#37 I Need Better Friends-Cracker
In sum this song is like the germ of a mid life crisis that hadn’t happened yet. A general feeling of malaise about ones life. Wishing that you could go back in time. Not to completely start over, but to do more than change a few minor details. Like who you decided to go into business with, who you decided to marry, where you decided to live, what you do for a career. And mid-life crisis aren’t all about sports cars and younger girlfriends with boob jobs.
For instance in my germ of a midlife crisis: Item one was I would not have been a musician. I would have just become a writer or continued as a mathematician.
Or any kind of scientist. I would have very much enjoyed hanging around in labs. Late at night. Beakers, my ipod on shuffle. Books on tapes. Corduroy blazer and the school tie.
Failing that as far as Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven goes I would have very much enjoyed being the Brian Wilson guy in the band. Write the songs and record them. Even tour but never actually go to any of the shows. Get some cheesy glad handing guy that will sit at the bar drinking with the fans until every last one of them is gone. I tell the guys in Cracker this all the time. They should just get that guy and leave me out of the whole public persona thing. (They are often very distressed i can’t be more of a traditional lead singer)
No the band, management record label and whoever else around us thinks that there is a solutions for problems like this. And it’s always this: be someone you are not.
What i love about the touring and the live show is not what the Lowest Common Denominator of the audience enjoys. So no we will never be hugely popular. There will always be way too many people that don’t get us/me. We will have to tour around the country in a van and trailer for the rest of our lives. No tour busses. Directly as a result of my inability to do the “rock” persona. Fuck it. Yes tattoo it on my forehead. I- the bum-lost. I accept it. It’s a fair tradeoff.
I love giving the audience a good natured ribbing. Last night I had a great time with the Arcata crowd. And no one seemed to mind. (But how many places like Arcata/Eureka re there?)I also like talking about obscure things, like the the origination of obscure berries and the circus animal smell of the Tule Elk. But I understand most of America doesn’t understand this. You are supposed to say the alteranative rock/indie rock/americana equivalent of ” are you ready to rock!”. The more “tastemaker” the audience the more you have to adhere to this protocol. Often I launch into an important story about the difference between the mustaches of Canadian custom officers and US custom officers one of our “fans” yells ”shut up and play your guitar”. I mean do you talk to your family that way? A variation on this occurs every night. Next time you’re at a Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven show and i start to tell a story that most of you will find interesting, watch how many times some fucking drunk dumbass interrupts or talks to me like that.
My English aunt Wendy told me presciently in 1986:
“That’s a dangerous business you got there”
“Excuse me? You mean rock and roll business?
“NO, using irony in America”
It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s not that I’m not social. I have a very supportive group of friends with which i’m very close. But it’s a small tight knit group. I’m just not interested in having lots of acquaintances. I don’t mind talking to strangers. I walked all around Arcata today, talking to people in Northtown books, in the French cafe, and at the hardware store where I went to get a reverse threaded nut and bolt to fix a design flaw in my laptop stand.
And I was drinking jasmine tea
When the goon squad came for me
It was all my drunken friends
they kicked down my front door again
I just never signed up to hang out in bars for hours after the show. That’s what this stanza means. And why would anyone expect I would do this? You think Mick jagger does that? Shit you think Will Oldham does that? You think the guy in Deer Tick does that? (Actually he probably does if you buy him drinks.) John Doe is the consumate professional and he is always out the backdoor and gone. Bret Michaels charges $200 dollars to get into his meet and greet. I never understood why certain CVB and Cracker fans expect me to do more than what i’ve already done:
spend 200 days on the road a year for 25 years and record twice as many albums and songs as The Beatles.
I don’t want to talk after the show. I understand if you want me to sign some stuff, but i’m too tired to talk. Also usually i look like shit after the show so i hate having my picture taken. Unless you are a kid or it’s your birthday. No pictures. From now on. I’m checking IDs. I’ve been in this place since 3 or 4 in the afternoon, you got there at 9;30pm. I’m sweaty as shit from playing 3 hours. I’m tired of untagging shitty photos on facebook.
Also since when have people demanded the same kind of access to a muscian that they get to the Animals in a Petting Zoo. . This newish phenomenon is getting steadily worse as our fans age. Younger people do not do this. This last week:
I was punched in the shoulder, like i would punch my cousins when i was a teenager, hard enough to leave a fucking bruise (Crested Butte).
“Handcuffed” which is when some one usually drunk shakes your hand but then won’t let it go often moving up your arms to clasp your wrist(Seattle and Vancouver).
