For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.
Day 22
There’s a great quote that I saw from music journalist Eric Alper: “Music. It either helps you forget everything or it helps you remember everything.” In many cases, there are songs and entire albums that have achieved both for me. I remember hearing the debut album from Violent Femmes and seeing the music as an escape to a less serious, less socially acceptable, liberating world. The last time I saw them in concert was five years ago in a double billing with Echo & the Bunnymen. It was at that point that the music brought me back, helping me to remember everything that was happening when I first discovered the music. Nearly 40 years after the release, the most powerful track in this regard for me is “Please Do Not Go”.
On an album stacked with alternative rock staples (“Blister in the Sun”, “Add It Up”, “Kiss Off”, “Gone Daddy Gone”), “Please Do Not Go” is the track that I look forwarding to hearing the most. It’s endearingly absurd with its lyrics and eccentric, goofy vocal delivery. It was a song that I felt was mine. I still remember listening to it in my bedroom after school on my Sony double-cassette boom box. The band’s analog-style instrumentation was unforgettable, epitomized by the blister-inducing upright bass line from Brian Ritchie.
“How long can the days go on when my love is so strong? And I know I cannot tell a lie, I want to see him go bye. Goodbye, bye, goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.”