White Stripes -- "The Same Boy You've Always Known" (2001)

I hope you know a strong man

Who can lend you a hand

Lowering my casket

Something just hit me.  I'm going to end up doing TEN Cape Cod-related posts featuring White Stripes songs.  (Don't worry -- not all of them are going to be about my bike rides.  I only rode on nine of the days I was there.)

One of Shakespeare's characters asked, "Can one desire too much of a good thing?"  Obviously, 2 or 3 lines would answer that question with a loud "NO!"

Don't worry -- I'm going to mix it up.  I won't do more than two White Stripes posts consecutively just in case some of you disagree with me (and with Shakespeare) and think that you can have too much of a good thing.  (Because White Stripes songs are most definitely a good thing.)  Also, I've got lots of interesting Cape Cod pictures and videos to distract you.

One reason I'm posting about this many White Stripes songs is that the band that currently ranks numero uno in terms of 2 or 3 lines posts is . . . (gasp!) . . . Grand Funk Railroad?  And while I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Closer to Home album, there's a problem here -- when I go to the regular meetings of the cool music bloggers, the other guys make fun of 2 or 3 lines.  

One of them is really mean, and he hurts my feelings.  And when I tell him to STOP IT, he calls me a loser and yells "BABY WANT A BOTTLE?" even though I wasn't really crying!

Anyhoo, as mentioned in an earlier 2 or 3 lines, there was a spur line that branched off the main Cape Cod Railroad and terminated in Chatham, which is a picture-postcard town at the extreme southeastern tip of the Cape -- in other words, at the "elbow" of the Cape.

Here's a map of Cape Cod and the islands that you will help you get oriented.  Once you've located Chatham, scroll down and continue reading:

The Chatham spur line was the last part of the Cape Cod Rail Trail to be opened, and there are some stretches where you're riding on streets, not on a dedicated hiking-biking trail.  But if you don't get lost, you eventually come to the old Chatham railroad station, which is now a nice little museum.

Here's an old pic of the Chatham train station:

Here's what it looks like today:

This old Missouri Pacific Railroad dining car service plate was on display at the museum.  (The Missouri Pacific never got within a thousand miles of Cape Cod, but the museum's holdings weren't strictly local in nature.)  This plate depicted the  capital buildings of all the states served by the Missouri Pacific:

After looking around the railroad station, I rode to the Chatham fish pier.  A good number of fishing boats are based in Chatham.  Here are a few of them at anchor:

 These 42-foot Coast Guard "Special Purpose Near Shore Lifeboats" (which were launched in 2008) are the only two of their kind -- they were designed especially for the shallow waters and constantly changing sandbars around Chatham.  Click here if you want to learn more about them.

Quite a few people were buying fish and shellfish at the pier when I was there.  Here's a photo of some lucky bastard's lobsters being weighed:

The "Same Boy You've Always Known" is on White Blood Cells, which was the third White Stripes studio album.  Musically, it's very simple -- Meg on drums and Jack on guitar and organ -- but very satisfying.

I don't have anything insightful to say about what the lyrics mean, but I don't think it's a very happy song.  Songs where the singer refers to his casket rarely are.  Also, the singer may be the same boy she's always known, but I don't think she's the same girl -- wherein lies the problem.

The only possible connection between this song and Chatham or Cape Cod are these lines:

The coldest blue ocean water cannot stop 

My heart and mind from burning

But that's not why I chose it for this post.  I didn't have a particular reason for choosing it for this post.

Here are the final two lines of the song:

If there's anything good about me,

I'm the only one who knows

On that less-than-cheery note, 2 or 3 lines presents "The Same Boy You've Always Known" -- and takes this opportunity to wish happy birthday to a boy I've always known: my older son turns 28 (!) on Monday.

Click here to download this song from Amazon:

Roy Orbison -- "It's Over" (1964)

All the rainbows in the sky

Start to weep, then say "Goodbye"

You won't be seeing rainbows any more

Setting suns before they fall 

Echo to you, "That's all, that's all"

But you'll see lonely sunsets after all

It's over, it's over, it's over -- 

It's over!

