Monthly Archives: October 2021

blog, original content, Paul

Fountains of Wayne – Red Dragon Tattoo

Video 19 Comments

I’m participating in HansPostCard Song Draft. Here is my 9th pick.

Wow, well here we are in the 9th round of the draft.  For my penultimate choice, I’ve decided to add another song from my favorite genre of music, power pop.  Way back in Round 1, I chose the power pop classic Cruel to be Kind by Nick Lowe.  But I just can’t limit myself to one!   For today’s choice, I want to feature Red Dragon Tattoo, a song from one of my favorite power pop bands, Fountains of Wayne.

Fountains of Wayne (named after a lawn ornament story in NJ) put out 5 albums of power pop gems from 1996 until they split up in 2013. The two main bandmembers and songwriters, Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger, had a knack for telling these amusing, often hilarious slice-of-life vignettes wrapped up in incredible guitar driven pop melody earworms that always hit the sweet spot for me.  Whether it’s the guy wondering why the girl of his dreams is with a motorcycle biker (“Leave the Biker”), the guy trying to figure out how to pick up the women behind the desk at the DMV (“Yolanda Hayes”), or the teen with an perhaps unhealthy obsession with his girlfriend’s mother (“Stacy’s Mom”, their biggest hit), Fountains of Wayne drop you into these people’s lives for a few minutes of power pop bliss. 

Red Dragon Tattoo (off their sophomore album Utopia Parkway) is one of my favorites – a story of a perhaps slightly misguided guy who has decided that all he needs to do to win the girl of his dreams is to get a tattoo.  Its clear that he’s never done anything like this before, and the song details the day he goes to get the tattoo.  I love how the lyrics match up really well with the melody.  It all builds to the bridge, which stills makes me laugh out loud when I hear it:

Will you stop pretending I’ve never been born?
Now I look a little more like that guy from Korn
If you came a little bit closer
You’d see it isn’t painted on, oh no no

Can’t be sure, but not sure if the tattoo is going to do the trick for our hero….

Sadly, Adam Schlesinger passed away in April of 2020 from complications of COVID-19. 

Lyrics

Monday, gonna take a ride on
The N train down to Coney Island
With the money I saved
Gonna get me engraved

Drink down a lot of Basil Hayden
Get kicked out when I can’t see straight and
What an island to be on
Under the neon

Red dragon tattoo
Is just about on me
I got it for you
So now do you want me?
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey?


Oh yeah, in you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?

I hear the man say, “Wanna see the others?”
A mermaid and a heart that says mother
But I don’t know from maritime
And I never did hard time

I brought a .38 Special CD collection
Some Bactine to prevent infection
And in case I get queasy
A photo of Easy Rider

Red dragon tattoo
Is just about on me
I got it for you
So now do you want me?
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey?


Oh yeah, in you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?

Will you stop pretending I’ve never been born?
Now I look a little more like that guy from Korn
If you came a little bit closer
You’d see it isn’t painted on, oh no no

Red dragon tattoo
Is just about on me
I got it for you
So now do you want me?
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey?


Oh yeah, in you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?In you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?

original content, Paul

Steve Earle – I Ain’t Ever Satisfied

Video 7 Comments

I’m participating in Hanspostcard‘s Song Draft – here’s my eighth pick.

For my 8th round pick in the song draft, I’d like to feature a song by one of my favorite artists, Steve Earle.  Together with Bruce Springsteen, John Hiatt, and Frank Turner, Steve Earle would comprise the Mt. Rushmore, if you will, of my favorite artists.

I Aint’ Ever Satisfied is off of Earle’s second record, Exit 0, released in 1987.  Given Earle’s life history (the varied musical styles, from country to rock to folk to bluegrass; the many record companies, string of marriages, and drug and addiction issues) it could perhaps be viewed as his theme song.  The singer in the song is never satisfied, always moving on to the next thing, culminating in this humorous conclusion:

Last night I dreamed I made it to the promise land
I was standin’ at the gate and I had the key in my hand
Saint Peter said “Come on in boy, you’re finally home”
I said “No thanks Pete, I’ll just be moving along”

I’ve always loved that image, of Earle standing at the gate, and the bearded St. Peter welcoming him to heaven, and Earle saying no thanks, and walking off into the clouds (or whatever).

This is one of my favorite songs by Steve Earle, and that’s saying something since there are many.  I think part of it is because of how I first heard it.  I was driving in my car, flipping channels on the radio, looking for a song I recognized.  I hit one channel and heard the initial acoustic guitar part of the song.  Not recognizing it, I quickly flipped away.  And then for some reason, I can’t tell you why, I decided to flip back to just hear a bit more of the song.  And that’s when I heard the drums and piano kick in, and the main melody start, and I was hooked!  Luckily at the end of the song, the DJ announced who it was, and I immediately knew I had to seek out the album.  I had heard of Steve Earle but didn’t know any of his music.  I loved Exit 0, went out and got his first album Guitar Town, loved it, and have been a fan ever since.  In my mind, Steve Earle is one of the best American songwriters out there.

Would I have become such a big fan of Steve Earle if I had not flipped back to I Ain’t Ever Satisfied? Perhaps, as I’m sure I would have been exposed to his music some other way.  But this experience made me feel that I was destined to be a fan if that makes sense.  Something made me switch back to the song.  And it taught me an important lesson – always be open to hearing new music, give a new song a chance even if it doesn’t sound like what you are expecting.  Don’t ever be satisfied, if you will, by what you know or enjoy.