EVOL

also appears on:

• n/a

Line-up:
Thurston - guitar/spiel at end
Lee - guitar/vocals
Steve Shelley - drums
Mike Watt - bass

Lyrics   status: confirmed

Ah. He did what he had to do. He asked no questions. He had few conversations. The tar glistens in the noon heat. He tread across the grass up onto and down off of the concrete abutments. Mirage on the highway. Ghosts in the tunnel. The dark cave. Out into the blinding light of the day at breakneck speed. Every bolt rumbling. Glistening highway mirage groans. The slick surface. Careening into first the small mammal, and then screeching along the guard rail, scraping paint and throwing sparks like sheets of pure terror for 400 yards. Over and over. With one final back and forth rocking motion coming to rest....WAIT!

The beautiful paint job hopelessly marred. Smoke and flames. Alright. So nice. He moved to the small creature. Screeching whistles of steam blowing off, on its back, wheels spinning like a cinema classic. The door sags open and a man covered in blood drops the three feet or so to the pavement. The car still rattling and shaking as if with a mind all its own, unwilling to die. The man, 40ish, also after a time, an agonizingly painful period of time, is also unwilling to die. Suddenly all is quite quiet and there in the sunlight, on the highway. But what? What can I do. I can not move. Everything is about broken. Blood everywhere, mixing with oil and gas. What's moving. Must turn my head. Pain. White light. Blinded. Some guy there kneeling in the blinding mirage of white light. All my strength to "HEEEEYYY". Screaming now, help me please. He tried to tamp out a bit of the burning ember that had lept from the wreck onto his grimy coatsleeve. Coughing blood. What's happening? He's... he's... inching towards truth. He strode off into the woods with the animal. It still lived. He didn't glance back at all.

Still out ghosting the road. Death on the highway. Words crumble around me and fall with the weight of heaven. I can not move. I am beneath the great weight. I can not see. My eyes are blinded. I am in the darkness.

That's it. [inaudible chatter] .. I forget it, in despair I need it.

[somebody]: I shouldn't laugh...

Mike Watt: [laughs] really... In panic I forget it, in despair I need it, in my mind I save it, and in death I have it.

Thurston: Never gave a damn about the meter man til I was the man who got to read the meters, man.

NOTES:

• Mike Watt's contribution to this track was the first bass recording he'd done since the death of his best friend and fellow Minutemen member D. Boon in a 1985 van crash. In addition to the nature of the poem/song itself, the recording features a number of traffic samples.
• According to Confusion is Next, Thurston threw some lit firecrackers into the booth while Lee was laying down his vocal track, much to Lee's horror. The exploding firecrackers could be audible around 0:56.
• There's also some chatter at the end of the song, including some insightful wordplay courtesy of Thurston, and Mike Watt quoting the Minutemen tune 'What Is It?'.
• Never performed live.