Rocking Out
2Oct2007
I think I am regressing. Back to my youth. On two occasions in the last week I have found myself sitting in my car, radio cranked up to 11, rocking out to a song that just grabs me. The first time it was 6 Underground by the Sneaker Pimps. The second time it was Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force.
The first song took me back to chilly nights in Edinburgh in 1997 and late walks back over George IV Bridge after spending too much time in Bar Kohl (aka the Vodka Bar).
The second song took me way back to my (cough) breakdancing days in Germany in 1984, wearing baggy trousers, spinning on linoleum, idolising the Rock Steady Crew and watching Beat Street repeatedly until the tape wore out.
The funny thing about rocking out in a car – and having the bass vibrate the entire chassis – is that passers-by expect to see some cool dude in a low-slung cruise-mobile with blackened windows and “spinners” on the wheels, not some expat white boy in a not-even-cool-for-school Hyundai Atoz with a blown exhaust. I think that shocks them more. But not as much as if I got out and started breakdancing for them …
Now THAT would be fresh!