Thursday, May 27, 2010

Searching for an old duet

I'm not even sure I have the CD anymore- just a few MP3s of my favorite songs from their CD on my phone. Don't know how to spell their names either- I think it was Sammuson & Tomassi, weird spellings from a weird city at a weird time.

It was 1996. I was a single guy back then, very liberal at the time. Spent a lot of my time at The Beanery coffee house in Salem, OR. A lonely geek, three years before I'd figure out women enough to meet my wife and get married, four years before I'd actually find out what was wrong with me with my Asperger's diagnosis.

Fourteen years ago.

One night, a singing duo came into the coffee house. Good 'gonie folk rock, they sung about the values I grew up with as in a Tom McCall Republican household- conservation, living off the land, lots of respect for Native Americans. Some new age thrown in, but I didn't mind that as I hadn't discovered what an Old Age religious guy I was yet.

Wonderful music. At that time in my life I was fairly rich ($36,000/year is a great income for a single guy) so I bought their CD. Only thing I can find on the web now is some old Google links to a couple of concerts they did in the early 2000s. 5/24/2003 seems to have been their last concert.

Good songs on it. Songs that still resonate with me today. Like this one- which you will not find the lyrics to anyplace else on the web (I know, I've tried):

Edge of the Empire

I've worked in the factories and down in the mines
Stood in the rain in the welfare lines
Slept under bridges, lived on the street,
and carried the pain of a thousand defeats.

I've dug in the ditches I've filled out the forms,
And did what I could to try and stay warm,
I've paid all the taxes, the fines and the fees,
I've earned all the titles and all the degrees.

I'm going out where the highway ends,
I'm going out where the world begins,
I'm going over the edge of the empire tonight,
I want to tear the whole thing down,
And start all over again,
I'm going to go out over the edge, tonight.

They've taken the forest and left only stumps,
They've damed up the streams, and they filled in the swamps,
They've plowed all the prairies, the meadows and fields,
And fully perfected the art of the deal,
They've leveled the mountains and hauled them away,
They've paved all the places we used to play,
They've poisoned the pond where we used to swim,
They've done it before and they'll do it again.

I'm going out where the highway ends,
I'm going out where the world begins,
I'm going over the edge of the empire tonight,
I want to tear the whole thing down,
And start all over again,
I'm going to go out over the edge, tonight.

I saw the words on the pumphouse wall
Robin Hood was Right
I saw the signs I heard the call
I felt the movement in the night

I'm going out where the highway ends,
I'm going out where the world begins,
I'm going over the castle wall,
To the land of the water fall
Out beyond the last outpost
Among the spirits and the ghosts
I want to breathe that cool night air
Out beyond the streetlights glare
I want to hear my totem's voice
I got to go I've got no choice

I'm going out where the highway ends,
I'm going out where the world begins,
I'm going over the edge of the empire tonight,
I want to tear the whole thing down,
And start all over again,
I'm going to go out over the edge, .
I want to tear the whole thing down,
And start all over again,
I'm going to go out over the edge,
I'm going to go out over the edge,
I'm going to go out over the edge,
I'm going to go out over the edge, tonight.

2 comments:

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Ok, I found them, or at least Todd. Linda Tomassi apparently doesn't sing with him anymore. I wonder if I can find out why? At any rate, I can still buy their CDs. Maybe.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Creative Commons License
Oustside The Asylum by Ted Seeber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at http://outsidetheaustisticasylum.blogspot.com.