The Vertebrats

[NOTE: this is a repost from January 2010]

It's hard to explain how much Left in the Dark means to me. As a young buck I of course heard the Replacements mangle it on The Shit Hits the Fans, and DT and the Shakes covered it on their first LP a few years later. By the time I finally heard the original as a 19 year old, it already had some sanctified rare-air status that somehow was the annex of the four corners of punk, post-punk, bubblegum, and post-punk bubblegum. I knew the name of the song, and the name of the band, but, like everybody else, didn't really know or care about anything else about the band itself. Meanwhile, it seems as if every band that was around from 1980-1989 covered the song at least once (owed mostly probably to the Replacements.)

About 10 years ago THE GNAT, after spotting his name in some Wilco message board, hooked me up with Ken Draznik, the writer of the song, and like a star-struck fan I emailed him. And of course I told him how much I loved his band, what that song meant, about the inordinate number of musical doors those three minutes somehow opened to me, it was the first song I learned how to play on guitar blah blah blah. And, incredibly, he wrote me back. First of all, I was shocked to learn that, according to his email address,  he worked for Riddell Sports. I don't know what I thought; I guess I pictured that whoever had written such a (seemingly) famous song spent his time in pubs doing interviews with Kurt Loder and shagging chicks. Or whatever.

Anyway, not only did he email me, but he MAILED me cassette tapes of the Vertebrats catalog, PLUS demos he had been working on. We were email buddies for awhile...then I sent him a Happy Scene ep + a tape of MY demos, and the correspondence "mysteriously" stopped there. Hmm.

But that even seems right; it appears that once every coupla years the Vertebrats "reunite" to give the fans what they want. But as awesome as that is (mostly, letting people who came of age in the very early 80's a chance to relvie some memories), the fact is that long after Ken's gone, and the Vertebrats are gone, and 100 years from now, that fucking song will roll on. It is what's best about rock 'n roll: it's insistence that it's about you, by you, and for you. Martians will land here and walk into a bar, and someone will be doing a cover of Left in the Dark. Bank on it.