Gaslight

I started my WeightWatchers up again yesterday. 240 pounds... ouch. The goal long-term is 185, but for now, if I can get down to 210 by the end of 09, I'll be pretty satisfied. So, I've started watching my intake... and today I started real activity: a nice little 12 mile ride, pushing the pace. 15mph average, 45 minutes of exertion. And for the first time in a looooong time, it felt good.

What felt even better was the music in my ears. Lisa gave me a Zune for Christmas, and so I had some cool tunes going. Mostly Gaslight Anthem, the band I discovered on the Conan show back in December.

I am loving the songs, and the very cool Springsteen references:

From "High Lonesome":

There was "Southern Accents"
On the radio
As I drove home
"And at night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet"
It's a pretty good song
Maybe you know the rest
Maybe you know the rest

Nice reference to the Petty song as well as to "I'm on Fire"... and with the song's use of Maria, you gotta ask if that's a reference to Springsteen's repeated use of Mary in his songs.


From "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues":

I haven't seen Sandy, angry Johnny, or Mary
I heard they got married
Mighta had a couple babies
And traded their memories
For Farview and Acres
And never play no pinball
or get out past the breakers

Sandy? Johnny? Mary? Really?


From "Meet Me By the River's Edge":

See I've been here for 28 years.
Pounding sweat beneath these wheels.
We tattooed lines beneath our skin.
No surrender, my Bobby Jean.

And that's the beginning... and the end?

No retreat. No regrets.
Meet me by the river's edge.

Yeah, that Jersey boy's been listening, hasn't he?


And, hell, "The Navesink Banks" could have been a Wild/Innocent era song:

"all hope abandon, ye who enter here"
said the sign i read that was hanging above her bed
and the sirens over wailing
but a man cant ignore the signs
you gotta keep a good eye
on the winding road ahead
and my first sin was a young american girl

and i spent time 'neath the trestles
with the punks and the dimestore saints
kept faith and a switchblade tucked beneath my coat
and i ran with dirty angels
slept out in the rain
we were scared and tired and barely 17
and my first sin was the fear that made me old

and i walked down by the shipyards
near the place where i was born
saying "ah maria, if you woulda known me when..."
but she just smiles by the light on the navesink banks
saying "listen baby i know you now"
and she steps into the river
and i just stand by the moon
thinkin' 'bout a ghost i hear at night
and she says your first sin was a lie you told yourself

Nice references to Dante's Inferno, Petty's "American Girl" and Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town"... very cool.

And at some point, I'm going to break down "Miles Davis and the Cool"... but not today... but for day, I will leave you with the song:



Have a good one (and go buy their records... you won't be sorry).