Eric the Blue

My daughters both sing in the school choir, and one night last week was the last concert of the year. It was billed a “pop concert,” as opposed to earlier ones that tend to be on seasonal themes, such as Christmas or, this year, a concert heavy on slightly veiled protest songs aimed at Operation Metro Surge. I missed “Hey Jude” on account of having to leave early to tend to a meat loaf baking in the oven, but I did hear “Wagon Wheel.” While eating the meat loaf I told the kids how much I’d enjoyed it and that Buzza–their designation for the choir director, perhaps because he seems to like “Dr. Buzza”–might have been pushing the envelope, considering the lyric:

Caught a trucker out of Philly
Had a nice long toke.

My older girl laughed and said Buzza had encouraged them to sing:

Caught a trucker out of Philly
Told a nice long joke.

Of course this had the effect of improving the singers’ enunciation:

Caught a trucker out of Philly
HAD A NICE LONG TOKE.

Well, I doubt very many audience members were put off. I might be one of the few parents who’s never been in one of the cannabis shops that are popping up all over the place here in the People’s Republic of South Minneapolis. I’ve noticed that you can buy THC drinks at a neighborhood bar that I sometimes patronize–and typically have two Miller Lites before walking home. I know from skimpy experience that, like the character in a Woody Allen movie, pot does not “make me mellow”: it makes me ripen and rot. Here is a rousing live version of “Wagon Wheel” performed some number of years ago by Old Crow Medicine Show: