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July 31, 2008
Numerology: 53rd, I Heard
from the print series "The fifty-three stations of the Tokaido" by Hiroshage
I admit I haven’t read Car, Boy, Girl, the 1961 book on which The Love Bug was based, so I cannot say for certain whether the protagonist of Gordon Buford’s novel wore no. 53, or even if he was named Herbie. Not so surprisingly, Car, Boy, Girl is out of print, so please forgive me for not tracking down a copy. What’s important is that whoever came up with the numeral for the cuddly Volkswagen Beetle did a fine job. Fifty-three is a number totally devoid of flash. (In fact, the late Buddy Hackett, who voiced Herbie in the original Love Bug, would have been perfect to portray 53 in my as-yet-unnamed Numerology Movie Project.) Why is 53 a sad-sack number? You encounter it in mundane places: the ass-end of your phone bill, a road sign, the entrance to your friend’s apartment. It’s no wonder then that the top three #53 songs in the known universe all incorporate 53 in the same quotidian way: as part of a street address. Now, street-address songs take up a good-sized chunk in my vault of numerically titled ditties—“The 12th Street Rag,” “The 18th Street Strut,” “51st Street Blues,” and the like. And it’s true that on occasion, numbered street names can transcend their inherent blandness and attain their own mythic quality (e.g., Highway 61, Route 66), but I would contend that songwriters do their best when they make up streets of their own. “Thunder Road,” “Lonely Avenue,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” simply exist on a grander scale than Gene Pitney’s “24 Sycamore Street” or “442 Glenwood Avenue” by the Pixies Three.
Minus the Bear - "Memphis & 53rd"
Seattle’s Minus the Bear named itself after B.J. and the Bear (minus the bear, get it?), a cheesy ‘80s TV show in which freelance trucker B.J. McKay, his pet chimp Bear, and a gaggle of lady truckers do battle with the nefarious Sheriff Lobo. (B.J.’s truck may not have had a name or a mind of its own, but Herbie’s influence was unmistakable in the way the orange-and-white Kenworth K-100 semi took right turns.) Deliberately or not, “Memphis & 53rd” from Menos Del Oso (2006) shares the same central credo as the theme music from B.J. and the Bear: “keep moving.” The song has a thrilling opening—23 seconds of spaghetti Western-meets-late-‘90s Jungle beats that I kept wishing would just continue. From this Portishead-esque place, the tempo shifts to a restless kind of a prog-ska beat as the lyrics sketch the tale of a couple on the run from a nameless black-hatted figure. The playing is first-rate, but what I really wanted was another helping of that spaghetti.
Turquoise - "53 Summer Street"
“53 Summer Street” is a single by the ultra-obscure Turquoise, whose members grew up in the same Muswell Hill neighborhood in North London as the Kinks’ Ray and Dave Davies. As the Brood, the band recorded demos with Dave Davies in ‘66, and more demos a year later with Keith Moon and John Entwistle. It was not until the tumultuous summer of ’68 that the band, now called Turquoise, released any music, and their output was limited to a pair of double-sided singles that met with little success. After making a few more recordings, Turquoise called it quits in 1969. It took until 2006 for a full accounting of the band’s work to see the light of day, in the form of The Further Adventures of Flossie Fillett: The Complete Recordings on ace retro label Rev-Ola. The set includes alternative versions of the key singles, a cover of Dave Davies’s sublime “Mindless Child of Motherhood,” and a smattering of extra tracks, none of them especially memorable. Of the two A-sides, “Woodstock” shows a clear Kinks influence, with Ewan Stevens’s vocal sounding uncannily like Ray circa Village Green Preservation Society, right down to the timbre. (Turquoise even had its own song titled “Village Green.”) It’s the Who’s influence that’s most evident on “53 Summer Street,” with verses that recall “Pictures of Lily” and a touch of “I Can See For Miles” at the end of the chorus. But somehow this tale of a club owner who ends up in jail due to unnamed shady doings at 53 Summer Street never achieves liftoff. With the rerelease of Flossie Fillett came the expected accolades calling it a lost psych-pop masterpiece, but I’m not convinced; it’s one thing to be influenced by, pal around with, and even sound like the Kinks and the Who, quite another to deliver the same thrills.
