Song of the Week, Volume 1, 2003 May 18

Artist: BoDeans
Song: Far Far Away From My Heart
Album: Joe Dirt Car
Year: 1995
Lyrics: bodeans.net

It's funny how that works. We can build empires, but when it comes to doing something simple, the task always seems to contort into a larger, unbreakable monster. My simple task was to find a song for this Song of the Week idea and, immediately, the consciousness of simplicity starting eating away at me. (Agonistic) gods forbid I choose something too outlandish, too avant-garde or mother-of-all-gods forbid I choose something too kitschy. Right there I killed thoughts of the Cars, Rebekah Del Rio, and Russell Gunn for seminal SOTW ideas (y'all can figure out the associative order). So, to honor elusive simplicity, I chose a band from my hometown: Waukesha, WI, home of Les Paul, Tim Cahill, and the *BoDeans*. Waukesha is a dump place -- a typical western exurb of any insipid suburb, of any Midwestern urban center that has a big lake on its east side. But I'm a sucker for nostalgia and statriotism and like everyone else from Wisconsin knows, life really does revolve around cheese, bratwursts, and the Green Bay Packers ('cept I don't eat meat anymore, but this is just a digression of digression). Homeward yearning is pure simplicity. It's that unobtainable metaphorical mother with ever welcoming arms. So you can't get there, but simple songs will get you close... Truthfully, I never listened to the BoDeans when I lived in 53188. It's that disease where an outside opinion, regardless of its invalidity, is somehow taken above and beyond those in local scope. So, here, in Seattle, which has very little to do with Waukesha or the BoDeans -- this is where the BoDeans burned a (4-non-Blondie) rapture into my heart. For those that don't know, I bounced around for nearly two years without a job. Along the way I picked up some serious upper level psychology. Thank god I could rave to all of my friends about all the traveling I was doing, 'cause a lot of the days the mirror looked funky. Really, the only thing that kept the whole experience from morphing into some unwanted ascetical nightmare is that the un-employment checks (essentially) never ran out. That -- and the BoDeans. Joe Dirt Car, a 1995 double-live CD. There's a bunch of tunes I could have chosen. "Idaho", "Naked", and "Looking For Me Somewhere" all come to mind, but in the end, "Far Far Away From My Heart" won out. It's musing how the spirit takes comfort in the irony of a sad song providing cheer.

Yes, but I know everything will be all right... I planted a garden today -- what more do I need?

Shiot. Brevity! Peace.

/tq

While waiting for life that sucks to die, why not listen to my favorite unsigned bands: TQ's Garage Band Playlist.