So ends a lovely weekend, seemingly the first of the fall.
It was a gorgeous weekend, especially today. There was that crisp, clear feeling in the air where you know the leaves are going to change and people start to dress a little warmer. Fewer flip flops and more sweatshirts. I've been waiting for fall just to bust out my good sweaters. I love a good scarf.
I woke up early today. Took the rare day off to run around the lakes here, enjoying the morning sun and peace and quiet afforded by a dearth of crowds. When I walked them with my better half later in the day, there understandably was a crush of people - it was a beautiful day, why not? This morning though - I had my shuffle but didn't have it on the whole time. I listened to the day, my feet hitting the pavement, the leaves rustling in the wind, the occasional one falling in anticipation of the dreaded W word. Eventually my exercise got to be taxing enough of a task that I had to break the silence. I put on one song and really listened to it for the next 18 minutes as I wound around Lake Calhoun. It was The Decline. It was NOFX.
Say what you want about punk music - you can't deny that when a group applies itself, it can do impressive feats and make you think. The Fat Wreck Chords stalwarts have long been known for their flippant attitudes, punny wordplay and punchy songs that often clock in at under two minutes. Imagine my surprise then when they flipped all expectations on their head when they released the sprawling, 18 minute epic The Decline. In the track, NOFX tackle what they perceive to be the symptoms and causes of the American decline. Hopping from one subject to another, the band checks almost every box on the typical list of what ails America. It's a weird thing to listen to while on Labor Day, watching the sun rise as you zip around a gorgeous lake, but man if I wasn't paying rapt attention and following each leap in thought process.
Regardless of where you stand in politics, I can at least break one preconceived notion you may have about this magnum opus - it has nothing to do with Bush or Obama. It was released back in 1999, in a world that preceded the game changer that was the attacks. The fact that the song was practically written in a political vacuum so far removed from today's vipers nest of rhetoric (from all sides) gives it more significance in my mind. It's not merely a commentary on where we currently find ourselves - it just so happens to have persistently relevant subject matter. The mini opera has suites in it that touch on everything from the fear of change to mindless agreement and stagnation to the basic inconsistencies of the judicial and prison system. Amazingly it hits all of them with insightful, melodic wit. I find, though, that the most affecting suite in the song isn't about politics but about personal suffering. The lines about serotonin being gone, giving up and drifting away to be relate-able and heartrendingly cold and clinical. Amid all the political discourse it's the most human element I connect to.
Sure, we can give Green Day all the credit in the world for reinventing their band and making large scale, multiple-staged arrangements, but NOFX beat them to the punch by half a decade. I'm sure a fair number of you will dismiss the song without hearing it, but you would benefit to hear it just to start the process of thinking "Am I aware of what goes on in a larger sense?" This is particularly relevant in light of the anniversary of the attacks on the horizon - our climate is filled with empty rhetoric on all sides. Why not hear an artfully arranged, cohesive and logical take on what we can do to improve things? At the least, you'll hear an amazing work of music. Fall is on the way. Just not society's.
