SONGS OF PRAISE 009: Going On
The arrival of the Cosmic Sand Dollars’ Requiem For King Dick into the home had me thinking about what lesser-known Surf bands from the 60s had members who went off to make some decent albums. I gotta admit my mind was blank until I remembered the two albums cut by John ‘Bucky’ Wilken AKA Ronny from Ronny & The Daytonas, the unit responsible for such push-button Surf hits as “G.T.O” and “Bucket T”. And yeah, his mom was the person who wrote “Long Black Veil” if you wanna get all Pop-Up Video about shit.
When there’s a need to indulge in some WIklin, I usually listen to his debut album from 1970, In Search Of Food Clothing Shelter & Sex, but lately, his self-titled (and slightly more rocking) second and final album has been hitting the spot, especially the song, “Going On”. I suppose to some, the song comes off like a convoy of half-full boxcars linked together for no good reason other than to fill up space on a record. But it’s the songs’ rough-edged starkness that makes it the harrowing object that it is, ya see. The unneeded use of echo of his vocals and the moments where it seems Buck is having an issue with remembering where his bridge might be are the moments that give me a cold shock upon every listen of the song. In a just world, some high-stepping vocalist would have taken “Going On”, shined it up, and presented to an audience fulla dipsticks on the Dinah Shore Show and got Wilkin some decent royalty money. But we all know this world isn’t just.
Nothings fair.
We all fall.
Lock her up.
Lock him up.
Lock me in my house.
Just don’t lock me out of the outhouse.