I love driving in the winter.<\/p>\n
In the summer you’re battling the heat.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to drive long enough to have the a\/c kick in.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re always trying to get cool.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the winter, it’s cold outside, but inside, with the sun entering the windshield you’re warmed like a piece of bread in a toaster, it’s cozy, it’s life-affirming.<\/p>\n
I started out with Howard Stern.\u00c2\u00a0 But he was talking to some personal trainer and I didn’t give a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 So I pushed the buttons until I caught Steve Miller’s "I Love You" from "Number 5" and ultimately this, "Too Much Of Nothing", on Deep Tracks.<\/p>\n
I used to have a Norelco cassette recorder.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a black box with silver trim, a small rectangle, with inputs so I could plug it into my stereo and hit record when my favorite tracks came on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, I might miss a few seconds of the song, I might get deejay patter, but I had a copy of the number, which I could listen to my heart’s content.<\/p>\n
And one of the songs I recorded was "Too Much Of Nothing".\u00c2\u00a0 From WDRC, in Hartford, CT.<\/p>\n
"Too Much Of Nothing" was on the "Basement Tapes".\u00c2\u00a0 But at this point, those Dylan\/Band recordings were just a rumor.\u00c2\u00a0 It was years before they saw the light of day.\u00c2\u00a0 But Bob’s manager, Albert Grossman, also managed Peter, Paul & Mary, who’d given Dylan his first hit, with "Blowin’ In The Wind", and he shuttled "Too Much Of Nothing" to the trio.<\/p>\n
Dylan’s original is slow.\u00c2\u00a0 The dirge-like quality of the music adds weight to the lyrics.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the Peter, Paul & Mary take revs up the tune, like a sprite it darts off into the atmosphere, you do your best to catch up.\u00c2\u00a0 Only 2:29, you follow it until it disappears.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you want to hear it again.<\/p>\n
Too much of nothing<\/span> We’ve got a stoner culture.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s about the relaxation.\u00c2\u00a0 But when you slow down, when you veg out for an extended period of time, you’re not as happy as you anticipated, that movie on TV you were dying to see is suddenly unsatisfying.<\/p>\n Say hello to Valerie<\/span> The song’s jaunting along, and then it changes completely.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a quality of reflection.\u00c2\u00a0 Dark and light in the same number.\u00c2\u00a0 The trio is prancing down the street in the verse, smiles on their faces, heads in the air, and then they seem to stop at a sidewalk cafe and debate the meaning of life.<\/p>\n Send them all my salary<\/span> Ain’t that life.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re high as a kite, then you’re contemplating suicide.<\/p>\n Dylan’s most famous for his political numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s a king of personal insight.\u00c2\u00a0 One can argue he’s tackling both subjects in this transitional number. Ain’t that what’s happening today.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not enough to go around.\u00c2\u00a0 Scratch that, those who’ve got it don’t want to part with it.\u00c2\u00a0 And they try to preempt the anger of the proletariat by being angry themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s tough being rich, look at the expenses!\u00c2\u00a0 Be nice to me or I won’t spend and create jobs for you.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n Those with nothing today get sustenance from reality shows.\u00c2\u00a0 They see reflected back to them the same loserdom they inhabit. Their dream is to be featured too.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is exactly the way those in power like it.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as you’re fighting over minor treats, you won’t recognize that the game is truly rigged, and the powerful have all the riches.<\/p>\n That’s the difference between the sixties and today.\u00c2\u00a0 In the sixties, music was an agent of change, the one true religion that permeated the youth culture, invigorated kids and inspired them to take action.<\/p>\n Now those baby boomers have either achieved the American Dream of wealth or have given up.\u00c2\u00a0 And they don’t want you mucking up the paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re either a loser or a winner.\u00c2\u00a0 But the odds of winning are so low.<\/p>\n All of this wrapped up in a ditty.\u00c2\u00a0 Not about humps or lady lumps, but the existential human condition.<\/p>\n I couldn’t turn "Too Much Of Nothing" off.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though I was at my destination.\u00c2\u00a0 It made me joyous, it made me hopeful.\u00c2\u00a0 If a song can make me feel this good, there’s hope for me, and humanity.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love driving in the winter. In the summer you’re battling the heat.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to drive long enough to have the a\/c kick in.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re always trying to get cool.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the winter, it’s cold outside, but inside, with the sun entering the windshield you’re warmed like a piece of bread in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Wa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3607,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Can make a man feel ill at ease<\/span><\/p>\n
Say hello to Marian<\/span><\/p>\n
On the waters of oblivion<\/span><\/p>\n
But when there’s too much of nothing<\/span>
It just makes a fella mean<\/span><\/p>\n