My Little Box of 45s

Inspired by early Nick Lowe and by seeing a little 45 box at a store like one Jimmy used to have (or was that Creagh's?), which was already sold when I tried to buy it.



I’m sitting by the record player
Silent thanks to you, betrayer
Because of you, you cruel homewrecker
I have lost my favorite records….

We never would have quarrels
Listening to Ray Charles
Lee Allen and his jumping jive
How could we have troubles
Listening to the Rocking Rebels?
But you took away my box of 45s

You took away
     You took-a-took away
          My little box of 45s
My little, my little
     My little woah-uh-woah
           My little box of 45s

We’d buy a six of Yuengling
Dance the frug and shing-a-ling
The boogoaloo, watusi and the fly
And for some crazy reason
We’d dance like Jackie Gleason
But now I’ve lost my box of 45s.

You took away
     You took-a-took away
          My little box of 45s
My little, my little
     My little woah-uh-woah
           My little box of 45s

I don’t care for Pandora much
And I don’t want an Ipod touch
I want something with a hole and label
I can spin on my turntable

My box was quite a relic
Rather psychedelic
A moiré pattern running down the side
The front was kind of checkered
Full of my favorite records
You took away my box of 45s

You took away
     You took-a-took away
          My little box of 45s
My little, my little
     My little woah-uh-woah
           My little box of 45s

Still Life (with scone)

I’m rushing to get to the place we had named
Then stop on the sidewalk: you’re perfectly framed
By the rectangular window of the café
A still from some cinema verité
Just this:
Still life

You’re sitting at the table alone
Frowning at some stupid thing on your phone
Without really looking, you’re trying to pick up
The scone sitting next to your coffee cup
Just this:
Still life

Perfectly frozen, this moment in a picture
The window a frame, you within it
Not quite real, not quite a fiction
A memory, a dream, something infinite

You see me and wave, the spell is then broken
I’m not quite in a dream, not yet awoken
Between two worlds, I can’t quite decide
Then I smile, wave back and go inside
Is this
Still life?

In the news

I just saw Johny Blood listed as a contributor to the new Magnetic Fields album on Pitchfork Media. I'd clip and save the article if it weren't made out of electrons.

Happy birthday, Jymn.  We may not fuck much with the past, but we sholey do fuck with the future.