“Ballad of Jayne” had more pathos, “I Remember You” had better vocal highs. But I still like this.
-
-
Slaughter was one of those bands that had a hotline listed in the liner notes of its album—it was a 213 number, which meant it was long-distance, which meant that it cost money for me to call. (I was so capricious about phone bills then! Maybe I just foresaw the long-distance-free future?) The “hotline” was a voice-mailbox with a message from the dudes, nothing too earth-shattering. But it was definitely a precursor to the Twitter era, and so it’s worth mentioning here.
This song is one of my favorites from high school, still, because it has this sense of absolute triumph about it. Maybe it’s all the key changes? I think it’s the decadence more than anything, the idea that one can exist as this person on the complete flip of society while still doing their own thing. The whole “‘America the Beautiful’ as way of signifying the day’s end/beginning” construct is I guess a bit archaic in the 24-hour-cable era, sure, but I don’t think that negates the song’s overall power.
My first password for an Internet account of my own was inspired by this song. You won’t figure it out, so don’t try.
