Positive Jam
From Theholdsteady
Positive Jam is the first track from Almost Killed Me. It is 3:19.
Lyrics
woke up in the 20s. there were flappers and fruits in white suits. it was right before the crash. we got thrashed throughout the 30s. queuing up for soup in scabby sores. and they sent us off to war. we came back in the 40s. there were wheelchairs, guns and tickertape. we poured it on the floor and made love to the interstates. we got shiftless in the 50s. holding hands and going steady. twisting into dark parts of big midwestern cities. tripped right through the 60s with some blissful little hippie. some kennedys got shot while you were screwing san francisco. the 70s got heavy we woke up on bloody carpets. got tangled up in gaslines. i guess that's where it started. the 80s almost killed me let's not recall them quite so fondly. some kennedy o.d. while we watched on mtv. in the 90s we were wired and well connected. put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested.
we got to start it off with a positive jam.
all the sniffling indie kids. hold steady. all the clustered up clever kids. hold steady. i got bored when i didn't have a band. so i started a band. we're gonna start it with a positive jam. hold steady.
Analysis
"Positive Jam" Analysis- by Hoops McKay
[ The beginning. The song is, in part, a very abbreviated history of the past century minus the first twenty years. The term ‘flappers’ refers to women, who in the ’roaring twenties’, were breaking away from and against societal norms. This meant having sex out of wedlock, snorting cocaine (which was legal), and dancing seductively late into the night at hip, new jazz clubs. Interestingly flappers used a number of code words for both drugs and sex not unlike so many ‘kids’ after them. The term fruits is confusing. My guess is it refers to an underground homosexual or bisexual revolution of the time, but really not sure. Then ’Black Thursday’ closed down the decade with the greatest stock market crash in American history.
Next, we enter the depression decade with people in line for soup and with World War I looming. The boys win the war but many come home injured. They were celebrated with tickertape parades (primarily in lower Manhattan) and with others firing guns at the sky for victory celebrations. The U.S. economy rode the war success and boom by investing in American infrastructure and the super highways begin to go up. People begin to take a real interest in gas guzzling cars which could go faster than traditional automobiles.
The 50’s were a time without much direction or ambition as a nation, where the simple life prevailed. I know it is a gross stereotype; sorry. Incredibly sanitized dances like the “twist”, originated in 1959, worked there way into the heart of the U.S. However, the next decade ushered in LSD and the psychedelic age; a complete revolt against the impotent decade before it. Pandora’s box was opened and we saw both the beautiful and the frightening. While the government freaked out at the ‘freak out‘ and spent resources trying to infiltrate the Bay City hippie scene, heavy shit went down. Both John and Robert Kennedy were killed during this decade.
‘Bloody carpets‘, I believe, is a reference to post-Vietnam America and the sobering wake-up, for some, to the decade long party before. The impending gas crisis was just one element that sparked a serious pull back from the ‘turn on, drop out’ attitude of the sixties. The line ‘I guess that’s where it started’, for me, represents the beginning of the age of real fear and greater government control creeping into the lives and consciences of Americans.
The eighties were the decade of excess. Imagine working a sixty hour week, while trying to hit the gym daily for jazzercise, and then drinking like a fish every night of the week. Oh, did I mention cocaine is back and lots of folks don’t even think it is addictive (ask Stevie Nix)? Also, freebasing and crack cocaine have their hey-day. The line about a Kennedy overdosing on MTV likely refers to David Kennedy who took a lethal amount of coke and Demerol in 1984. Christina Onassis would die in 1988 from drug related heart failure as well, but I think the line is about the former.
Next comes in the technology age, which made a number of people instant millionaires. As late arriving folks on wall street chased the money with heavy investments in Silicon Valley, the market swung back hard, revealing that most of the companies were mere shells of what they claimed to be or be able to do. A huge loss for both big and small investors occurred.
‘Start it with a positive jam’ is about as sarcastic a comment as can be made after this synopsis of America and its’ many black eyes. Then, Craig switches his flow to address the soon to be Hold Steady faithful. If you are an “indie kid” or “clustered up clever kid”, there is good news for you. Mr. Finn was restless without an outlet for his creativity and thus the Hold Steady is born.
I believe he is imploring us to truly “hold steady’; both in the face of our dark history and our uncertain future. Even though we have “come around the corner to” yet another “multitude of casualties”, it is okay. We will not be alone on the journey. We have a place to gather. As Craig so often says, “ We are the Hold Steady.” So, the adventure begins.
Other Info
Live Craig often sings "Clusterfuck" instead of "Clustered-up".
