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Thursday, September 11, 2008
PAIN
The Hunter Ronson Band
Y U I Orta
Universal : 1990
[Buy It]
HOUSE OF PAIN
Johnny Dowd
Cruel Words
Bongo Beat : 2006
[Buy It]
PAIN PAIN
Cheap Trick
1975
Available on: Bun E's Basement Bootleg: Beertown '75
SICKBED BLUES
Skip James
Devil Got My Woman
Vanguard : 1968
[Buy It]
MEMORY PAIN
Johnny Winter
Second Winter
Columbia : 1969
[Buy It]
59 TIMES THE PAIN
Husker Du
New Day Rising
SST : 1985
[Buy It]
THE HURT'S ALL GONE
Detroit Cobras
Tied & True
Bloodshot : 2007
[Buy It]
THE HURT'S ALL GONE
Irma Thomas
1965
Available on: Sweet Soul Queen of New Orleans: The Irma Thomas Collection
Razor & Tie : 1996
[Buy It]
An open letter to my side:
I wish you would stop hurting me. What have I ever done to you? One day of this is fine, I guess, but this has been a week or two. I woke up Sunday with a stitch, at first too minor to detect. (I think a stitch is what you say for sides. A crick is in the neck.) By Monday it was slightly worse. On Tuesday it was almost bad. On Wednesday night it disappeared, mostly, for which I was glad. But then it settled in again and even moved around a bit, up into my chest and arm. It twinged and tugged and wouldn't quit. I live a life without much pain. Generally I'm in good health. When I think of sick people, I'm never thinking of myself. But when confronted with discomfort for more than four days in a row, my mind begins to fear the worst. Superstitious crap, I know. But still: you go from feeling fine and leaping into each new day to laying silent on the sofa and wishing the pain away. My dad's a doctor. I asked him. He thought that it was nothing much. He said to watch for labored breathing, a torso tender to the touch. I had neither of these things right until they were suggested, and then I felt I had them both. It was time to go get tested. I called the doctor's office and set a time for late next week. The pain was dull and steady-seeming, had no valley, had no peak. And so I worried and complained, and felt the pain hum in my side. And then one sunny afternoon it overtook me and I died. Ha ha, just kidding. I'm still here. The pain is too. It's status quo. The worst can't happen if you say it. Superstitious crap, I know.
I waited more. I found some music: Ian Hunter, Johnny Dowd, Cheap Trick, Skip James, Johnny Winter, Husker Du (played extra loud). The rhythm was a kind of cure; the rhyme worked well as a distraction. I ceased to be so conscious of my every physical reaction. Then I found a song that dramatized how I might feel better--Detroit Cobras covering Irma Thomas to the letter.The hurt's all gone
When you hold me
Yes the hurt's all gone
When you kiss me
The hurt's all gone
Until you go away
Why can't you stay In the song, the remedy for feeling bad is being held. I tried, experimentally. For a time the twinges were dispelled. Then, unheld, I tried to sleep. My side twinged--ow--and twinged again. I guess I'll leave it to the doctors. Time to rest. Posted by Ben.
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HEY! MOISTWORKS READERS!: Among the least odious duties associated with this blog, or life in general, is to point people toward interesting events. Here's one: at 9:30 p.m. next Thursday, Sept. 18, at Joe's Pub, the legendary alto player Lee Konitz will be in conversation and concert with Ethan Iverson, who plays piano for the Bad Plus and maintains the blog Do the Math. The two will talk, play, talk some more, and play some more. Do not miss this event. Those details, again: Lee Konitz and Ethan Iverson in conversation, Joe's Pub, Sept. 18, 9:30 p.m. Jot them down, enter them into your PDA, or just remember them.Labels: ben
posted by Ben
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