Patted on the head like a dog (Portland)
Had my glasses taken off my face and tried on (Eugene)
Physically pushed into a corner, and blocked from leaving so that some “fan” could talk to me in private about something really important, and of course the best time to do this is after a show when you are so drunk you can’t even talk(Glacier).
Dude no one is supposed to tolerate this shit.
So in my song that’s the first thing. I’m re-evaluating this. I was seriously thinking of just releasing Greenland and say that’s it, The assholes at the show are right. I’m not a true rock and roller cause…
I need to just shut up and play my guitar.
Learn to drive around in a van 200 days a year talking about Keith Richards guitar licks and Led Zeppelin bootlegs from the Fillmore.
Let rock consume my every hour of my waking.
Develop a wish to die in a hotel room on the road as one of my bandmates professes he would prefer to die.
So get off the stage? That’s what i was planning to do after greenland. But later i said. Fuck that. I enjoy playing and i enjoy the shows. Why should i let the Lowest Common Denominator dictate what i do with my life. So i suffer through the bullshit so i can get a hearty laugh from the audience in portland when we describe our love hate/relationship with Eugene. Or we tell the Vancouver audience about our fantasy about the ferry boat sinking while on the way to Victoria BC. Or just play a transcendental version of All Her Favorite Fruit, or Gimme One More Chance.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So the first part of that germ of a mid-life crisis I rejected, came to an uneasy compromise, or am still struggling with. The jury is still out. Yikes! The second part is less complicated. It also ultimately has a happier ending.
Around the time I wrote this song, I drove down the coast of California with my longtime friend Velena Vego. We also had worked together for a long time. And a long time ago we had been romantically involved. Later as friends she had run my label and also acted as a informal advisor for years. At the time she had just taken over managing Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. We were having a great time working together again, and traveling around.
I started playing the what if game in my head. What if we had gone out? gotten married? What if I was with someone who was in the business? Not a civilian?
It took a few years but eventually Velena and I ended up together. Now we’re like the Indie rock Sharon and Ozzy.
Although we were actually driving down the Central Coast of California. I have a bias towards the Lost Coast so I sing
From Point Arena to Stinson Beach
From Arcata to Bodega Bay.
It’s a much better setting for a “what if” romance. It’s certainly the location i would use if it were a movie.
I Need Better Friends.
[INTRO:] [A/Asus4]
[Fm] I was [E] drifting down the [A] coast [A/Asus4]
[Fm] With the [E] girl I loved the [A] most [A/Asus4]
But it’s [D] not [D9] what [Asus4] you might [A] [E] think
It’s a [D] long and [D9] tragic [Asus4] histor-[A]-y [E]
When will this shit [Fm] end
I need better [A] friends
[D] But for now it’s [A] fine [A/Asus4]
And I was smoking lots of weed
Trying to forget what you meant to me
Hanging out with folks just half my age
Buying analogue synthesizers
sometimes reissues of those vintage synths
[BREAK:]
[C#] [D] [A]
[C#] [D] [A]
[C#] [D] [A]
[E (bass E-D-C-B)]
[A/Asus4]
And I was drifting down the coast
With the girl I love the most
From point arena to stinson beach
From Arcata to bodega bay
When will this shit end
I need better friends
But for now it’s fine
[REPEAT BREAK]
And I was drinking jasmine tea
When the goon squad came for me
It was all my drunken friends
they kicked down my front door again
I need better friends
But for now it’s fine
August 24, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I walked up to you one time at the campout a couple years ago and asked some innocuous question. After I got the explanation, I asked if I could take your picture and you said, “Not right now.” I didn’t take it personally, but I knew you might have been sick of people snapping shots of you, so I left it at that.
This post offers up a terrific amount of background that I find very useful in understanding where you’re head’s at.
Anymore, I go to the shows and leave. Y’all don’t need to be told how great you are nor do you need some chucklehead (read: me) bugging you about small things that amount to nothing in the end. Most of my answers come these days through this blog. So, thanks and keep on rockin’ in the real world.
August 24, 2010 at 9:14 pm
“in the real world”, I might borrow that phrase myself
August 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I endorse your usage.
August 24, 2010 at 9:06 pm
I could never explain the things I wished I had done until one night when we were watching a documentary on James Randi. At one point he decided to go investigate some dodgy Russian faith healers, and in the very next scene he was in some airport, buying a ticket at the Swissair counter, and heading for Moscow. I just about jumped out of bed and yelled “That’s IT!” That’s what I wanted to be — a wandering, self-directed, freelance investigator. Lots of mid-life regret there, but those jobs are a bit thin right now.
