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Hey everybody, check this shit out! We’re back! We haven’t gotten fired yet, and I don’t know about you guys, but as far as I’m concerned, that is NOT a familiar feeling. Thanks Chris and Brian! Finally somebody has faith in my crazy ideas! (I’m looking at you Mom).
This week we take on the truly groundbreaking 1988 classic, “Straight Outta Compton”. I was tempted to write this in some clever fashion, with lots of puns and references to how white we are, but as funny and subversive that kind of humor is, I guess I’m just feeling a little blasé this week. I do want to comment on how hilariously silly the lyrics to this album are, and how much things have changed in the intervening 25 years since Straight Outta Compton was released. What seemed scary and “other” has been so co-opted, that now even the unintentionally hilarious is just as funny as the intentional. In fact, sometimes it’s hard for me to discern between the two.
When we were recording I kept trying to remind myself to tell a story but I eventually forgot. I suppose I should share it with you here. At some point in the show I give a character profile of a guy I went to high school with named Judd. There are only 2 things I really remember about Judd. 1. At parties, he would only drink Gatorade mixed with Peppermint Schnapps. 2. He pretty much only listened to NWA. OH! And 3. He drove a kick ass HUGE 70’s van, (yes, he had a moustache). It was the first car I had ever ridden in that had neither a working speedometer nor gas gauge; made for lots of adventures, but those are for another day. When that van finally died, he bought an identical one. That was just his identity by that point, you know? When I was in 10th grade Judd and I went to Padre Island for Spring Break with a group of friends. One afternoon, we were cruising THE VAN up and down the main strip, and every time we passed a group of comely lasses (which was often), Judd would lean out of the window and coo at them “Wasssup LADIES! Wanna party?!”…upon the immediate and inevitable rejection he would invariably mutter “vicious bitches”. This went on for hours, and he never once altered this initial pitch, nor his reaction to the letdown…It was sort of like watching a gif of a dog chasing, then catching, a skunk.
Next week—We’re gonna continue our move out of the 70’s and 80’s and talk about something a hell of a lot more recent: Father John Misty and the 2012 record “Fear Fun”. Lot’s of songs about drinking and drugging. WOO HOOOOO!!!
–Shane
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