New Album Track YOURE A DIRTBOMB, LESTER I wrote this song with a particular period of my life in mind when I lived in the Gramercy Hotel in New York City for a few months… Back when the Gramercy Hotel was still a dive, a bolt-hole for miscreants, bums and Rock N Roll musicians. I had all that wanderlust pumping in my blood for the spirit of Maxs Kansas City, Warhol and Sedgwick, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Drag Queens and Misfits, The New York Underground… Further downtown and a little later in time, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye, CBGB, Richard Hell, Tom Verlaine, The Talking Heads and even further back in time and across Washington Square Park, the beats, the Folk Revolution, and Bob Dylan. Coming directly in from Portobello Road, London with its own Legacy of Shebeens, West Indian sound-systems, Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg on Powis Square in the movie Performance, real life drama of The Profumo Affair with Jack Profumo and Christine Keeler and West Londons own Black Power Michael X. Then, The Clash and all the romance that entailed… I was ready for New York, and New York was ready for me… Id known the very first time Id stepped foot into this City that I lived and breathed it… When Transvision Vamps first album Pop Art was released here, the members, still living, of Warhols Factory Scene threw me a party… Danny Fields, Sylvia Miles, Paul Morrissey welcomed me and we talked about Edie. And now here I was… and there was a scene, still ragged around the edges and it happened most nights up in my room and other rooms of the Gramercy Hotel. The voice of The Great Rock N Roll writer Lester Bangs permeated this movie in my head… as I walked the same streets, dreaming, dreaming of how it would have been if Id just been born earlier, early enough in time to make it over for the 60s or even the 70s. Lesters must read anthology of his critiques for Creem Magazine Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung was in my luggage and I felt I was Lewis and Clark staring across and licking my lips, hungry for the whole New World of Alternative U.S.A. This music, this culture, these movies and pictures, these Superstars of the Factory Scene, these Rock N Roll youth-quakers of New York City shaped me and drove me on… until Now… I live here, in Greenwich Village. Just a while back I was invited to an evening on the Bowery by Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads who was curating an evening celebrating with the Village Voice writer James Wolcott. After the presentation and talk, James Wolcott was asked a question from the audience about Lester Bangs and he replied Lester was a real Dirtbomb… So! I had my Title! Now the meat, now the Song, now the rhythm, now the melody… and it traces back my days at the Gramercy, and it veers off even to Mark Twain the Great American writer, who happened to have lived just doors away from where I live now and who, caused his own culture shock with his eloquent and journalistic reportage, a stalwart favorite and touchstone of mine. Whatever century or decade or country or continent or language youre drawing on, there are always the artists and writers, musicians and poets who are of a similar mind and pushing forward… its a small world when youre onto something, the same kind of thing. You grab your own little piece of imagination and do with it what you will. And need I add… the guitar on this track is played by Lenny Kaye who features in this story as one the players that brought me here in the first place… Wendy James - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Piano & Keys Lenny Kaye - Rhythm and Lead Guitar Glen Matlock - Bass Guitar James Sclavunos - Drums LYRICS: I was lying on my bed I just lay there With New Wave rockers and Graffiti And music and kicks in Gramercy It was a scene, those endless nights I traced my melancholy I saw it was a trap I just wanted to play music It was a magic thing, that thrill that I got I was very happy True love and anguish I dont know quite what it is He said Darlin, I just dont get ya I said Youre a Dirtbomb, Lester That love was there When the foundations of Rome were laid When Christ was crucified When the Conquerer created the British Isles When Columbus sailed When the massacre at Lexington was news (Credit M. Twain) True love and anguish I dont know quite what it is He said Darlin, I just dont get ya I said Youre a Dirtbomb, Lester Copyright Wendy James 2014
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 10:35:20 +0000
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