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Versione 2
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And so, with an imaginary cowboy hat on my head, I ride on a sunny Saturday, and I sing, I sing, I even do the chorus...
’95 was a special year, so many things happened, no doubt about it, just to give a few examples (without any order of importance):
- “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” by Smashing Pumpkins is released
- Jacques Chirac is elected President of France
- Austria, Sweden, and Finland join the EU
- The American Space Shuttle docks with the Russian MIR space station for the first time (good times...)
- eBay is founded
- The first Sony PlayStation is marketed in Europe
- Israeli Prime Minister Rabin is assassinated by an extremist opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
And yet, Pavement releases “Wowee Zowee”, and, I almost forgot, a small secondary detail, I get married, just a few months after the album's release, of which I wasn’t even aware at the time, nor of Pavement in general.
A few days after the wedding, I board an intercontinental flight, destination Cayo Largo, Cuba.
The journey is long, very long, I listen to music, read a magazine (which I might still have) featuring a double interview with Daniele Silvestri (who had been in Sanremo and had just released his second album “Prima di essere un uomo”) and Samuele Bersani (who had recently released “Freak”).
I read “Quella vacca di nonna papera” by Bisio and laugh like a fool at every silly thing I read (back then I knew how to do it).
Every now and then I sleep, my wife beside me watches movies playing on the plane's monitors.
The journey is long, very long.
As long as we are over Europe, on solid ground, flight time seems to pass. The real drama starts when we reach the ocean, and without movies on the large monitor near the cabin, we only see a dot (our plane) seemingly frozen in the middle of nowhere...
The la-si, la-si, la-si of “Grounded” reminds me of a clock ticking away time, a song with a hidden melancholy I can’t decipher.
I don't remember what I dreamt during that very long flight in my hours of sleep, perhaps of always and only making happy the one beside me.
Or, like in Borges' “The Dream of Pedro Henríquez Ureña”, something very different, or so it seems, that I had to forget for destiny to fulfill itself (I know it won’t be like that).
Today, having discovered it with a slight delay of twenty-seven years, not everything on “Wowee Zowee” (Pavement’s Zappa-esque album) enthralls me, although recognizing its value now widely acknowledged, but some things “move” me, perhaps because I know it's the same age as my marriage.
It has that travel flavor, not necessarily by plane, maybe more by car, with the top down, I think of "Black out" and especially “Grave Architecture” (a mysterious and esoteric title, perhaps travel has nothing to do with it).
We are almost at our destination.
And then I imagine myself in flight on that intercontinental plane, in that summer of 1995, singing “Maybe someone will save me, my heart is made of sauce..”, listening with headphones to “AT&T”, a Pavement song released that year, which I’ve actually only known for a few days, but it was perfect to be known back then.
At a certain point, the song gets mixed up, overlaps, a voice, then a noise of sounds and voices, perhaps everything rewinds, then a countdown, “one, two, three, four….”
As soon as it's over, I get up from my seat, open the window to the astonishment of the other travelers, lean out, and let out a scream, which I didn't know I had inside me.
“WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????????? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH!!”.
It travels across time and the ocean, after crossing even the Bermuda Triangle unscathed, it reaches Europe, flies over Spain, Corsica, arrives in Italy, arrives here as I write.
The atoll down there awaits us relaxed and full of sunshine…
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 We Dance (03:01)
there is no castration fear
in a chair you will be with me
we'll dance [x4]
but no one will dance with us
in this zany town
chim-chim-chim, sing a song of praise
for your elders, they're in the back
pick out some brazilian nuts for your engagement
check that expiration date, man,
it's later than you think
you can't enjoy yourself, i can't enjoy myself [x2]
move that swing and
watch it break strafe like an arc
but i won't be there to leave you ah-ah-ah
'cause i don't have a clue anymore
maybe we could dance [x3] together
together
together
together
first time you'll see
and then you'll be
five times forever
and you'll never get lost
02 Rattled by the Rush (04:16)
Oh, that I could bend my tongue outwards
Leave your lungs hurting
Tuckin' my shirt in
Pants I wear so well
Cross your t's shirt smells
Worse than your lyin'
Caught my dad cryin'
Loose like the wind
From the rough we get par
Sleet city woman
Waiting to spar
I'm Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Getting off the candelabra
We call her Barbara
Breeding like larva
She rabble rousing
Dental surf combat
Get out those hard-hats
And sing us some skat
Blade gushers gush
Chained and perfumed
I don't need a minister to call me a groom
no soap in the john
no soap in the john
no soap in the john
no soap in the john
But I'm rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush (makes you wanna say your prayers)
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush (makes you wanna say your prayers)
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush (makes you wanna say your prayers)
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush
Rattled by the rush (makes you wanna say your prayers)
03 Black Out (02:10)
sunday driving past your own hall of fame
it's closed on weekdays, shut for good
pick out no one when you're talkin'
felt like rattlesnakes were walkin'
no one has a clue
the parting shots, the thin caught
fault line dancing across the frigid air shafts
a spastic grass, a criminal's child
count to ten and read
until the lights begin to bleed
lights; til you actually a-see the rays
and your thoughts they start turning
tells you lessons that you're learning
no one has a clue
the gauzy thoughts of those dirty scots
wrestling with the elements up on the trail high
i need to know
where does it go? how do i get there? what will i find?
(fun fun fun, fun for the summertime blues)
(it's gonna set you free)
04 Brinx Job (01:31)
it's so funny we went right down to the store-we got the money so we'll put you down
we got the money, we got the money, we got the money
we got the money, we got money, we got the money
ho! we got the money now
and i won't even let you hoooooo....
