Song Dissection: Skateaway

I was a fairly depressed person in the 1980's. One of my biggest causes of my angst is that something I loved was being destroyed before my eyes ... and ears. I thought rock and roll was dying.  Everything coming out seemed so over produced. Each time a new album came out of one of my favorite musicians, it was a great disappointment. The rawness, the intimacy was gone. All I could think of was some corporate douche sitting at the sound board with a pile of cocaine in front of him yelling at a band, like Heart or Genesis, that they need to add more synthesizer or insert sax solo here... or "you need more hair spray, your hair is not tall enough." Rock and roll made a lot of money in the 1970's so that meant that a lot of people got involved in it for reasons other than making great music like making money. Dumbing down the music is great for sales.

MTV (Music Television) also happened.  Having a network dedicated to pop music was good for the industry for a lot of reasons. Bands had a place to communicate almost directly with their fans for the first time. Before MTV, performers would have to hope for a rare spot on the Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand or Top of the Pops.  MTV had tour dates and interviews and fans could see their favorite performers readily and, of course, there was the music video. The video was a new creative medium that attracted film people to music in new creative ways. This is a good thing, but it also had a bad effect on music. The music wasn't just audio now, it was visual. The big money labels wanted to manage the image of musicians as well as their audio output. This is virtual death to creative types.

Here is what the awesome Wilson sisters from the band Heart looked like before the MTV era. 

Here is after:

Of course, they had their biggest hit "These Dreams" in the MTV era which is a pretty dreadful song co-written by one of my favorite song writers Bernie Taupin. Since this is a blog post about Dire Straits, I won't pan it any further. The era was in need of a new kick ass rock band.

I was only 12 when "Sultans of Swing" hit my FM station in 1977 and I had already started my Dylan obsession. I just had bought my first Dylan album in cassette, Infidels. My first exposure to Dylan was from MTV, the Sweetheart Like You video. Imagine that!  The first time I ever heard Dire Straits, I thought "Wow, Bob Dylan can sing!" Of course, I was mistaken it was Mark Knoffler not Dylan. If Dylan had a better voice, he'd sound like Knopfler. This band had everything. They had one of the best guitarists in rock history (27th on Rolling Stones top 100) , a killer rhythm section, a good singer and decent lyricist. How could MTV ruin this band?

Dire Straits was just so talented they could do whatever they wanted in regards to their image. They could be themselves. Mark Knopfler was a white balding Brit in his late 20's who went on stage wearing head bands and wrist bands. Talent trumps trendiness. How does a band like this survive in the era of MTV? They confront it head on. The song and video of Skateaway is about the movies we make in our head when we hear music, that which the music video robs us of. It is on their third album "Making Movies", arguably their best, which gets its title from the lyrics of the song (see below).

The lyrics are straight forward and the video is sparse and to the point. It is about a girl, a "roller girl," skating through traffic. She has headphones on and she is in her own world. While the world is at a standstill she weaves in and out of traffic freely. The "city's been so rude to her" but this is her revenge, she "tortures taxi drivers just for fun." It is escapism, but it is the "rock n roll dream" that makes her want want more, "the music make her wanna be the story."

Ironically, it is hard not to see this video in my head when I hear this song. I prefer to make own movies when I hear a great tune, but is one of the better videos I have seen. I like how the band comes in at the end and just sways back and forth. No glitter here, just rock and roll.  Rock and roll survived and is better than ever thanks to bands like Dire Straits who kept it burning through the dark ages of the 1980s.

Skateaway

lyrics Mark Knopfler

I seen a girl on a one way corridor
Stealing down a wrong way street
For all the world like an urban toreador
She had wheels on, on her feet

Well, the cars do the usual dances
Same old cruise and the curbside crawl
But the rollergirl, she's taking chances
They just love to see her, take them all

No fear, alone at night
She's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight
And the music's playing loud

Hallelujah, here she comes, Queen Rollerball
In an Enchante, what can I say, care at all

You know she used to have to wait around
She used to be the lonely one
But now that she can skate around town
She's the only, only one

No fear, alone at night
She's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight
And the music's playing loud

She gets rock 'n' roll and rock 'n' roll station
And a rock 'n' roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means

And the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song, what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
DJ play the movies all night long

She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips
Says, "Toro, toro taxi see ya tomorrow, my son"
I swear, she let a big truck graze her hip