About the fan (or drunken twerp) expectations–the people who “get it” (like Cracker and Camper fans) aren’t the ones who expect the “rocker” act. But as usual, the loudmouth minority (the drunken twerps who’ll go to any show) screws it up for everybody. And the performers who *do* put on the act, or fake their way through the glad-handing, are really off-putting, unless you’re the type who only wants to get drunk and yell at the stage.
I can understand why some people feel the urge to hang around an artist whose stuff they’ve spent a lot of time with–you might forget that while you and 10,000 other people know lots about them, they don’t know you at all. But I can’t really see acting on the urge–you can’t really expect anything to come of it.
Anyway–nice post, makes total sense.
August 24, 2010 at 9:44 pm
My “Gentleman’s Blues” CD has your autograph on it, from a Traveling Apothecary show about 10 years ago. I have always considered that a gift, for all the reasons you cited above.
I also recall that particular show had a transcendental version of “Dixie Babylon” in it. Johnny went down on his knees during an epic solo—and then later admitted that his guitar strap broke.
You guys work your asses off. Certainly enough to have a midlife crisis now and then.
August 24, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Funny thing is that in my midlife crisis, I imagine abandoning software engineering and pursuing the dream of being in a rock band. You’ve proven that being an introvert need not be fatal – but the lack of musical talent on my end might be tad more of a barrier in any agreement to exchange positions.
But then I figured it’d also be way more work, less pay with more risks. So I just settled on listening to some Cracker and Camper van Beethoven, thinking it’d be just the kind of music and lyrics I would’ve gotten around to doing anyway. And since I have my headphones on for some 6 to 8 hours a day, I probably get to hear more music.
August 24, 2010 at 10:28 pm
You’re still better with the fans than the guy from Cake though right? I remember your saying something about his animosity for his fans really pissing you off.
August 24, 2010 at 10:42 pm
No not cake. he’s pretty cool. Only weird thing I’ve seen cake do, is stop when the audience gets too loud on a quiet song. And I understand this.
August 24, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Yikes, that was a temporarily frightening thought.
August 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm
OK, I get this.
I’ve never met you,
but will adhere
if I ever do.
August 24, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I’m always curious if there is a discernible difference between crowds in different cities.
Back in Chapel Hill bands would frequently ask after a show if the crowd didn’t like them because nobody clapped – nope, that was just Chapel Hill, people loved it, they just weren’t vocal. If they didn’t like it, they left.
And here in Vermont everybody talks – throughout the show. Doesn’t matter who’s playing, there’s always a bunch of fools yelling conversationally at each other over the music.
August 24, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Earlier tonight I spent too much time following your exchange with the unpleasant troll.
This post is such a nice contrast – it feels much more quiet. Clearly it’s more personal than some of the others. Does “what if?” have to be regret? I tend not to believe in regret because it is not constructive. It’s only recently that I’ve experienced it (as a 40-something) but inside I’m still my 19-year-old self, making plans for the next chapter.
August 25, 2010 at 12:04 am
My brother was in a touring band for a dozen years or so – and his big thing about hanging out in bars/clubs was how much the smoke got to him especially after a few weeks on the road. No indoors smoking in much of the USA must make it somewhat better now — but a bunch of dudes in a van all day who then are in a smoke filled room for 6 hours sweating their boys off aren’t always super interested in meeting lots of new people.
I went on one of their European tours for a couple of weeks – and what was amazing to me was how each place they’d play – there would be fans and friends looking to drink hard and party til 6am — which can only work so many days before you get sick and/or tired of it. David – don’t know if people frequently buy you shots/drinks — but people can feel insulted if you don’t drink anything put in front of you — even if you have the flu and your trying to fight through it.
Glad you decided to keep going – we wouldn’t have “sunrise” if you hadn’t and I don’t know if I would have seen you at Andyman’s Treehouse in Columbus where 100 fans and 1 large oak tree got to share a great night with Cracker. Gracias!
August 25, 2010 at 12:36 am
Most of my favorite songwriters (Richard Thompson, Stan Ridgway, Jon Langford) are all witty jokesters between songs, and I feel cheated if I don’t get a few quips at their shows.
The Arcata show last night was great, especially the part where you revealed the split in CVB between Eureka and Arcata.
Sorry I missed you at Northtown Books today (I took the day off to go to the river with my wife).
August 25, 2010 at 3:40 am
I second Richard Thompson. No “are you ready to rock” there, but always a great show and fascinating bits of insight. Never considered the parallel to David’s bands, but it is most definitely there.