I was walking my dog in the pouring rain one morning last week when this song popped up unexpectedly on my backup iPod.  How did it know that I was planning to do a post featuring photos and videos of Cape Cod rainbows and sunsets? 

The appearance of "It's Over" on that iPod was timely for another reason.  Something is over for me today, and I had been mulling over what song I would use to observe the occasion.   

Roy Orbison

The lyrics quoted above aren't particularly convincing when you see them in print.  They're sentimental, even maudlin -- perhaps a little over the top for most of us.  But when Roy Orbison sings them, the effect is overpowering.  

Elvis Presley and Bono (among others) have said that Orbison had the greatest and most distinctive voice they had ever heard.  His range was extraordinary, and his singing strikes the perfect balance between passion and restraint.  

Unlike many singers of his era, Orbison had no swagger when he performed.  He didn't rely on sex appeal or charm or charisma to win over his audiences -- he relied on his voice and his music.

In 1963, Orbison was asked to headline a tour of the UK that included the Beatles.  The tour kicked off months before the first Beatles single was released in the US, so Orbison was unfamiliar with them.  

Although was nominally the headliner, he chose to go on stage first on the opening night of the tour.  The "Fab Four" -- whose live performances were raucous and uninhibited -- watched as Orbison stood completely still as he sang, trusting his voice and his music to win over the audience.

Orbison with the Beatles (1963)

Orbison left the stage that night after performing fourteen encores -- the crowd continued to chant his name until the Beatles took the stage.     

When we were on Cape Cod last month, my family and I came home from dinner one night to an extraordinary double rainbow.  This photo doesn't do it justice:

Here's a video that shows how that towering rainbow seemed to be located directly over our house:

We're used to seeing wonderful sunsets when we're there.  But the sunset we saw that night was as extraordinary as the rainbow.

Here's a picture of my older son and one of my twin daughters enjoying the view:

Here's one more view of that sunset:

Here's Roy Orbison singing "It's Over."  It has a somewhat complex structure, although you don't really notice that unless you pay close attention:

I believe this video was made in 1988 -- the year Orbison died:



Here's a link you can use to buy "It's Over" from Amazon:

Big Daddy Kane -- "Smooth Operator" (1989)

I give nightmares to those who compete

Freddy Kreuger walkin' on Kane Street

Confuse and lose, abuse and bruise the crews

Who choose to use my name wrong, they pay dues

Destruction from the exterminator

But in a calm manner, 'cause I'm a smooth operator

Unlike De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, Big Daddy Kane (whose real name is Antonio Hardy) was "old school" all the way -- and no one ever did "old school"-style rap better.

Big Daddy Kane got his start writing rhymes for his friend Biz Markie (more about him shortly).  Both were members of the "Juice Crew," the Queens-based rap collective headed up by producer Marley Marl.  (You "Hip Hop 101" students who have been doing your homework will remember that name from my lecture on UTFO and the "Roxanne Wars.")

Big Daddy Kane

Kane was cool and smooth, like an ice cube -- he had style (no one ever had a better-looking high-top fade haircut) and he overflowed with flow.  

Big Daddy was no gangsta.  Like other old school greats, his weapon of choice was a microphone, which he used to spray killer rhymes at less talented MCs.  He could rap slow, and he could rap fast -- but no matter how quickly the rhymes came, he always sounded calm and relaxed.  

While Big Daddy Kane's first two albums (which were released in 1988 and 1989) are considered to be his best work, he is still performing today.  He is highly respected by  other rappers.

In 2006, Ice-T said that Kane "will devour you on the mic.  I don't want to try to out-rap Big Daddy Kane.  Big Daddy Kane can rap circles around cats."  Eminem referenced him in one of his raps, freely admitting Kane's influence on his style.

Freddy Krueger

The first two lines quoted at the beginning of this post refer to Freddy Krueger, the ultra-creepy bad guy in director Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films.  Big Daddy's rapping is so good it gives his competitors nightmares -- not nightmares on Elm Street, but rather nightmares on Kane Street.

