd, what a horrid place. It's Coeur d' Alene without the lake, mountains, trees and grass. Oh wait, I take that back, Lancaster does have grass - lots and lots of grass and enough crystal junkies to fill Lake Coeur d' Alene. Although I should say there was the saving grace that I wasn't being driven out to the desert in a trunk as I had always thought I might be.

Instead Toby was coming to get me in his pale purple Camaro. I know you're probably thinking Chevy made a pale purple Camaro. Well, no they did not. But Toby and a few gallons of Mautz paint made a pale purple Camaro.

Anyway, because living in Lancaster is way less expensive than living any where near Los Angeles, Toby had a huge, nice, air-conditioned apartment. After breaking up with "the love of his life" for that week, he needed some help and Brian offered up my services. Not that I was going to be of much help, but at least I had a place to stay.

Again, I made the boastful statement that this was again Heaven on earth for me. Toby had two bedrooms, and gasp! Furniture. Something that eluded Brian and I. Toby had a working phone, a computer and a full kitchen. The luxuries were endless to me and the irony of living in the middle of a desert with full amenities as opposed to living in the middle of LA with nothing was not lost on me.

I decided I needed to take a few breaths of that hot desert air and embrace my new life. If I couldn't have the city life, I was willing to make the best of it. I mean it wasn't like I hadn't been through worse. I decided I was going to get my little ass a job and love it, no matter how mundane it may be. Toby's house was going to be my new sanctuary and I was going to have it all. If only I could figure out how we were going to eat until then.

A thought that had played out in mrecurredough many desperate money woes reoccurred - Labor Ready. Anyone not familiar with this establishment should take note. Labor Ready is a temp agency for the workingman. You go there at 5:30 in the morning and they find you some kind of labor work for that day. You do the work, you finish the day and they pay you. It's very barbaric and not very Brad like at all, but hey I needed money to buy that bottle of water I so desperately hoped for.

In the meantime, I had a friend of Brian's working for me in LA, trying to get me a real temp job. Something a little more glamorous than painting stripes on the highway and something a little closer to civility, like something near Brian's little apartment where I could go back to drinking and partying in LA with my Bri Bri.

I fought and fought over the idea of actually going to Labor Ready while Toby was all for it. Some people have no pride. (Or they just have a real job ethic) After a week of calling that LA temp agency and smoking roll your own cigarettes, I gave in and I told Toby I would go with him to Labor Ready in the morning.

I agreed to this idea out of obligation. Toby had given me a place to stay, Brian had given me a place to stay and I had done nothing to really contribute. I did it for Toby, I did it for Brian, I did it for myself. I was jonesing for a real cigarette and couldn't wait to cash that $39 check at the end of the day.

The Lancaster Labor Ready experience is something I will never forget for as long as I don't have Alzheimer's. I was up at 5 in the morning, only because Toby didn't believe I was still sleeping after smacking me with a pillow 18 times. After showering, cursing my life and stealing a cup of coffee from the apartment lobby, we hopped in that pale purple Camaro and headed to Labor Ready.

The moment we pulled up to the Godforsaken place I knew I was doomed. Dressed in their grungiest "who gives a shit I want to pile crap for a living" clothing stood the entire male population of Lancaster. I realized I didn't have a shot at a job with all these guys just itching for the chance to clean out someone's gutter.

Once the doors opened, we sat and waited along with all the other guys. Luckily, they had coffee and I was just coming alive when Angela, a stupid powdered head blonde with an Agnetha Falkstad hairdo (and this time I mean that in a bad way) told us there weren't any jobs for that day. I must admit I was slightly, okay greatly relieved.

As I was finishing up my free cup of coffee and ready to roll myself a cigarette, Angela gave us the great news that we could work at Magic Mountain, "a fantasy filled playground for the whole family." For some reason those happy little words filled my heart with dread. Toby said, "Great," I said, "Ugh!" and off we went to plan our wardrobe for the great Magic Mountain adventure that was coming.

My time spent on my labor ready temp job at Magic Mountain will forever be held in history as the worst day of my life. You'd think with all the horrible days of my young life it wouldn't be true, but believe me I would rather re-live the day every kid in school started calling me "fag" or the day my mother told me my dog Rusty died, or even the day a boy named Fuckface broke my heart and I broke his arm. I was even held at gunpoint while working at a sandwich shop, but none of those compare to my day of working at Magic Mountain, so get ready for a horrendous story...