August 25, 2010 at 4:17 am
Ok what’s the Thomas Pynchon story.
August 25, 2010 at 4:31 am
An acquaintance of mine was doing work on a mother-in-law unit in Trinidad belonging to a local theater director/charter school principal who mentioned to him that Thomas Pynchon was her tenant in the 80s.
The next time she came in the bookstore I asked her about it, and she said “Oh yeah, Tom was a really sweet guy. He would only pay his rent in traveller’s checks”.
Local writer Jim Dodge ended up having dinner with Pynchon in NYC a few years ago (Pynchon’s wife is his literary agent). All he would say is that P was “salt of the earth”.
Thanks for coming to Humboldt. It’s mainly bad reggae and hip hop around here (or maybe I’m just old).
August 25, 2010 at 4:15 am
What is it about Cracker and Camper shows that brings out the loud drunken freaks? Who are these people? What is their connection with the music? Nothing about these bands screams to me “hey, lets get wasted and belligerent.” Don’t these folks have a Cowboy Mouth show to crash? They can even be found at campout, so I’m lead to believe that they are hard-core fans, making their rude behavior even more bizarre. It’s such a strange vein that runs through the fan demo. I’ll never quite understand it.
I empathize with where you are is concerning your career. I have the sort of job lots of people dream of (visual effects, film industry). Interns at my workplace do menial tasks for no pay just to take a crack at it. I’m really good at what I do but I really don’t like it at all. Does that make me ungrateful or just human?
I’m not quite old enough to be mid-life, but I do wish I’d taken a more musical career. Playing the club scene in LA is enough to make be envy the kind of crowds Cracker and CVB draw on any given night, commercial success or no.
I’ve dabbled as a luthier. I dream of building amps and guitars for musicians more skilled than I. Or of sharing my music with fans who await my next recording or show with anticipation. But it seems to me that every job becomes work, and work is rarely fun. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” But what happens when what you love becomes tainted by the tedium of banality, repetition, and stress? I wish I knew the answer.
August 25, 2010 at 4:37 am
You know. I guess I didn’t make it clear. I like playing. I like recording. Unlike touring. I like e eryone I meet in the daytime. I like the audience during the show. The only thing I don’t like is having to stay after the show. If we could still afford a bus id be fine. But those days are gone.
Aside from not liking the really belligerent and drunk fans, one or two a night, i never said I didn’t like our fans?
I’m not sure where they are getting this.
I do however hate fucking trolls. And there are one or two people on here using multiple identies. At least one appears to be a particuarly fucked up former employee of ours.who was fired for hacking peoples computers, email accounts and doing all kind of weird trolling shit. It’s pretty pathetic. They accidentally referred to something that wasn’t in the blog. Totally giving themselves away.
someone else also appears to be posting under multiple identities. There is no legitimate reason to have multiple identities here. I reserve the right to heap abuse on these assholes. Post their ip addresses email addresses and other identies, as well as the links they clicked through from.
August 25, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I’m glad of that, being one myself. I don’t think I said you don’t like your fans, did I? I can tell you that I, as a loyal fan, hate the guy/girl who stands behind me and demands loudly and rudely that you guys play some song, or heckles in some other way, and I really don’t understand why but there is always one person who does this. I find it to be incredibly disrespectful. I get mad FOR you guys.
BTW, I’m not a troll. Normally, I’d post as Chaos Cowboy, but it wouldn’t let me do that last night. I think you’ve changed the requirements to post or something? I had to create a WP login and chaoscowboy was taken (I tried to get a new PW in case it was taken by me, but never received an email so I have to assume someone else has it.) I chose PRBroste, which are my first two initials and my last name. I’m not trying to hide my identity and I’m not a former employee by any means.
I guess I was trying to say I think I can relate is all. I have a job that other people want, but I don’t always like it either and I think of quitting a lot.
August 25, 2010 at 5:18 am
I think your Aunt is right – you have a little too much English in you (yet you always seem to be quite disparaging of us “teabags”!)
I enjoyed this post though – when I flew out to see Cracker for the first time at the Hollywood House Of Blues on the Gentlemans Blues tour, Jenny O got us backstage and introduced us (briefly). You said “Hi thanks for coming” but apart from that it was 100% clear you didn’t want to be there talking to fans. I now completely understand why.
As it happened Mickey Dolenz was backstage and loving the attention so I had to make do with him.
August 25, 2010 at 6:02 am
One of the reasons I have been listening to the music for last 18 years is because it is not the same old wrapped in plastic bullshit. I got the opportunity to spend way too much time around one of those types and thank you for being the dude you are. The music would not be half as good otherwise.
