Local songs, A Special Education

(I believe you can download all of this stuff from the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society in one form or another.)

With music playing such a pivotal role in my writing process, it should be no surprise that A Special Education is awash in it. In fact, one of the very first interviews has a character reference his fear of getting beaten up by punks on his way to and from school, a fear that many kids on my block had, largely because of the influence of bands like Beyond Possession.

I love this gritty video of them performing in the neighbourhood of Pembroke, not far from where I (and Isabel) grew up. It's also just north of where Jack and Isabel's classmate Chris was from, a place called Forest Lawn, the same community I saw my first concert in the park, featuring three of Calgary's pre-eminent bands of the early 1990s, Wagbeard, Field Day, and Primrods. It's a similar version of this concert (except at the more genteel location of Prince's Island Park) that Jack, Isabel, and Chris first meet each other, although they don't really know it. 

Here's an imaginary set list for that concert:

Piece of trivia: Isabel's math class on her first day of high school is drawn almost entirely from my own, with one little exception. Whereas the character of Chris arrives wearing a D.E.D. Souls t-shirt (from which Wagbeard emerged but not until a few years after A Special Education begins so that reference might change), I believe my friend on whom I based Chris in this scene (and who later went on to develop guidance systems for missiles, or so I'm told) wore an AC/DC "Raising Hell" t-shirt on the first day, and a D.O.A. shirt on the second. The D.E.D. Souls came third.

Bonus: A Special Education ends with a line stolen from a split Wagbeard/Primrods 10" from this era.

(Again, I believe you can download all of this stuff from the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society in one form or another.)

Words and Music

With temperatures breeching thirty degrees celsius almost every day this week, I think it's fair to say that Calgary is in the middle of a mid-summer heat wave. For some reason, the heat has me thinking a lot about the Ocote Soul Sounds' Alchemist's Manifesto, loosely inspired, I think, by Paulo Coehlo's novel The Alchemist, which celebrated it's tenth anniversary this week.

Two other bands I've been thinking about lately are Calgary's Ded Souls and Beyond Possession. I've been making a lot of notes for a story that's partly based on growing up in Northeast Calgary, and these two local bands have been providing the soundtrack in my head. The Calgary Cassette Preservation Society has the Ded Souls available, but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Melodiya Records-backed Beyond Possession reissue ten years ago. I guess I'll have to console myself with this (and other) YouTube clips. This one was recorded a short bus ride from where I grew up:

And remember kids, Beyond Possession is Beyond Possession!