The next two lines are a tour de force of sorts, with no fewer than eight rhymes -- confuse, lose, abuse, bruise, crews, choose, use, and dues.  Note that the first seven of the rhyming syllables are separated from one another by only one nonrhyming syllable, so the rhymes pile up thick and fast.  But you have to wait awhile for the eighth and last rhyme in the series -- dues is separated from use by five syllables. 

With that kind of rhyming skill, Big Daddy Kane destroys and exterminates his competition -- but he does so calmly.  After all . . . he's a smooth operator.  

Let's look at some lines from a subsequent verse:

Now ain't that the pot callin' the kettle black
Sayin' I'm a new jack, you need to be smacked

The smooth way I say 'em and the way I display 'em

To make them sound different in a way that's gifted

And hey, I'm makin' sure every lyric is done fine

And I make one line, bright as the sunshine

Attack you like Robitussin on a cough

If you know like I know . . . step off!

In the first rhyming couplet of this verse, Kane laughs off those who call him a "new jack" -- a term that refers to a novice rapper, or to anyone who is new to the scene and has a lot to learn.  (It's more likely just the opposite, of course.)

The second rhyming couplet -- the third and fourth lines -- may throw you at first, because display 'em and gifted don't come close to rhyming.  The third line contains an internal rhyme -- say 'em and display 'em -- so the lack of a rhyme at the end of the fourth line is even more jarring.  But Kane gives you the rhyme you're waiting for at the beginning of the next line: hey I'm.

Gangsta rappers would no doubt use a Glock or MAC-10 to silence their rivals, but Kane is a smooth operator -- all he needs is over-the-counter cough medicine.

Here's the music video for "Smooth Operator."  It's an eponymous track of sorts, since Big Daddy Kane was as smooth an operator as ever existed -- both while on stage and with the ladies after the show.

Click here to download a copy of this song from Amazon:

White Stripes -- "I'm Bound to Pack It Up" (2000)

The bus is warm and softly lit
And a hundred people are ridin' it
I guess I'm just another running away

Adam Sandler was filming a movie on Cape Cod when I was there this summer.  They've changed the name from "I Hate My Father" to "Donny's Boy," but it's always possible that the final name will be something else.

I have no idea how this fits into the plot, but the movie crew built a kid-sized replica of Fenway Park at a middle school that's only a couple of miles from our house.  Here's a picture of it.

Here's a closer view:

The facsimile of Fenway isn't intended to stand in for the real thing.  It may be presented as a youth baseball park or a minor-league park.  It's a little small for an adult baseball stadium, but the standings that appear on the left-field wall are not major-league standings (which appear on the real "Green Monster") but simulated Cape Cod League standings.

The Cape Cod League is the oldest summer collegiate league in the country.  Its 10 teams consist of college players from all over the country, most of whom are considered professional prospects.  They use wooden bats, not aluminum bats, which enables pro scouts to better judge the potential of the players to succeed in the major leagues.

The Orleans (MA) Cape Cod League field

Some of the more prominent Cape Cod League alumni are Lance Berkman (who played for Rice), Jacoby Ellsbury (Oregon State), Nomar Garciaparra (Georgia Tech), Todd Helton (Tennessee), Tim Lincecum (Washington), Evan Longoria (Long Beach State), Nick Swisher (Ohio State), Frank Thomas (Auburn), Chase Utley (UCLA), Brian Wilson (LSU), and Kevin Youkilis (Cincinnati).

Here's two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum pitching in the Cape Cod League in 2005:

Here's what the left-field wall of the replica Fenway Park looked like from behind. 

Here's a view of the real Fenway Park:

Note the CITGO sign that towers over the left-field wall, and is a beloved local landmark and symbol of the Red Sox.  CITGO is the property of the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company, which means that is essentially owned by Venezuela's crackpot president-for-life, Hugo Chávez.  (As if there weren't enough reasons already to despise the Red Sox.)

Chávez is one of the ten most despicable people in the world, along with Jonathan Papelbon, Jason Varitek, Josh Beckett, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Pedro Martinez.  (Kim Il-sung just missed the top ten.)

