A Free Man

“Excess ain’t rebellion.
You’re drinking what they’re selling.
Your self-destruction doesn’t hurt them.
Your chaos won’t convert them.
They’re so happy to rebuild it.
You’ll never really kill it.”

-Cake - “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle”

I was listening to Cake’s wonderful 1994 album “Motorcade of Generosity” yesterday and that album as well as the imminent college football season (Gooooooo Dawgs! Sic ‘em!) got me thinking of Athens, Georgia. I lived in that wonderful university town for three or so years in the mid-nineties after crashing out in the big city of Seattle. Athens is one of those special places that are scattered around the country - oases of arts and culture in places like north Georgia or central Missouri or the panhandle of Florida. I’ve lived in a few of these in my time and Athens is easily my favorite. It’s hard to explain why - there’s a vibrant downtown, lots of music and a large population of artists. It’s sitting on shady porches in the stifling wet blanket of heat in the summer. It’s Georgia Bulldogs football crisp autumn Saturdays. It’s the beautiful oak lined lawns of north campus and the pecan trees that line Boulevard.

Cake, which hails from central California, has very little to do with Athens except in my own experience. They were big in the mid 90’s when I first got to Athens. I remember listening to their music a lot while working at Blue Sky Coffee in downtown Athens. I just found out that Blue Sky had to close their doors a few years ago due to competition from Starbucks, which has opened down the street. That’s a shame, Blue Sky was a great place - but this phenomena of locally owned shops being replaced by big chain equivalents is hardly a new one. It’s worse in the States, but even here in Britain the High Street (main shopping district) in most towns don’t feature any locally owned shops. I buy my coffee at Starbucks these days and my groceries at Sainsbury’s and my CDs at Virgin. It’s hard not to. That was one of the charming things about Athens in the 90’s - if you wanted to go to one of these chains you had to go out to the edge of town.

Anyway, one day one of my friends and I were working slinging coffee and the Cake song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle” came on. My friend turned to me and asked, earnestly, “How do you afford your rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, Chris?” I thought my friend meant how did I afford going out every night to bars and clubs and I answered that I had two jobs and lived in old slave quarters with no air conditioning, which was true. I left out some other dodgy dealings that supplemented my earnings and will do so now as well. But I wonder now if my friend, who was a bit older than I, was thinking about this part of the song:

“Aging black leather and hospital bills,
Tattoo removal and dozens of pills.
Your liver pays dearly now for youthful magic moments,
But rock on completely with some brand new components.”

Fortunately I’m not drinking what they’re selling anymore. I know that rebellion in the modern global economy is the opposite of excess. Tattoos don’t go away though, nor do I really want them to.

I had a lot of fun in Athens. I dined, drank, danced and loved. I discovered music that I still enjoy today. I became a townie. I met famous musicians. I got my Bachelor’s Degree starting on the career path I find myself on now. I remember my time there fondly, but I’ve never been happier than I am today.

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Cake has released a B-sides compilation this year and apparently i s planning a live release. I don’t think I would buy either - Cake for me will always be associated with the mid 90’s. Just for those of you who have never heard the song that inspired this post I’ve attached [tag]MP3[/tag]s of it and a recent cover of “War Pigs” (from Stereogum) to this post. Enjoy.

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