On The Strip
 

I never see this song mentioned on this forum much. It is one hell of a cool song, isn't it?


Every time you look my way
You shine a light in what you say
Every time you look my way
You talk a rhyme called purple haze

Close your eyes and pretend
You're not at all a black friend

A smileless girl on the strip
You really learn just how to be hip
Tell yr stories 'bout your crazy trip
Messing with stars and doing tricks

Close your eyes and pretend
It started all back then

Big glass house on the hill
Doing dope but did you swear
Yesterday was buried last year
While I don't care I thought was clear

Close your eyes and pretend
This is how it should end

Cinderella of the night
Doesn't know her left from right
She so hungry for a bite
Forget your friends for a big night

Don't you know who's keeping score
Who's that barking at your door

Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear
That was then, this is now

Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear, a little bit
Hold tight with fear
That was then, this is now

Every time you look my way
Remember a girl who used to say
Hold me tight any way
It's okay it's only play

I will remember in my dawn
What I came for, for a lark

Yeah that's a really cool song, one of my favorites on Dirty, though Theresa's Sound-World stays #1

I personally think Purr is amongst the better songs from Dirty, vastly underrated at any rate... but Chapel Hill and Sugar Kane top my list!

Great song

I love this song, i think its one of kim's best ever SY songs. I just love the guitars on it.

Great song indeed :)

wonderful song, i love the "hold tight and fear a little bit" part.

its that little bit when kim says "this is now" at about 2:15 and then one of the guitars just slides up and down a few times, its just one of those amazing moments that makes SY so brilliant.

Kim Gordon remains my favourite lyricist in Sonic Youth, followed by Ranaldo and then Moore. Her lyrics are generally more sophisticated than the rest.

great song indeed!
would love to hear a live version of it
do any recordings exist?

As mustang perusers know, to the best of anyone's knowledge, the song was only perfomed live once (at The Agora in Dallas on 9/19/92).
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/sy/song106.html
I've never seen of a recording from this date on someone's bootleg list, but Chris Lawrence encouragingly writes that a "private video source exists."
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/091992.html

In my view, "On The Strip" is sort of a sleeper track on Dirty to the extent that it tends to not grab the listener's attention right away like some of the others.

But I've found that over time, "On The Strip" has aged really well, moreso even than some of my inaugural favorites from way back when. The texture of the guitars in the verses, the stunning extended outro, and the distinct lack of any particularly irritating elements make for an excellent listening experience to this day.

i've still never heard the live version. would love to.

and yes, it is a bit of a sleeper. i don't think i appreciated it for quite a while, same w/ 'JC' which i think is just SUCH a perfect song, it's unreal... kim really delivers on that record.

hell yeah! on the strip + JC, two amazing songs i'd almost forgotten.. i'm gonna have to dust off my copy of Dirty, probably haven't listened to it in a year or so..

You said it, JC is the other killer song on Dirty, at least for me. I've never thought of them as sleeper songs, though, because I loved them both straight away. I was massively into JC from the word go simply because I was also massively into The Shangri La's at the time, and that song has a Gordon vocal delivery and a certain atmosphere on it that reminds me of them.

And, yes, Kim's voice really shines on this record.

I agree with you porky, I always enjoy the lyrics of Kim Gordon. She just has a way of delivering them.

maybe my favorite song on the record, really typifies the Los Angeles influence on them, not so much musically but the ties to the city itself

I love hearing live versions of JC (cherish 'em...it's like many have remarked...a very emotional song), but the album version is greatest though. You get to really hear the bass tones with the drums and Kim's voice is best in the studio for the most part. Damn, the way the guitars just propel into that song...wow.

Um, I should've listened to On The Strip first (something told me to do so) but the "outro" I wrote of earlier is, of course, actually a bridge because there is a final vocal part...oops. The bass rumble at the end of the bridge is just the best. I do love the outro (proper) of the tinny sonic death-y guitar; it's a nice finishing touch that fits.

There is that one guitar pick-scrape 'big rock move' thing that repeats twice rapidly during the chorus and it's a bit dated sounding...still works though.

In the verses it seems a lot like Lee doing some rather funky tones for Sonic Youth guitar. I imagine that when performed live the verses part sounds a bit boggy because it doesn't have, say, the bouncier bassline of Shoot...another grungy, sludgy number on Dirty.

Another super-favourite of mine on Dirty. Anyway, this is the 4th record that I had ever listened to by Sonic Youth, and for me it elevated Kim Gordon to not just a rock chick, but one of the most complex and sophisticated women in the world, only this time on a sphere that more people were aware of.

Lovely to see you again, Nefeli.