Let's Just Go

At the end of Quasi’s 1999 album Field Studies, there’s this gem of a song called “Let’s Just Go.” Tonight this song, as well as a fifteen-minute conversation with my parents, has unfortunately inspired me to write. And I wasn’t planning on writing anything tonight. Sorry.

Brief description of song before I offer lyrical content: “Blackbird”-esque happy-go-lucky stark naked finger picking electric guitar, rivals Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” as the most effective use of rock’s oxymoron: upbeat music, depressing lyrics (upbeat lyrics, depressing music = doesn’t really jive as well).

“Paralyzed
Every path seems so unwise
Might as well just close your eyes
Flip a coin
Let’s. Just. Go.

The more that you see, the less you seem to be free
Is that how to be?

(spellbinding solo which shifts song into low gear that [intentionally or unintentionally, I shall ask the next time Quasi comes to the Spaceland] takes a stab at, you guessed it, a Springsteen song)

And if I’m not around
You know where I’ll be found
I live underground on a dark side of town”

So Delia, what are you inspired to write, exactly? Dissect the song’s meaning and approximate its rightful context within your life? No, too self-indulgent. Believe it or not, instead of thinking about it, instead of writing about it, I actually want to take the song title literally. When they were in New Zealand, my parents saw tons of kids (I say, “kids,” yes, because that’s what they said) my age who had just said fuck work, fuck responsibility, let’s go see some of the world while we’re young and careless, unburdened and naïve. They came from all over the world, different social classes, ideologies, perspectives, seeking some episodic journey that lacked ambition and an expectant means to an end. They met Israeli kids who had just gotten out of the Army. Environmentalist nature freaks. Extreme sports addicts. Premature sabbatical before the big fade into wherever it is we think we’re going.

Not that my track record for doing the things I say I'm going to do is any indication, but I just might join them out there. While I’m young and I can’t make any excuses. Responsibilities be damned, future jammed to a halt. My debt can just blossom and corrode my moral compass, overshadow any remaining signs of potential American Dream success. I don’t care. I’ll never win, anyway. Since when did this become such a race? And to which “this” I am referring, I have no idea, but whatever it is, I’m right in the middle. I’m playing my version of those beloved capitalist 80s board games…LIFE, Monopoly, Operation…it’s all happening now but I’m looking the other way. I don’t care to save or spend. Money? Love? I’m cheating both. Keep on evading, teetering on the edge of social responsibility but remaining stuck behind the keyboard, writing and waiting. But don’t you ever get tired of waiting? Let’s just go. But never, fear not, forever. Just until I can tell you it’s not too late to drop everything…and I mean everything…and go.