I loved rock and roll from a young age. It was one of those things that helped me recognize that I differed from my contemporaries. If memory serves correctly it was the same day that The Peanuts movie “You Are A Good Man Charlie Brown” and “Woodstock: The Movie” came out. Although the former was more age appropriate, I saw the latter and managed to stay up just until Hendrix started playing. “Kung Fu Fighting” was the number one cafeteria junior high juke box smash when Springsteen’s “Born To Run” captured me away. I had cycled out all my classic rock for new wave by senior year in high school, but had yet to truly lock onto something until in college. It was another party in the kitchen when X’s “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline” punched out of the radio and blew my mind. I found much to love sonically over the next 5 years or so, but I probably saw X more than any band. Just seeing/hearing them here brings back that rush I felt back then, the one that clarified “yes, finally, there was a music made for me”. Know what I mean?
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Johnny Hit And Run Pauline
I have been playing the alternative soundtracks to ADVENTURELAND since yesterday morning. As good as a group of songs we licensed, and for all the loving embraces Greg gave the bad generoulsly placed them next to the good — and thus allowed the worthy to rise in all their glory, there was also a great amount of truly memorable tunes we considered along the way but had to let go. And some were truly greats.
I don’t think a song ever blew my away as much as X’s “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline”. I remember hearing it for the first time in my kitchen on SW Kelly when I was a freshman. Bingo and Charlie and me were drinking in the afternoon. Maybe it was the weekend, but I doubt it. I was a music snob and thought I had heard it all. The song scared me in that it was so far beyond my imagination and yet still so much of what I wanted. It went right into my veins. I was so eager for everything to be faster and harder.
Mindblowing still is such a seldom reached plateau. We settle for less unfortunately, but then again such creations help chart the course too. We need the comparisons. Every time that song comes on, I get locked in a flashback and stuck in the past but one where I knew the future would be glorious and fulfill many dreams. Yet bodies would be left in the wake and that rhythm impossible to maintain. Rare has been an album that reached the power of the first three cuts on “Los Angeles”. Whew.