We didn't have to be at Magic Mountain until 3 pm which meant I could nap first. Unfortunetly, it also meant by the time we hit the road to the place, the desert was a smooth non-breezy 189 degrees. As we drove up to that oh so magical place I began to ponder my life.

Angela had informed us our jobs would be working in a food stand. The thought of food service, of having to resort to this kind of life, began to take its toll on my already fragile nerves. I realized with heated angst that the hives were coming! Not the band, but the actual red blotches of anxiety that pop up all over my body whenever I'm forced to do something I don't want to do - like go to school in the 6th grade or date a DJ in Coeur d' Alene who doesn't drink alcohol and believed "Baby Got Back" was the epitome of dance floor anthems.

As the drive continued, I could feel my skin bubbling and waiting to display for the entire world, just how ugly one person can get. The mixture of bitterness I felt at the world, the longing to be back with Brian at the Akbar and the heat of the desert combined to make the perfect monster - ME!

By the time we reached Magic Mountain my face and body had become covered by the most hideous bumps I or anyone else had ever seen. I wanted to go back to my Mommy and I wanted to go at that very moment, but Toby and the Nazis who run Magic Mountain weren't going to call my Mom and they weren't going to drive me back to Lancaster either. It seemed I had to suffer through the ordeal and suffer I did. But I was bound and determined to make sure others suffer with me.

In fact in those horrendous eight hours I was employed at Magic Mountain, I made everyone suffer. We got our job assignments and I almost died when I heard the news. My job was to help make Funnel Cakes. If anyone doesn't know what a funnel cake let me explain. A funnel cake is a piece of deep fried crap! Okay, not really but that's how I will always think of it.

In actuality, it is sweetened pancake batter deep-fried with powder sugar poured all over it. It is the most rancid creation ever made. If it sounds good to anyone reading this, let me tell you, anyone who eats one, says anything about one or even thinks about one in my presence will be bludgeoned with a waffle iron. I was forced into slave labor over this sick confection and anyone who doubts it has never been behind the counter of a funnel cake stand.

Just writing about this experience brings back the sickly sweet smell of batter and I'm forced to look for a waste basket to spit in just as I did all those years ago. The worst part of this job scenerio was Toby and I were sent to different stands so I didn't even have a friend to bitch and complain to.

Instead I had a bunch of 16 year olds with huge white pimples barking orders at me, all of whom still looked better than me with my hives. Not wanting to talk to anyone for fear the anger may rise up and I'd be forced to shove their pimply face into the deep fryer so I did everything they asked.

They told me to clean, I cleaned. They told me to put powdered sugar on the endless grease knobs coming out of the fryer - I powdered. I did everything they told me just to get through the day so I could go home and hang myself in the oven. Then the worst part of it all happened - they told me to fry!

Apparently me working the front counter was scaring the little children. As I smiled and handed them the funnel cake, I'm sure they thought my face was going to explode. But to have me in front of a heated vat of fat? With the heat of my face already bypassing the temperature of the air, and now the deep fryer - I knew I was in the fiery pits of Hell.

Still I couldn't believe the nerve of putting me on a fryer. I was a 20something who had gone to college, I was cute (or was that morning), I was gay. I was supposed to be soaking up gin with Brian in the cool Hollywood breeze, not frying fucking fritters! I told them, "I don't fucking fry funnel cakes!" They laughed, I fried.

I tried to screw the funnel cakes up so they would take me off the fryer. All they did was show me how to do it correctly - over and over. They were Nazis but they were sure dedicated to making perfect funnel cakes. As time went on, I ran out of ways to sabotage - I mean do you realize how hard it is to screw up a funnel cake?

The people of the funnel cake maker clan, let me take a break after one too many funnel cakes resembled a male piece of anatomy. I was relieved I could take a little stroll where those lucky enough not to come into my funnel cake stand could see the freak of nature walking in the summer heat.

This is where the story took an even more tragic turn. Dying of heat and embarrassment, I ran to the local boys room to throw some water on my burning face. To spritz, to pee, to cry like a little girl. As it turns out if I was a little girl I would've been in the right place. Instead I was a man with quarter-sized hives on his face standing in the woman's bathroom!

