For a while in my youth I was a huge fan of the band Blue ÷yster Cult. Tonight, driving home from working late on an article that will go in the mail tomorrow, I heard their mid-’70s hit “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” and I thought to myself, “Where did this song come from?” I mean, it’s a really good song, both lyrically and musically, far and away better than anything else the band ever recorded, although one might argue that some of the material on the album Fire of Unknown Origin comes close provided one had a taste for that sort of thing. I just learned from the above Allmusic links above that Patti Smith collaborated with them on some of their music. Wow.

Yes, basically this is cheese rock, but … those vague lyrics at once both menacing and seductive. It sounds like a love song but the persona of one of the singers (lyrics on the left) is clearly Death, with the other singer (lyrics on the right) offering encouragment to the would-be lover:

Come on baby… Don’t fear the Reaper
Baby take my hand… Don’t fear the Reaper
We’ll be able to fly… Don’t fear the Reaper
Baby I’m your man…

Then there’s a third persona, a narrator, whom we see in this last verse:

Come on baby… And she had no fear
And she ran to him… Then they started to fly
They looked backward and said goodbye
She had become like they are
She had taken his hand
She had become like they are

Good lord, but that’s brilliantly creepy!

As I work this afternoon, I’m listening to free mp3s from
the Protest Records website created by Thurston Moore and Chris Habib. The site contains dozens of tracks, and I’ve downloaded nine, tracks that range from sound collages (“Total War,” “The Body is a System”) to ’60’s style folk tunes (“Go Down, Congress”, “Rogue State”) to hip-hop (“In a World Gone Mad”) to indie rock (Cat Power’s sublime tracks “Maybe Not” & “Rockets”).

I think you should go to the site and download the Scott Amendola Band cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.”

I think you should do this right now.

I’ll probably feel stupid in the morning for posting this, but Elvis Costello was Letterman’s guest host tonight. {Yes, I should be in bed. It’s spring break. Cut me some slack.} So, with what song did he choose to close the show?

“(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, & understanding?

Sing it, Elvis.

Updated, March 13, 8:30 AM: Nope. Don’t feel stupid.

I moved here late last July. I guess I’m still getting used to it. Out on the highway somewhere today, I saw a sign that read “Kansas City, next 10 exits.” For half a second I thought, “Kansas City? Wow, I wonder what it’s like there.”