August 25, 2010 at 6:40 am
I agree with thedudesdad, that’s the reason why like Cracker’s music. It highlights some weird personalities around the world and plays on their idiosyncrasies, plus these blogs make a perfect read. Listening to Cracker and CVB is like delving into the world of your favourite author, an audio version of your favourite books. I’d like the part that if David took a different path he would have been a writer. The writer in his has been coming out in these 37 posts in which I had spend the entire night reading. It’s like a book in itself.
I just found out I had this account with WordPress since March 2010, and reading these blogs inspires me to write mine. Cheers.
August 25, 2010 at 7:25 am
Gratitude, part one:
I can’t express how frustrating it is to have missed the Hopmonk show. Cracker in my home county? I guess it’s not unlikely, but it would have been just as exciting as watching Tom Waits shop for groceries. But, here I am, stuck in Australia and crackersoul-deprived. Instead, I keep all the lonesome Cracker songs on constant mp3 rotation and make-believe I’m back in Northern California. Songs like this really help with that (so does that shot of Frizelle Enos Feed Store in the “Tune in…” video. I can just smell the alfalfa). So, thanks.
Gratitude, part two:
The first and last time I asked for an autograph was from Tiny Tim at a “Concert in the Vineyards” somewhere in goddamn Napa, headlined by Don MacLean (it was a family outing). I gave him a paper plate and a false name, and he gave me a withering look and an illegible signature scribbled in the hand of someone very ill. I can’t bring myself to put us all through that again. So I don’t want your autograph, nor chit-chat. The show is enough conversation for me. So, thanks.
Gratitude, part three:
When at the shows, I prefer to plant myself somewhere between Frank and Victor (or Sal, I guess, but usually it’s Victor). I get way more pleasure watching them work than twirling around with the mid-field fans. I’d like to take a moment to thank the band, David, if you don’t mind. Keep up the good work. And… thanks.
August 25, 2010 at 8:04 am
I think if you had pursued a career as a scientist, you may have been hanging out in the lab wondering what it would be like to play your own music in front of girls in some venue in Akron. It’s human nature. Frankly, even if your work produced a cure for say, migraines…I would rather live with headaches than live in a world without St. Cajetan. Enjoyed this entry immensely.
August 25, 2010 at 8:13 am
zogboy: An acquaintance of mine has a bumper sticker that says: “It’s not that I’m old, it’s that your music IS crap”.
August 25, 2010 at 10:13 am
I seem to have three identities here now, fwiw. At first, I just used my name, “scott”. Then when logging in to wordpress became necessary, I posted under my new wordpress username (4130fe), then under “scott c” again once I found that part of the wordpress profile. So the change to requiring log-ins might have something to do with multiple identities.
OK–now, thanks to zogboy, I have “Mexican Radio” running through my head….
August 25, 2010 at 10:34 am
for some unknown reason I could not reply to this post without signing up for an account and could not use my name? whatever…glad you said it, just sorry the loud mouth people that always seem to destroy the vibe in the quieter songs won’t be reading this blog. And really, did someone actually take your glasses off your face?
August 25, 2010 at 11:02 am
Dear David,
It sounds like you need a vacation. I thought I was having a midlife crisis, but it turns out that a couple of weeks off work was all I needed.
Not that you need anything–we love you just the way you are.
August 25, 2010 at 11:40 am
I too spent way too much time and energy smoldering about the troll and wishing you’d say exactly what you did in the post above, about who you are and why you can’t stick around and schmooz after each show. I would like to think that most true Cracker/CVB fans get that; the bummer is that it’s alwayss the ones who expect a piece of you that you remember at the end of the day.
Thanks for not becoming a math professor.
August 25, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Please sir, tell me more about the differences in mustaches.
August 25, 2010 at 2:40 pm
It’s funny that someone else mentioned Cake already — I feel like they, and you, are two of the best live shows to see precisely because of the interesting/non-rock stage banter and off-topic conversations at both shows. You’re a little more lighthearted than John McCrea, but I really enjoy both your personalities, and they come through in both bands’ music. I can never understand why people demand “less talk, more rock” or shout other lame mottoes that sound like they were coined by Gene Simmons; if they just want to hear songs they already know (in the exact format they’ve already heard), you could just pop an album in the PA and walk out. How can you enjoy a songwriter’s expressions of his/her opinions and feelings in music, but not want to hear anything that he/she has to say verbally?
