Steve Reynolds Program - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts

Once again, back!

Hey!

Remember this thing? It’s been a hot minute or three, but, by gum, I’m back.

Why the return? It’s not like the world is clamoring for this. No one asked me where it went while it was gone. Writing about one’s favorite songs really is the height of navel-gazing and no one wants to gaze at my belly button. In fact, according to Duck Duck Go, “wampus belly button” has never been searched before in the history of the internet.

First, I should explain the hiatus. The simplest explanation is I put it to the side and forgot about it, but that’s not exactly true. I’d remember it often. Its presence would materialize when I’d hear certain songs, bands or even read a particular number. It would then slouch away when I’d focus somewhere else.

Another reason for putting it off is these write-ups are 500-600 words and I really want to go over that amount by several factors for the next songs. It was a frustrating dilemma. As my credo says, “when things get frustrating, I get a-procrastinating.” Also, I couldn’t elucidate the goal of this project: what happens when I finish song 100?

Remember Sterling Hayden at the end of Kubrick’s The Killing, after the propellers on the airplane blew away all the robbed cash from the dropped pawn shop suitcase? When his girlfriend tries to pull him away from where he stands as the police approach him and he just mutters, “What’s the use?” It’s a hell of an ending.

That was how I felt. Agonizing over how to describe Marky Ramone’s drumming, you feel that “what’s the use?” The reward of describing it in a way that’s interesting really ain’t that much. Recently, the answer got clear.

I just heard an interview with a self-published author. He’s written what seem to be very funny books, including his new one where the Gallagher brothers from Oasis have to reunite to solve a mystery. I liked his attitude of “why wait?” and has written what he wants and just puts it out there. I checked his GoodReads page and his books have less ratings than my book, and my book doesn’t have that many. He still plugs along following his own idea of what entertains him.

And that’s a good model to follow. I’m gonna keep on keeping on. At the end, I’ll compile these as a book, put it up as a Print On Demand and then go do something else, happy that I saw the project to completion.

But you get it for free, you lucky so-and-so.

All right. Now back to our sordid tale.

Song #38

I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts

by X

X is such a unique rock band. John Doe and Exene’s harmonies, on lyrics skating just this close to poetry, get your attention. The well-crafted but dirty music draws from punk ideals, but ends up punk-adjacent. Oh, but that “adjacent” has made a mess of things.

They were the one big LA underground band to get signed to a major label. This move got the corniest dude in rock and roll, Ray “somewhere a ballpark is missing its organist” Manzarek from The Doors, to produce their first four albums. It took a little octane out of X’s Mopar tank with Manzarek’s dry and sterile production. X’s songs from that era are still great, but they could have been more immediate and intense. Listen to their song “Nausea” over the credits of the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization— amazing, right? Now listen to the version on their first album Los Angeles with Manzarek inviting himself onto the track with his organ (heh, heh). The difference is stark.

Still, this era does have their best songs, including “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts,” at many times is on the top of my list.

First there’s the title, reminiscent of that old tale of baby Leo Tolstoy’s parents telling him he could have anything he wanted if he could stand in the corner and not think of a white bear. It’s a hell of a paradox . When you assert I must not think bad thoughts, you’re confessing you’re thinking many of them and can’t stop.

Then there’s the music. Somber guitar alternately picked and strummed, Billy Zoom’s guitar takes the perfect amount of style from John Doe’s love of folklorico. Doe’s bass does catchy climbs on the chorus and authoritative descents on the returns to verse. With brushes on a snare, DJ Bonebrake gives the beat; the rhythm speeds and slows down to match the mood of the lyrics.

The different moods of the lyrics are what make this one of the all-timers. It’s a writer considering their place and purpose in the art world and the country they find themselves in. It’s a still relevant question today. How can we sing affirmingly of anything of the wide varied emotional world of our comfortable surroundings while our country actively contributes to atrocities in other lands? I want to cut and paste all the lyrics here because they can all be mused on and discussed for pages and pages. But they wouldn’t have the dissonant intervals between Cervenka and Doe’s voices to illuminate the frustration and misgivings of these lines.

The intensity varies, though. One verse lays out one facet of their dilemma plain af.

“I'm guilty of murder

Of innocent men

Innocent women, innocent children

Thousands of 'em

My planes, my guns

My money, my soldiers

My blood on my hands

It's all my fault”

The next verse goes a bit lighter, though, to lament the state of music on the radio. It ends with almost a bumper sticker slogan: “Woody Guthrie sang about ‘B-E-E-T-S, not B-E-A-T-S’,” It’s pithy but still pointed.

I need to remember the impact this song has had on myself and others and not dwell the bad thought that too many people evidently have not been affected by this poetry, this song. I can only hope others listen to their good thoughts and the political and cultural theater will change, for once.

Yeah, I’m Telling You

Link to my top 100 list.

This issue’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is “Total Recovery” by Chicago Modern Quartet. It’s why you can’t dismiss new jazz— it sometimes creates something of its own place, time and joy.

Oh, I made a playlist of the Songs I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List! I somehow had two less songs at this point than write-ups, so I added a couple of jams.