Before bestowing the 53 crown upon the bowl-cut heads of the winners, it seems proper to acknowledge the other 53 songs out there, a dearth though it may be. The B-52s’ “53 Miles West of Venus” has something of a “Planet Claire” feel, but has nothing to say. It’s filler. Don’t get me wrong; just because the only line in the song is the title itself, repeated endlessly, doesn’t necessarily kill the party for me—I mean, “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road” is pure genius—but this is nowhere in that league. (Amazing how, with the shifting of a single digit, this numerical thing turns champs into chumps.) Honorable mention goes to “Midwatch 1953” by the Fall from The Unutterable (2000), which is like a Fall take on the death of Hal the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, only instead of a slurred recital of “Daisy, daisy, give me your answer true,” Mark E. Smith wheezes, “Who could foresee what happened in 1953?” accompanied by what sounds like instrumental backing from two seemingly unrelated songs and a damaged pinball machine. (I also can’t help but mention Crowded House’s gloriously harmonized, Walking round the room singing ‘Stormy Weather’/at 57 Mount Pleasant Place in “Weather With You.”)
the B-52s - "53 Miles West of Venus"
the Fall - "Midwatch 1953"
Just as the B-52s own 52, their contemporaries the Ramones own 53. Both bands always flirted with a cartoon image, but were at heart totally genuine about the music they made. Ramones songs dealt with harsher subject matter, of course, but most were leavened with a humorous edge or a schoolyard shout-along chorus reminiscent of a radio single from the ‘60s. To say “53rd and Third” lacks the buoyancy of typical Ramones fare is a major understatement. Even the title—evoking the soulless grid pattern of New York City streets and avenues—lacks the glee of a typical Ramones title. Instead, it soullessly imparts the location where the song’s protagonist toils in the sex trade. And while the prototypical Ramones song is a pile-driven version of bubblegum or girl-group pop, “53rd and Third” is just a brutal onslaught. The sunny melody of a song like “Beat on the Brat” keeps it from feeling like a song celebrating actual assault (on an actual brat), but in this squalid little tune, there is no subtext, no sweet spot, no place to hide.
the Ramones - "53rd & 3rd"
(rehearsal footage, 1975)
The song “53rd & 3rd” speaks for itself. Everything I write is autobiographical and very real. I can’t write any other way. – Dee Dee Ramone
53rd and 3rd/Standing on the street53rd and 3rd/I'm tryin' to turn a trick
53rd and 3rd/You're the one they never pick53rd and 3rd /Don't it make you feel sick?
Then I took out my razor blade/Then I did what God forbadeNow the cops are after me/But I proved that I'm no sissy
the Ramones - "53rd & 3rd"
Numerology is our pal Dave's ill advised quest to find the definitive song for every number from one to a hundred. The higher the digit, the lonelier the climb.
Previously: No. 1, 2-4, , 4 (redux), 5-7, 7 (counterpoint), 8, 9, 10/11, 12/13. 13 (counterpoint), 14/15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26/27, 28 , 29 , 30, 30 (counterpoint), 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 , 47, 48, 49 , 50, 51, 52
Posted by David Klein at July 31, 2008 10:00 AM
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Comments
I think there's a Borders on that corner now.
Posted by: Jeff K at July 31, 2008 11:48 AM
The most prominent tenant at this once notorious corner is known by the general public as the Lipstick Building, because of its Revlon-worthy shape, but the building prefers to be called "53rd at Third." I guess you could argue that "at" sounds classier than "and" but I get the feeling the bigwigs over there were keen to put some distance between themselves and the Ramones song. I doubt the real estate kingpin community has many Ramones fans.
Posted by: david at August 4, 2008 09:47 AM
This didn't even occur to me until the comment about the lipstick building...but I interned right by this infamous intersection during a summer at the Citibank building.
Posted by: Sebastian at August 4, 2008 04:42 PM