Ah, she got her own world in the city, yeah
You can't intrude on her, no, no, no
She got her own world in the city
The city's been so rude to her

No fears, alone at night
Sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones so tight
And the music's playing loud

She gets rock 'n' roll and rock 'n' roll station
And a rock 'n' roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means

But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song, what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
DJ play the movies all night long, all night long

Slippin' and a-slidin'
Yeah, life's a rollerball
Slippin' and a-slidin'
Skateaway, that's all
Skateaway

Shala, shalay, hey, hey, skateaway
Now shala, shalay, hey, hey
She's singing shala, shalay, hey, hey, skateaway

Shala, shalay, hey, hey

Apology Nation (I Blame The Quiet)

One of the most frustrating things about being politically active is observing the absurd and not having any capacity to stop it. All those people who a decade ago who were gung-ho about this bullshit war in Iraq... are now the same people who are so against taking in refugees from Syria. Do people connect the dots? It is a simple case of cause and affect. If you go freely into the cause, surely, you must accept the affect.  Right? Surely, most understand that if you contribute to destabilizing a region of the planet, then it is partly your responsibility to assist those that are displaced by your actions. In all political discussions, the most frustrating, maddening even, are the quiet ... those who say nothing. I can at least respect those that disagree with me, those with a backbone. Those who say nothing, the jellyfish, are simply cowards.

But I have discovered a new low ... those that are quiet during the cause but once the affect is upon us, they complain loudly. They roll their eyes when we debated the war and said "must we talk politics" and now, when we talk about the refugees from the area, they complain that me might take them in, wrapped a warm flag striped with ignorance and fear. The quiet are the problem not the loud. If you are out on the town and sitting at a bar quietly talking shit with a friend and there is a loud group of people talking politics at the next table ... they are not the problem, you are. Stop talking about Modern Family and walk over there and join in. Argue with the person that you disagree with or support the person who is brave enough to speak up, but stop being quiet. The quiet are the problem. I blame the quiet.

The virtues of quietude are not lost on me. I am a very quiet person while at my place of employment. Tactful, I guess, is the word. Tact is what one practices when you live in a world that values the perception of peace over getting things done. I can't change this so I play along. The most dreaded outcome in Apology Nation is being guilty of making someone feel something and pulling them out of their cocoon of denial. I avoid the big three subjects while I am at work: politics, religion and sex. My opinions on these subjects are no more radical than anyone else, but I have no doubt, like anyone else, that if I got onto one of these subjects at the workplace I may piss off a few or make a few just roll their eyes in disgust. This is unneeded in the workplace when you often have to work as a team among people from very different backgrounds. When I started my first job as a software analyst in Norwood, MA in the early 1990's, I was partnered with a very talented engineer who was an outright racist. It annoyed the hell out of me. Because I had to work with him everyday, I didn't tell him what a worthless piece of shit I thought he was. It was easy to avoid the subject and because I am a white dude like him, he thought I could relate. I'd ignore it and avoided the subject because I needed him to get things done. It was a tenuous relationship. I have some regrets, but mostly, I don't. I did what I had to do to get the job done. To get through the day without losing my job and paying the rent was the ultimate goal in that relationship. After I was laid off, I never talked to him again. But this type of quietude is not necessary in your private life. If expressing your opinions is going to fracture your personal relationships, then those relationships aren't worth saving. Ruffle some feathers, you'll find out who your real friends are.

As Thanksgiving approached this year, I saw several articles and comments on social media on how to avoid arguments at the holiday table. Why? Isn't that where this is supposed to happen? Aren't we supposed to be figure things out with people we trust? Instead of talking about global warming, gun control or terrorism, instead lets all talk about the weather, sports and Game of Thrones and be safe in our discussions, be quiet and polite. In the future, when your grandchild takes off her oxygen mask to ask you what you did to help fight global warming, you can proudly tell them "I was polite! I didn't offend anyone." In a nation where it is impolite to have an opinion, only the rude are expressing themselves. Don't worry about offending anyone. Democracy is supposed to be messy. Disruption is how to get things done. Stop apologizing for having an opinion.  Apology Nation will smolder at the bottom of a pile of nuclear fall out, it was be covered by the rising tide and murdered while it was shopping ... but at least it was polite.