Here's the crew getting ready for the day's filming:

As for "I'm Bound to Pack It Up," it's on the White Stripes' second album, De Stijl.  ("De Stijl" -- "The Style" in English -- was a post-World War I art movement in the Netherlands.  The movement's most famous practitioner was the painter Mondrian, whose paintings were simple geometric compositions that used the three primary colors plus black and white.)

Piet Mondrian's "Composition No. 10" (1939-42)

This song is uncharacteristic of the blues/punk style of most of the songs on the first two White Stripes album.  The song's structure is very simple -- three verses alternate with the chorus.  The muscial accompaniment is also very basic.

Here's "I'm Bound to Pack It Up," which I think is rather Led Zeppelin-ish:

Here's the Aluminium version:

Here's a link you can use to order the song from Amazon:

City Boy -- "Goodbye Blue Monday" (1976)

You never guessed that 

I was in it for the bread 

I only played to get ahead 

See where the hype has finally led

(I have to admit it -- those lyrics hit a little close to home for 2 or 3 lines, don't they?)

City Boy was one of my favorite bands when I was in law school.  I'm pretty sure I've gone at least 30 years without listening to the three City Boy LPs I own.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I bought not one, not two, but three City Boy albums.  Probably not as embarrassed as I should be -- and certainly not embarrassed enough to limit myself to only one City Boy post.  (I'm going to do two -- maybe even three.)  

Those three LPs were released in 1976, 1976, and 1977 -- or during my penultimate and ultimate years at law school.  

Sorry to be a showoff, boys and girls, but "penultimate" is one of my favorite words, and I use it whenever I have the chance.  

Another of my favorite words is "eponymous," of course, and City Boy's first album was an eponymous one.  But this song is off their second album, Dinner at the Ritz.

Several of the members of City Boy were playing folk music in the Birmingham, England area when a record company offered them a contract if they changed their name (which was "Back In The Band") and added drums and electric guitar to their wussy acoustic lineup.

I find that very interesting.  Why would a record company sign a band on the condition that it radically change its musical style?  If you're looking for a rock band, why not sign a rock band?  Why sign a folk group and tell them they have to add a drummer and get rid of the acoustic guitars and switch to electric guitars?

Like 10cc, Sparks, and the Tubes -- other favorites of mine from that era -- City Boy was notable for its arch, too-clever-by-half lyrics, catchy tunes, and gorgeous, lush harmonies.    Most of its songs are really two or three songs that have been unnaturally stitched together.  

All these bands had musical ADHD.  They were capable of coming up with lots of appealing hooks, but seemed to become bored easily.  After a minute or so -- just as the song was starting to grow on you -- they would abruptly segue into something that sounded completely different.   

Their music most definitely did not "rock."  Rather than settling into a steady, you-can-dance-to-it groove, they preferred tempo changes and irregular time signatures that added or skipped a beat just when you weren't expecting it.    

I'm guessing that 99% of their record sales were to males -- I think most women would prefer music that had a little more feeling and emotion.  (I don't claim to be an expert on women, but I think I understand the way their minds work at least as well as the average male does -- that is to say, not at all.)

The lyrics to "Goodbye Blue Monday" seem to have something to do with a performer deciding to thumb his nose at the world and get out of the limelight -- the press and the fans and the travel and all the craziness that goes along with being a star has become just too much for the poor man.

There are a lot of rock songs that are about being a rock star.  Self-pity is the primary theme of most of those songs -- "If you only knew what we stars have to put up with, you'd understand why we act like jerks and take lots of drugs," etc., etc.

Here's "Goodbye Blue Monday."  Click here to view the complete lyrics -- then you can follow along.

Here's a link you can use to buy this song from Amazon:

White Stripes -- "The Hardest Button to Button" (2003)

We named him "Baby"

He had a toothache

He started crying

It sounded like an earthquake

It didn't last long

Because I stopped it

I grabbed a rag doll

Stuck some little pins in it

The first railroad line to Cape Cod, which terminated in Sandwich, was opened to traffic in 1848.  Over the next 25 years, service was extended all the way to Provincetown at the very tip of the Cape.  In 1887, a six-mile spur from Harwich to Chatham (located at the "elbow" of Cape Cod) opened.

