I tell you, little buddy, this whole island is bewitched. You remember? We were shipwrecked together. Welcome to this bonus episode of Sound Opinions. I'm Greg Cott. My co-host is Jim DeRigatis. And if you want to be the first to hear our bonus podcasts, become a Sound Opinions member on Patreon like Rory Cox of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He's been a listener for 15 years from Slovenia. I love that. That is awesome.
Thanks for your support, Rory. We really appreciate it. And Jim, we've got so much music that we want to get to. The bonus podcast is an excellent opportunity to put another quarter into the Desert Island jukebox and play a track we can't. Cannot live without. Give us a hint of where you're going to go this week. I'll give you an oblique hint. Greg, you've heard of Jello Biafra? I believe I have, yes. I'm not going to play his band. Okay. I'm going to play the band that he wrote in.
before the dead Kennedys. Okay, okay. I think I have a clue on that one. All right, we're going to hear more about that in a minute on Sound Opinions. Welcome back to Sound Opinions. Jim, one of those artists that, like, you know, at a certain point in your life, the Dead Kennedys meant everything. But there was a time before the Dead Kennedys, wasn't there? There was, but this has actually nothing to do with the Dead Kennedys, except for the fact that before...
before Jella Biafra formed the Dead Kennedys. You know, he grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and he was a friend of one Mark Campbell and roadied for the band The Ravers. The Ravers were... like so many bands across America in the punk era, you know, friends throwing something together in the basement, self-releasing a single. What a 1977... title for a vinyl 7-inch
Cops are punks. All right. I'm not going to play the Ravers. I'm not going to play cops or punks. Mark Campbell, after forming that punk band, changed the name to The Nails, moved to New York City, and was... It was part of the fertile new wave scene in New York in the late 70s, early 80s. The Nails had one immortal song that everybody has heard of a certain age at one point or another.
88 lines about 44 women. What a great, classic New York, New Wave kind of song. I'm playing it because Mark Campbell, sadly, was sitting at home in Austin, Texas. from Boulder, Colorado Moved to Lower East Side in New York. Winds up where many former rock pioneers wound up. The rock retirement home of Austin, Texas. Owned a record store there, I gather, for some time. He was watching. a movie with his wife and just drop dead on the couch at the age of 73.
I never met Mark as far as I can recall. I am certain we were at shows in the same crowd at CBGB or Maxwell's, you know, in the 80s, in the New York scene, you know, on. The social media platform, why bother to even name it, where old people go as opposed to TikTok. You know, I mean, we had like 300 mutual friends, you know. He knew everybody I knew. I knew everybody he knew. I really, you know.
Social media just depresses me. And you and I have had this conversation so often. You know, it's just full of crap I didn't ask for that I don't want to see from people I don't know. But whenever Mark... He was, besides being a musician, a cultural critic, a great writer. I mean, he was always recommending. I'm certain I've gotten half a dozen Desert Island jukebox picks from his post.
movie ideas, streaming ideas, just memes that I didn't mind seeing that just cut to the core of them. I'm going to really miss him, although we have not ever spent time in... real time together. And I guess social media is good for something. You know, there's no other way to really pay tribute to this artist, thinker, character than to play his best known song.
apparently pounded out in all of two hours on a manual typewriter, and the band recorded it the next day. Most of these were women that Mark met, and he has two lines. Each for 44 of them. You know, it's very much in the Jim Carroll people who died mode. You know, Reno was a nameless girl, the geographic memory. Kathy was a Jesus freak. She liked that kind of misery. And he goes down.
these 44 women, never in a reductive way until he gets to the last two lines, Amaranta, here's a kiss, I chose you to end this list. He actually was survived by the love of his life, who he wrote about, you know, in the social media is really movingly often. Mergoon was her name. And, you know, my condolences to her and to all of those who lost a friend in Mark. Kaufman, The Nails, 88 Lines, About 44 Women.
was a nameless girl, a geographic memory. Kathy was a Jesus freak. She liked that kind of misery. Vicky had this special way of turning sex into a song. Kamala, who couldn't sing, kept the beat and kept it strong. 88 lines about 44 women. Isn't that a great song? The Nails. That is a great album that is from, the debut album by The Nails. Yeah. I missed the news about his death. Yeah. That's sad.
There's a song right after, on that album, I played Side One to death. Yeah. Because it had a bunch of great songs on it. But Home of the Brave, the last song on Side One, immediately following 88 lines about 44 women, is a great song. It's kind of almost like a spoken word slash piece. It's just about this guy thinking... Dark thoughts. Well, in a similar vein, the nail song, Things They Left Behind, is about people who've passed or...
you know, either left this mortal coil or left your life, and the stuff they left behind, right? I mean, he has a novelist's eye, Mark Campbell. The level of detail, it's kind of like he's touring the world and he's seeing all these mis... begotten places. And I want to go where the wild things play. I want to go to the home of the brave. He's kind of like he's missing home, but every place he goes is kind of...
There's something, you know, something drastically wrong with it. I think it's a perspective of a guy who's been on the road a lot. The grass is never white greener as it's supposed to be. And it just moved the hell out of me. I remember hearing it and I just loved that song. I thought he was kind of a... poet. I dug it. I'm gonna miss him. Great choice and sad news about Mark Campbell of The Nails. Just a great band. Thanks for paying tribute, Jim.
That is it for this bonus episode. For more full episodes, visit soundopinions.org. To sponsor the show, email sponsor at soundopinions.org. And Sound Opinions is produced, as always, by Andrew Gill. Alex Claiborne and Max Hatlam. And our social media consultant is Katie Cott. Thanks for listening.
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