[thechat] spin magazine: punk

[Erika Meyer]

>On the subject of Murder Ballads: nobody's mentioned Nick Cave, or 
>the Birthday Party yet. Now can he tell a story:
>
>"I was cut from her belly with a stanley knive,
>My father did a jig with the drunk midwife."


oh wow, this is getting a little grim, but I had a great great aunt 
Rose who (the story goes -- my grandmother's story--) was giving 
birth to her third child, she was having difficulty delivering (at 
home, like they did back then, with a midwife), and her (drunk) 
husband called a (drunk) male doctor who decided he had to cut the 
baby's head off (in utero) in order to get it out.

Rose began to bleed to death & her brother, my great great 
grandfather, was called to see her.  The last thing she said to him 
was "They killed my baby and they killed me too."

Yeah, stories.

And regarding "Hey, Joe:"  I always think of this 15 (or so) year old 
black kid that used to hang with us in Minneapolis.  I was 20 and he 
had a crush on me. I thought of him as a little kid.  His name was 
Joe, and I used to sing "Hey Joe" to him.  I didn't know if he had a 
home.

One day he & I were sitting on rocks out around Pillsbury plant on 
the river bank and Joe told me he didn't go home anymore because his 
stepfather had shot him in the belly.  I laughed and didn't believe 
him.  So he pulled up his shirt & showed me the small round scar from 
the bullet, and the longer scar beneath, where he said the doctor cut 
him to take it out.

I guess that's why we have those ballads.
Because even when they are fictional, they are true.

Far more true than the victory gin the corporate media feeds us.

Erika



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