Song #7: ” Virgin Junkie in America” – The seventh song in our set is the oldest active song in our repertoire, going back to 1984. A while back, my beautiful daughter Sonya and I were discussing The Submensas, and she asked me what genre we were.  I thought for a bit and replied, “Poetry rock.”  Sonya’s priceless reply: “Dad, no one’s going to listen to poetry rock.”

Fnord!!  I had to admit she had a point. People seem to think that somehow matching a poem directly to a song somehow makes a mush of things – most rockers wouldn’t be comfortable sitting in plush armchairs while Plath wannabes make obscure connections… HOWEVER…”Virgin Junkie in America” is EXACTLY a POETRY ROCK song that will absolutely rock your socks off.  Definitely NOT your mama’s poetry rock!  (Or, maybe it is)  The snakelike rhythm, cascading drums (and a classic Darryl drum solo) and knifelike guitar work all feed into the emotional journey of the song as I recount the story of a person’s destruction at the hands of an indifferent society. The opening lines:

The virgin junkie pawed through the ashes of the past,

In the mega-mausoleum, she is sinking down…

Down, down, down to her knobby knees – 

You can hear her thirsty pleas, thirsty pleas….

It goes on from there.. And ends with “Give it up, you GUMMY SACRIFICIAL LAMB!” 

Man, I just love belting out that last line!  

DON’T MISS THIS SHOW!