This chapter will appear in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), presuming that book ever becomes, y'know...a book.
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made,as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
TEGAN AND SARA: Walking With A Ghost
Written by Sara Quin
Produced by Tegan and Sara, with John Collins, David Carswell, and Howard Redekopp
From the album So Jealous, Vapor Records [Canada], 2004
So I heard a song on the radio.
It was a Sunday night, presumably in 2004. Dana and I were on our way to the studio to do our own show. Our station was internet-only at the time, so the soundtrack for the commute was provided by a commercial station, Syracuse's TK99, which used to air the syndicated Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sunday nights. Usually, TK99 scheduled Little Steven directly against our little mutant program This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, but sometimes it aired a little earlier or a little later, allowing us a brief flash of whatever happened to be in the Underground Garage that week.
And this one evening, we heard wraithlike female voices, an ethereal sound from beyond, reaching us with a tale of walking with a ghost.
The song was still playing as we pulled into the parking spot in front of our studio. We stayed in the car, the radio playing, to hear the rest of the record and find out what in Heaven or Earth it was. As the brief and blissful eternity passed, Little Steven informed us that we had just heard a song by Tegan and Sara.
Dana nodded in recognition; he had heard of Tegan and Sara, and maybe he'd heard them before. It was a brand-new name to me, a ghost story still waiting to be told.
Our deeper connection with individual songs and performers transcends our knowledge of their origins, and the difference ain't even close. As I learned a little bit more about this Canadian duo, twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin, and listened to a little more of their music, I developed some fledgling appreciation for their greater body of work. A bouncy pop tune called "Speak Slow," from the same So Jealous album that gave the world "Walking Like A Ghost," became another favorite. There is, I'm sure, still much more for me to discover.
If I never learned anything else about Tegan and Sara, if I never heard another note of their music, "Walking With A Ghost" would be enough to haunt me, a spirit to possess me, a reminder of secrets thought to be dead and buried, yet rising from their graves to float beside me. Torments? No...well, sometimes. But always: reminders. Traces of what was and what could have (or should have) been, and the depressing gap between the two.
The ghosts of our past walk beside us. I know I'm not unique in this. The spirits of past missteps and misdeeds are with us every day, sometimes with greater presence than others. No medium or ghostbreaker can dispel these particular poltergeists. It's not every minute of every day; we can apply context and balance, and we can concede that being human--mortal--comes with the certainty of fallibility, the inevitability of imperfection. But we also have to acknowledge the sins and the regrets, the times we were victim or villain, the aggressor or the aggrieved. I hope lessons were learned along the way. The ghosts remind us how much we still have to learn.
You're out of my mind, out of my mind...
Cheers to you, ghosts. Wanna find someplace we can all go bump in the night? You were part of my path to get here. Guess we both have to keep on walking.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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