The Lost BABY OPAQUE song
OK, this is friggin’ hot.
Michael Buck sent me a data CD of some high-rez scans of photos he took of me and my band Baby Opaque in 1984 (wasn’t I cute? What HAPPENED?)
(Photos are big enough to print, if you click on thumbnails.) 
He also included an MP3 of a song called “Decisions” (DOWNLOAD HERE!) that is not on either our EP or LP. It kinda sounds like Joy Division if they were a jazz band from Iran.
Here’s the lyrics:
There are three things I’ve observed common to everyone.
One is a desire to run, far away.
One is a desire to stay. One related thing is not as common but seen occasionally.
It is a hidden hope for newness,
a yearning for a crossroads,
a need for an opening beyond.I saw this thing in me today in me today in my bathroom mirror.
It caused excitement and terror simultaneously.
I tried to put it on my shelf,
but it simply would not fit.It simply would not wait
a window had slammed shut on
any other possibility.I had to run to catch my breath.
CHORUS:
Decisions, revisions,
in my daily
failing routine.
I need a change of things unseen.I take the trash out of my house.
I take the food out to my cows.
I take the dust out of my brain.
I take inventory of my goals.REPEAT CHORUS
The end is nowhere in site.
My goals are nowhere near.
I have to fight
to stay happy!
—–
I hadn’t heard this song in 23 years. Funny how I could remember most of what was coming next. I have no memory of recording it, but it sounds like a cassette four-track demo to me.
——
I told Michael Buck, :
> Thanks for being an archivist. I own NOTHING from back then.
> Seriously. I got my current Baby Opaque records one on eBay and one
> from my mother’s attic after she died.
He wrote me back,
I’m really glad that my pack rat tendencies can give
someone else something enjoyable, now and then. That
WTJU/Charlottesville time frame was pretty key in my
life, so I kept as much of anything related to it as I could.
I wish I had created something cool and lasting, like Baby
Opaque, or Happy Flowers, or Landlords, but it is fun to
be able to get you some pictures you haven’t seen, or a
demo track you haven’t heard for a long time. So, I
guess that’s my role.
BO’s last gig (at the C&O in Charlottesville, Virginia) was July 4 1985.
And Bomb’s first gig was July 4th, 1986, at the Farm in San Francisco. (opening for Flipper and Tex and the Horseheads.)
August 26th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
That song was recorded at Inner Ear during the “Fugue in Cow Minor” sessions. It was intended to be included on the Charlottesville compilation that I put together but never had the money to release. Sorry!!!!!
August 26th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Cool. Thanks for the info. I was wondering!
MWD
August 26th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Thank you for sharing this!
It’s a creepy cool song. I just put it on my iPod. gonna put it on repete and go lay in the graveyard and stare at the dark clouds.
I thihnk it may rain today.
– Melody
May 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I remember picking up the EP at the Waynesboro Record Corner when I was 12, shortly after finding out about DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME. I am so happy to have found this music (again…)
Thanks for inspiring me to pick up the Fender Jazz…
An almost lifelong fan, d.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
So funny…so many people compared us to the Minutemen. But I didn’t hear the Minutemen until after the first Baby Opaque EP came out, and I don’t really think it was an influence on the LP, as I didn’t listen to them a lot until a few years later.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I never really saw the connection either. But I can say That PAIN was the second “punk” record I ever bought. Waynesboro had only one record store, and in that store was a tiny little bin labeled PUNK/HARDCORE with maybe four or five records in it; mostly SST stuff. But anywaste, I didn’t mean to imply you guys sounded like them… it sounded like nothing I had ever heard, being knee deep into crap like The Fixx and (under muted breath) Duran Squared.
Fugue came out, and I promptly snatched that up. By that time I was playing bass and singing in Death Tripod.We covered I Don’t Need To Understand, and on one tape I still have we played the whole EP. I even made a back alley Silk Screen T-Shirt with the COW from the back of the LP.
I love your blogs.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I’d love to hear that cover. E-mail me an MP3 and I’ll post it.
February 18th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
WOW! Thanks for posting the old records! I loved me some Baby Opaque back in the 90’s!!
February 18th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Yay! and you’re certainly welcome.
MWD
March 21st, 2009 at 9:28 pm
hey. i met you once in harrisonburg in ‘85???? saw baby opaque play at the mystic den. i was in dt & the shakes (myspace.com/dtandtheshakes). we traded our respective 7″ eps. you passed it on to maynard sipe. eternally greatful. still have the 7″ and am still friends with maynard. gonna download the rest now.
-will
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:14 am
very cool man.
I remember that, sort of.
MWD