Doctor, doctor help me please!!!

I am a lifelong fan of loud, passionate and unbridled rock and roll (if you are surprised by this – we have never met). The spirit of this music flows through me like oxygen – I have even been called a bit of a rock snob to boot. As I was driving home with the wife and youngest from the park the other night – Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” came onto the radio. It immediately struck me how long it had been since I had heard this song. This was a stark contrast to the ubiquity of this song on classic rock radio from my earlier years.

As the song played (I subtly edged up the volume – met with a complete absence of protest), Oscar -my eleven year old- says from the back seat, “I thought that this song was faster.” It occurred to me – somehow miraculous that he had escaped the irresistible temptation to listen to this song over and over the first time he heard it – that I remember so clearly from my own first encounter with this monolith. “Just wait” I responded, and edged up the volume a little more.

The song took over the mood of the car and its wonderful accelerating pace and volume enveloped our imagination and the mood of the moment. The song was wistful and mystical, transcendent and passionate – and the all too familiar path from placid calm to swirling tempest that characterizes this beauty transfixed our ride home. It was perfect. It was rock and roll. It reminded me of why I love that music so much and reminded me of simpler times – when I was not so predisposed to bury my own head in the more complex world of grown up issues and actions. The juxtaposition was captivating. I wondered if this juxtaposition provided any opportunity to reconcile the weird and sometimes deflating character of some of the things happening in our common culture today. I wondered if I might try...

:)

So here...with a little help from the Greatest Rock and Roll Band of all time...and utilizing the lyrics from what is arguably the greatest rock and roll song of all time (at least the second greatest in my book) is my attempt to soothe my own soul spreading the healing power of rock and roll over the fractures and contusions of some of our clumsy and bruising public discourse.

SATISFACTION– by the Rolling Stones
(as playfully amended...it helps if you actually hear the song in your head)

(transcendent opening guitar lick here....)

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress." ~John Adams

When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

"As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use. A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices." ~William James

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between" ~Oscar Wilde

When I'm watchin' my TV
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.” ~Winston churchill

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no girl reaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." ~John Maynard Keynes

When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that
And I'm tryin' to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
'Cause you see I'm on losing streak
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

"YOU LIE!" ~Congressman Joe Wilson (R- SC)

I can't get no,
I can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction,
no satisfaction,
no satisfaction

"Well, I learned a lot. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries." ~Ronald Reagan talking to reporters upon his return from Latin America. 12/4/1982

...song fades...

The End of Time (written 12/31/2008)

The last day of 2008 is slipping away like the lingering flaver of the last sip of a pitcher of beer that I had never tasted before but found both flavorful and invigorating. I do like to savor a nice brew.

Time was that KISW radion station in Seattle (used to be REAL RAWK! {aggressive growl} but now is probably Classic Rock {breathy quieter growl}) would always close out the calendar year with a survey of the greatest 1000 rock and roll songs of all time. It always used to end with Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven at number one. When I was a kid listening to this list always excited me and I was unfailingly thrilled to be in air-range of KISW to hear any part of this list as it played.

I would anticipate the next song and swell with satisfaction at my predictive hits and near misses. This kind of ritual - the recounting of exactly where things belong has seemed to mark the culture of mass media throughout my consumptive lifetime. The week between Christmas and New Year is a kind of inventory exercise land fit only for compiling self-reflective lists of what was either ubiquitous in the ending year or what may have been genuinely interesting. This ritual has become comfortable for me - maybe it's my Catholic background which has helped make ritual (in general) so comfortable, or maybe it's just the comfort of anonymity in not bothering to go against the "let's review" grain.

What then was 2008? What was beautiful and inspiring? What remains? What was horrific and terrifying? What mattered? Does anyone care?

For me 2008(my own personal inventory) was a year of:
Children and Family, Friends and Gatherings, Beauty and Awe, Laughter and Smiles, Love and Loss, Passion and Warmth, Challenge and Change, Confusion and Despair, Joy and Connection, Playfulness and Maturity, Loneliness and Inspiration, Silliness (Salinas?) and Profundity, Planning and Discussing, Struggle and Resistance, Hope and Change, Drinking and Singing, Excitement and Reflection, Realization and Acceptance, Growth and Regression, Music and Games, Worry and Frustration, Warm Cuddling, Awkward Tension, Doubt, Knowing Smiles, Displaced Confrontation, Reassuring Eye Contact, Suspicious tones, Trusting words,

Transition...and the never ending search for redemption.

Finding what was lost and savoring what was good.

Some of my own personal inventory is really just a playlist of greatest hits that will probably be there from year to year, but the interesting stuff may be the new bits. I don't know where or how all of this fits in the greatest rockers of all time. My suspicion is that Stairway to Heaven is safe at number one -- but I have to say I was thrilled when I heard Nirvana make the list for the first time. It looks like lately the Grunge messiahs even made it as high as number three last year...and that is what really keeps things interesting.

Thank you to the Universe and the wonderful people in my life for both the real RAWK and for keeping it interesting. I am neck deep in life's river but I am not alone and in the words of the great Zen proverb:

"After enlightenment, the laundry"