From: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org (good-noise-digest) To: good-noise-digest@smoe.org Subject: good-noise-digest V2 #111 Reply-To: good-noise@smoe.org Sender: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk good-noise-digest Wednesday, September 15 1999 Volume 02 : Number 111 Today's Subjects: ----------------- an addiction [ThePsyche@aol.com] An Addiction ["Beth C. Sheligo" ] Re: an addiction ["Steve McGraw" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 17:41:58 EDT From: ThePsyche@aol.com Subject: an addiction Hello. My name is Paula and I am a Gorkaholic. My interest in music wasn't always so all consuming. Like most of you, I was just an occasional user. Sure, it started innocently enough, buying my first album at the age of 13 (America, Horse With No Name) and for a long while, I was able to keep it under control. Eventually though, I moved on to the harder stuff, cassette tapes.....ah, I remember the first time I was able to pop that little rectangle into the tape player of my car. The high was unbelievable, listening to Billy Joel (The Stranger) and being out on the open road. That is when I knew I was hooked. It took more and more music to feed my need. From then on, every extra penny I had was spent on music. I was always trying to find that next "high." I was trying to reach a level of musical bliss that seemed just out of reach. By the time CDs came around, I was a heavy user and went right out and bought those round, shiny, hypnotic discs. And it got worse. The CD enabled me to play a track over and over with the touch of one finger...immediate gratification. When I got my new truck and the CD player was installed, that is when I felt the addiction. A few favorite cassettes were still hidden in the glove box but empty CD boxes littered the floor of the truck. Anyone walking by would know that I was an addict. Then it happened. I found the music that sent me over the edge. I found what I had been seeking all my musical life. Late one night, alone in my living room, headphones on, I was listening to a compilation CD.....a music pusher from the local CD shop had given it to me....he was trying to hook me on the hard stuff and I fell for it. It was Gorka. The song was Gypsy Life. I haven't been the same since that night. I began searching everywhere, asking questions, hunting for my next Gorka fix. In short order I had bought all his CDs. I searched the Internet for any information on his music, his concerts. I have been Gorked out ever since. I pushed away all other artists and became lost in a Gorka haze for almost a year. Friends and family tried to pull me back, tried to influence my musical choices but nothing worked. I had that Gorka monkey on my back and I didn't want to get it off. It was the music, to be sure, the beautiful acoustic guitar. But with Gorka, it was much more. It was the writing. No one before had used the English language in such a way. In three minutes he tells a story, sometimes humorous, oft times serious, but always honest. I am not one of those Gorkanatic that can name all the songs on a CD or who produced the music or which musicians played back up. I am the kind of junkie that peppers her conversation with Gorka-ese. His lyrics and his sense of the absurd are what have captured me. I was standing on the corner in the shadow of doubt...... Life is full of disappointment, yes, and I am full of life........... I was bred for the occasion, but I didn't rise....... One combination still impresses, women wind and summer dresses..... Life is a pair of ducks who are heading south............... She had no recipe for sweet love, sweet love, for that sweet love...... Spread my seed like a farm boy, shined my light like a lamp....... I am here, you are there, love is our cross to bear........... Oh it's nuthin' but a Butt, a Boston baked bean, burnt burrito and a beer butt, it's a really, really big butt.............. People my age, are starting to look gross, can't say all, can probably say most....... Like my watch I'm a little slow........ When these gems and ditties leave my lips people either think me odd or they think I am witty and quite insightful....depends on the circumstance. Depends on the person. Okay, so a few other singer/songwriters have slipped into the psyche now and then. I have drunk at the well of David Wilcox, Tom Prasada Rao, Christine Lavin and Justin Roth to name a few......but none have reached me, none have filled that need like a good Gorka song can. Some of them capture my attention for a week or a month but I always come back to Gorka. So, that's my story. As to whether is answers the question Denice posed, "Who are you?" I do not know. It certainly speaks to an important part of who Paula is. It speaks to my "authentic self." I am a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt and a friend. In those roles I share bits and pieces of who I am and what interests me. But no one knows all of me. Some days, I don't even know who I am. And when that happens, I know it is time to put on a Gorka CD and find out. Peace, Paula, who might like the gypsy life ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 18:17:23 -0400 From: "Beth C. Sheligo" Subject: An Addiction "It was the music, to be sure, the beautiful acoustic guitar. But with Gorka, it was much more. It was the writing. No one before had used the English language in such a way. In three minutes he tells a story, sometimes humorous, oft times serious, but always honest." - Paula Paula has eloquently expressed exactly what I love about John (well, in addition to that testosterone laden baritone). His ability to reveal the heart and sole of a character in the briefest of phrases, all enriched with multiple layers of meaning, I both awe and envy. He is a balladeer for our time. I Know. :) - Beth ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 21:52:36 -0400 From: "Steve McGraw" Subject: Re: an addiction Paula: Thanks so much for your "essay" on Gorkaholism; I can now be comforted in knowing that I'm not alone in this bizarre world of the single artist fetish (I don't even like the "Gorka down time" which I must endure as I walk between my office or my home and my car, and when I took a 3,000 mile motorcycle trip earlier this summer, I rigged up a little Walkman and some earphones under my helmet so that JG could sing to me at those high, interstate speeds hour after hour . . .). As you may remember, it was via the David Wilcox list last winter that I learned of John Gorka from you and other friends, and I've been severely hooked on him and his music and his songs and his amazing lyrics ever since then. Because I am a politician, I identify best with (and play incessantly) JG's song, "Campaign Trail". Even though most people may not want (or care) to believe this, it is quite difficult being a politician, always having to say "Look at me!" or "I'm important." or "You need to here what I have to say!", and JG has captured perfectly the loneliness and the pressures of politicking. Now, please don't get me wrong; I am EXplaining, not COMplaining. I knew exactly how cold and deep was the political water before I jumped into it twenty years ago, and I've always been a strong swimmer . . . In my opinion, all the lines in "Campaign Trail" are classics, but the best ones are, "I'm running for my life here, out on the campaign trail, and the crowds will not forgive me if I lose . . ." and, "I reached into my pockets, just so I could make some change, and I found more hands than I could ever shake . . ." Absolutely classic lyrics; the man is incredible! Yes, Paula; as you can see, I do identify with your dilemma, and I'm ALMOST ashamed of the fact that I have all but given up listening to other artists, including one of my all-time favorites - David Wilcox - in favor of listening to John Gorka, especially his "Silence", which is one of the world's most beautiful songs, and "Flying Red Horse", one of the catchiest/cleverest songs about independence and having a mind of your own that I've ever heard. There are so many others, but I won't bore you with the details, you've already forgotten more about him than I'll ever know . . . (Listen Paula; I really don't mind telling the truth occasionally, even though I am a politician . . .) Thanks again, kid! Steve - -----Original Message----- From: ThePsyche@aol.com To: GOOD-NOISE@smoe.org Date: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 5:45 PM Subject: an addiction >Hello. My name is Paula and I am a Gorkaholic. > >My interest in music wasn't always so all consuming. >And when that happens, I know it is time to put on a Gorka CD and find out. > >Peace, Paula, who might like the gypsy life ------------------------------ End of good-noise-digest V2 #111 ********************************