Befuddled I ran out of the bathroom and made my way around to the back of a tree where security couldn't see me. I really had no choice but to go back to the funnel cake stand from which I came.

At around 10:30 at night, it had finally began to cool off outside. However, hovered over the deep fryer I certainly couldn't tell. Toby stopped at my stand to find me huddled and crying next to the cherry topping canisters. He reached for my hand and laughed until his face turned redder than mine. He thought my plight of horror was very humorous. He informed me that he "didn't really mind" making funnel cakes.

"Don't really mind!" I screamed. I was in a rage. My own friend couldn't see the treachery that was afoot. How these funnel cake maker people had tried to kill me, how they were trying to take over my mind with every sprinkle of powdered sugar that fell. They looked down on me because I didn't enjoy the funnel cake making lifestyle.

So I did what any self-appreciating funnel cake hating homosexual would do. I threw a huge hissy fit - I threw my fists in the air, I wailed, I cried, I screamed - I was led out of Magic Mountain by security guards who agreed that funnel cake making sucked, but felt that still didn't make my behavior appropriate for their fantasy filled playground for the whole family.

A few days later, I got a call from the LA temp agency. I got a job in Culver City, Toby drove me back to Brian's house and I kissed the floor of that one room apartment, my Brian and that nasty yet lovable Roget.

I was back in Hollywood and I haven't left yet!


THE SONGS
In 1990, Concrete Blonde released the single "Joey" and it was the first time I had ever even heard of them. Once I got the Bloodletting album which spawned the single, I became a die hard Johnette fan.

I spent countless hours listening to everything the woman had to tell me. I played her songs for anyone who would listen and ended up creating a huge Concrete Blonde fan base in Wausau, Wisconsin.

The Concrete Blonde line up includes Johnette, Jim Mankey and when he isn't causing trouble Harry Rushakoff. As the years went by, Harry would come and go but Johnette and Jim always stayed together.

In 1994, the band broke up officially and Johnette spent her time on countless things as this is one girl who isn't lacking in creativity. With the terrible happenings of 911, the original trio regrouped and made a new album. This compilation spans the beginning of Concrete Blonde to that reunion album of 2001.

Being a word man myself, I just love a good lyric. If there is a song with a great lyric and the music that matches is just as catchy and meaningful I will love that song and the band forever. Such is the case with Johnette and Concrete Blonde. Because of the oodles of great songs, it is so hard for me to pick and choose favorite Concrete Blonde song. Every single song tells a different and interesting story. Johnette doesn't pussy foot around with standard pop fluff, instead she invites you into a world she has created. Each song is filled with vivid imagery and for a brief three to five minutes you can visit that world with her. Even when doing a cover song, it seems Johnette's high and low battle cry of a voice makes the song all her own.

I opted to open up Haunted In Hollywood, with one such battle cry. It's not a cover song but "Heal It Up" is definitely a highlight if you want to hear Johnette scream her pain. The love song takes a whole new life when Johnette feels "the pinch/feeling the void deep in your soul/feeling, oh feeling so out of control/the years have not been kind to me you know/ heal it uuuuuuup/heal it uuuuuuup." Hard hitting and painful - just the way we like it.

It's probably not shocking news to even the casual Concrete Blonde listener that the band has done its fair share of songs about the occult. They have done vampires, ghosts and just about anything else that comes to mind. Most are dark and dangerous little ditties while others like "Ghost Of A Texas Ladies' Man" actually show a humorous side to the band.

The song is actually inspired by a ghostly apparation Johnette met in a Texas hotel room, but the hard hitting drum beats, the whip cracking and the Spaghetti western guitar give the song a fun filled backdrop as Johnette sees a cowboy smile through her shower door. The cowboy fades while Johnette reaches for her "towel on the floor/I didn't think it was exactly where I'd laid it" before the chorus, "You don't scare me/you don't scare me/I said/ to whatever it was floating in the air above my bed/he knew I'd understand/he was the Ghost Of A Texas Ladies' Man."

My favorite lines come in the second verse, "I reached to turn out the light/he wouldn't let me get near it/he seemed so glad to see a woman in the flesh/and I really liked his spirit!" I love it. The first of many clever lines I will be quoting from Johnette.

