Just after Christmas in 2003, a friend and I drove from Peoria to Washington, D.C. This was the winter when it seemed everyone had acquired an iPod, and the prospect that we had our entire music collections available for the drive was completely mind blowing. (Really, this capability should never stop blowing our minds.)
My friend DJ'ed for most of the drive, and after playing selections from The Fall, Wire, and The Modern Lovers, he told me, "Okay, now I'm going to put on the coolest song of all time." Great, I thought. "Jockey Full of Bourbon." Here we go.
My friend DJ'ed for most of the drive, and after playing selections from The Fall, Wire, and The Modern Lovers, he told me, "Okay, now I'm going to put on the coolest song of all time." Great, I thought. "Jockey Full of Bourbon." Here we go.
Nope. He put on something by Donovan. I barely knew anything about Donovan, and the idea that he had written something cooler than "Jockey Full of Bourbon"... forsooth! This friend, after all, was a big film guy and had seen the opening sequence in Down By Law. So, seriously, what in the fuck.
And so he puts on "Season of the Witch." Had I not been driving, I would've folded my arms in skepticism. But I heard it out, and, damn it... it was pretty cool.
There may be songs that are more epic, more clever, more poignant, more urgent... but I don't know of any that are more cool (cooler?) than these two. (One quick aside: if you ever get the chance to shoot pool while listening to Them, you should take it.) "Season of the Witch" and "Jockey Full of Bourbon" are songs for when you don't need anybody (though you still may need them to know it). They give you the courage to walk into the bar alone and to claim the whole damned corner booth for yourself. They offer an atmosphere of cool... the sort you hope might rub off on you.
Dig it.
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