So this week has been a brief return to work for me, as my school has been preparing for what education is going to look like when classes resume in September. And it’s been playing havoc with me. It’s a stressful time to be a teacher, you bet.
On top of that, I got my second shingles vaccination early this week, and I didn’t have the best of reactions to it, losing a couple of days to some of the side effects. It sucked hard, but it beats having shingles, given what I saw my mother and my father-in-law go through. I’ll take two days of chills over a month of painful rash.
ANYway, today’s episode comes to you as the result of a request by Paul Kondo over at Podcast Gumbo. Paul has done nice stuff for the show a few times, and he had me on as his guest a few weeks ago, so when he said he wanted to hear me talk about a 10,000 Maniacs song, how could I refuse?
I didn’t really have an excellent reason for choosing this song other than I like it, despite its rather dark message. But that became part of the story, of course. Natalie Merchant-era songs from 10,000 Maniacs had that habit of disguising rather incisive lyrics with jaunty melodies so it took the average listener a little bit of time to realize what they were really listening to.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:15 — 11.0MB)
Hey…hey…
You DID know that John Lombardo was actually an original member of 10,000 Maniacs, didn’t you? I was surprised you didn’t mention it when you said that John and Mary Ramsey joined the group after Natalie Merchant left.
I met John briefly in the mid-1980s, though I can’t remember if it was after a 10,000 Maniacs show or if he just happened to be in Albany, where Rob Buck lived at the time. Another bit of personal trivia: my husband worked on Natalie Merchant’s car, a Mini, when he was in the auto industry.
Full disclosure, I didn’t know it until I started doing the research for this episode. But it was kind of awkward, shoehorning it into the overall narrative, so I left it out. Plus, I don’t know if it’s accurate, but I kind of read it as a package deal, sort of like a gender-flipped version of Fleetwood Mac not being able to get Buckingham unless they also took on Nicks.
If nothing else, 10,000 Maniacs seems to have a healthier attitude than the Macs about band members moving in and out. (-: