Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Chainsaw City: Blowing out the Future and busting down the Doors






Here at The Shadow Knows,


We know about the line between shadow and darkness, the parallels between the dark and the light, and the favorite color of Indy Rocker, Jerry Joseph. Though many southern die-hard conservative rockbed Republicans may not like his sound or his message, Jerry Joseph was another dark element that added to the "Children of the Grave" atmosphere of Southern Rockers, Widespread Panic at their first annual Orange Beach, AL, late April 2007 weekend.





Standing front row on the April 28 evening, encompassing the level of electricity when Jerry took the stage to help Panic play two of the songs he wrote, Climb to Safety and Chainsaw City, I noticed that Chainsaw City has become something of a modern day, newer, more urbanistic "this our time" type of Black Sabbath...with a message resonating slicked in allegories and references to the conquistadores of the past who took their share, Chainsaw City this particular time hit home in a way I had never seen Panic play it with such an intensity. Screaming about "blowing out the future and kicking in the doors", "heading to the hills and taking to the floor---Widespread Panic"...Jerry had finally found a way to incorporate the name of his mentors' band title into one of his most hard core songs.




Known for his improv style and ample personalities on stage, the Bruce Willis of Widespread's traveling entourage had finally found his place and time for hitting the proverbial nail on the head and making this hit count for the team. Many newcomers to the Orange Beach Panic Experience got a chance to see the band at their hard-core best, and thereby earned Panic yet another new legion of fans.
Though many old school Alabama fans remember Jerry's rants from Oak Mountain 2002 during his other, less as cool, "North"("There isn't decent housing, we order in from Domino's---sometimes I get so fucking mad I want to throw the phone out the window!!"), Jerry changed up lyrics from Climb to Safety in Orange Beach from "we can walk on water" to "we can fuck for money like the other junkies did"...I remember being floored by this new ad lib, but not feeling the carpet quite come out from under my feet until the sweeping Chainsaw City. Subliminally Jerry had used the shock factor to awe us all in a Jim Morrison/FCC kind of way...in fact he makes the reference to his shock-line next in Chainsaw as "kicking down the Doors", as if to say---don't mistake Panic for just another modern day copycat of the late and great LA band, but Widespread Panic kicks down the Doors and all their prior senses of perception!! Essentially, Jerry had performed none other then his infamous Stockholm Syndrome maneuver on the mostly conservative crowd of the South who generally hates him and created an uneasy love-hate relationship between the crowd and what was transpiring on stage.





As a prior conversation I once had with Jerry after a 2004 show in Charlotte, NC, with his "other" band, Stockholm Syndrome revealed, Jerry was then working on the crafting of the lyrics for yet another Widespread monster house hit yet to be released, "Second Skin". Of course this endeavor was also being shared by fellow Stockholmist and Panic bass player, Dave Schools, assuredly too. I remember reaching out to say that my experience following the band and Jerry's was equivalent to that of experiencing a rebirth in so many different ways. How many? Check Second Skin for that answer and lead straight into Tall Boy to follow exactly how many skins are shed!!


To put it bluntly, there was a hardcore rock group playing some modern day Sabbath straight from the Sanctuary, and it was with a key figure in the band's dark history with playing from the light to the dark:

Chainsaw City(Jerry Joseph)



Transcribed by:
Daniel Gold


In the Chainsaw City, read the book of Detroit steel
Better state your business in a thousand words or more


