Silver Jews

There’s this one song by ‘Silver Jews’ I really, really like. It still gives me goosebumps after all those years. It’s from the record ‘the natural bridge’ which is a great record anyway. But song n°9, entitled ‘the frontier index’ is absolutely brilliant. Musically as well as lyrically. Check out these lyric excerpts:

Of all the people I knew I always looked up to you and after millions of years of crime the sun still shines and shines.

A robot walks into a bar, orders a drink, lays down a bill. The bartender says: ‘Hey, we don’t serve robots!’ And the robot says: ‘Oh, but someday you will.’

Boy wants a car from his Dad. Dad says: ‘First you gotta cut that hair.’ Boy says: ‘Hey Dad, Jesus had long hair!’ And Dad says: ‘That’s right son but Jesus walked everywhere!’

So, yeah, this really does it for me. Just simply amazingly good.

But, talking about goosebumps… They wear out, don’t they? Many songs that used to give me shivers don’t anymore. It’s a fascinating phenomenon. A moment of recognition or strong empathy or a feeling of cosmic connection or a glimpse of eternity or a hint of life’s elusiveness and your skin turns bumpy and sends shivers down your spine (or in my experience ‘up my spine’). But some songs wear out and others reveal themselves only until later.

Maybe I should make a top 10 of goosebumpers. Hmm, good idea, but not now…