I’m reminded of this song whenever I watch Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s poignant, hilarious love letter to early Seventies Rock, and watch the scene in which our aspiring teenage journalist has a conversation with the legendary writer and music critic Lester Bangs, editor of Creem Magazine.
Bangs: So how do they like you in school?
William Miller: They hate me.
Bangs: {Nods} Yeah. You’ll meet them all again on their long journey to the Middle.
This is my kind of youth protest song, which rails not against authority but the oppressive idiocy of one’s fellow youths, and all their cliquish taunts. Hey kid, don’t write yourself off yet, this is just the middle of the ride. You’ll meet them all again ten years from now, tending door at the Walmart. It sounds a lot like Blink 182, which may or may not be a bad thing, but to my ears it has discipline, drives not just hard but with infectious joy, and has a tune going on beneath the power chords to boot, and if that don’t get yer toes a’tappin, well, be that way then, but you’re just a big poo.
Note how the reluctant partiers at the end seem to see through walls to lock eyes, and decide it’d actually be more fun to blow this ridiculous underwear party and go off somewhere to get to know each other – just like the kids in the classic VW commercial, who arrive at the drunken party and reckon it’d actually be much better to just keep driving under the stars with the top down.
This one goes out to everybody in my INFJ support group, wherever you may be.
the needlefish 