Hard to believe I've only been living with Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance since September. I picked this one because after a lil over five months of the album sinking in, this particular song sticks out above the rest. Maybe it's the cello.
Disappear
Underneath the couch I sleep through it all As the very last drop Is smashed against the wall
Out in the driveway Accusing words fall out I’m underneath your dress Beneath the bedroom window
Sometimes I disappear I learned to at an early age Before your very eyes I’m somewhere far away
If I make it down and come in for a landing I’ll kiss you till its August But fly away in June
Simply disappear and vanish into thin air Sometimes its much better to just not be there.
And sometimes I hear words spoken underneath the song and I associate so freely
And sometimes I hear words spoken underneath the song and I associate completely
Sometimes I disappear since I was three or four I see your lips move but I can’t hear you anymore
Patterson Hood (Kansas City, September 2010) Kay/Baxendale Mandocello, Lead Vocal and Harmony – PH Bass – David Barbe Drums, Tambourine – Brad Morgan Cellos and Violins – Jacob Morris and Scott Danbom Piano – Jay Gonzalez
There was a lot of conflict in the house I grew up in, so this one really strikes a chord with me. Hiding between the couch and the wall or in behind the clothes in the closet....been there. And while our home now is a mostly happy one, like everyone else we have our sources of stress and I sometimes find myself somewhere completely different than the situation where I am physically located. Or maybe everything is fine in my current situation but i find myself lost in thought about something that was said or something that happened at some other point. Sometimes there's that perfect lyric or chord progression in a song that just hits the nail on the head about the crux of a situation and I associate completely. I guess in that way i use music in sorta the same way some people use drugs or alcohol. Through that medium I can achieve catharsis - turning demons into walls of goddamn noise and sound. If you aren't careful though it can be overdone just like a vice and as Patterson says in one of the videos below though, sometimes you have to make a conscious effort to realize when its okay to escape and when you need to be "present".
Never going back to Buttholeville. (Good luck with that!)
Yes, truely a great song, but I hate saying it sticks out above the rest as there are a couple of other songs from the album I like as much. I saw Patterson perform this song twice, once at a solo show and another time with his band, and both times he referenced the Disney movie "Now you see him now you don't" with Kurt Russell about a college kid who invents a spray which makes you invisible. He saw it on the Wonderful World of Disney tv show when he was a kid and it inspired him to become invisible. I remember seeing the movie at a drive-in my early youth when it was first released.
I guess there's a lot to be said for being able to relate to songs written and performed by people that are your own age. That dawned on me in a big way last night in Carrboro when Patterson introduced his new "I Wish I Was Jimmy Page" song. For anyone that hasn't watched the clip for that yet he talks about how some of us only knew about our favorite performers from their albums and what we read in the music rags as rock n' roll didn't get a lot of exposure on TV in those days. Nowadays there's several generations of folks that were raised in an environment where they were exposed to things like MTV and YouTube at a very early age. Having such limited exposure in the 60's and 70's only lent our favorite artist an even bigger air of mystery and made them larger than life in many ways, especially bands like Zeppelin who were notoriously press shy. That is to say, I also have very fond memories of watching The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights myself.
In Zeppelin's case it may have been intentional. They had a heavy handed manager Peter Grant who didn't make the band release singles, and he limited, as much as possible, there public exposure to live concerts. They rarely appeared on tv or gave public interviews. By limiting their exposure he created a mythological presense around the band, which made them even more popular. I'm not sure this tactic would work today. I could be wrong, but I think the old golfer Billy Casper made a guest appearance in "Now you see him now you don't". I'd like to try this being invisible thing at work right now.
With Zeppelin it was definitely intentional and it evidently had a whole lot to do with that bad review of their first album in Rolling Stone but it was also true of all rock n' roll artists back then as far as limited exposure in general since there was no MTV or YouTube. At least that's what I get out of Patterson's explanation of "I Wish I Was Jimmy Page".
I remember once staying up until 1:30 in the morning or trying to stay up to watch Don Kirshner's rock concert to see clips of the then just released "The Song Remains the Same". Yes, Don Kirshner was one avenue to see rock n roll back then.
That, he was. There was also ABC's In Concert and the Midnight Special. Aside from that you had Saturday Night Live and a few talk shows such as Carson and The Mike Douglas Show where you might catch a glimpse of one of your favorite rock n' roll bands. I also remember a few "history of rock n' roll" specials back then but for whatever reason, Led Zeppelin was rarely, if ever mentioned despite the unmistakable and undeniable role they played in the history of rock n' roll in the 70's. I never was able to figure that out. Thankfully, that's been corrected over the years but I believe Patterson's point remains, rock n' roll was a real scarcity on television back in the 70's. Through the miracle of the web we can now dig up lots of those vintage performances on YouTube. I recently watched an Alice Cooper performance (that I also posted here) from In Concert that I hadn't seen since I was just a little kid. I didn't see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show but I did see Elvis Costello and the Attractions on Saturday Night Live the evening they broke into "Radio, Radio".
KG, I completely agree with your (and Patterson's) point, I had to bust my ass to stay up until all hours of the morning for Don Kirshner's or Tom Snyder's show. Now, if I hear DBT or Jason are on David Letterman or Jimmy Fallen, I can go to bed, and listen on youtube or Facebook the next morning on my Iphone at work. Though it's funny you do mention the Mike Douglas show. I've posted a couple of clips from his show on 3DD, one a Tom Waits clip (it's on the Marvin Hamlish thread) and another of a very early interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss where he gets the wind blow out of his sales from Totie Fields (one of the few times he was manhandled by a woman). But, for a day time talk show, he had some pretty radical stuff. I remember seeing Blondie on Mike Douglas well before here break out "Parallel Lines" and they were still considered one of these weird punk rock bands. John Lennon and Yoko actually co-hosted for week on Mike Douglas and they had the leader of the Black Panther party as a guest. I lived for this stuff. Another point, I have no memory of Midnight Special when it was actually on, which I'm very sad about. But, in the past few years, there's been an infomertial for the complete Midnight Special on dvd, and that's the one infomercial I'll watch all the way through, their clips are awsome (the Little Feet with Emylou Harris and several other which has been posted). Finally, on to Elvis Costello on Saturday Night Live, I saw that as well, but I could have sworn he did "Watching the Detectives" first. But, either way, I think Lorn Micheals was trying to get the Sex Pistols for that night, and had to settle for Elvis Costello. You probably know more about this stuff than I do.
