One Soul Now

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:08 pm

It's by the Cowboy Junkies.

Now, despite the fact that I'd crawl a mile, naked, through ground glass and rusty fishhooks, just to suck the dick of the last guy to nail Margo Timmins, the album, well, alas, "meh."

"Simon Keeper" and "Notes Falling Slow" are great. The rest, well, eh, it's OK. But it comes bundled with an EP: "'Neath Our Covers, part 1."

This is, as you might expect, five cover songs. Tracks two and four are forgettable. I've forgotten them already. The half a bottle of "Big Red Cock"--OK, so it's "47 Pound Rooster Merlot"--might have something to do with that. Track Five is Neil Young's "Helpless," which I kinda like. Track Three is Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs", and Townes, goddamn, probably the second best poet in America after Bukowski.

Tom Waits now holds that title, since both Townes and Buk are dead. But anyway. I saw Townes open for the Cowboy Junkies in 1989 and I didn't know what the hell I was seeing. More fool me.

And then there's the first track: "Thunder Road."

Say what you want about Bruce Springsteen, New Jersey, and popularity--and I'm sure that those of who who only listen to Swedish S&M Death Metal With Accordions <i>will</i>--it's one of the great rock and roll songs.

I have a bizarre theory that it's a retelling of the Annunciation, but that's probably the Big Red Cock talking.

That track alone makes the set worth the $14.99 that Borders charges for it. Even if the rest of the album were just Margo saying "Fart. Hehehe," it'd be worth it.

Bruce

gsdgsd · Post by **gsdgsd** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:58 pm

Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I'd like some elaboration on the "Thunder Road"/Annunciation theory. I'll even get drunk before you explain it, if that'll help.

Greg

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:07 pm

gsdgsd wrote:Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I'd like some elaboration on the "Thunder Road"/Annunciation theory. I'll even get drunk before you explain it, if that'll help.

I think it must have been the wine.

Uh, let's see. Let's start with the obvious problem:
"All the redemption I can offer, girl, is here beneath my dirty hood," must be <i>misdirection</i>. Yes--the Angel of the Lord is offering redemption, and all he can offer is indeed sufficient to redeem the sins of mankind.

The girl's name is Mary. "There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away": she's retained her virginity for Bruce/the Angel of the Lord.

"Trade in these wings for some wheels"--this is clearly the Angelic becoming Human. The Word Made Flesh.

"It's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win": this is the crux (ha! geddit?) of the matter. Only by accepting the Word Of Bruce/the impregnation of the Lord, can the loss of mankind--eternal damnation, ever since eating that apple--be changed to salvation.

Bruce