40-some years in 20-some songs

Artifacts excavated in response to this meme:

Down In The Boondocks - Billy Joe Royal: the earliest pop song I can remember. Loved the word "boondocks" - had no idea what it meant.

Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan / The Byrds (tie): with an older brother and four older sisters, songs like this, "Puff The Magic Dragon," and "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" were my nursery rhymes.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles: apart from a vague recall of The Ed Sullivan Show and Gemini launches, my first memory of a big cultural event, as my sisters went to the Grand Central on State Street to buy this album the day it came out.

Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight: "The VCR the DVD, there wasn't none of that crap back in 1970." AM radio was wondrous when I was my son's age. I loved my family's radios, Radio Shack stereo, record players, player piano, reel-to-reel tape recorder. Years later I was delighted to hear Everclear sample this song.

Baba O'Riley - The Who / Wasteland - The Jam (tie): of course later I morphed into an alienated and angst-ridden underachiever who took himself way too seriously (the term "emo kid" had yet to be invented).

Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramones: I snuck into a bar to see them senior year of high school. What an unexpected place to find such a gust of fresh air.

Don't Worry About The Government - Talking Heads: happy college days, looking forward to a proud future in public service (this was just before Morning in America).

The Walls Came Down - The Call: "They all stood there laughing... They're not laughing anymore!" I galumphed around my dorm room to this on the morning of graduation.

Independence - Gang of Four: "It's enough, but less than I imagined." Post-college days, soundtrack to ramen dinners.

Gulf Coast Highway - Nanci Griffith: studying for the bar, a true friend sent me mixtapes which (along with "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd") got me through.

Free Nelson Mandela - Special AKA: Great song still captures my shared basement office with the Mandela picture, and a good era for watching walls (and The Wall) start to come down.

Runaway Train - Soul Asylum: I reacted to a request for a marriage proposal by high-tailing it to the Baltics. I swear Margi paid every radio station in Rīga to play this song non-stop to bring me back to my senses (and her). It worked.

About A Girl / All Apologies - Nirvana (tie): another gust of something fresh, this one Olympia-scented. I drove around singing along with the Unplugged CD on the morning of my wedding, the first and only, to the aforementioned Margi.

If I Were Brave - Shawn Colvin: "Would I be saved if I were brave and had a baby?"

Lord Protect My Child - Bob Dylan: the answer to the previous question, for my wife and me - "Yes."

Into The Fire - Bruce Springsteen: September 11, 2001, my Brooklyn-born mother-in-law called us to turn on the TV immediately... "May your strength give us strength, may your faith give us faith, may your hope give us hope, may your love give us love."

Ne Klepeći Nanulama - Nedžad Salković: less than four months later, January 2002, sadness and selfishness, noble and ignoble motives found me thousands of miles from my wife and toddler volunteering in an ethnically cleansed city in Bosnia. I came back. Bosnia stayed in me.

Twin Falls - Built To Spill: My wife the TF native hates this song. She also hates when I preface warm feelings for the town where I started my little family with, "As much as I hate Twin..."

Olympia, WA - Rancid / NOFX (tie): For the first time in decades, I don't wish I was on the highway to anywhere else.

Chicago after dark

From timesonline.co.uk:

Bob Dylan on Barack Obama, Ulysses Grant and American Civil War ghosts - Listen to an exclusive track from Bob Dylan's new album, and read his views on US politics and history, exclusively on Times Online

Bill Flanagan: In that song Chicago After Dark were you thinking about the new President?

Bob Dylan: Not really. It’s more about State Street and the wind off Lake Michigan and how sometimes we know people and we are no longer what we used to be to them. I was trying to go with some old time feeling that I had...

ID: D.I.Y., 83702

A time-travelling broadcast sent from my home town in the era of Mutant Pop, courtesy of YouTube and Save vs. Death:

Punk in Boise, Idaho (1985)

A "trip into Boise's cosmic counterculture" unfortunately entitled "Pretty in Punk"... (T)hese kids must have been brave as hell. I'm getting old.

Me too.

Via Boing Boing.

P.D. parents ♥ their kids

Woman in Black explains how her children make her a better public defender. And she has some pretty cool kids, too.

Bonus link goes to Brats on the Beat: Ramones for Kids

"Happy is good"

Sunday morning and afternoon at the Puyallup Fair, Sunday night at Benaroya Hall.

Seeing my son's smile at the 4-H cat competition and the ferris wheel: sweet

Hearing the first Seattle performance of the Turangalila Symphony: sublime

Walking through cow whizz on the path to high culture: suits me just fine

(This goes out to my friend who met up with me at the concert and got me backstage: classmate, groomsman, dairy farmer, concert pianist, appellate lawyer, Jeff can do it all.)

