And Then the Rain

True West - Live at CBGB's, New York, NY (12-8-83)

My best friend in high school, Dan, got himself a motorcycle - with a tape deck! One night I particularly remember, out of the many nights of aimless wandering around indulged in by teens which for us always ended at our local Perkins to sit and drink coffee in their orange booths for hours, we cruised downtown Madison on that thing listening to my tape of the brand new volume two of Battle of the Garages.

I don't know if Dan really liked any of the tunes on that tape, though "Green Slime" always made him laugh. My favorite songs were Plasticland's "Sipping the Bitterness" and True West's "And Then the Rain." The latter was perfect for the night in memory. The streets of downtown were pitch black and sometimes mirror-like from rain. At one point we went through the UW Arboretum, though it was closed, and the thick smell of wet grasses and trees is still in my nostrils when I think of that night.

Wet grass and green slime, bitterness and rain, black streets and a black Honda. Me and Dan are still friends, don't get to see each other often at all, and I still got True West too. I hear Dan's thinking of another bike.

You, too, buy shit.

Note: I forgot, but I've got a post of True West (first two albums, from one CD) up on my old, sadly neglected, decrepit and ruinous blog. This was not the best transfer to digital ever, I'll say. My old LPs and PVC cassettes sound better than this disc. Hopefully the new Atavistic reissue sounds good.