One of Concrete Blonde's most famous songs is actually a cover from Andy Prieboy. "Tomorrow Wendy" tells the tragic tale of a woman with AIDS on the edge of dying. Incorporating lyrics about John F. Kennedy, God and other images, you are left wondering if it's the ramblings of a person on their last breath or the grieving words of someone Wendy is leaving behind.

"I told the priest don't count on any second coming/God got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming/He had the balls to come/the gall to die and then forgive us/ Though I don't wonder why/I wonder what he thought it would get us/Hey, hey goodbye/Tomorrow Wendy is going to die."

Now onto one of my all time favorite songs by anyone! The song "True" is one of the first songs on the debut album Concrete Blonde released in 1986. It has it all, set to a small yet speedy guitar beat, Johnette croons about being true to yourself. It is a song filled with self assertion that can lift anyone up - even those forced to serve funnel cakes.

"True" has gotten my best friend Lisa and I threw many a challenging day, and we still call each other repeating the lines, "When I've had enough/I'll get a pick up truck and I'll drive away/I'll take my last ten bucks just as far as it will go/sometimes I'm easily fooled/I take a painful step and get knocked back two/I do it all I can and it's all I can do/ but I'm true."

This song is filled with brilliant lines, that I completely relate to - "If I had a choice/I'd take the voice I've got cause it was hard to find/you know I've come too far to wind up right back where I started/they tell me who I should be/I'll never let the monkeys make a mess out of me/I'll give all that I am/and it's all I can do/ and I'm true."

"Then they talk you up and then they talk you down/and you begin to doubt/sometimes the reasons seem so very far away/but I'll stop breathing the day/that if I can't walk proud then I will walk away/I'll do all I can/and it's all I can do/oh, I'm true."

Another ingenius ditty awaits us in "...Long Time Ago" as Johnette begins, "When you turned out the lights and walked out the door/I said to myself what did I come here for?/did you have a good time drinking whiskey and rye/and did you want to be Bonnie and Clyde?"

And my fav "I can be loyal and I can be true/ but that's with somebody else/ and it will never be you / you think we're pre-determined/ but baby learning way too slow / but it seems such a long time ago"

The drums kick in and we get, "What goes on in your mind/what goes on in your head?/who did you think I would be?/huh well you got me instead" Cracks me up everytime. Excellent song from my favorite Concrete Blonde album 1992's Walking In London.

We get another walk through the valley of occult in "The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden" from Bloodletting. Almost a speed metal song without the actual metal, the song pumps through a fast drum and guitar beat while Johnette tells a tragic love story -

"Ealonor crumbles/Ealonor moans/somehow this body is someone she always has known/ He cries tears on her chest/oh so silent and slow/She says, "Please don't go, please don't go"/and she sighed and she died in his arms/ and he cried, "Never more," / the moon is full/ and the stars are bright/and the sky is a poisonous garden tonight."

"Rain" is one of the all time best songs Concrete Blonde has ever recorded. A moody little ballad it shows off all the things that Johnette and the boys can do. A murky guitar begins as Johnette croons, "Rain/thought I heard your footstep/thought I heard the phone/standing on the doorstep/listening alone/and all I hear is Rain"

Then a rolling drum beat kicks in, "Thought I saw your head lights/thought I heard your car/shadows on the street lights/fog and nothing more/and all I hear is Rain/and things I tried to say"

The song picks up pace and we get more heartbreak as the rain continues to confuse our lovelorn girl. Truly an exquisite listen from the Mexican Moon album.

Then it's off again to "Bradley loves this song" land. Without any kind of real intro, Johnette's voice and the music start off "Someday?" one of my all time favorites by the band.

"Say it's been too hard/say it's been too long/say it's all too much/til it's all been gone/but I thought you could/yes I thought you could/and you thought you could too..."

Another of the lovelorn songs but so sweet, so dreamy, and so depressing. "And I hope and I dream and I pray/that sometime we'll find a way."

"Little Sister" is one of those overlooked songs that would never find its way onto a label released compilation. The song has always held me captive as I too have a "Little Sister".A love letter of sorts to a younger sibling, the song is sweet but sad. In fact, my little sister can't listen to the song because it makes her miss me and she watns to cry. My whole family is filled with sissy pants isn't it?

