Category Archives: Music

11. Smells like a car full of boys

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I’d heard of the band Nirvana and knew who Kurt Cobain was, even before Dan Bern sang about Cobain and before I heard Dan sing Pennyroyal Tea. But I didn’t care. I still don’t necessarily like Nirvana’s music, but one song brings back a not-so-distant memory.

A few summers ago my kids and I visited friends in Lake Tahoe. It was my first time there and driving from Oakland to Tahoe was more experience than I’d expected. I was content to hang out at our friend’s home and drive around the lake a bit.

One day the hosts decided we’d all visit Virginia City and my car was necessary to carry passengers there. I was nervous, but figured it would be good for me – to drive though the mountains once again before I had to drive back to San Francisco later that week. The kids were allowed to choose the cars they wanted to ride in. The two girls (my daughter and her friend) chose to ride in the van with the experienced mountain driver leaving me to ferry the boys to Virginia City. (What did they think? If I got too scared to drive the boys would push the car?)

They were all excited – after all, the airport had upgraded me to a bright blue PT Cruiser and it was a novelty car at the time. “The boys” included David and his friend – both 16, Artie – 15 and my son – 11. We started out and as long as I didn’t look off the side of the road I was okay. The one thing I soon became aware of was the odor in the car. Three teenage and one preteen boy in a closed-up car in Nevada summertime made for a nose scrinching aroma.

To take my mind off the smell and mountain roads, I turned on the radio, but David handed me a CD. Artie, who was in the front seat, slid it into the CD player and as we sailed over the Nevada mountain roads the perfect song came over the speakers: Smells like Teen Spirit. Not only did I forget where I was, I let the boys roll down the windows and we played the song loudly several times. No fear and no smell…

Yeah, so the song is not about stinky boys, but I always think of that car ride when I hear it.

9. Faaaaaaar Out!

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I tend to be a one musician at time person. I don’t know if that is normal or not, but there you have it. After my fleeting interest in Jack Wild and before I discovered Kate Bush I was a huge John Denver fan. Like with Kate Bush, it was the lyrics that caught and held me. Except for hearing songs on the radio, practically the only music I listened to during that time was John Denver’s music – the fact that I only had two of his albums meant that I listened to the same songs over and over and over…

One of my favorite songs on his Greatest Hits album was For Baby (For Bobbie). I pictured a man walking with his young son and showing him the wonders of nature. It was simple, and sweet and I liked it and made me think of what life would be like with a child of my own.

I remember seeing John Denver on a couple of TV specials, but the show that I remember the most was when he was on the Tonight Show – probably in 1973 or 1974. He may or may not have been wearing his signature glasses, but I suspect not. He was changing. When Johnny Carson (or Ed McMahon) urged him to say “Faaaaaaar Out!” he refused, saying, in essence, he was beyond that. I lost a little respect for him that night, and it was not much later that I put his albums away.

I never told too many people about my John Denver obsession – the ones I did, laughed at me. Still, when I hear a song that was on one of those two albums that I particularly liked, I usually smile and even tap my foot a little.

8. Marilyn – finally, a Dan Bern post

Music,

Friday May 23, 1997 was a major turning point in my musical as well as personal life, and I owe it all to an NPR broadcast. Normally I listened to books on tape on the long commute from Alexandria to Bethesda. This Friday, however, I either was tired of the book or just didn’t have one.

I was not paying attention to the first part of the broadcast, so missed the introduction, but when I heard a few lines from Marilyn, I was a changed woman. By the time they played Cure for AIDS I nearly had to pull off to the shoulder of the beltway because I was laughing at some of the lyrics. I don’t know what it was about these songs – did I need them on this particular day? Or were they genuinely so good that I was sold on this new singer/songwriter?

I listened carefully at the end of the interview and dangerously wrote down his name on a scrap of paper: Dan Burn.

That weekend I ran out and looked in the record stores for an album by Dan Burn. No luck. I assumed he was not popular enough to have an album in Tower Records or Borders Books and Music. I didn’t give up, though and turned to the Internet to find out what I could. Somehow I found out that I’d misspelled his name – it was Bern, not Burn and ran back to Tower Records and found his second album: Dan Bern.

I played it in the car, and nearly peed my pants laughing at some of the songs.

I was hooked. I became a rabid fan, joining email lists, traveling out of state to see him – the day after I saw him locally, buying all of his albums the day they were released, trading blank cds for upwards of 50 bootlegs, downloading mp3’s by the gigabyte.

I’ve tried to interest most of my friends in his music, but so far no one has really taken to him. I’ve learned that obsessions are not transferable. So I made friends of some already converted folks through the years.

Consider yourself warned. This is not the last you’ll see a post on Dan Bern in this blog. Not by a long shot.