I Can't Get Next To You (Another Shot Of Whiskey)

i feel that this day is far too clouded by death. in a dream last night, my family and i haunted the dirt roads of small villages Russia. Solzhenitsyn was the ghost that haunted our encounters with vampires and Baba Yaga's vengeful hut. the mother to my both son and husband found love and escape in death's romantic grasp.
this entry was supposed to be my review of the new documentary "The Gits." a film far more defined by the death of mia zapata than the band it attempted to honor; a band i discovered and embraced right at the cusp of shuffling from "straight-edge" to "alcoholism." i remember first hearing the band at Jackie's house when i was young lad of 16. her hair was the deepest blue and i have never been in love with anyone as i was in love with her. she died in 2002 of a heroin overdose. all i remember from that day was how beautiful she was and that i never wanted a drink as much as i did listening to "Another Shot Of Whiskey." it wasn't until five years later that i finally consummated my love of Jackie and the ideal of drunkenness. i was wearing a shelter shirt (to make the ironic even more ironic; almost to the level of foreshadowing; more likely it was just nemesis making itself known-another little hint another little taste of foreshadowing.) that was the last time i saw her until i was one of six people at her funeral. i can't not remember that funeral every time i listen to The Gits. nemesis.
They finally caught Mia Zapata's killer.

"Another Shot Of Whiskey" w/ Joan Jett filling in for Mia Zapata:



this brings me around to the second half of this failed obituary. making the past contemporaneous of the present and the future. Jackie played me The Gits and i played for her The Temptations. i remember the song. jeebus, i was so passive aggressive. it hurts my feelings to think back on those days. i played for her late sixties Temptations; especially "I Can't Get Next To You." the line that killed me, the line that meant so much to me, the line that she was supposed to understand: "I can live forever/if i so desire/but all these things i can do/but i can't get next to you."
Norman Whitfield died today.
i've got friends who know me as "the metal guy." i 've got friends who know me as "the hardcore guy." i've got friends here and i've got friends there. very few know me for what i am and what i will always be: i love motown. after the beatles, motown is the end all be all of popular music (see the new raphael saadiq album.)
Norman Whitfield.
the story behind "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is the reason why music nerds exist.
"Cloud Nine"
"I Can't Get Next To You"
"Psychedelic Shack"
"War"
"Ball Of Confusion"
"Smiling Faces Sometimes"
"Love Can Be Anything (Can't Nothing Be Love But Love)"
"Papa Was A Rolling Stone"

baba yaga seems always just a few steps behind me so let's get everything right when we get the chance:

Norman Whitfield (1940 - 2008)
Mia Zapata (1965 - 1993)
Jacqueline McQueen (1973 - 2002)