"Now Mama's nest is empty/all her babies gone and grown/and you're talking/and I hear me/ you should hear you..."

"Looking through a younger face/that used to be my own/it's the part that makes it harder/to be near you/ Little Sister/ oh little sister/all the times you couldn't tell her how you missed her/ but I'm only half a heart away." Awwww.

Being far away from home and my family this song definitely can do me in "Over all the time and distance/I know where you are/and I love you/ above all weÂ’re flesh and blood..." Perhaps Swivek will do a cover, that will get them weeping in Wisconsin.

Concrete Blonde have released numerous singles that included those rarities known as B-sides. In fact in 1994 the band released Still In Hollywood, a collection of such rarities. I couldn't do a compilation without doing some of those songs which are as equally profound and brilliant as anything released on album.

The first we encounter is "Free"; a hard rocking ditty declaring independence from all. Ironically, it's the title track of the album Free from 1989 but it never made it onto the album.

"you can't keep me down/put me in your place/I will never wear/your 20th century pace maker faces/you will never breathe/the spirit out of me/I'm flesh and blood/I'm real/I'm not your factory fantasy/no, not me!"

"I'm a million miles high/I'm a piece of the sky/I'm like the purple in the rainbow/my, my, my/I'm the wind in your hair/the rain on the sea/well, I'm Free, I'm Free/I'm Free!"

My ultimate favorite of all Concrete Blonde rarities is the acoustic ditty known as "Probably Will." Released in the UK as the B-side to my favorite single, Someday? the song is pure excellance in my opinion.

"They say I may be crazy/I only say I've had my fill/they say I'll throw it all away/I probably will/they'll only give you what you're taking/but lately I've been unfulfilled/they say I'll probably blow it off someday/I probably will."

Then the chorus, "The way they talk about each other/the way they talk about themselves/well they can talk, talk, talk forever/you know they probably will."

And my favs again "Now I'm not really bitter/ you know I'm just a little chilled / they say that things will just get better/ you know they probably will / and it will only make us stronger / if they should try to keep us still / and we can rise and take it all someday/ we probably will." I love it. It's also the song I learned to play on guitar when I was taking lessons that's a whole different story!

"Now onto the most infamous song of them all - the mother lode, the mantra of Concrete Blonde "Still In Hollywood."

I interviewed Johnette a few years ago for a magazine I was writing for and asked her about her love/hate thing with the city. She isn't sure about it any more than we as listeners are. She lived here for most of her life yet always had a longing for something else. Now days, she is living out in her beloved desert in a trailer or something, and I still don't understand it.

Anwyay, "Still In Hollywood" was the first single from the band and it holds all that is a great Concrete Blonde song. It's a driving rock song with Johnette both crooning and screaming. There are characters galore introduced in the lyrics and there is angst. All the greats.

"On the bus today/I met the queen of LA/at least she said she was/and who am I to say?/she was 65 and full of life/ she had purple painted cheeks and glitter in her eyes/ and the troll on the corner/I flipped it a quarter/ and he looked at me and smiled/he wasn't abused/he wasn't confused/he had nothing to gain and less to lose in Hollywood."

"I'm still in Hollywood/don't know why/I thought I'd be out of here by now/still in Hollywood/oh my my/I'm running on a wheel/and I don't know why."

Concrete Blonde never really had the luxury of having a huge hit single but with the ones that were released it's a complete surprise none of them did anything on the charts. One of my favs they've done is "Happy Birthday."

Set to a bouncy beat but telling the tragic tale of having one birthday all alone in their run down apartment, even without a video, you envision the whole scenerio through Johnette's lyrics, that is great songwriting.

"Outside in the hall there's a cat fight/it's just after midnight/I guess I'll be alright/ I'm laying out on the floor/drunk and poor/how much longer/how much more?"

"Aside from all that I feel no pain/staring up at the ceiling stain/ Neon in the window/sirens far away/ news on the radio/Happy Birthday/ Happy Birthday/ Happy Birthday."

With the second verse being just as brilliant, "They're at it again next door/ this whole floor / I swear they're out to drive me crazy / but not right now/ I'm high as a cloud / I'm soft and gray and hazy / smoking out the window / feeling far away / news on the radio / Happy Birthday."

