BEST FIT: This appears to me to be a tune about wanting to vary the world, in huge and small ways in which had been affecting you on the time. There’s loads of layers to it. What’s your purpose for selecting it amongst your private greatest?
EXENE CEVENKA: That is precisely what this tune is. It is like “The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss”, nevertheless it’s extra in regards to the greater image, “The civil wars and the uncivilised wars.” There’s nothing on this planet extra uncivilised than a civil struggle, is there? A civil struggle is the worst struggle you possibly can probably have. All wars are bankers’ wars, as they are saying, run by the folks in energy. There aren’t any actual wars, there are solely proxy wars and bankers’ wars. Everyone knows that is true, proper? Particularly now. However if you consider a civil struggle, the place individuals are rising up, brother towards brother. That’s simply the worst.
Once I wrote that tune, there was quite a bit occurring in Central America, with the Nicaraguan Revolution and the civil struggle in El Salvador, the place the US was funding one aspect and the communists on the opposite aspect had been the great guys. I imply, when you’re backing sides, that’s type of a tough option to make, to help the communists as a result of, oh gosh, that’s acquired its personal issues. I additionally wrote it in regards to the Center East, with every little thing occurring between Palestine and Israel, which is, ridiculously, nonetheless occurring 40 years later. In a extra horrible method now than ever.
There’s a line on this tune that goes “Each side are proper however either side homicide,” and I don’t know what’s occurring the place you’re however, on this nation, there’s been enormous eruptions of violence and demonstrations towards Israel. Folks say these protests are pro-Hamas, however I don’t assume so. I believe individuals are simply anxious about all these people who find themselves dying unnecessarily. It’s not pro-Hamas, it’s pro-peace. Like, are you able to please simply cease killing folks? I don’t fault anybody for protesting that. It’s a conundrum. Folks simply need struggle to cease, however then they preserve voting for the individuals who make wars occur. Oh my gosh, it’s such a multitude, however that’s what this tune is about.
Then, unusually, it goes into this entire factor about bands being performed on the radio, as a result of we had our personal little civil struggle in music. All of the English bands like A Flock of Seagulls and Duran Duran, and all these New Romantic bands, had been getting performed on the radio however nearly not one of the native bands in LA had been being performed. Positive, we may get performed on Rodney on the ROQ at one within the morning, and different exhibits like that, nevertheless it felt like not one of the LA bands had been capable of get any additional than the place they had been, and, because it turned out, lots of them had been by no means going to.
Of the bands I point out within the tune, I don’t know why I selected these bands, which had been all hardcore bands. I don’t know why I didn’t select bands like The Weirdos and The Plugz. I believe I simply wished to attract a line of distinction between how completely different it was to play bands like Duran Duran versus Black Flag. However even The Ramones weren’t performed on the radio practically sufficient, you recognize? That verse is asking, once more, “Why are issues like this? Why can’t they be this fashion and never that method? Why is it that just one aspect will get harm? If one aspect is true, why aren’t either side proper? And why are either side fallacious on the similar time?”
There are all simply rhetorical questions. There aren’t any simple solutions to any of that stuff. “I Should Not Suppose Unhealthy Ideas” is me saying to myself, ‘Okay, simply cease. Cease desirous about all these things and simply inform your self again and again that it’s not occurring.’ I hadn’t heard the time period cognitive dissonance again then.
What do you consider poisonous positivity?
I’ve by no means heard that phrase. I don’t know what it means.
It’s an analogous factor, in that it’s when folks reject or insist that different folks reject ideas which might be in any method unfavourable. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase ‘good vibes solely’?
Yeah, yeah, I’ve. I believe when dangerous issues are occurring and also you’re below risk, absolutely the worst line of protection is considering ‘This may’t be occurring. This isn’t occurring.’ Like, no, decide one thing up and use it as a weapon! If one thing dangerous is going on, you don’t simply stand there pretending that it isn’t. However I get it. I believe lots of people are shocked proper now. So, poisonous positivity is simply when folks refuse to confess that issues are arduous, that issues are going to hell? Proper, proper. As a result of then you possibly can’t do something.
You later did some volunteer work to assist the folks of El Salvador. What’s the story there?
Yeah, I did. That was for an organisation known as Medical Help for El Salvador, and I believe that it was fully unlawful. It was a man from a wealth Salvadoran household who’d needed to go away El Salvador and got here to Los Angeles. Once I came upon about this organisation I wished to test it out for myself. I realised it wasn’t that removed from my home, so I took the bus over there with my son in a stroller. I went into this workplace constructing and there was only one man sitting there by himself, making chilly calls to film star-type folks and different folks with cash, utilizing an inventory that he most likely acquired from another organisation that was attempting to assist folks. Let’s simply say that. Once I requested what I may do, he mentioned, “Nicely, you possibly can sit on the telephone and ask folks for cash,” so I did. I used to be within the workplace for some days, after which I placed on a fundraiser and performed a present that raised about $4000.
The rationale I did that was as a result of all they had been doing was attempting to boost cash for medical provides. El Salvador didn’t have any aspirin, bandages, or something. They had been fully embargoed and blockaded. Nothing was entering into the nation and folks had been struggling. Had been they utilizing the cash to purchase weapons? I don’t assume so. I felt assured that what I used to be doing was serving to folks and never exacerbating struggle or friction, and I did that for so long as I may.
The band and I’ve finished advantages for nearly every little thing you possibly can think about, and at all times with good intentions. There was a present I did with John as The Knitters, at McCabe’s Guitar Store in Santa Monica, attempting to boost cash for guitar strings. We additionally did a present to boost cash for baseball tools, as a result of, in Mexico and Central America, baseball is big, and typically that’s all folks have. I’m an enormous baseball particular person, and I wished to assist folks in any method that I may. It’s not like I wished to overthrow anyone’s authorities, I simply wished folks to have the ability to give a baseball to their child for Christmas.
What’s your baseball crew?
The Los Angeles Dodgers, because the late ‘70s. I used to be a Chicago White Sox fan earlier than that.
There’s a line in “I Should Not Suppose Unhealthy Ideas” about Woody Guthrie singing “about b-e-e-t-s not b-e-a-t-s,” which individuals have speculated is possibly a touch upon how music within the ‘80s had modified from typically being about social points to changing into extra obsessive about itself. What’s the importance of that line to you?
Nicely, I grew up within the Midwest, the place the panorama was all cornfields and farms. There was a motion on the time to assist household farmers to repay their mortgage money owed, and Farm Help began a couple of years later with folks like Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp organising. We had the mistaken perception that we may save the household farms, that individuals may reside on their farms for generations and that everybody may eat wholesome. That’s quickly going away, daily. On the time, although, that line was only a play on phrases. It was only a humorous factor to say.
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