Also, I, like some other commenters, are impressed by the variety of people who come to your shows. I remember being surprised when I saw what appeared to be actual rednecks come out of the woodwork to cheer for Mr. Wrong at a show — but I think the surprises/weirdness of it all are part of what makes it fun. I don’t want to be in a bubble of young indie rock fans everywhere I go.
Anyway, thanks for this blog; I’m totally hooked. And, like phillipjfry, I’d be down for learning more about the moustaches.
August 25, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I don’t know David, I think most of us have these thoughts regarding the what-ifs of life.
I certainly do. I often wonder what would have happened if I had taken that job with the NPS in Maryland when I left the BLM instead of the job I took with the City of Boulder. It was because of the job I took with Boulder that I switched professions. I quit being an ecologist and became a biochemist and entered the business world. I doubt I would have meet my wife. I like to think that would be a bad thing, but who knows, maybe I would have meet someone else and I’d love her just as much? I think that’s why I like this song so much.
As to crazy fans, I’ve hear Charles Thompson, aka Black Francis of the Pixies, aka Frank Black, say much the same thing about his fans in an interview. First of all don’t call him Frank or Francis, that’s his stage name and he doesn’t go by it. Second if want a signature, that’s fine. If you want to talk, you need to help him load the van/trailer.
He wants to get to his hotel so he get some sleep before the next show. As Frank Black, he’s made a good living, not great. He toured in a van with a trailer, staying a the closest hotel. It was all about efficiency and controlling costs. He has a small house in an old Portland neighborhood. He moved there because people leave him a lone to live his life.
Now those comments were made before the Pixies reunited and started making lots of money. The Pixies have busses and big rigs to move their sets around ala Pink Floyd. Tickets to the Doolittle concert in Denver last fall were $65. Pretty steep.
Kim Deal (also of the Pixies) lives with her parents in Dayton, Ohio. Not very rockstar as Kim points out.
Penn Gillette, of Penn and Teller, same thing. He built his house to look like a prison from the outside to keep people away.
I think some of your fans expect more of you because of the way your lyrics reach your fans on a personal level. They start to think of you as a friend even though you’ve never met them. When the TV show Friends was on, I read an article that said some huge portion of the fans (like 80%) felt like they knew the characters personally and that they were actually friends with them. That show was a hit because people could relate to it, and the lives of the characters. I think that’s what you get too.
There is also this culture in America now where people think they own celebrities. Look at the way Brittany Spears got (gets?) pursued by fans and media. It’s fucked up. I don’t think many musicians, actors, etc. signed up to treated like that when they decided to become a performer.
I cannot, however ofter you any insight as to how to deal with this kind of crap.
So you didn’t know Loganberries were from Santa Cruz either huh?
August 25, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Exactly in summary. 1 autographs always good. 2.Pictures special occasions. Kids birthdays etc. 3. Agree with frank black in the talking while loading trailer. 4. No touching. Never cool. Usually only drunks do this. 5. Trolling/pseudonyms/hearsay/dropping weird creepy personal details/ cyber stalking. Fuck you.
To me this seems totally reasonable. Everyone celebrity or not usually lives by sumilar rules.
August 25, 2010 at 3:31 pm
It is reasonable. Pretty hard to make a case otherwise.
I’ve seen the creepy fans. I remember some girl in Boulder, begging Johnny to give you a book “and just tell him I think we have so much in common and we could be so great together. I just love him so much.” Then she was up front dancing in a way to draw your attention. I was creeped out. I can’t imagine how you felt. And she’s not the creepiest I’ve seen, just one of the most memorable.
August 25, 2010 at 6:03 pm
oh that’s yoga girl. we don’t remember her name. sorry. she’s totally fine. yes it hink she also told me that we should get married or something. that’s more normal. what is weird is personally hating someone in a band you “like” and reading their blogs, visiting their websites, dropping creepy clues about their personal lives.
August 25, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Oh, so yoga girl is just slightly nutter, not full on? In other words typical denizen of Boulder.
August 25, 2010 at 3:52 pm
@ handsometodd:
….and that would be a great lead-in to the story behind the delightfully creepy Superfan.
August 25, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I thought the same thing but didn’t want to be the one to draw the topic off this song.
Superfan makes me think of the SNL skit the “guy who played Mr. Belvedere fan club.”
“To tear the flesh, to wear the flesh, to be born anew in the flesh.”
hahahahahahaha
August 25, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I’ve always wondered if that song was about her, or just her ilk in general.
August 25, 2010 at 5:38 pm
and what is her ilk:)
August 25, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Full on nutter.
August 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm
I’ve always found you just the right side of friendly after the few shows I’ve been to, not like some of those guys who follow me home etc etc
Most of the Cracker & CVB gigs I’ve been to have been trouble-free.
