Today’s song is the lead-off song on that fabled tape from
my friend Tim that I keep referencing, winter 1989. In fact, I might say that
this song set the tone of the tape and even after I acquired the rest of Sonic
Youth’s landmark album Daydream Nation, “Teenage Riot” was the song that made
me want to listen. The other song that never fails to give me a kick is “Total
Trash.”
“Teenage Riot” was the single, and it “set the tone” because
the guitars are so bright, with a definite sense of how to be melodic as well
as noisy. And, while I tend to zone out on its vocals, there are lines that hit
me with the force of the right thing at the right time, as, right enough for
today “Everybody’s talking ‘bout the stormy weather,” but, in a more generally
existential way: “Time to get it / Before you let it / Get to you.” Yeah, sure.
There’s a causalness to Thurston Moore’s vocals that
appeals. It sounds like the song of someone who has it sussed. There’s this
stated relation to the kids, the notion that a “teenage riot” is something that
could matter. That’s rock’n’roll for ya. So much hope put upon the young, and
so much effort to stir their energies. “Lookin’ for a ride to your secret location
/ Where the kids are settin’ up a free-speed nation for you.” Yeah! Free speed.
We would all benefit.
And that, I guess, is why the adrenalin fairly cranks in
this song. Speeded up, going to a go-go, sorta thing. A rave at some secret location
where we will all just . . . ride feedback into the stratosphere. “Teenage riot
in a public station / Gonna fight and tear it up in a hypernation for you.”
That’s the downside, if you like. I mean, for some, fight and tear it up is the
way to go. Because you’re pissed and hyper and why not riot about it. So, OK,
sure. That’s there too.
I’m for riding on the somewhat laconically hopeful “I hope
it works out my way.” And I take that as the song’s main perspective: “’Cause
it’s getting kinda quiet in my city’s head / Takes a teenage riot to get me out
of bed right now.” That’s the view of someone a bit older (the “youth” in Sonic
Youth already a bit questionable), who is looking on and realizing he’s getting
a bit too removed from the sources of his anxious art. This is the most
expensive album SY made to that point and we might say they could almost be
said to be becoming . . . comfortable. A teenage riot reaffirms things, kicks
you in the ass, gets you out of bed. A rally! Take to the streets.
We’re off the streets
now / And back on the road / On the riot trail
Get back to where you once belonged.
It’s all about those “Marshall stacks” anyway. I didn’t see SY live till
much later—the Sonic Nurse tour I
think—and I’ll always remember Moore climbing up on top of his amps to wrestle
inspiring feedback out of his guitar. That’s what I call sticking to your guns.
I think this is the song for today for something like that
reason. Just trying to stick to one’s guns is sometimes enough, “looking for a
man with a focus and a temper” and hoping maybe to find him in the mirror. And
it’s a song that, to me, feels right for this kind of season, as fall asserts
its gloomier side and the air is electric with wind and the stirring sound of
blown leaves. There’s a cold beauty in the sound SY create here, the sonic
equivalent of a bracing breeze in the face, maybe laced with a bit of rain, as
autumn turns the screws and beckons to winter.
Spirit desire / We
will fall
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