Mr. P.'s Rust Belt Mixtape (A 10-Part Musical Reverie: Part 1)

Selections of music from the personal collection that speak to the Rust Belt heart (Track 1: Rough Days in Gary, Indiana)

Good evening, all! Starting tonight, once a week, I’ll be featuring a little something different in addition to other articles and stories! Combining two of my favorite topics into one offering; music and the Rust Belt and its history. Hopefully you enjoy the endeavor and have a great weekend! -Mr. P.

Music. Music is and always has been a huge part of my world. I’ve been collecting music in some form or another since I was able to; dusty old records that once belonged to my dad, cassettes I either picked up at the local mall record store or recorded off the radio in any number of what seemed like thousands of mixtapes, racks and racks of CD’s and of course, in various digital formats. I created untold numbers of tapes for friends and enamoradas over the years, each one crafted with serious thought into what songs would tell the story I wanted to tell, often with hand-drawn covers with track listings. I was once a late night DJ at Kent State University’s student radio station, the now-defunct WKSR (the finest sounding radio on your television!) I play the saxophone. You could say that music is in the blood. To this day, I’m always looking for a good record store to find a few old gems and maybe some new sounds on vinyl (for that warmer analog sound!) It’s rather comforting to be in a dusty, confined and mellowly lit record shop in an old neighborhood closer in to the city. Conversation with like minded friends about music always takes the memories back to favorite albums, favorite tracks and bands.

                 Once upon a time, ensconced in a dusty DJ booth in Northeast Ohio…

Recently, I was having a much-needed beer with an explorer friend of mine after a cold day out on the town and we got onto the topic of music (as always seems to happen naturally), and we began to talk about the fact that so much music out there reminds us of what we do; exploring in gritty, tired cities and diving into the abandoned buildings that exist there. Conversation moved to the Rust Belt and how it came to be, how it used to be, and what it is now. As I drove home from that night’s discussion, I got to thinking about the music that comes to me personally when I contemplate all of that.

                        Artistic representation of the Rust Belt (by artist Wei Wei)

The Rust Belt is one of main birthplaces of music as we know it. Blues, jazz, rock, and fusions of all of those forms and more, just to name a few genres that marinated and blossomed here among the soot-stained smokestacks and ramshackle factory worker watering holes. Greasy bar music, classic rock cover bands, hard guitar metal, crungy blues, the bip-bop of jazz in an old smokey nightclub. Hell, even the old lounge music you used to hear in hotel bars counts towards that. Think Murph and the Magictones from the Blues Brothers, inside a gaudy 1970’s Holiday Inn lounge off the interstate somewhere, neon sign blaring red and green outside. Maybe you yourself have partaken in the ritual being a part of the live music experience at show within a dive music venue like Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom (and I’m sure you all know a place in your own town just like it!), seeing a band you’ve never heard of just for the hell of it, and quaffing down a few frosty beers with your fellow Rust Belters in the process.

   The Beachland Ballroom; Cleveland, Ohio (Photo by Judie Vegh @cleveland.com)

Music is a HUGE part of what the Rust Belt is, and I got to thinking of what a list of tunes related to my conception of what living or exploring in a post-industrial city would be like. I started with a list of dozens and managed to whittle it down to ten that I felt encapsulated the essence of the Rust Belt. So many don’t like that term, and say it’s derogatory to our region, but as I’ve said many times before, I wear it like a badge of honor. We’ve been through a lot over the last fifty years or so; economic collapse and the disappearance of our industrial backbone, the destruction of local economies and dissolution of neighborhoods, a breakdown of our social environment, an exodus of families to sterile and uninspired suburbs, solid buildings and businesses being abandoned and left to scrappers, vandals, the elements and the viciousness of time itself. Rust Belt is a moniker of toughness and resourcefulness; of can-do survivalism. It’s who we are and our music is right there with us in claiming it.

So, I offer you song number one out of a top ten (with a song coming your way every week), with some history and some personal observations tossed in for good measure. The song itself is below the article; give it a listen and let me know your thoughts!

1. Big Head Todd and the Monsters - “Gary Indiana Blues” (Riviera, 2002)

“Dancing to the midnight moon, snowflake in my whiskey, too; hear a knock on the door and some screaming; the eviction man is in town…”

So much could be said about Gary, Indiana. Whole books could be written about it. Gary’s story contains an almost endless multitude of smaller stories; some of past glories, but most of present heartache and loss, and maybe a few of uncertain futures.

                          Desolation and desperation on the streets of Gary, Indiana.

The image in this song of homeless people sleeping in boxcars to stay out of the elements in the colder months is one that is acutely painful to think about, yet in Gary, this is ultimately possible as a scenario. Drinking to stay warm as a snowflake falls into your whiskey…I have witnessed this sort of destitution as a definable thing while in the city doing winter explores. Sometimes the alcohol is the only way to at least FEEL warmer, even if it's a trick to make your body think that’s the case. A brusque knock on a door in a tenement apartment building, screaming and yelling and swearing in desperation as the eviction cops show up and force someone to vacate their home after being served papers by their landlord/slumlord. Life in Gary for many (and for thousands in other Rust Belt cities) is wrought with the reality of losing one’s home because you can’t afford even the basics. The jobs and opportunities are thin on the ground, and the hope for a better future even thinner. This song, with its slow, bluesy roll and the evocative lyrics paint that picture. “Think of the sisters and brothers, they never learned the easy out…” It tells you that these people still keep fighting to survive against ever increasing odds and hardships while their city rots around them. They fight on, even though the odds against getting ahead are ever smaller. At least that’s my take on it all.

So, there you have it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the song, and on the ideas it evokes. Feel free to comment here if the mood so strikes you! If you dig this tune, I highly suggest you seek out Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ other albums (and listen to the rest of ‘Riviera,’ as it’s one of my favorite spins!). Enjoy the hell out of it and we’ll see you next week for song number two! -Mr. P.