Actually, I recall someone insisting you had whisky off them at the Borderline the last time. And not in a nice friendly way. Except for the whisky.
Ain’t it funny how some people think artists owe them art from an unlimited supply?
August 25, 2010 at 5:41 pm
the first cracker show i saw was in 1995(?) at bogart’s in cincinnati. i was 19 and we hung out in the alley behind the club. i remember johnny came out first and he was pretty chatty. some dudes from indiana brought you guys a sixer of corona. you came out and you looked pooped. you weren’t talkative, but you weren’t a dick. i always try to respect the privacy of musicians after gigs, because them stage lights are hot and you performed the service we paid to see.
i love seeing your band(s) and your lyrics have been a big part of my rock n roll experience. so thanks for that and thanks for this blog. my ipod has greenland and gentlemen’s blues mixed in with a healthy dose of dinosaur jr., velvet underground, howlin’ wolf, and mission of burma…it’s a pretty fun ipod scene right now. the occasional sonny terry and brownie mcghee, to boot.
ps: i once heard henry rollins do his spoken word schtick at bogart’s and we waited to meet him in the alley, too. one of his goons came out and told us he was at the pizza(?) joint across the street. we were 17 or 18, so we bit and ran around the front of the venue. when we got back to the alley, everyone had disappeared. at least you never did that. or did you?
August 25, 2010 at 5:43 pm
i just noticed the contradiction…i was a younger man when i waited outside clubs to meet musicians. but not anymore…i once saw jeff tweedy walking down division street in chicago. my 18 year old self wouldn’t have been able to resist. my 34 year old self knows better…
August 25, 2010 at 7:40 pm
A couple of years ago I had tickets to see Billy Bragg. I live in Halifax and it’s relatively rare for high-calibre indie musicians to schlep all the way out here. (Billy travels light – guitar only!) A little over 24 hours before the show, I saw Billy walking across the main street downtown, heading from on CD store to another one. I sort of gaped and then he was gone, and I wished I had said hello. Then the next evening on a neighbouring side street, I saw him again – he was kind of wandering slowly, looking in the window of a bookstore. No one else was nearby so I stopped and said “Hi Billy, welcome to Halifax. I am really looking forward to your show”. He replied in a friendly manner, and I – afraid of seeming superfanish- carried on. I co-own a business right there and after this I was kicking myself for not saying, can I invite you for a coffee. Then again that would have been dorky, right!
And wouldn’t you know it, at his show that night, he talked about how he enjoys wandering around cities he plays in and having a pint with people he meets. So, next time any of you see Billy Bragg wandering around, just ask! (I imagine he is a rare case though.)
August 25, 2010 at 5:57 pm
“So get off the stage? That’s what i was planning to do after greenland. ”
As I’ve been reading this blog, I was starting to wonder if this is just what you are planning to do, kind of like writing your memoirs before riding off into the sunset. I’m glad that thought isn’t so active right now.
And good for you and Velena, the Ozzie and Sharon of Indie rock. That’s a comparison I’m going to be thinking about for a while.
August 25, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I’m confused. Did I say something out of line? David, do you think I’m a troll or some weirdo or something? After your response to my first post I’m thinking maybe you’ve mistaken me for someone else, but I’m not really sure. Whatever it is, if I’ve offended then I am truly sorry.
August 25, 2010 at 7:10 pm
something really odd happens with the iphone wordpress app where sometimes new threads i make come up as replies… no offense taken at all. although i was sort of replying to you. in reading it back
August 25, 2010 at 7:15 pm
That’s a relief. Thanks for writing this blog. It’s a great read after a long day. And of course thanks for the music.
August 25, 2010 at 9:16 pm
David, I think this is my favorite blog entry yet – thanks so much for the look behind the curtain. I am reminded of the time when I was young and dining in an Italian restaurant outside of Chicago with my family. The PGA golf tour was in town and Jack Nicklaus was sitting a few tables away (the fact that it was Jack Nicklaus proves that I am no longer young). Well, I wanted to march right over, push his pasta out of the way and have him autograph something for me. My dad told me to keep my butt in the chair. Mr Nicklaus was enjoying dinner with his family, I am not in his family. Enjoy what he does on his stage, now he is off stage and let the man dine in peace. Wow, I guess my dad wasn’t the asshole he seemed at the time. Through this blog, and your willingness to do real shows in real venues where real fans can see a real honest one of a kind performance, you give your fans REAL access, not glad handing “hello Atlanta” BS. I love your music, but I am not in your family, so if I ever see you eating pasta, I promise to let you dine in peace.
