Anchored

Tiny Tuesday: Anchored 

"I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
Mailed my letter off to Dallas
But her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska

[She said]
"Hey girl, it's about time you wrote
It's been over two years you know, my old friend
Take me back to the days of the foreign telegrams
And the all-night rock and rollin'... hey Shell
We was wild then

Hey Shell, you know it's kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you're in the largest state in the union
When you're anchored down in Anchorage

Hey Girl, I think the last time I saw you
Was on me and Leroy's wedding day
What was the name of that love song they played?
I forgot how it goes
I don't recall how it goes
Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage

Leroy got a better job so we moved
Kevin lost a tooth now he's started school
I got a brand new eight month old baby girl
I sound like a housewife
Hey Shell, I think I'm a housewife

Hey Girl, what's it like to be in New York?
New York City - imagine that!
Tell me, what's it like to be a skateboard punk rocker?
Leroy says "Send a picture"
Leroy says "Hello"
Leroy says "Oh, keep on rocking, girl"
"yeah, keep on rocking"

Hey Shell, you know it's kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you're in the largest state in the union 
When you're anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage"

Michelle Shocked ~ Anchored down in Anchorage

I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Shocked at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival when she performed the whole of her first album "Short Sharped Shocked" solo in front of a small audience of about 20 of us.  It was a fabulously intimate gig, between numbers she would recall the times leading up to this 1988 album and how each of the songs had come about.  It was a wonderful night. 

Michelle was always outspoken back in the day, and continues to be feisty even now.  Her wish to avoid being stereotyped by narrow definitions of sexuality, her impulse to reject authority and convention, and her conversion to born again Christianity all collided horribly in her comments on same sex marriage back in 2013.  While she tried to retrench she had kicked a hornet's nest in the process and her reputation suffers to this day. 

Whatever the truth of it all, for me it doesn't detract from those great songs of growing up and early adulthood in West Texas on that first album.

Oh yes, its a button by the way, in the photo that is ;-)