"He pleaded my case"

For your listening pleasure, the O'Neal Twins and "Jesus Dropped The Charges." This is where I first heard, "Case dismissed, case dismissed, saved by grace."

Hidden injuries of Iraq

With Fort Lewis just across the river, a significant number of my juvenile clients are among the "700,000 children" who "have had a parent deployed overseas...," with... "scant resources for the stressed kids who are exhibiting social, emotional, behavioral and academic problems..."

Until today, I don't think I'd known a kid client who'd lost someone. Today I met a new client: his older brother was killed in Iraq last November. His father was in no mood to lose his younger son to the juvenile justice system. Thank G_d for diversion.

With that, here is "Jet Pilot" by Son Volt.

And out of respect, here's also "Blind Hope," also by Son Volt.

Gee, Officer Krupke

Thanks, KCTS, I needed that.

UK: rockin' on remand

Check out Jail Guitar Doors:

Jail Guitar Doors is an independent initiative set up by Billy Bragg with the aim of providing musical equipment for the use of inmates serving time in Her Majesty's prisons. It takes its name from the b-side of the Clash's 1978 single "Clash City Rockers"...

This concept is bound to catch on here in the land of Nirvana: liberate some of Paul Allen's guitars from the EMP, call Death Cab and Modest Mouse, K Records and Sub Pop - we can make this work, people!

Bonus links: "Jail Guitar Doors" apparently is also the name of a Japanese Clash - inspired band.

Son Volt fanboy

This week I picked up the new Son Volt album, "The Search," the day it came out, something I haven't done much since I was a nerdy college boy. I'm enjoying the expansiveness of it, particularly this song where Jay Farrar lends his high lonesome voice to a character I know from the old caseload:

I took a night shift another nickel on the dime
Tried to play it straight, make it different this time
Still waiting to meet the next ex-wife

It's either watching these gauges for Monsanto
or a barback job with the casino
The Army won't want me after what this body's been through

Would you take me back, North Carolina
Would you take me back, Arkansas
Blissful days still there to remember
Methamphetamine was the final straw

Son Volt's tour opens in Bellingham March 26, reaching the Showbox in Seattle on March 27. I've got my ticket.

Friday (or late Thursday) random 11

My wife and son are spending the weekend back in Twin Falls, Idaho (motto: Don't Jump!). Therefore, you my regular readers - now numbering in the double digits - are in for more posts from me than you know what to do with (clicking away quickly to someplace more worthwhile or fun is always an option).

Sugarlight - X
Mercury - Kathleen Edwards
Incense and Peppermints - The Strawberry Alarm Clock
You'll Never Know - Kim Richey
Tomorrow is Such a Long Time - Nick Drake
President of What - Death Cab for Cutie
The Goat - The Williams Brothers
The Night Descending - Iron and Wine
Mimi on the Beach - Jane Siberry
Me and That Train - Patty Larkin
Why Can't We Be Friends - War

A nod to Bob

Happy birthday, wise legal scholar.

Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin'lly delivered down to the penitentiary
But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

- from Absolutely Sweet Marie by Bob Dylan

"...there's one line that I always refer to when I teach sentencing guidelines. ' "What time is it?" said the judge to Joey when they met. "Five to ten," said Joey. The judge says, "That's exactly what you get." ' There you have it—the notion of arbitrariness in sentencing. It's all there."

- from Ladder of the Law: Another Side of Bob Dylan by Nick Paumgarten.

Neil Young remembers

The cool bloggers are linking it - why can't I?

Here's streaming audio for "Living With War", the new album by ol' Neil Young.

(That thing you said about Alabama? All is forgiven.)

Much music

Thanks to the people who wrote in about public defenders in music, from Springsteen to Ice Cube to Agnostic Front. In my ramblings I've learned about the band Public Defender of "I Hate Cops" renown, the famous-in-Calgary Bif Naked single, "Singin":

Perhaps I’ll study law,
Be a public defender.
But I’ll need a lot of maalox.
I couldn’t take the pressure.

a cutting remark from Connie Kaldor:

You justify all like a public defender
Your heart's like a butter knife delicate tender

Blue Mountain's friendly warning:

You better watch out boy, you're gonna get censored,
or knocked up side your head by a public defender.

a song parody, "I Am the Public Defender":

I am the public defender.
A good verdict I can render.
I'm all that you can hire
pull your ass out of the fire.

and most unexpectedly, the fabled p.d. musical, "Real Lawyer":

Real Lawyer was a very unusual undertaking. The music in this soundtrack was created by a public defender and investigator in the State of Connecticut. This is an original soundtrack from the production performed for all the public defenders in the State and the cast and voices are of individual public defenders, social workers, investigators, and secretaries all working within the division. These are not professional singers, but nonetheless individuals dedicated to the noble, though often difficult task of defending the indigent.

Who knew you could hear it on streaming audio? And buy the CD?

