Partly inspired by the last words spoken over the phone in the movie Call Me By Your Name and primarily about one person in my life with whom my heart and his were All There For Real and requited. If not forever, at least in that time of my life.
This is also about him (from my book The Paragraphs):
POOL HOPPING
beauty, we never forget it. the real-time imprint on the heart of object, music, person is a Vasco da Gama love fountain. no photograph or recording is as true or as affecting as the real thing. it was all over Paris, the astonishing beauty of Pere Lachaise, the Eiffel Tower at night, Notre Dame under construction. when i heard Nina Simone throw back her cowl at Woolsey Hall and open That Mouth to declare young, beautiful and black beauty as a force of nature. it cracked my chest open when we Whiffenpoofed for Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico when i was drunk off my tits, his one diminuendo finger to his lips. i felt it watching Jack Kennedy deliver his inaugural address on a black and white Motorola in the driving snow. again when i saw the boy lift his head to smile in the TV light in a warm living room in Moosup, CT. the sight of a shining face, the shade of unfairly long lashes, the hair on a wrist catching sunlight, a friend’s eyes startled by loss - all are are gifts from the human guru. i think in the promised slow-mo- tion reel we un-spool in that split second before death, we catch these rare remembrances across the soul’s silver screen. we were in love. we were drunk, sloppy and happy on the high cumulous of romance. ‘ever go pool hopping?’ he asked. ‘nope.’ ‘we’re going.’ it’s past midnight, stars diamond the sky. ‘here’s the deal. we find a mansion. we park. we look for a swimming pool. we crawl in on elbows and knees. we take off our clothes and slip into the water like alligators. we swim, we get out, we drag back on our gear and run barefoot across the sprin- kling lawn.’ the thought of seeing him naked in moonlight, mercury silver wet, smiling that smile of his, pumped blood a thousand-miles-per-second through my heart. ‘sure.’ so we did it. we found a house. we parked. we crept. dogs barked. we stripped (hadn’t the time to worry about shriveled dick syndrome in cold air). we slithered across the flagstone and into the shimmering electric blue. the water was ice cold but the exhilaration of what we were doing, the fact that we were doing it together, the air, the light, the hush of whispers and the ecstasy in our eyes was mad mad beauty. he looked like a boy i’d met in a dream, or the boy kissing his lover in marble at the Louvre, or all the boys i’d ever loved in one face. his eyelashes were heavy, splayed wet, a suppressed laugh moving his belly, his sex just above the water line. this is the first time i’d see him nude. things got complicated down the road, but this moment survives like a stolen portrait in the love attic. Keats got it right: beauty IS truth.
lyrics
I REMEMBER EVERYTHING
i
remember everything
about you
you and me
ya made me laugh
ya made me cry
ya made me feel
everything
ya made me smart
when I felt stupid
ya made us count
my whole life long
i
remember everything
about you
you and me
when ya touched me
n i touched you
when ya kissed me
n i kissed you
the night’s on fire
climbing up the back porch
w your heart in yr hand
out of breath
n out of words
we were so lucky
we were so lucky
having what we had
ya made me weak
n that was cool
ya made me feel
everything
Robby Manochio (guitars)
Ricky McLean (guitar)
Jane Mangini (keys)
David Goodchild (bass)
Chris Antonovitch (kit)
Sam Dudley (trombone)
Zach Olson (sax)
Berlin (vocals)
We are psyched to be partnering with
WIREFOREST LLC (WALTER SICKERT AND THE ARMY OF TOYS)
on releasing Maggie
and on our full record GREAT BIG HOUSE when it’s completed.
Studios:
Recording:
Wasabi/Street Noise (for vocals, bass, guitar, horns)
Jane recorded and ‘flew’ her tracks up from the Poconos
Rick Berlin (now playing w/ THE NICKEL & DIME BAND)Jamaica Plain
A giant on the Boston music scene. His colorful songwriting + strong stage presence have influenced countless other artists
since the early 1970s. He continues to make music w/ intelligence + integrity, building an international reputation around his knotty, singular piano playing, straight-from-the-heart singing and a style of character-based songwriting that's drawn comparisons to Waits + Cohen...more
