Rocktober

So my Popstrology song – the song that was #1 on the charts the week I was born and therefore has apparently determined my temperament & the course of my life in many hidden ways – is the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” That’s pretty cool; I can live with that. I hated “Hey Jude” for a long time, but grew to love it a few years ago, during my most recent Beatles obsession (they come back every once in a while, like a recurring illness). The song would be nothing without that long coda, of course, which is also true of another classic rock anthem, Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla.” To continue with the biomedical motif, the codas in both cases are a kind of infestation that quickly becomes more vibrant & virile than the host body.

However.

If I’m going to read anything into the alignment of the musical stars at the time of my birth, I’d much rather celebrate the fact that on the day I was born the Velvet Underground rolled into one of their regular Cleveland haunts, just a few hours from where I was squalling and kicking, and rocked.

Evidence survives.

• The Velvet Underground, “Foggy Notion” (live at La Cave, Cleveland, October 1968)

I would even like to think that some of these fellows were in the audience that night. There is no evidence for it that I know of, but on the other hand it’s not unlikely or implausible either.

• Rocket from the Tombs, “Foggy Notion” (live at Piccadilly Inn, Cleveland, July 1975)

(Jeez, I think the Rockets’ version is the first song I’ve posted here twice. Oh, well. Buy the Velvets box set Peel Slowly and See here and The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs here.)