Episode 15: We May Be the Ones by Paul Westerberg with D.L. Nailling
9/5/2024 | 37m
Welcome back, Dear Listeners, as we revel in the gritty nostalgia of Paul Westerberg’s “We May Be the Ones” with musician and 6th grade social studies teacher D.L. Nailing. You can practically feel the death trap playgrounds of the 1980s as we discuss the specificity and yet universality of the people in the lyrics, the power of a pocketknife, the intense calm of dissociating, and just a touch of David Lee Roth.
This Episode's Guest
D.L. Nailling is a 6th grade social studies teacher. He enjoys futilely attempting to play the pedal steel guitar. He lives in Maple Valley, Washington with his longtime girlfriend and their two dogs.
Amy's Show Notes
What Amy is reading - Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/everyone-on-this-train-is-a-suspect-9780143779940
What Kate is reading - Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/everyone-in-my-family-has-killed-someone-9781761048845
Meet this week’s guest, D.L. Nailling: D.L. Nailling is a 6th grade social studies teacher. He enjoys futilely attempting to play the pedal steel guitar. He lives in Maple Valley, Washington with his longtime girlfriend and their two dogs.
Incorporated in 1997, Maple Valley, Washington is located about 27 miles outside of Seattle. Classified as a mediterranean or maritime climate under the Köppen system, the mean daily maximum temperature for the year is 60.1°F and the minimum is 40.8°F. Average precipitation is 59.68” yearly, with an average of 185 days with rainfall a year.
Paul Harold Westerberg was born December 31, 1959 in Minneapolis, MN. A musician, he is known for first being the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for The Replacements as well as his solo work. Apparently, while working as a janitor for U.S. Senator David Durenberger (R, MN though he later changed to the Democratic party), he heard a band practicing from a basement on his walk home. He eventually talked his way into the band by convincing the previous lead singer that he was about to be fired anyhow. so the singer should just quit. He did, and Westerberg was in the band! After the band broke up in 1991, he went on to a fruitful solo career, releasing 10 studio albums as himself, and through his alter ego Grandpaboy.
The Replacements were initially known as Dogbreath, then the Impediments before ultimately settling on The Replacements. They were first a cover band, then a punk band, then a “pioneering” alternative music band. The formed in 1979, gained prominence throughout the 1980s amidst a changing line up, ultimately breaking up in 1991. They reunited in 2012, disassembling once more in 2015. They released seven studio albums, four live albums, and eight compilation albums. The Replacements were critically respected and developed a devoted following.
We May Be the Ones appears on Stereo, the fourth solo album by Paul Westerberg, released in 2002.
We May Be the Ones full lyrics: https://33805ff3-9040-4466-a231-b60f37348376.usrfiles.com/ugd/33805f_ec0d3515024b4b4591117f99a296def6.pdf
AOL Instant Messenger (or AIM, to some) was one of the first chat features available to a mainstream audience, popular during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Watch Paul Westerberg perform NBC’s Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2002: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jUiZp8veS0
Banana seats are an elongated bicycle saddle that tapers toward the front and has a gentle upward curve at the back. Introduced with the Wheelie bike in 1963, they allow for the rider to choose where they sit, accommodating the performance of said wheelies, and can also fit another rider. They are not, however, known for their comfort. You can read more in Robot’s Useless Reviews – The Banana Seat by Emlyn Lewis: https://cyclingindependent.com/robots-useless-reviews-the-banana-seat/
Pocket knives are those with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They can also be known as jackknives, folding knives, every-day-carry knives, and pen knives (though pen knives can have their own specifications, so in GRE terms, all pen knives are pocket knives, but not all pocket knives are pen knives). They date back to the Iron Age, which makes sense because that’s when metal blades came about, at least 600–500 BCE.
Pockets date back much further than knives, with the oldest found (to date) belonging to a mummified man found frozen in the Alps thought to have lived around 3,300 BCE.
