Back in about ’86 or so, the world paused for a moment in its orbit as the musical colossus known as Naked & Shameless spontaneously appeared, boozily clambered to the very apex of the Vancouver musical scene, and then flamed out and disappeared, all in the space of days, if not hours.
Well, what really happened is that my buddy Deviant, who was responsible for the creation and dismantling of various Vancouver bands of moderate success over the decade, decided that it’d be pretty damn cool to get me liquored up in his studio, record one of my infamous spontaneous rants, then put it to music.
Unfortunately, no matter how much Ouzo I swilled, sitting on the stool in front of the mike, it just wasn’t spontaneous. Performance anxiety. I did force it a bit once the booze kicked in, and pulled some ranty stuff out of my ass, but the resulting track didn’t meet the high standards we had anticipated, and after a few plays on CiTR, the UBC campus radio station (“all spaceship and satan music, all the time”), sank into history unremarked.
For the purposes of branding, though (we were ahead of our time, baby), I’d come up with the name ‘Naked & Shameless’ for our two-man band. Myself being Jim Naked, up there under the hot lights, baring my soul, and Deviant being Dave Shameless, the evil rocknroller exploiting my gentle drunken poetic weiner-talk to get chicks and stuff.
That part was good.
Wisely, though, with our first track sucking so heinously, we decided to shelve the project.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and Deviant, who has been living in Chicago and whom I haven’t seen for almost a decade, has restarted Naked and Shameless, with cousin Buck Naked replacing the dearly departed Jim. Buck can actually sing, and play. This is a good thing.
Why am I telling you all this? Besides the usual ‘I’m so goddamn hip I can’t see over my own pelvis’ stuff, mostly ’cause I remembered that N&S have an mp3.com page with some fun songs on, which I’ve been listening to this evening as I get slowly plastered, and they’re currently on tour, and will be playing one of our favorite Vancouver haunts this weekend, the Railway Club.
(The serendipitous thing here being that through completely random chaotic f–king weirdness, one of the owners of the Railway Club, Roger Trentenero, since deceased (murdered on his boat not long after I’d decamped, so to speak, at Playa Los Cocos, by hammer flung headward by his 16-year old Costa Rican girlfriend, is the story that I heard), was the owner of the first sailboat I crewed aboard in the Sea of Cortez, approximately midway, temporally speaking, between then and now…but that, as I find myself saying all too often, is a tale for another day.)
Drinking Song #16 is the one dedicated to me poor old Jim Naked. It’s funny, but not my favorite. C’est la vie.
If you do go have a listen to any of their stuff, don’t miss “Lawrence (Head of Lettuce)“. A true story from our UBC days. Not even the names have been changed to protect the guilty. Rock’n’roll verité, man.
Stavros, I really think you should write a book about your life. Between the Mexico story, the rock and roll story, sailing the Sea of Cortez, and your own inimitable style, you’d be a raging success! And unruly.
Do you miss Vancouver at all? Mere mention of the Railway Club brings tears to my eyes (actually, in memory of how smokey the place could get in winter). You’ve mentioned before that Canada no longer really intrigues you, so maybe you don’t miss it at all.
Birthdays sure can bring on the memories, though, yes?
I miss Canada, Vancouver, so much some times it turns me to fucking stone. I realized recently that I’d been living in big cities for the last 7 years, and I hate big cities.
I also hate the idea of working for the Canadian government for half the year, to pay taxes. I won’t do it. Not until those filthy Americanized shitbeast scuzweasels in Ottawa start doing the right thing for the country rather than the right thing for their own self-aggrandizement. Fat goddamn chance of that, though.
I just don’t know what to do sometimes : Korea isn’t a country I can see myself growing old in, but I dunno where else to go at the moment…
Ah, fuck it! Another drink and I can defer the question a little longer. Here is good enough, if reeking of diesel exhaust.
But yeah, Aaron, one of the biggest reasons I have this weblog is to write daily, to try and get back to the point where I feel like I write fluently enough to tackle a book…
Hi Stavros! I was just in Vancouver on Monday, courtesy of the airline I work for. I thought it was gorgeous. I wrote a brief (and not terribly well-written) entry about it on my blog; if’n yer interested, you can look at it here.
I love Canada so so much. I’ve been there three times; once to Toronto, once to Winnipeg, and now Vancouver. The temptation to defect strikes me at regular intervals. I threatened to move if Dumbya was elected president, but somehow wound up staying home. (‘sfunny, I had a Canadian friend who, if GW was elected, was going to move to Sweden. Canada:US::Sweden:Canada?) In an ideal world, Minnesota would secede to Canada; then I could be Canadian without leaving home.
Minnesota is almost Canadian isn’t it? Or it was when the North Stars were still there…
Drinking Song # 16 quote of the day: “I was weaned on Royal Reserve”
When the book comes out give us ample warning so we can skew the sales figures. I have more than enough faith in your abilities that I’d buy the book sight unseen.
I agree, certain things about Canada really suck, but I think it’s the same wherever you go…
I agree on the book. Write it, music man.
Ah, Jim. We miss you. I think I should crack another bottle and see how far I can swim with the bricks on my testicles. CU Soon.
SWAK!
BFN