can't get "South Hampton Dock" out of my head.

**another day, more quality hours logged at Kaldi cafe. wrote this p-card to my pal, p. in white plains**

Sunday May...15? 16? eh. Sunday.
Walked into Kaldi coffee this afternoon and heard something familiar playing. Turned out to be a Marillion song...one of those that at one time was in heavy rotation chez moi. A couple of yrs ago I pulled a bunch of old CDs out to sell. I gave a few of them a last spin to see if I wanted to keep them. This Marillion album, "Misplaced Childhood" was one of them. As anthemic & prog-y as ever, but my heart wasn't in it. And so, to Amoeba...
This album was so a concept record that I can't remember the song title b/c they were all so obtuse. :)
Anywhoo. It kind of blew my mind to hear it out in a cafe, not in the studio apt. of a friend w-a bunch of D&D figurines. Since I'd outted myself as having a soft spot for the Prog during that R. Waters Coachella set, I knew you'd be the right ear for this story. :)

**a couple years ago p. & i spent a day @ coachella. the headliner that night was roger waters. he was playing a varied first set, then coming back and performing "Dark Side of the Moon." i had to leave early b/c i had an early work day. as r. waters took the stage, p & i had some dinner, then started across the grounds to leave. now. this is when my dormant pink floyd zeal came to the surface... we got near the stage, i recognized the song he was playing, grabbed p's arm and yelled, "it's "Fletcher Memorial Home" from "the Final Cut!" I've never heard him do this before!" at which point we stopped to listen. 20 min later, p was laying on the grass and i was still enthralled by the music.
now i wanted some coffee for the long drive home. while waiting for joe, waters & band took a break, and came back out to perform "Dark Side". at the end of "Time" i told p. we had to make a break for it or i wouldn't leave until the end of the show.

i was what you might call a serious teenager: distracted by the cold war, and the threat of a nuclear war (ahh, the 80's). the anti-war, critical of the existing powers (ronald reagan, margaret thatcher) era of pink floyd was right up my alley. it wasn't a new thing, i credit my brother with turning me onto them when i was very little. he was 13 when "Dark Side..." came out. he called me into his room, had me put on his headphones, then played "On the Run". that's the wild stereophonic piece. blew my little mind.

my parents wouldn't let me recreate the album cover of "The Wall" on my bedroom wall, so i used the back side of a 4' x 5' sheet of paneling, then hung that up. when "The Final Cut" came out, i left school early and caught bus 82 to tower records to buy it. when i heard on the radio that the band had broken up, i went into our basement found a plastic floral wreath, spray painted it black, and hung it on my locker door at school.

so, i was serious, but still a dork. and i still listened to Cheap Trick, Triumph, the Greg Kihn Band, so it wasn't all about dying in a mushroom cloud or during a nuclear winter.
(after typing this i reached over and grabbed the thesaurus on my desk. i've had this thesaurus since i was 9 yrs. old. this is a pic of one end: ha!)

i don't have any pink floyd albums on CD, and don't ever play the records. but i still have most of them. getting completely caught up in the music walking across that field at coachella, was a total surprise to me.

since roger waters started releasing solo records in the mid-80's i've been to lots of his shows. oh my, some good times, those shows. (again, ahh, the 80's ;) ) but i don't think i'll see this "wall" tour. maybe it's the cost, maybe the scale. eh.

i have a feeling side 1 of "Meddle" is getting played tonight. that run from "One of These Days" to "Seamus" is pretty fucking great.**