VIOLENT FEMMES

Now my taste in music ranges wildly. There isn’t many types of music I’ve not enjoyed at one time or another. Even country, dare I say, I’ve enjoyed if even only slightly. I tend to stick to classic rock but when it comes to the Violent Femmes I can not resist. I’ve downloaded ADD IT UP to my computer so as to listen whenever I feel the need. This is currently what is streaming through my brain right now. It brings me to the bouncing in my seat, bobbing my head, singing poorly and loudly over any other outside noise, and smiling at my silly old self. This CD has been with me for decades and has meant something different things at different points. They seem to be a band that is most often discovered in colleges around the country. Some only enjoy it in the college atmosphere or a slight time afterwards but for me? They are a must have in my household. It amazes me when I hear the younger generations exclaim, ‘Have you heard of the Violent Femmes?’ As if my life would have ever been as fulfilled as it is without them. This punk type music was different from anything out there when they first broke the scene in 1983 and to this day few hold a candle to their innovation. Nearly 40 years later and here I am listening as if for the first time.

‘Imma walkin, I strut my stuff and I’m so strung out’ because ‘I see a girl walkin down the street just the kinda girl I’d like to meet’ but of course ‘America is the home of the hypocrite’ and I don’t stand a chance. Still I long for love and ‘I tried so hard I never knew still waters’ ‘Oh my Oh my Ohhhhh my, what if it was true?’ ‘Love is gone’. A thought comes and I beg, ‘Come on dad gimme the car tonight’ for ‘we all get mad we all get laid.’

He denies me, sitting in front of the tube. This may be why ‘I hate the TV, I hate the TV and know that it’s killlllllin me’ after all it’s ‘telling lies lies lies lies, lies lies lies lies lies lies’ and my father is wrapped up in the bull. I then walk to the corner and realize ‘It looks like somebody forgot about us, standing on a corner, waitin on a bus’ and until it comes back, ‘Let me go on like a blister in the sun,’ to the Violent Femmes and all they offer.