Essay 4 - Cities

Think of London, small city/Dark, dark in the daytime/People sleep, sleep in the daytime/If they want to/if they want to/

I walk down the same old street; I've been down this road a hundred times. The same people say the same lines, the starring role always awarded to the same guys. As the years roll by, the faces change just slightly, but everyone still looks the same. It’s all quiet in the morning, hundreds of people passed out in cars, sleeping bags underneath trucks, and even some napping in lawn chairs, still holding beers from the night before. Some time around noon, the city sparks to life. The same girl with the flower painted on her cheek selling the same old flat-woven blankets, the same dredlocked guy selling the same old hash pipes, one between each finger like a stoner Wolverine. Old Volkswagen vans form the backdrop, with tents popped up in front of them, forming makeshift streets in a one-day city. It's as though they build the city each time, and just the same they take it down, moving from state to state, parking lot to parking lot, to recreate the dreams we all used to have. We're not groupies, not by any means. We're all lost souls who seek freedom and acceptance; the music is secondary. But what it means, to all of us, changes over time.

I'm checkin' 'em out/I'm checkin' 'em out/I've got it figured out/I've got it figured out

                It used to be a lifestyle, my choice in culture since my country doesn’t have its’ own. Most of these people spend their lives this way, or at least most of their 20s. The “Phish Phans” create cities and call them things like “Shakedown Street”, live weeks on end eating grilled cheese sandwiches and trading goods for beer, beer for tickets, tickets for drugs, and drugs for tickets before seeing every show. The first few shows, it’s like walking into a different universe…especially if your normal life takes place in New Jersey.

There's some good points/some bad points/But it all works out/I'm just a little freaked out
                Women walk around carrying their babies and looking for acid tabs, men sit behind their cars in groups drinking beer in public, girls in long skirts and bikini tops walk around selling baskets of “ganja gooballs” or marijuana-laced marshmallow treats. In the lot and in the show, there are few cops and fewer enforced laws, which allows the culture to continue. Although the venues know what to expect, they turn a blind eye to keep the peace. For every hundred laws broken, one summons is handed out, and always for the very same thing. The nitrous tanks hiss in the background, piercing the air despite the Phish and Grateful dead tunes blasting from every car radio. They’re constantly being chased by the few police offers on duty. There are “spotters” – guys who stand lookout usually from two or three sides. If they see a cop, they yell “six up” – kids holding big balloons scurry off in every direction and the nitrous tank gets closed up and moved. Sometimes, the cops get too close and the guys abandon the tank and hide under cars. The tank may be confiscated, but there’s always another one, hissing in the distance and waiting to be chased. It’s a cat and mouse game for the drug referred to as “hippie crack”. The lot’s a veritable drug superstore, which for many is enticing. That’s how I found myself there, and I’m probably not the only one.

Find your city/Find yourself a city to live in/Find your city/Find yourself a city to live in

Although the layout is always a little different, all the lots are always pretty much the same. From Camden, New Jersey to Saratoga Springs, New York to the DCU center in Worcester, Massachusetts, the cars and vans line up, and the misguided, drugged up hippies file out. (need to write more on this...)

A lot of bridges in Birmingham/A lot of ghosts and a lot of houses/Look over there, dry ice factory/Good place to get some thinking done

In a way, though, the hippies are a lot like ghosts. They travel together for the whole summer tour – which typically begins around May and lasts until September, followed by the winter tour, which consists of a Halloween show, some sporadic shows at small venues, and a New Year’s run which is about 4 shows. In between, they follow other bands like Furthur, Umphrey’s McGee, and Ratdog. When they wake up, their eyes are hollow, dark, and vacant. They haven’t much to say. They don’t own houses or have full time jobs, other than selling random ware on the lot. They don’t have savings accounts. They are hardly what modern society would call “normal”. And they are ghosts because they visit a city briefly, for a night or two, before moving on to the next haunt. They don’t have roots in any one place; they don’t have to deal with any problems that they don’t want to. A person on tour isn’t looking for music, necessarily, but an escape. They escape from their lives, from their families, from anything that makes them unhappy. They don’t want to grow or grow up.

I'm checkin' 'em out/I'm checkin' 'em out/I've got it figured out/I'm the one who’s got it figured out

I’ve got it “figured out”, maybe.

There's some good points, a whole lotta bad points

Find your city/Find yourself a city to live in/I will find a city/Find myself a city to live in

Did I forget to mention/Forget to mention Memphis/Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks/Do I smell…I smell home cooking/It's only the river/it's only the river

I'm checkin' 'em out/I'm checkin' 'em out/I've got it figured out/I’m the one that’s got it figured out

There's some good points, some bad points/But it all works out/I’m just a little freaked out

Find a city/Find yourself a city to live in/I will find a city, find myself a city to live in/Find a city, Find myself a city to live in/Find a city/Find myself a city to live in

Interspersed lyrics (bolded) from the song “Cities”, a phan favorite that’s actually a Talking Heads cover. Each line will be followed by a paragraph. I’m having a really hard time writing this piece. It already isn’t what I wanted it to be; it already feels more journalistic than descriptive. I don’t like where this is going and will likely just scrap the idea.

Here are a couple versions of "Cities" that I've seen: