We pulled Personal Effects songs from our vinyl releases and put a compilation cd together for the Scorgies reunion. This song from 1987’s “90 Day In The Planetarium” didn’t make the grade but I’m posting it here because it is full of what is now ancient local history. And it is also one of the few songs I sang or yelled. Here’s the lyrics. I’ll provide annotation below.
Personal Effects “Silver Finger Nails” from “90 Day In The Planetarium” 1987
It’s Saturday night
and I’m the designated driver again
but that’s alright
I promised I would be goodNino’s Pizzeria or Vic & Irv’s
50 miles an hour through the Can of Worms
Uncle Sam or Tammy Whynot
First we gotta go to MoneymaticDown to Bertha’s to pick up a six
Everybody’s going to the party at Dick’s
Steve is such an intellectual
Come on Steve, get in the poolThat’s Bart on the radio
MX-80 Sound from San Francisco
590 North dead-ends at Marge’s
When in doubt. Whip it out.The girl in the bakery has silver finger nails
So Much. Tom Mercer Lives.
The girl in the bakery has silver finger nails
Bob loved Sara. Sara nevr did
Ninos’s and Vic & Irv’s are still around and the best in their class. The Expressway’s Can of Worms was reworked so driving 50 mph through it is no longer a thrill. Uncle Sam was Rochester’s best hard rock band and Tammy Whynot was Deb Clifford’s C&W outfit. They used to play Snake Sisters on South Avenue where Lux is today.
Bertha’s was around the corner on East Main from where we rehearsed. Bertha carried “Kiss” and “Darling” photo novellas and I remember buying “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” there but mostly she sold beer to the locals. The way over-sized Bertha was simultaneously chatty with her customers and abusive to her help. The party at Dick’s was a summer one at Dick Storms’. Everyone was in the pool but Steve Dollar, the entertainment critic from the D&C.
Bart was our favorite WITR dj because he wasn’t afraid to play MX80 Sound. 590 North will soon no longer be an expressway the comes to a dead end. They are tearing it up and adding four traffic circles. Calabrese’s Bakery on Culver is gone but not the memory of the punky girl packing my order with silver finger nails.
“So Much” was favorite piece of poetry. It was spray painted on a wall in the Can of Worms. “Tom Mercer Lives” was written all over town. I think Ted Williams knew Tom or tracked him down. And “Bob loved Sara” with “nevr” spelled like this was sprawled across one of the expressway bridges as you headed downtown nearby where Armand Shaubroak’s “Keep America Free. Let it Grow” billboard was.
3 Comments
I remember something from one of those Planetarium shows: I called your house that day and Peggi answered – I think I was asking her something about getting tickets. Then that night you did this song, or some variation of it, and in the middle I distinctly remember you shouting “BOB MAHONEY CALLED TODAY! All this while I sat in those great reclining chairs and shadows whipped around the dome from a light on the end of a cord that you were spinning overhead, ala Roger Daltry with his mic cord.
I also remember Steve Dollar singing “From a Buick 6” at one of Chuck’s the Dylan bash nights at that very Snake Sisters Cafe (or whatever it was called at the time).
My brother now owns that house with the pool and I seem to remember we finally got steve into the water fully clothed by yelling ‘get in the pool’ collectively…