June 4 - Dance Music

This gorgeous song is two vignettes of two different types of trauma. Both told in the same stream of consciousness moment-of life style, as if jumping straight into a memory already in progress. The first and simplest is about the fear of physical harm: harm to the self, harm to a loved one, from the moster living in the house. Here the dance music coming from the record player is escape and guilt and shelter all at once.

The second is more complex, although it's built on the trauma of the first and is about the shelter found by the child of trauma. Damaged people protect damaged people and endanger each other. There's a sweetness to a doomed relationship, to knowing something won't last and will end bad, and trying to stave off both as long as possible.

This song began as a Peel session. For those who don't know, John Peel was a legendary British DJ, one of the original Radio 1 DJs and a huge pioneer for getting rare music on the air. The Peel Sessions were a huge and iconic series of live recordings for bands ranging from the most famous to the least known. Bowie did four, Billy Bragg did 11, Bolt Thrower did 3. If you were somebody in or around British music from 1967 to 2004 you had either done a Peel session or people sort of wondered why. There were also allegations about his sexual misconduct with women. He married a fifteen year old in 1965. He definitely had sex with people even younger than this. There's trauma everywhere. There's joy hidden in dark places. We're all listening to dance music.