leah blogs

January 2005

25jan2005 · Dan Bern Digital Archive

I’m so happy I found this true gem of Dan Bern bootlegs. It contains over 30 recordings of Dan Bern’s live shows.

In case you don’t know him, Dan Bern is probably one of the best American songwriters around, and probably one of the most controversial too. His lyrics have to taken with a grain of salt and be read carefully before you can say anything about them, take for example Hiroshima or Swastika.

On the other hand, how could anyone possibly write such genious lines like this (which is from I Need You)?:

Walking around the happiest place in the world
But all I do is wonder if your hair’s still curled
South of Brownsville, Texas, South of Miami Beach
But all it means to me is that you’re further out of reach
Every where is sand and sun, blue sky water too
I need you

So here’s the truth at last, I tell you, Hemingway is dead
And everybody wants to find a steak that’s slightly red
I thought I could escape myself by just not getting dressed
I thought I could escape you by coming to Key West
Sometimes you get lost and you don’t find something new
I need you

Listening to Paradise Lounge (October 2004) right now. Great show (and a nice cover of “Basket Case” by Green Day).

NP: Dan Bern—Seventy Three

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