05 Grounded (04:14)
Doctors leaving for the holiday season
Got crystal ice picks, no gift for the gab
And in the parking lots --is the sedan he bought?
He never, he never complains when its hot
He phoned the fallen daughter in the sauna playing contract bridge
Theyre soaking up the fun or doing blotters
I dont know which ..which...which...
Boys are dying on these streets
I know the medical world could knock you out
To sell the coins that you jayed last thursday
Dine by candelight and hold your savings tight
You never, you never know when the bridge falls apart
We spoke of latent causes sterile gauzes
And the bedside morale
We traipse around the table talking sentences
So incomplete... please! plea!
Boys are dying on these streets...
06 Serpentine Pad (01:16)
Frequently called numbers
snorin when you slumber
Everyone, knows you do
why won't you admit it
Screw you!
and take it all
force fed integration
from the corporation
I don't need this corporation attitude
I believe
I will never leave
your serpentine pad
darling when you wake up
better ask the grown ups
if they have posed'm twice
leave them and lead other lives
Think it might be another thing
that i would want to know but
i don't know if I should, if I could
and if I would any way
I beleive
I will never leave
your serpentine pad
08 Father to a Sister of Thought (03:30)
rotten device, i'll say it twice
i'm too much i'm too much comforted here
costs too much too much, we'll leave you
everywhere eyes, nowhere to die
no place to shove your sharpened heel
i'm looking looking for a tired face
in case you wanted to go
i know, i'm breathing in to the end
calling the bluffs, talking so tough
goodbye to the ugly steeple fear
good times for ever after
i'm just a man
you see who i am
i'm binding my hooks
and open the books
dirty black hearts
angel of corpus cristi
you're so misty, tell me what i want to hear
i know i'm reeling in...[x2]
to the end [x4]
i know i'll never know [x2]
09 Extradition (02:12)
the expedition has fifty goes
40 roses and you blow
make your way way way way way way way far away
where you stay where you play
where do you play?
can you say what you need
when you really need it?
are you gonna feed it?
lady i know-know-know you don't
need no license for your petty, petty petty crime
?if i should function two layer under?
around the circle luxury is so tough
so toughen up, toughen up,
i'm not tough enough
tonight we interact like seperate worlds
spoken barriers you hurl
saw you curl
10 Best Friend's Arm (02:19)
??? liar
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
???? ah come on, let's go
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
yeah baby i've lost ???
??
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
everybody looks like
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
when you lay that down with an eight-eight track, everybody laughs
but they don't know what you're sayin'
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
??? i guess if not...
(i can see, i can see, i can see, i can see)
keep it under your best friend's arms [x9]
keep it under
11 Grave Architecture (04:16)
come on in...
grave architecture (x2)
walk the marble malls [?]
the monuments to those who fall
and it's a pocket less than narco shell-bit
stiff the crypt and the others are rough
and the hood's so rad
and i'm fucking glad
glad to see that, know what it means
it takes a lot
grave architecture (x2)
stroll past the strip
is it old? am i clipped?
am i just a bathtub waiting to be gripped
or found on shady ground?
and the lampshade's poised on the overwhelm
drugs, and need the talent to breathe
it takes a lot
oh yeah, you wanna be like a blind fish
positive, we're positive-- go!
takes a lock-grip, baby
to put you to war
and i'm pushin' you back than ever ???
that'll push you hard
it takes em......
13 Flux = Rad (01:45)
child, don't you know
i don't want to let you go
child, don't you know
that
i don't wanna let you (x11)
styles come and go
but i'm not going to let you go
styles, they come and go
but
i'm not gonna let you (x11)
14 Fight This Generation (04:22)
Look up to people so tall to you
I can't so I won't stand
Up chuck break luck
Look for the splinters
You might see where they come out
Go down sweet Yardley
I won't let you fall down
Sweet Yardley
I won't let you fall down
Here now
God damn the guts and the gore
Nobody's crying cause there's no one to score for
Come up sweet Randy
I won't let you fall
What you gotta lose
What you gotta prove
Who you gonna screw
Down here now, here now
I am here now
I am here now
Your life is selected
To come
Waiting for the amelioration
Generation, fight this generation
Fight this generation (x17)
Stop right
15 Kennel District (02:59)
hold on tight she wears the seek
it's got more stars than the sky
it's still forbidden to excuse
that little look in your eye
i was busted in my gut that time
that time i said "i know it's true"
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i?
i can't believe she's married to roe
i would have turned down the light
but she always marked my fear
doesn't make it alright
i wanted to stay there
but you know i needed more than that
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
why didn't i ask? why didn't i ask?
16 Pueblo (03:25)
one trial down in Spanos County
ladies always turn up to watch them fall
and the hands they bind you
they bind you like you want to be broken
but the land is comin', babe
it's coming up golden
gold and silver streaks
when you hit them
you can't buy sand
in the gross land
don't say what to make 'em feel
they got take it off my wrists
Jacob you move up my wrists
Jacob you move..when you move
you don't move! you don't moooove!!
alright i want a cigarette
all those trials and things they try to do
while wondering over why we're insane
damn land ho(?), won't you?
17 Half a Canyon (06:10)
ahhh!!! shit, baby.
canyon bro', your life is worked in
dream about the witch trials
you get all too lot of pepper in your forecast
beneath the shady mezzanine
keep it when you want to belong...
july fourth, raging fortune
dream about the witch trials
send in the romance of people with their dreadlocks
tied like windshields in the night
keep it when you want to belong...
i keep my head on for pretty jades
i keep my head up for ships and shades
i keep my head up for bitchy braids
i keep my head up for guilty ray...
waaaaaaaaaooow(x2)
my..god..i can't believe i am still going(x2)
allee! allee! allee! allee! allee! allee! allee! allee!...
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