Well, truth be told, not all of them were my friends....

Apropos of nothing, an old, short squib by Jonathan Lethem about an even older song, my response to which echoes that of the author, even if I heard it first some ten years later. Promptly bought the LP, which may as well have been a single with nine flip sides, so far above and beyond was "People Who Died." I could never understand why that track came at the end of side 1, but it now strikes me as a desperate attempt to get people to listen to the rest of the album, or at least that side. The song is ridiculously over the top, and Carroll sells it, fully committed, with the slightest acknowledgment of the goofiness that is "They were all my friends, and they died." While the music brooks no such wink.

This is the second remembrance I've recently read of a song being played twice in a row on the radio --- the other was "Walk on the Wild Side" [link sadly lost], on black radio no less --- and when was the last time that happened? Though Jack and his lookalikes may play whatever the hell they like, I doubt that includes playing anything two times, 4 your mind. Though maybe this happens all the time on stations I'm simply unaware of (i.e., most of the dial).

Anyway, the Lethem site has some good stuff and is worth a look-see in general, in the glove compartment, and don't look now, but is that Eliot Winterpenis?