I hate the holidays.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the way the routine is broken up, how everybody stops and does…something special?<\/p>\n
Not being Christian, I don’t quite understand the whole Xmas thing.\u00c2\u00a0 All those presents purchased for one day.\u00c2\u00a0 All that family niceness.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I’m down with the carols.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t take it too seriously, if you’re having a laugh, singing about Frosty is fun, and I do get a religious feeling when I hear "Silent Night".<\/p>\n
Sure, the Jews have Chanukah (Hanukah?\u00c2\u00a0 Hanukkah?), but really it’s just so little members of the tribe don’t die with jealousy over the acquisition of toys by their goyim brethren.\u00c2\u00a0 Chanukah is a minor holiday in Judaism, but it falls at the right time of the year, so it’s been anointed.\u00c2\u00a0 I kind of liked the lighting of candles.\u00c2\u00a0 And the story of how so little oil burned for eight days, I employ that as metaphor all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 But a religious experience?\u00c2\u00a0 It was just a bunch of days strung together before school vacation.<\/p>\n
And Thanksgiving…\u00c2\u00a0 What exactly are we thankful for?\u00c2\u00a0 Is it the advent of the shopping season?\u00c2\u00a0 Or the true beginning of horrible weather?\u00c2\u00a0 We all gather around a table and overeat and…think about the days off to come.\u00c2\u00a0 Now if everybody went to WORK on the Friday after Thanksgiving, or everybody worked ON Thanksgiving, and showed up at friends’ houses after work, then I might be amenable.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like showing up at your buds’ with a six-pack, to watch the game.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m not really interested in the game anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 The more years go by, the more sports seem irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t recognize the names, and you no longer care.\u00c2\u00a0 Somebody’s gonna win, somebody’s gonna lose, and then they’re going to do it all over again.\u00c2\u00a0 The talking heads on TV say it’s important, life or death, but all I can muster is a shrug.<\/p>\n
And the DARKNESS!\u00c2\u00a0 I think George Harrison had it right, one MUST beware of darkness.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, when it got dark there was always another Beatle album.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess there’s another one again today, but can it compare with "Magical Mystery Tour", or the White Album, or BEATLES ’65?!<\/p>\n
Jay-Z may be coming back, but there don’t appear to be any breakthroughs other than in the marketing area.\u00c2\u00a0 Stunning how the Beatles were the BIGGEST band and the MOST innovative.\u00c2\u00a0 To take a risk and change the formula, nobody does that today, nobody with anything to lose.<\/p>\n
Not that "Beatles ’65" was so innovative.\u00c2\u00a0 But when you dropped the needle and immediately heard John Lennon’s voice, you felt like you were being let in on a secret, the story of someone you knew, but didn’t know you.\u00c2\u00a0 And how could someone so famous, so successful, be in such pain?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t rock stars use up chicks\/birds and kick them to the curb?\u00c2\u00a0 How could John Lennon be REJECTED!\u00c2\u00a0 And the follow-up, "I’m A Loser"…\u00c2\u00a0 Two downers, how could one NOT be enraptured.\u00c2\u00a0 We identify with pain.\u00c2\u00a0 Now when there are more losers than ever we’re only interested in winners.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got feelings, you’re a chump.<\/p>\n
I’m not talking about what Morris Albert felt, what they sing about at weddings, but desperation, isolation, the human condition.<\/p>\n
Actually, the holidays aren’t so bad if you go away, if you’re with people.\u00c2\u00a0 But what if you’re alone?\u00c2\u00a0 Then they’re truly an endurance test.<\/p>\n
I can imagine the moment With the headlights on, immersed in traffic long before the dinner hour, a sound slowly amped up in the speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 The drums started to pound.\u00c2\u00a0 This was "Come Talk To Me".<\/p>\n Peter Gabriel became an accidental rock star.\u00c2\u00a0 At too old an age, long past his triumphs with Genesis, Gabriel concocted a train-wreck of a video that no one could stop watching.\u00c2\u00a0 We were glued to MTV, following along with the little train around Peter’s head, the dancing chickens, until in darkness, with lights glued to his clothing, Peter walked out of the room.<\/p>\n And since one track used to cause people to buy albums, "So" was suddenly owned by millions of people who never knew Gabriel used to dress as a flower.\u00c2\u00a0 They reveled in "Sledgehammer", but also discovered "Red Rain" and "In Your Eyes".<\/p>\n How do you follow up something like this?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve been knocking at the door for almost two decades, suddenly you’re INSIDE?\u00c2\u00a0 "Us" was a dud.\u00c2\u00a0 Too stiff in production, lacking the killer riff of "Sledgehammer", Peter fumbled his moment, and reverted back to cult status.\u00c2\u00a0 But two years later, the cult was rewarded, with "Secret World Live".<\/p>\n Okay, what are the best live albums?<\/p>\n You’d say "Live At Leeds".\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say it’s got energy, but lacks crowd noise.<\/p>\n "Frampton Comes Alive" has been overplayed, but it was great.<\/p>\n "Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out"?\u00c2\u00a0 Overrated.\u00c2\u00a0 Although I do love "Sympathy For The Devil".<\/p>\n The newly-forgotten favorite?\u00c2\u00a0 Tesla’s "Five Man Acoustical Jam".<\/p>\n But if you’re creating a Top Five, you must include "Secret World Live".\u00c2\u00a0 All those songs lacking passion, cut with too much precision on "Us", they suddenly came ALIVE!<\/p>\n Don’t miss the nine minute version of "Secret World".\u00c2\u00a0 Or the eleven minute take on "In Your Eyes".\u00c2\u00a0 But the keeper, the one that truly gets your attention, is the opening cut, "Come Talk To Me".<\/p>\n You hear the crowd noise.\u00c2\u00a0 An ethereal synth.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Peter’s pleading voice, IMPLORING you to listen.\u00c2\u00a0 And then POUNDING drums cause you to stand up and pay attention, hell, listen to the CROWD NOISE!<\/p>\n
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say<\/em><\/p>\n\n