After spending so much time on the golden days of Concrete Blonde, I had to put a song on from the reunion album, 2002's Group Therapy. Slightly more edgy than previous efforts most of the songs ranged in the five to six minute range. There were two singles released, an ode to Roxy Music entitled "Roxy" and the one I chose to put on this compilation - "Take Me Home,"a somber tale about lost friends and long nights of drinking -you know I can relate. In fact this song always reminds me of Brian and my pal Patrick in Coeur d' Alene, I don't know why...

"Pick up the phone/ I know you're there/ it's almost closing time / and we can toss one more shot before last call / are you okay? / I swear to God / I've got to get out of this town / I miss the days when I would not come home at all..."

"Now dont you cry/ it will give you lines around your eyes / you've got to try not to live so much of life alone / and if you see me getting crazy by the bottom of the bottle / take me home / take me home / take me home."

Another B-side comes out on the crunchy "100 Games Of Solitaire." As the guitars chug along Johnette declares, "I've got a bottle of Tequila baby who needs friends? / I've got a hundred miles of desert and a head of fresh air/ and I know 100 Games Of Solitaire."

The great lyrics keep coming as we venture to another acoustic ditty, this time from the album Free. "Little Conversations" tells the story of some one who can't stand those pretentious outings where people make small talk yet never really say anything. Our narrator can't be around because she "never could say anything in 20 words or less. As you can imagine, I relate whole heartedly.

“The little conversation / its over very soon / and I watch in admiration / from my corner of the room"

"Somewhere / sometime down the line / Someday I may confess / and tell you all /
'That's all'"

"The little conversation/ on me they're very rough / they leave me all in pieces / you know thereÂ’s never time enough / It's like a book with missing pages / a story incomplete / it's like a painting left unfinished / it feels like not enough to eat / starving"

We venture back into Hollywood for "Roses Grow" a little simplistic ditty set to a thumping drum beat where "Roxy was in tonight/ dancing around in her fish net tights/ she's got more life at 65 / than the teenage boys she keeps up all night." Sound familiar?

"LA who'd have thought/ right smack dab in the middle of what? / with the belching buzzards and the broken bones / devil pour me another shot / hey, hey/ LA who'd have thought / Up through the cracks/ up through the broken glass / in the hot red light of a black and white / roses grow"

and onto the hit single "Joey". The first song I ever heard from the band. The single is another sad tale of a wretched life. Though the song has some truth to it somewhere, IÂ’ve never known anyone to know who the real "Joey" is. I would imagine Johnette knows. But for us, it's 'Joey' who is the alchoholic hell bent on ruining his life while our girl gives us the vocal performance to die for.

"I used to wonder why / I used to cry until I was dry / still sometimes I get a strange pain inside / Oh, Joey if youÂ’re hurting so am I"

Another image filled tragedy takes form in the single "God Is A Bullet." Set to the thumping rock beat of guitars and drums, this isn't so much a song as it is a mini novel. Using a gun control theme as its central driving force, the song could be turned into a movie script. Chocked full of images and chugging along to a guitar riff sounding like a toned down machine gun - itÂ’s one of the greatest songs ever written.

"There's a green plaid jacket on the back of a chair/ it's like a moment frozen forever there / mom and dad had a lot of big plans for little man / so proud"

"but Mama's gone crazy / cuz her baby's shot down / in some teenage car chase / a war out of bounds / it was the wrong place / wrong time / the wrong end of a gun / and it's sad / so sad."

And the chorus kicks in, "Shoot! Straight / from the hip y'all / gone forever in a three hour trip / could've been your brother/ Shoot! Straight / shoot to kill now/ blame each other/ or blame yourself / you know God Is A Bullet / have mercy on us everyone."

Then my favorite line, "They're gonna call me sir/ then they'll stop picking on me/ Well I'm a high school grad / I'm over 5 foot 3 / I'll get a badge and a gun / and I'll join the PD / They'll see." Excellent!

