oh,
when i saw this "favorite roadtrips" thread, i just had to chime in.
this particular time i'm thinking of, i don't remember just which summer
it was.  mid-'70's, anyway.  mike was just a young whippersnapper in his
early 20's, me in my middle 20's.
now, today i call seattle (aka "the emerald city") my home sweet home.
but back in those days, i was living on a roach farm in concubine, ohio.
(don't ask.)
i had a bit of a wanderlust that summer, as you can well imagine, and
coming home from the market one day, i just decided, "aw, the hell with
it, i'm gonna take a vacation!"  i hopped a freight just outside of
straw hat, and rode it all the way to reginald, tennessee.
soon as i filled my stomach up with a lovely plate of warm livermush, i
asked one of the locals, "what's a feller do for fun around here,
anywho?"  he gave me directions to the county fairgrounds, telling me i
might be able to catch some "live" music.
sure enough, that day i saw the connells for the very first time.  of
course, it wasn't really the connells as we know them today.  it was
just all of the connell brothers, the only all-brother band ever to play
in reginald, or so i've been told.  of course, back then, they used to
open up for the dead quite frequently, and pigpen would often join them
on stage when they covered Sugar Magnolia.  but other than that, only
people named connell were allowed in the band.
now some of you diehards may know that the band in this incarnation was
not known as the connells.  rather, they went by the name, "the badass
motherfuckers."  (sorry wilson, but i swear to fuckin' *jehova* that's
what they were called.)
i walked into the fairgrounds just as the mofos (that's how their loyal
fans, The FuckFace Brigade, lovingly referred to them) were getting
ready to rev it up.  i got into a bit of a tussle with the fuzz, as they
wanted me to leave my switchblade at the cotton candy booth.
eventually, we sorted that out, and the music started.
what an awakening!  my life back at the roach farm had suddenly become
meaningless.  i saw eggs hatching in mid-air.  my lungs filled up to
bursting, and deflated again.  my eyes swiveled in my head three (maybe
four) full revolutions.  and i swore to god, right then and there, that
i would never vote for nixon again.
the only song any of you would probably recognize was a very early, very
crude version of Something To Say.  but the mofos had quite a few strong
numbers.  some of them are floating around on the FuckFaceBoot, of
course.  but many of them remain only in our sweet, sweet remembrances.
but the best song HAD to be their startling cover of Inna Gadda Da Vida.
i mean, who else but the mofos could make this song so *meaningful*?
nobody, that's who.
well, to make a long story short, i got into a bit of a fisticuffs with
the band after the show, becuase i kept goosing mike on the ass.  at
first, he was ok with it, but after a while he was like, "would you
*please* cut that out?  i don't even *know* you."  i pushed it just a
little too far, i guess. since that day, i've been persona non grata in
the connells universe.  but i'll never forget that one glorious "road
trip."
 
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