Open Season

I admire families with musical talent oozing out of their ears. My family (parents & siblings that is) has pretty much zero musical talent, maybe negative musical talent if I’m counted as part of the equation. I recall that my brother played trumpet back in junior high, I think. But that’s probably not enough to counteract my contribution and raise the score to zero.

Loudon Wainwright III is an accomplished folk musician with over 20 albums to his credit. He is remembered by many for his 1972 novelty song Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road) (personally, one of my favorite novelty songs). Some will also remember Wainwright for playing Captain Calvin Spalding (the "singing surgeon") on the television show, M*A*S*H. His appearances spanned three episodes in its third season (1974-1975).

His musical family includes son Rufus, daughters Martha and Lucy, and brother Sloan. Lucy Wainwright Roche was a bit of a reluctant participant to performing in public until she toured with her father a few years back and now sometimes tours with the Indigo Girls. She just released her first album this Fall.

The song Open Season appears on her debut album but this YouTube clip apparently captures her performance just one week after she wrote the song and hadn’t titled it as yet. The song’s setting is the faded glory of Coney Island Amusement Park. Theme-wise, the lyrics remind me a little of Joni Mitchell’s Circle Game.

open season

open season on a broken heart
this is the year they take the summer apart
there is a magic to the carnival arts and i can hear the sound

is it the wind through the wonder wheel
is it the science of the way we feel
is it the silence of that old appeal will you be mine again?

my love, my love, are you on a winter beach tonight
waiting on a last chance rocket ride over the boardwalk
follow the noise no one but me and the neighborhood boys
will remember where we were when this went down

the ocean calls us like we've never been
one hundred games that we will never win
close your eyes and hear the teacups spin as it begins to snow

and if you're careful that's not all you'll hear
the mermaids watch us steal a souvenir
and whisper moral warnings in our ears as we are heading home

my love, my love, are you on a winter beach tonight
waiting on a last chance rocket ride over the boardwalk
follow the noise no one but me and the neighborhood boys
will remember where we were when this went down

so take a deeper breath let's hear you sing
and reach your hand out for an iron ring
you'll get another chance oh that's the thing we will be back again

cause summer comes around on any clock
a wash with bathing suits and polka dots
we'll ride the subways to their final stops to see the sea again