Besides "Joey" and "Tomorrow Wendy", our next song is the other best known Concrete Blonde song. The one that everyone knows "Everybody Knows" Originally done for the surprise hit soundtrack for the Christian Slater movie Pump Up The Volume, this little ballad starts slow and easy and Johnette's deep croon,

"Everybody knows the dice are loaded/ everybody knows with their fingers crossed / Everybody knows that the war is over / everybody knows that the good guys lost / everybody knows the fight is fixed / the poor stay poor and the rich get rich / that's how it goes."

"Everybody knows the boat is sinking/ everybody knows that the captain lied / Everybody's got this broken feeling / like their mama or their dog just died / everybody's hands are in their pockets / everybody wants a box of chocolates and a long stemmed rose/ Everybody knows."

and then the a simple chorus of repeating the lines, "Everybody knows/ thatÂ’s how it goes and everybody knows."

Towards the end we move to my favorite lyric, "Everybody knows you love me baby / everybody knows you really do / everybody knows that you'veve been faithful / give or take a night or two/ everybody knows youÂ’ve been discreet / so many people you had to meet / without your clothes / and everybody knows"

We hear one more scaled back chorus before Johnette's pipes really kick in and she starts to deliver, "everybody knoooooooooooowwwwws". My little brother said this is the song where he realized how great of a singer Johnette really was.

We go back to the very first album for our next ditty. One more acoustic number only this time it's a little peppier. In fact, the whole song is fairly peppy with Johnette singing about love in a manner I can actually relate to "Lots of guys can make me laugh and show me some good times / they treat me nice and want me by their side / lots of people call themselves my friends and that's alright / but you're the only one I feel inside.."

Then she takes it up a notch for the chorus "You're the only one who leaves me warm and satisfied/ and you're the only one who takes me wrong and makes me right / oh and if you took your love away / you'd leave me high and dry / cuz baby you're the only one who can make me cry."

"Lots of people talking and they tell me what is right / and lately I just don't know what to do / oh, the only thing that matters here / is if you're with me at night/ everything's all right when I'm with you."

So nice and sweet. Johnette probably hates it, but I love it and now that I am so in love there really is only one who can make me cry.

Finally, we make it to the very last song - good old #22. Now I'm sure a lot of you are happy this is almost over while others are wondering what happened to THEIR favorite Concrete Blonde song - or even more of the most famous ones such as singles "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" "Dance Along The Edge" and "Mexican Moon." Well let me tell you, 1. This is My compilation so it has what I want on it (though I love all those songs which lead me to...) 2. There's just too many good songs, I had to pick what I really wanted to hear over and over again.

So we come to a spooky delivery on a very intense little ballad called "Why Don't You See Me?" Years ago, when I started having people listen to Concrete Blonde I would make them compilations of the songs. Well it seemed I had forgot to put this song on someone's compilation and when they finally heard it while we were listeining to the Walking In London album, they threw a fit, "I want that song." I directed them to the local Tower Records and I'm sure Johnette would thank me for that.

"Why Don't You See Me?" is one of the best songs ever. I know you hear me say that all the time but when I say it I mean it. The song starts slow and easy, with just a little guitar playing and an ambient synthesizer while Johnette practically whimpers, "When you lay down/ do you hear sounds? / does the silence have a voice? / what does it say? / what do you hear? / what does it whisper in your ear? / why dont you hear me? / why dont you hear me?"

and continuing, "when you get up / into the light / when you come up out of your night / what do you see? / and do you see? / or have you lost your sense of sight? / why dont you see me? / why dont you see me?"

then as Johnette does one more "why don't you see me?" her voice switches from the brooding soft to the snarl as drums and guitars kick in and we move on to a more forboding take where Johnette wails -

"What do you think? What do you feel? Cuz is this feeling very real? And if you feel why can't you say/ give me a little demonstration / can't you feel me? / why don't you feel me? / why don't you feel me? / why don't you feeeeeeeeeeeeel meeeeee?"

We get an awesome musical interlude with a guitar solo and some kick ass drum beats before Johnette comes back "Are you in love? / are you in pain? / are they together and the same?"

Then she goes through all of her questions, "Why dont you feel me? / Why dont you hear me? / Why dont you see me?" as the music dies away and she once again whisper, "Why don't you see me?"

Probably the best vocal performance in her career, in my opinion and a fabulous way to end a venture into the haunted Hollywood world of one of the best lyricists around and her kick ass band - the world of Concrete Blonde.

posted by swivek @ 6:07 PM