In the Chainsaw City, there's a million different stories


In the Chainsaw City twenty-five of them are yours

Chainsaw City (Chainsaw City), no bad vibes

In the Chainsaw City, like a tired caballero


You gotta swing like Christmas when you're dancing with the hordes


In a Chainsaw City, wear your love around your ankles


In a Chainsaw City, swing your envy like a sword


Chainsaw City (Chainsaw City), no bad vibes

That sweet emotion all contrived


Only live to lift your lie


See the world through a young child's eyes


Make your bed on a stack of lies


We blow to hell the whole damn place


And wipe the grin right off your face

Here in Chainsaw City, we're blazing to the mountains


Shadow Tom and Harry, throw a shot glass on the floor


Here in Chainsaw City, we will dine with Don Quixote


Here in Chainsaw City, we will shiver to the core


Chainsaw City (Chainsaw City), no bad vibes

Hear that sound, it's the sound of laughter


Hear that sound, it's a banshee wail


Hear that sound, it's a God who's crying (smiling)


Hear that sound, it's the screams from hell

In the Chainsaw City, we will relish in the slaughter


We will crush the revolution like they crushed the Nez Perce


In the Chainsaw City, we will ride among the razors


Burning Chainsaw City, we will throw that key away


Chainsaw City (Chainsaw City), no bad vibes

Hear that sound, it's the sound of laughter


Hear that sound, it's a banshee wail


Hear that sound, it's a God who's crying


Hear that sound, it's the screams from hell


Hear that sound, it's the sound of pity


Hear that sound, it's the falling snow


Hear that sound, it's the Chainsaw City


Hear that sound when the whole thing blows



added:9/11/1999




Ironically, this 4-28-07 Chainsaw has quite a play on words with utterances about something "satanic" as well as a scream of "New York City" after the second refrain of "screams from hell" following Jerry's incorporation of "widespread panic and disaster" into his previous refrains during this 13 minute rendition of his classic new release now available on his newest album:







Jerry Joseph is a Jackmormon with a vision, and as a proponent of America's history with the date (1776 Revolutionary War opening salvo, Israel's Holocaust at the Warsaw, the Pentecost at Waco, and the slaughter at Oklahoma City), I believe Jerry is a man after the same vision (or nightmare, shall I say) that grasps all those of us who understand what and who the mystical 144,000 from Revelations is and what exactly the future may hold for America and the American Pie idealology of what folk songwriter Don McClean first started in the 1970s.

But most importantly, remember that just like the tired caballero,
You gotta swing like Christmas when you're dancing with a whore...











Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Children of the Grave

Amidst the plumes of smoke and heavy prescence of military personnel in attendance, America's premiere rockers Widespread Panic unveils a brief cover of the Black Sabbath song, Children of the Grave, on the first night of their record-breaking run in Orange Beach, AL, April 27-28, 2007.




"Children Of The Grave"



Revolution in their minds - the children start to march


Against the world in which they have to live


and all the hate that's in their hearts


They're tired of being pushed around and told just what to do


They'll fight the world until they've won and love comes flowing through


Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today


Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?


Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?


Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?


So you children of the world, listen to what I say


If you want a better place to live in spread the words today


Show the world that love is still alive


you must be brave


Or you children of today are Children of the Grave, Yeah!








It appears that Widespread Panic's newest front-runner, lead guitarist Jimmy Herring has a hidden agenda for throwing down gnarly Black Sabbath cover teases in the fine Republican state of Alabama, as he also covered the Sabbath "Electric Funeral" a weekend earlier while in Huntsville, AL. The message is clear: Quit being manipulated by the Masters of Reality, Alabama. Just as the Shadow Knows, so does the rest of the world:
This aggression will not stand. George W. has outworn his welcome, broke our Army and Marine Corps, shredded our National Guard, and left very little else in the way of a ground fighting force to protect our great nation.
As the duty of a patriotic American calls, it is time to end this farce of a war in Iraq and bring the boys back home. After all, Widespread Panic dedicated their 4-28-07 show at Orange Beach to the troops overseas, while displaying a huge Garrsion version of the Stars and Stripes as seen in the top photograph.
If we continue to let this aggression aggrandize, then surely the battle is lost, and those who suffer will be you and I and not just those who came before us and gave their life and limb to a lost cause for a Master of Reality and Manipulator of the Truth.
Get from thee, Satan.