1 post tagged “thin white rope”
So, this post is about Thin White Rope . Davis, California is a strange little University Town, out by Wine Country, but also out by Redneck farmers. It's a good place to study Agriculture, but in the early 1980's it was also a fantastic place to see new Music. Steve Wynn and his Dream Syndicate, True West, but most of all, Thin White Rope.
I first heard them when I bought a copy of "Exploring the Axis", their first long player. I was looking for more dream Syndicate, and somebody had misfiled a Thin White Rope LP in the Dream Syndicate file at Middle Earth records. What I heard blew my mind. A mixture of pure Bakersfield Country (Buck Owens style) Jazzy guitar punk (Television style) and Captain beefheart styled psychedelia. It was pure dusty color, panoramic, like Monument valley, where even the shadows are dirt colored. Mostly it was like Two guitars trying to create an entire Spaghetti western. Lee Van Clief was in that bridge, while Clint Eastwood rode in on the chorus.
I saw them play twice all told. They broke up in the early 1990's. No one seemed to know, in America, but in Europe, they were bigger, and more important than Rocknroll should ever be. To this day, there are Slovenian tribute bands, and Italian discussion forums about them.
So, the picture I put up is from their second record. I put it up because i'm listening to that record, right now. The title is from the line in the song i was hearing when i started typing. Thin White Rope were like that. They're the soundtrack to the movie projected on the backside of my head.
Just as important as Punk rock to my development. The Desert Rock they made, made me.