See you in Walla Walla

Since ACS at "Defending Those People" posted those Jay-Z lyrics ("It's like bein on trial for your life with a public defender"), I've been having this song bouncing around my head:

The judge wasn't lenient like he was before
You got 3 to 5 and a kick out the door
The public defender really did try
Too little, too late you didn't GET A LIFE

Hey wallah! I'll see you in Walla Walla
Slap on the wrist, well not this time!...

Great song, seems to resonate with at least one other blogger, possibly someone with experience in the system. Big bonus points to The Offspring for making a catchy tune out of one of our finest Washington State prisons.

I'll be scanning my mp3's to find more examples of positive (or at least neutral) mentions of public defenders in song lyrics. Could be a really short list - can you think of any?

In other news, this reminder: if you make $63,000 a year and can afford a $900 a month car payment, you're probably not going to get a pro bono lawyer or a public defender.

And, if I hear you say, "I actually got an Attorney instead of a Public Defender, so my hopes are up now and I feel much better," I will simultaneously grit and grind my teeth.

All this, and areapas too

A fun Miami trial story, with a long digression about the Marlins and a Ramones simile no less:

This case involved exotic locales, courtroom chaos — and baseball, too. Pretty much a trifecta of glory for this reporter.

Here's the punchline:

"You have to give me a couple minutes, Dave," the lead defender said. "We have statement here for a guilty verdict. We didn’t even write one for not guilty."

Read the whole story here.

Salute to veteran public defenders

Tributes here to some fine old lions who have fought the good fight and finished their course:

Bill Laswell, Fort Lauderdale, FL, "patron saint of hopeless legal cases."

Public defender investigator Wayne Dickens, Asheville, NC.

And from nearer to my homeland, I should have mentioned this remarkable lawyer from Zion much sooner: John Christiansen, Beaver, UT.

Finally, Pete Partee, Greenville, SC:

"You don't get flowers and candy when you're the public defender," Partee says of a job that often put him at odds with the general public. "The public defender's job is a real ministry."

"You get a letter one day telling you they want to kill your client," Partee says, referring in general to the cases where the prosecution seeks the death penalty. "Someone once asked me if every case I took was important. I knew that to my clients, it was usually the most important case they ever had."

Thank you all, gentlemen. Thanks to Public Defender Investigator and Indefensible for the links.

Bonus link goes to sheet music for Si Kahn's "People Like You":

Old fighter, you sure took it on the chin
Where'd you ever get the strength to stand?
Never giving up or giving in
You know I just want to shake your hand
Because people like you help people like me go on

Kurt Cobain, Olympian

Eleven years gone this week. My South Sound neighbors know that he spent more of his life and did more of his creative work here than in Seattle, but they don't make that big a deal about it. He is missed.

"There certainly are many places in Olympia that were important to Kurt, but there's not really any monuments. I think that's the way Olympia works, and it's probably the way Cobain would have wanted it."

Slim Moon is fine with that, too. He doesn't really care that the world sees Cobain as solely a Seattle treasure.

"Nobody in the Olympia rock scene has really gone to great lengths to correct that notion," he said. "We were happy to have been friends with them. We had several years of Nirvana all to ourselves. Seattle can claim Nirvana as a trophy -- I think that's far less meaningful than what we had here."

An insightful article from The Olympian, written on the tenth anniversary, is here. RIP, sad brilliant guy.

Rotting on remand

Here's Ken on the special pre-taste of purgatory that is jail visiting.

Bonus link goes to "Rotting on Remand" by Billy Bragg:

I stood before the Judge that day
As he refused me bail
And I knew that I would spend my time
Awaiting trial in jail
I said there is no justice
As they led me out of the door
And the Judge said, "This isn't a court of justice, son
This is a court of law..."

To live outside the law

I'm in a reflective mood, and I still have the pedal steel part to "Like a Rolling Stone" from last Tuesday night playing in my mind. Each week Google sends this site a trickle of visitors who are looking for references to this bit of good advice, "To live outside the law, you must be honest." Today I followed their tracks back to Google, then beyond, and found a thoughtful disquisition on the theme:

“What on earth was Dylan trying to say? Shouldn't law and honesty be put together, rather than to suggest that living outside the law demands honesty?”

“Living outside the law, not as an outlaw, but as a free and responsible citizen means that the writ of the law need not blanket the entire universe with a moral mandate. The challenge and indeed the premise of democracy is that we do not require the policeman on every corner, we do not require a law about every small thing, in order to live as honest citizens, in order to realize a life of freedom.”

It's from Jean Bethke Elshtain's 2003 Meador Lecture in Law and Religion at UVa. Much more there to think on than I have time for at the moment; I will return to the article, and hope to find a complete copy of the lecture.

(Bonus link goes to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer web page, a personal hero, held out by Elshtain as an exemplar of an honest person living outside the law.)