“Many candles” was a whole aesthetic in the 90s - not saying it hasn’t been at other times too, but it definitely was then. MTV’s Unplugged probably gives a good representation (and maybe fed into the set design for the Conan performance).
Nirvana in 1994: https://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/18900000/Nirvana-MTV-Unplugged-in-NY-Concert-nirvana-18959971-1067-800.jpg
Alice in Chains in 1996: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKL0bRiXQAEATuX.jpg
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), between 2018 and 2022 candles were responsible for “4% of reported home fires, 3% of home fire deaths, 6% of home fire injuries, and 4% of the direct property damage in home fires”.
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) - the reference book maintained by the American Psychiatric Association to diagnose mental disorders) defines dissociation as “a disruption, interruption, and/or discontinuity of the normal, subjective integration of behavior, memory, identity, consciousness, emotion, perception, body representation, and motor control”. In more digestible terms, it is a coping mechanism for stress or trauma, a “mental process where a person disconnects from their thoughts, feelings, memories or sense of identity.”
"Bastards of Young" is a song on The Replacements’ fourth studio album Tim (1985) written by Paul Westerberg.
Watch the music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl9KQ1Mub6Q
The US was involved with 32 wars in the 20th century, both foreign and domestic.
Rudders are the primary method of steering a craft - boat, plane, hovercraft, submarine, really, many more that I had realized!
A bridge in a song is exactly that - a section of music that ties together the other (often repeating) sections in the song. Transitional in nature, is often heightens the tension in the song, or can provide a different perspective before ultimately leading back to a repeated section. A common song structure using a bridge could look like: Intro-{Verse-Pre-Chorus-Chorus}{Verse-Pre-Chorus-Chorus}-Bridge-{Chorus}
Ramshackle is a derivative of the now obsolete work ransackled, a form of ransack.
John Mulaney lived like a Ninja Turtle in college: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3KDOc93Mn4
PS: Your friends don’t hate you and you do need to go to sleep
A simple guitar Weedly Woo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr5isFIY4Lc
Testify is a monthly storytelling show, now in its 11th year: https://www.testifyatx.com/
CDs, or compact disks, were a common form of listening to music pre-streaming. The first commercial Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), a recording of Chopin’s waltzes, was released in 1982 (MUCH earlier than we had realized!). CDs didn’t become the dominant audio format until the 1990s. CD sales peaked in 2000, and then began to decline, down by 50% by 2010. That was, however, the final year for any car model to come with a tape cassette player, now only offering CD players.
Stereo came out on vinyl on November 29th, 2019 during Record Store Day’s Black Friday. It was part of a dual LP Stereo/Mono, Mono being a 2002 album credited to Westerberg’s alter ego Grandpaboy.
Located near Houston’s historic Montrose neighborhood, Cactus Music is the city’s oldest independent bookstore, opening in 1975 as one of the first music supser stores in the country. https://www.cactusmusictx.com/
Considered a subgenre, grindcore is a fusion of heavy / extreme metal and hardcore punk. Originating in England, Napalm Death is credited with defining the sound. Other notable bands include Brutal Truth, Nasum, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Extreme Noise Terror, Brujeria, Soilent Green, Cephalic Carnage, and Impetigo.
Tex Ramone has been in thousands of bands you have never heard of, and has performed in front of literally dozens of people: https://soundcloud.com/texramone
David Lee Roth, sometimes known as “Diamond Dave,” is most known for his work as the lead singer of Van Halen.
So I haven’t yet found The David Lee Roth Quote of the Week podcast, in the meantime enjoy this forum of “Rothism of the day (or any day)”: https://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/archive/index.php/t-17009.html
MTV's 'Lost Weekend With Van Halen' Contest: https://www.vulture.com/article/van-halen-lost-weekend-mtv-history.html
Request a recommendation on a selection of writing picked by Kate and Amy just for you: https://www.findinggoodbones.com/contact
Join Drew Allen and Anne Hurst in supporting the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/FindingGoodBones