ain't no cure for the summertime blues




once upon a time i bought my music on cassette tape. anna and i have a shitload of those old cassettes hanging around. we still have a cassette player but we rarely use it. instead, our old tapes, perhaps a couple hundred or so, sit and wait for a technology that will never come around again.

imagine my surprise then when a coworker, guessing my taste in music, gave me a few cds. you see, these discs weren't her thing at all and thought i'd enjoy them. one is a neko case cd, another is a compilation of the old neo-hippie, post-rave manchester band the stone roses. still another is workbook by ex-husker du bandmate bob mould.

it's been years since i listened to workbook because i bought it on cassette when it was first released. i loved that album, all earnest and forthright, mould's harmonies and explosive guitar gives me heart a pitter-patter. can you see my shock then when a couple weeks ago i was listening to it at work, grooving on songs like 'heartbreak a stranger' and 'brasilia crossed with trenton' when i couldn't remember the year the album came out.

i picked up the jewel case and tried to read the very fine print at the bottom of the back of the cd. i had to take off my glasses and adjust for the light because the print was so small and i needed my eyes to adjust to the tiny print. i was about to curse the printer for making text so bloody small when the year of copyright, 1989, came into focus. 20 years ago. suddenly i was hit with something like interstellar cold. 20 years. just flew by. like that. 20 fucking years. the music still sounds brand new to me.

what can you do but roll along. if that shock of years left me feeling old i can think what the survivors of woodstock circa 1969 must feel. 40 years ago today marks the end of three days of peace and music. i was but a drooling two-year-old when woodstock happened and my parents were a lot of things but hippies weren't one of them. nevertheless, woodstock has entered the culture at large and the music, popular music, rock&roll, is trans-generational. i grew up on the who and jimi hendrix and the doors as much as i did with black flag, circle jerks and social distortion.

perhaps we need a reminder of that old peace, love and understanding. 40 years goes by just like that. part of the summertime blues. the world is still fucked up. it is also absolutely magical. so now go get your hippie on. it's all our trip. but beware of the brown acid.