Thursday, November 26, 2009

up to my neck in whiskey/ up to my neck in wine

I don't know if you could tell by reading this blog, but I am a huge hair metal fan. You know. Poison. RATT. Quiet Riot. Scorpions. And...of course. AC/DC. They cornered the Catholic uniform market far before Britney decided to tie her shirts up in ways that I tried to imitate for most of my pre-pubescent years.

Hair metal and glam rock have actually never really been my bag, baby. So when I heard that Mark Kozelek released an EP last December of mostly covers, I didn't expect the Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon frontman to shock me with his cover choices. I had to see who the delightful songwriter that smoothed over many an abrasive day would choose, though. He chose Bon Scott. A B-Side AC/DC song, no less. But he did what I had hoped he would do. He took the painfully unsubtle tone of the original, and abandoned it to dig deep. What he made turns Up to My Neck in You into a poignant, dreamy, lyric focused song about the things that we think can save us and end up overtaking us.

Well I've been up to my neck in trouble
Up to my neck in strife
Up to my neck in misery
For most of my life
I've been a fool
And you know what a fool can do
I'm telling you
You came along when I needed you
Now I'm up, I'm up to my neck in you
And I've been up to my neck in pleasure
Up to my neck in pain
I've been up to my neck on the railroad track
Waitin' for the train
To cruise on through
Well baby my time is due
Oh it's way overdue
You came along and you pulled me through
Now I'm up, up to my neck in you
Well I've been up to my neck in whiskey
I've been up to my neck in wine
I've been up to my neck in wishing
That this neck wasn't mine
I was a loser
You weren't lost
Baby you were too good, too good to be true
What you've got no one else could do
Now I'm up, I'm up to my neck in you
Yeah you came along when I needed you
Oh I'm up to my neck in you

Up to My Neck in You (AC/DC)- Mark Kozelek

So what am I thankful for today, this great AMERICAN holiday?

I'm not going to tell you. That's not what this post is about. Come on. I'm nothing if not unpredictable.

I'm thankful for new things being built out of old things. For not throwing away the past, but building something real and wonderful and sad and strange and relatable from it.

Also my mom's stuffing.

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