http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4i2qFzbUfF4
One of dozens of songs inextricably tied to a place, for better or worse. In high school, I made a commute every few weeks from Baltimore to Chester County, PA to visit a girlfriend – this involved a drive to the bus station, a bus ride to Philadelphia and another bus or train to her vicinity, cutting straight through the heart of southeast PA. I didn’t adore it, but the journey and the music I listened to clung together in my mind. The sounds of this song, this entire album, imbued my surroundings, and vice versa. The sleazy brass, the rhythmic basslines, Aesop’s loop-de-loop flow dictating stories of a festering urban underground – it felt like the perfect soundtrack to the dingy SEPTA train, graffiti-coated concrete sprawls and droves of youths going about their Friday night revelry. Put together, I always had this peculiar sense that I was on the set of a shitty crime B-movie.
Now, do I really know southeast PA, in any genuine sense? Certainly not – I only rode through as an observer at best. But the glue has set; every time I hear this song I feel like I’m on the train to Paoli again, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
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