De todas as bandinhas quasi-efémeras da viragem dos anos 80 para os 90 os House of Love são uma predilecção especial. Esta canção nem é a minha favorita deles, mas lembro-me de que a conexão foi instantânea: era 1990, tanto trauteei isto a caminho da faculdade, com a convicção de quem descobriu um fragmento autobiográfico da sua adolescência.

"The Beatles and the Stones made it good to be alone

To be alone" 

Life is sad, life is a bust

All ya can do is do what you must

Quinze anos de Boxer

"We miss being ruffians, going wild and bright

In the corners of front yards, getting in and out of cars
We miss being deviants"

And I'm afeared if I don't have a piglet, lamb or little calve I'll chop my human-ness in half and be as worm or virus

 Não ter assinalado o 20º aniversário do "Ease Down the Road" foi uma falta imperdoável da minha parte. Que se assinale então o 21º aniversário. Posto à venda no dia 19 de Março de 2001.

Well I felt like I was born today
So I took it upon me to go away
To gather my thoughts and go away
Where I could (be used by) somebody

Now over the hill, like always you know
Were Billy and Frankie and Henry and Joe
And they beat and broke me hard and slow
To prove I was nobody
And no-one I was and so I remained
Knocked-out in a hut, no mother, no name
And filled up my heart with one and the same
That grand dark feeling of emptiness

And was it a friend that turned me loose
Or was it a girl come to baste my goose
Or was it my great god who laid on his finger
And started my clock anew
Ah no, it was rain ; ah no, it was gunning
It was point-break and buckle
And singing and cunning
That skinned me, re-skinned me
And started me running
And I never looked back from then on

And now I am learning bit by bit
About the make and model shit
The muddy bowl I live in it
And all the mucks that tire us
And I'm afeared if I don't have
A piglet, lamb or little calve
I'll chop my human-ness in half
And be as worm or virus

But kids I've had, and they are sung
Upon folks' ears my babes are hung
Rhythmically they live among
And grow but don't get old
Not in a box, not in a void
Not if their voice is never hoid
Nor if no-one repeats a woid
But if their tune is told
Then we can age and fall away
To meet again some golden day
And fill it in our happy way
In starlight and in gold

i hate myself when im alone its just with you i feel ok

Não ter assinalado o 20º aniversário do "Ease Down the Road" foi uma falta imperdoável da minha parte. Que se assinale então o 21º aniversário. Posto à venda no dia 19 de Março de 2001.

"See the lonely boy, out on the weekend

Trying to make it pay

Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and

Can't begin to say"

"You have to lose
You have to learn how to die
If you want to want to be alive"

 Em pouco menos de dez anos terei vivido tanto tempo neste século quanto vivi no século anterior, mas suspeito que continuarei a manter com o século XXI a mesma relação que um passageiro clandestino mantém com o transatlântico em que embarcou à sorrelfa: uma mistura de ansiedade e vergonha, a vergonha de quem sabe que não devia estar ali, a ansiedade de quem sabe que já não há barco nenhum onde devesse estar.

Que é que isto tem a ver com a morte do Charlie Watts? Nada. E tudo. Mas tomai e comei, este é o meu tempo.