The railroad bridge over Cape Cod Canal

Passenger rail service to Provincetown and Chatham ended in 1937, and eventually the 22 miles of right-of-way from Dennis to Wellfleet was turned into a paved hiker/biker trail.  Later the spur line to Chatham was added to the trail. 

Every summer, I ride the entire trail (including the Chatham spur) in four roughly equal segments -- this year, my four rides were about 16, 18, 21, and 17 miles, respectively. 

On my first ride this year, I started at mile 8 in Harwich, rode west to where the rail trail begins in Dennis and then back to Harwich.

The trail is now marked every tenth of a mile, which makes navigation much easier:

One of the highlights of that first day's ride was the Cape Cod Inflatable Park, which is located near the beginning of the trail, adjacent to a big flea market. 

There are oodles of moon bounces there:

The shark slide is a big attraction:

But my personal favorite is the dragon slide:

The patrons of this park are not necessarily from the most sophisticated and prosperous socieconomic strata of American society:

"The Hardest Button to Button" is about a child adjusting to the birth of a baby brother.  I don't know about you, but using voodoo to shut up a crying baby sounds pretty dysfunctional to me.  I doubt that any of the families I saw at the inflatables park had resorted to voodoo, but some of them looked like they would get an A+ grade for dysfunctionality.

Another highlight of my ride was being able to observe the local wildlife up close -- you don't get this kind of opportunity in the big city very often:



The final highlight of my day one ride was my visit to El Guapo's Taqueria in Brewster, where I like to reload on carbs with a big-ass burrito, Ye Olde Cape Cod style:

Big-ass burrito

Here's the last thing that burrito ever saw:

Big-ass mouth

The music video for "The Hardest Button to Button" is something else.  Click here to  read an MTV.com article about the video, which took a full three days to shoot.  

Here's a very interesting orchestral version of this song from the 2006 album, Aluminium:




Click here if you'd like to buy the song from Amazon:

A Tribe Called Quest -- "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo" (1990)

I left my wallet in El Segundo

Left my wallet in El Segundo

Left my wallet in El Segundo

I gotta get it, I got-gotta get it

Earlier this year, a documentary movie titled Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest was released. (Beats, Rhymes & Life is also the title of the group's fourth and most well-known album.) It is required viewing for "Hip Hop 101" students!



A Tribe Called Quest (or "ATCQ" for short) is an alternative hip hop group -- darlings of collegiate hip hop fans.  Their music does not resemble gangsta rap in the least. ATCQ and De La Soul were the principal members of "Native Tongues Posse," a collective of hip hop artists inspired by Afrocentric rapper Afrika Bambaata and known for their positive, socially-conscious lyrics and jazzy, sample-filled music.

ATCQ's two MCs, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, were childhood friends who grew up in Queens. They were 19 and 18, respectively, when they produced a five-song demo that laid the groundwork for their 1990 debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Like De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, the ATCQ album was playful and apolitical. One critic said it was so sweet and lyrical that "[y]ou could play it in the background when you are reading Proust." (Hmmm . . . I'll have to try that.)

The album cover

Beats, Rhymes & Life was recorded when the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers was at its most bitter, and it was much more serious in content and more musically challenging. A couple of years after its release, ATCQ unexpectedly broke up.

The group reunited several years later, and its 2008 tour is the subject of the recent documentary, which highlights the personal differences between the group's members.

"I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" is one of ATCQ's earliest recordings, and it is as goofy and G-rated a hip hop track as you'll ever find. I stumbled across a remix of the song on a Fat Boy Slim CD years ago, before I had ever heard of ATCQ. It was a great favorite of some of the kids on the baseball team I coached when I played it in the car while driving them home after practices.

Here's the official music video for "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo."  (If that video doesn't make you smile, you need to lighten up, dude!)

By the way, the video would have you believe that El Segundo is in the middle of the desert.  The real El Segundo is a small incorporated city in Los Angeles County that is located on the Pacific Ocean, just south of Los Angeles International Airport.

Here's a link you can use to buy the song from Amazon: