Why Do I Want More Than Great Books?

Album: Kitchens of Distinction, The Death of Cool, 1992

Best Track: "Smiling"

Lasting Memory: I listened to this album many a late Sunday night between 2002 and 2006. Those were the years when I was working an average of 55 hours each week at my real job as a writer/editor for a D.C.-based professional association and also working 12 to 20 hours each weekend at my neighborhood dive, the Raven, as a bouncer/barback/bartender.

The Death of Cool provided the perfect lullaby for me as I embarked on the six hours of slumber that represented the extremely permeable barrier between my two lives.

I only realize that now, which is probably a good thing. If I had recognized that I was a character in "When in Heaven," I would not have been any near as pleased with how I was moving through the world.

For the record, I'd have been the "drinkin' slowly/ He's got a hangover" guy, not Marilyn Monroe.

And lest anyone get too much of the wrong idea, I was never a gay party boy. I'm not gay, and I was never much for the whole club scene. Still, being "in the industry," as bar and restaurant workers are wont to call their avocation, extracts a heavy toll. For me, that toll was a near-catatonic sleep deficit for most of the workweek and a proclivity to plow a great deal of my Raven earnings back into beer and Irish whiskey purchased at the Raven. Good times, but not 100 percent of the time.

===== Aside =====

Q: How do I know the guys in kitchen of Distinction are gay?

A: Because they enjoy having sex with other dudes.

CREDIT: I'm pretty sure I stole the framework of this joke from Norm MacDonald.

===== End Aside =====

"Smiling" describes what happens to people who completely give themselves over to the party lifestyle. The sad end for those people is precisely tragic because it is self-inflicted and easily avoided with a few personal changes. It's also undeniably romantic right up until the exact moment that is no longer romantic. Here are the lyrics to 'Smiling" so you can see what I'm getting at:

He's not falling, simply waiting,
Fading at the edges.
Sitting back, thinking that there's little point in moving.
He smiles, says his stars are friendly,
Anything can be done.
"Shall we get very drunk?"
He says "I stay alive, It's the best thing,
The only thing I know."

She's not talking, easy dreaming
All that life away.
She gets laughing, missed the light,
No regrets today.
She looks up, another sunset,
"Was it very, very good?"
"Shall we get really high?"
She says, "I stay alive, it's the best thing,
The only think I know."

She says, "Hold me, hold me hard.
Hold me, hold me, hold me harder.
Stop me thinking about myself.
Stop me hoping for more than I am."
She says, "Why do I want more than good looks?
Why do I want more than great books?
Is that all there is? Is that all there is?"
She smiles and stays alive.
It's the best thing, the only thing she knows.

They're together, simply dancing all the nights away.
There's the window, let's wait up for this precious dawn.
He smiles, tells her she looks lovely,
Anything can be done.
She looks up and laughs.
He says "I stay alive.
It's the best thing, the only thing I can give you."
I was brought up with higher expectations.
I was brought up that hell's a hipper way to go.
He says "Hold me, hold me hard ..."

Explorations of the darker side of the industry/party-person lifestyle make up the bulk of the material on The Death of Cool, which Wikipedia helpfully informed me was named in honor of Miles Davis, who passed the same year this album was released. The album title has to have a secondary meaning, though, considering its content.

The first track asks "What Happens Now?" The answer is sure to be one or more of the lines from "Smiling," even if both the person asking and the person answer know they "Can't Trust the Waves."

Up Next: Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, 1969