"Garbage Barge" by the Walking Ruins

Back in 1987 the news had a story about a ship filled with trash that couldnt find a place to land. I filed away the name given to it for a future song title. Around that time the Walking Ruins started trying to put together songs for a set and I put these lyrics to a riff supplied by the guitarist.
Garbage Barge
It made them ill in Brazil from that New Jersey junk
Stacked high to the sky and smell worse than a skunk
It was the only ship you wouldnt want sunk
And it made the Love Boat look like a Chinese junk
Now no one wants to take me home
And the seven seas I shall roam
Let me introduce myself, for Im the captain of this ship
And itd be my pleasure to take you all
On a swinging little trip
And after youve sailed the seven seas
Alls youre left with is a case of dysentery
Garbage barge, youre just a garbage barge
Garbage
As the third world becomes a landfill
Then the poor countries have to foot the bill
For the bloated western industrial nations
Starting to choke on their own sanitation
Im asking you, does this sound fair
Im asking you, do you really care
About all that garbage (kick it in solo)
In Honduras, New Guinea, Ecuador and Peru
Theyre getting kind of scared at what Uncle Sam might do
He speaks softly and carries a big stick
Forces garbage on them until it makes them sick
For they are David, we are goliath
And on this, you can reliath
Theyll eat our garbage.
(help me out fellows)
Garbage Barge, its just a garbage barge
Eric said he wanted to put together a video for it promoting the environment friendly message, so thats why when you watch it you see mostly footage of actual Monroe County Waste Disposal moments, you know, the kind that want to make you cuddle up on the couch with your sweetie. A few highlights:
It opens with Eric tracking up to a trash can in front of his old home on Morningside. Inside are some random garbage and newspaper articles concerning the incident.
26: He follows an extension cord up to the 1988 street dance where the Walking Ruins are playing the song, so you get a few glimpses of us playing live. The entire street dance is still available as far as I know, if someone wants to torment themselves over it.
40: Eric got up early in the morning to film garbage trucks doing their weekly chores. Now that is dedication to ones craft.
48: The Monroe County landfill in all its glory. Thanks to the numbskulls on the County Council, who refuse to budget routine maintenance, it caught on fire and was permanently closed by the US Government.
1:02 Some live footage from 33 Steps of the band, again actually playing the song live. Eric then edits in footage of my high school senior portrait where I posed in front of a fake Captains Wheel. To complete the circle he put the lyrics. You get it, right?
1:27 When Eric was out filming at the landfill, he found a dead cow Mmmmmm.
1:34 He coerced me to mime to the pre-solo lyrics in the living room of First and Grant. Note the hammer and sickle t-shirt and my pathetic attempt to grow dreadlocks.
2:10 PCB storage, I believe.
3:07 While Eric was filming a dump truck, it puked up some liquid. He could scarcely believe his good fortune.
3:16 This is an actual picture of the Garbage Barge, one that I clipped from Time Magazine. Eric borrowed it and made it move so that when he videotaped it, it appeared to be floating on the seas.
And that pretty much sums it up. It was all good, clean fun, or should I say a bad, dirty business. I always appreciated the efforts by Eric to use the Walking Ruins as a backdrop for his editing, which was at least usually entertaining, sometimes illuminating, and occasionally inane. While not a barn burner, heres hoping you enjoyed it.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• punk
• rock
• bloomington
• indiana
• walking
• ruins
• panics
• gulcher

[SuperVidSicious]

I loved this band.  I hope John is doing well.

[LaughingLefty]

MTV never knew what they were missing.

[dklufc]

lol....JB. The Brit says "MTV Get off the air..NOW !". You lot were better than anything on that channel anyway....& im not saying that for a invite too another cookout in November lol

[ericesad]

Not actually, dude... it was an attempt to get on the local community access TV station... we weren't exactly into MTV.

[dklufc]

Another attempt to get on MTV....tut,tut,tut!!