August, Maryland: Red Onion Records / Hunky Dory

In most parts of this country, crossing a state line is a noteworthy occurrence. The new state announces itself with a large highway sign, and a welcome center often appears quickly thereafter.

This makes living in Arlington, Virginia a bit different. Going into the “city” means entering a non-state. And, among the convoluted highways, parkways, and beltways, a wrong turn or a missed exit can land you in Maryland before you realize what happened.

There was a time when crossing over from Virginia to Maryland meant leaving the Confederacy and entering the Union. A Union slave state, but still…kind of a big transition. Now you can do it by accident. 

Times change.

This month I found myself headed up north, just a handful of miles, to Hyattsville, Maryland. Like most of the small cities surrounding DC, Hyattsville feels very much like a DC suburb. Tucked away on a side street, next to a yoga studio and across from the Masonic lodge, is a tiny, unassuming storefront. This is Red Onion Records.

Blink and you'll miss it.

Inside things are narrow, cozy, and welcoming. Lots of new arrivals to sift through...

A nice selection of rare 7"s...

A wall of hard-to-finds (Big Star's #1 record next to Eno's No Wave comp next to Dischord's Flex Your Head next to Karen Dalton...Ooh, baby.) I love this place and I will most certainly be back. A friend later told me they sometimes host Scrabble night. Well, damn. I wish my neighborhood had such a place.

I had my eye on Big Star, but it clocked in at $300. According to Discogs, plenty of sellers are asking plenty more for it. Alas, far out of my price range.

I returned to the new arrivals and took a close look at a copy of Hunky Dory rated Very Good.

This is Bowie's 4th studio album, a relatively short one, and you could mistake it for a greatest hits album.

It's sometimes said that this is the album where Bowie became Bowie. That seems reasonable. Of the three prior albums, there are just a couple songs that most listeners would recognize:

In writing this, I went back and gave those three a thorough listen. I've never heard anyone mention that first one, which came out in 1967. It's enjoyable enough; the songs feel light and quirky, almost in Yellow Submarine/Octopus's Garden territory. The two following albums gave us Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World. And then came 1971 and Hunky Dory. I'm inclined to agree with the consensus that this is where Bowie--shapeshifter that he was--becomes the artist that we pretty much universally revere.

It makes sense that this came to be in 1971. Even though he was making music in the 1960s, Bowie just feels so quintessentially 70s.

As with most of the albums I've picked up throughout this process, I find myself writing, "So much has already been written about this masterpiece..." and Hunky Dory, of course, is no exception.

But, for kicks, I thought I would compare/contrast the opening track, "Changes," with another iconic song that debuted that same year--one that may well be the precise opposite. I'm talking, of course, about the theme song to All In the Family.

At a glance, this song is a sweet moment of nostalgia. At a second glance, it's reactionary. Particularly if you look up the full version, which was abbreviated for prime time:

Boy, the way Glen Miller played.

Songs that made the Hit Parade.

Guys like us, we had it made.

Those were the days

Didn't need no welfare state.

Everybody pulled his weight

Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.

Those were the days

And you knew where you were then

Girls were girls and men were men.

Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.

People seemed to be content.

Fifty dollars paid the rent.

Freaks were in a circus tent.

Those were the days

Take a little Sunday spin,

Go to watch the Dodgers win.

Have yourself a dandy day

That cost you under a fin.

Hair was short and skirts were long.

Kate Smith really sold a song.

I don't know just what went wrong

Those Were the Days

A bit to unpack there. The phrase "Girls were girls and men were men" reads like a softer version of There are two genders! "Guys like us we had it made..." and "People seemed to be content..." comes off as almost trolling...prompting you to ask, "And what GUYS were that? And WHICH people seemed to be content?" And perhaps most of all "Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again." This is to say: I miss the Great Depression. It's slyly brilliant and works as a send-up of a mentality we see in the U.S. today: The present feels new and weird and scary to me, and so I'm going to get nostalgic for a golden age that never actually existed. #MAGA

Contrast that with:

And these children that you spit on

As they try to change their worlds

Are immune to your consultations

They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Times change.

Maybe it's reassuring to recall that there's nothing new about the tension in this country, which perhaps boils down to those who yearn to "go back" versus those who wish to "move forward."

And yet: I've been alive for a while now, and it's only in the past decade that I've heard serious conversations about whether the U.S. might have another civil war. The idea may seem alarmist, but I can't escape the thought that, well, something is looming on the horizon. Though, what would a modern civil war even look like? Does each side have a location? Will crossing the border from Virginia to Maryland regain its significance? Fuck if I know.

It's hard to pin down exactly what went wrong and when, though I've been joking/not joking for a while now that we've said "good riddance" at the end of every year since David Bowie died.

I...did not mean to get so gloomy here. Hunky Dory is a great album.