August 25, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Thanks for setting us straight David. But, what’s up with Johnny?
Love all you guys. See you at the Camp-Out.
August 25, 2010 at 9:48 pm
he just has a very large lobby. he invites people right in.
August 26, 2010 at 12:32 am
D&V….Ozzy & Sharon. Hmmm…that gives me something to think about and work with.
I thought it was weird when people would want to come up and talk to ME….like the couple in the Ren Faire garb…
Do you remember me telling someone in NY that I had a raging Staph infection and not to get too close?
August 26, 2010 at 1:31 am
Actually I do.
August 26, 2010 at 4:04 pm
This post makes perfect sense to me and I don’t even have any sort of fame. I wouldn’t know what the hell to do with it if I did.
Glad you didn’t get off the stage.
August 26, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Guess I should re-examine the protocol for in the street run-ins. Victor has such a great ‘do I fucking know you?’ look that I think the last time I said hi at the grocery store it was just to get that look.
Looks like wordpress accepts my work computer and doesn’t like my home. Oh well that decreases the chances of posting while drinking.
August 26, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Posting while drinking. Funny. I had a friend who says she only sets her moderation feature on after happy hour starts.
August 26, 2010 at 7:15 pm
WE all love you David for the person that you are. speaking for myself, if you weren’t you, it would be a big loss. And I LOVE my physics and math.
August 27, 2010 at 4:32 pm
David…you really shouldn’t have to apologize for not meeting with fans after the show. It’s my personal rule to not do it…
I’m in Nags Head right now on vacation with my family. I was one of the people that wrote to you about Starbucks.
I was in the Eddie Bauer outlet to buy a duffel bag…and g.d. Death Cab for Cutie comes on the speaker.
CURSES!
August 31, 2010 at 8:34 pm
No chance in Hell of David reading this, and I understand that.
I was 26 in 1992. Cracker’s first album had come out earlier that year. I was living in Monterey and trying desperately to keep my first marriage together. Huge Camper fan and very enthusiastic about David’s new band. They were playing the Catalyst and doing a preshow acoustic set at a nearby record store. After the in-store David and the guys stepped outside for a smoke, he having invited us out with them if we wanted. We formed an orderly line. When my turn came he was looking behind him at something and I reached out and touched his shoulder to get his attention. He whirled around about how you would expect someone to, I stammered something about how important “All Her Favorite Fruit” was to me, and he said “thanks, it’s one of my favorites, too.” I went to the Catalyst show and had a great time.
But here’s the thing. Not a month goes by that I don’t regret having crossed that line. Up to that point I had met one famous person, and that was Ray Bradbury when I was twelve years old. Damn, was I nervous as I watched David Lowery, the guy who sang All Her Favorite Fruit, pose for a few pictures and make smalltalk with fans. In hindsight, of course, an “excuse me?” or “David?” was the appropriate attention-getter, not the physical contact. In the moment, I was scared shitless, didn’t really know what I was going to say -how important that one song had been to me recently as my marriage disintegrated – and did something naive and rude and possibly threatening. Eighteen years on, I comprehend all of that with the experience my young self didn’t have. In the moment, I understood that I had made a mistake. Today I have a great deal more comprehension of what it must be like to be a public figure, to make your living doing something in front of strangers, never knowing exactly how what you’re trying to get across is coming across, to expose yourself every night to people who might have just wandered in and couldn’t give a fuck who’s playing. I get it. Back then, I didn’t get it. I’ve had a couple of chances since to personally apologize or better convey what I wanted to say to David in ’92 or whatever, and never have. I now work as a funeral director, and meet literally hundreds of people a year, most of them during a deeply emotional time, many on the worst day of their lives. When I see some of them again, I recognize faces and realize that I served their family, but I’m poor with names and sometimes I get the details wrong. Sometimes I see their faces slacken a little when they realize I don’t remember them or that little moment in the visitation room when I said something they took great comfort from but that to me was – however true or heartfelt – kind of by the book. I’m not famous, but I’m a public figure in my town and I emphathize with people for whom an emotional connection to strangers is almost always one-sided.
Do I have a point? I guess just that sometimes the person who crosses the line into inappropriate territory isn’t “demanding access,” or knowingly behaving in a Lowest Common Denominator manner, but just scared shitless, emotionally overwhelmed by a deeply-felt connection to the work and maybe an irresistable need to thank the creator of the work or show appreciation in some small way. Not so much trying to take a piece of you, but rather trying to give something back.
Thanks for the forum.