04-Nov-1976 New York,NY Palladium, USA
I grew up in this small town about twenty miles... twenty miles in.. inland.
I remember I was in this dumpy two-story, two-family house next door to this gas station.
And... And my mom, she... she was a secretary, and she worked downtown.
And my pop... I remember she, she married my pop as soon as he got out of the army.
They got married, and she took that job. And my father, he worked a lot of different places.
He worked in a rug mill for a while, he drove a cab for a while and... worked... he was a guard down at the jail for a while.
I can remember when he worked down there, he used to always come home real pissed off, drunk, sit in the kitchen.
At night, nine o'clock, he used to shut off all the lights, every light in the house, and he used to
get real pissed off if me or my sister turned any of them on.
And he'd sit in the kitchen with a six-pack, a cigarette.
And mom, she'd set her hair and she... she would come downstairs and just turn on the TV,
and sit in the chair, watch TV 'til she fell asleep.
And she'd get up the next morning and go to work again.
And my pop, sometimes he went to bed, sometimes he didn't.
Sometimes he got up, sometimes he didn't get up. And... And I used to sleep upstairs.
And I used to pull, in the summertime, when the weather got hot, I used to drag my mattress out
the window and sleep on the roof next door to the gas station.
And I'd watch these different guys... The station closed up at one, and these guys, they'd be pulling in and pulling out all night long.
They'd be meeting people there, they'd be ripping off down the highway.
And as soon as I hit sixteen, me and my buddy, we got this car and we started taking off.
We used to take off down to the beach sleep under the... sleep on top of the beach houses.
We used to spin up to the city, and just walk around the streets all night long 'til the cops catch us at Port Authority, call our pops.
My pop, he'd never come and get me, I remember, he always sent my mother.
Everytime I got in trouble, my mother'd come down, she'd always say "Your father, he don't even want to
come."
And... And I used to always have to go back home and when I...
And I'd stand there in that driveway, afraid to go in the house and I could see through
the screen door, could see the light on my pop's cigarette,
and I can remember I just couldn't wait until I was old enough to take him out once.
But... I used to slick my hair back real tight, so he couldn't tell how long it was getting, and try to sneak through the kitchen.
But the old man, he'd catch every night and he'd drag me back into that kitchen,
he'd make me sit down at that table in the dark, and he would sit there telling me,
and in the wintertime, he used to... he used to turn on the gas stove so, and close all the doors, so it got real hot in there.
And I remember just sitting in the dark, him telling me... and telling me, telling me, telling me.
And I could always hear that voice. No matter how long I sat there, I could never ever see his face.
We'd start talking about nothing much, how I was doing... Pretty soon, he asked me what I thought I was doing with myself.
And we'd always end up screaming at each other. My mother, she'd always end up running in from the
front room crying, and trying to pull him off me, try to keep us from fighting with each other.
And I'd always end up... I'd always end up running out the back door and pulling away from him.
Pulling away from him, running down the driveway screaming at him, telling him, telling him, telling him, how it was my life and I was going to do what I wanted to do...
(Bluetele)
Clarence: "and there was...naw, naw it was, it was two nuns, where's he at, no no really it was two du...we are gathered here today..."
Bruce: "I'm gonna tell you exactly what's going down. These guys told me that some asshole called up and said there's a fuckin bomb in the place, it's like I don't know if there is, I don't know if there's not. I'd advise everybody to check under your seat, you know, it's like, really it's like, you know, I don't know. What the hell. Check it out...giggle"
Clarence: "There's a bunch of bums in here."
Bruce: "Bunch of bombs in here...me...oh shit...so like check it out and we're gonna bring them up...so..."
Steve: "The next sound you hear..."
Bruce: "And if you see something under there and it ain't your pocketbook or it ain't, you know whatever you stuck under there don't fuck with it, you know, cause it's like, it could be, you know but otherwise, you know, what the hell..."
Clarence: "I'm ready."
Steve: "Safer in here with a bomb than outside anyway."
Bruce: "Wait about 30 more seconds..."
Clarence: "and if it don't go off.."
Bruce: "Happy New Years. "If it don't go off then I don't know what to do...check in that saxophone...Eddie check in your horn...nervous laugh...call a fellow by the name of Mike Appel...giggle...aha...anybody get blown up? No? All right anybody got blown up raise their hand."
(Monty Smith)
I did my audition with this song. And I remember as I went up, right? the record building, you know? All these
lawyers. Everybody had one but me.
<chuckles hard>
Professor, please!
Awww, so what!
There we was! It was me and the Big Man and Miami... We were driving down this old dark road. All of a sudden
we got a flat. We were in a '63 Impala. Absolutely nothing done to it. A real piece of shit my old man gave me. It
was the only thing we had to get around in, we were screaming down the back road. We must've been doing all of
55. Mmmwrrr, down to the floor, bbmmmpppth. That thing, pppfftt... As it was putting along, boom! flat tire.
Pull over, of course we ain't got no spare. It's a budget operation. So, we try to convince Miami to run with it
<chuckle>
while he got to a gas station, we didn't know where we was. It was dark, it was so dark, there was no
moon out. Everybody was hiding that night. There was trees, there was this deep, dark forest. Couldn't see nothing.
It was me...
And we looked... And we looked way off and deep in the forest, we saw this light just sort of shining there. And we
said, somebody must live back there. We oughta go , you know, get some help, you know? So, we stomp back
through wood, right? Getting mud all over us, right? And there in the middle of the forest was this old gypsy lady
sitting around this fire. So we walked up to her, She looked at us and said, "Got a flat tire, huh?" We got a little
nervous there, you know? Like how'd she know we got a flat tire, you know? That was way out there on the road. We said, "yeah."
She said, "Well, what'd they send you suckers back here for, huh? What'd you want? You just tell the ol' gypsy
lady, she'll straighten you out right now. You guys... Firstly, you guys look like a... You guys look..." We looked like
a bunch of bums. This was about six years ago, right?
She says, "First thing, you cats are not presentable, you know... To do anything."
So like, she waved this stick, right? She waved this stick and Bam!, Miami's standing there in a red suit, in the
middle of the woods. Right?
She waves it again. Boom! The Big Man's standing there in a white suit. In the middle of the woods.
She waved it again in front of me, Boom!
Nothing happens.
She says, "Don't work all the time... Some people gotta work at being bums, others are born that way, like...
So, I say, "Hey, gypsy lady, you owe me one. You owe me one now! Right? She said, umm... "All right, all right,"
you know? She went, "what can I... What can I do for you?" You know?
So, like, I thought real hard, you know? I said, well... Thought about a new transmission... Naw, there ain't nothing's
going to help that old car out, right? That thing's a goner. Thought about, uh...
She went "Whaddya got? Just tell me. You wanna be a king? You wanna be an emperor? You wanna own your
own Pizza Hut? Just tell me. Tell the gypsy lady. I'm right here!"
I said, well... Well, to be honest with you... Not to pull any punches... What I really had in mind was, uhh... I think I could dig, uhh... I think I could, uhh... I think I'd like, uhh...
I think I wanna be...
I think I wanna be...
I think I wanna be a rock 'n roll star!
(Bluetele)