Cool! Did X ever do that one, he asked ignorantly? I know it from Dave Alvin's version.

Happy Birthday America!

Electrolite is officially boggled at this evident gap in Unqualified Offerings' knowledge of 1980s LA punk rock. Electrolite notes that "Fourth of July" was the one song by the quite brilliant X that came closest to being something one could call a "hit" (MTV video, etc). Electrolite bows to no one in its respect for Dave Alvin, a man who can bring Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi" back to life, but ballsy though Dave Alvin was in covering "Fourth of July," Electrolite knew X, Senator, and Dave Alvin is no X.

In fact, Electrolite is beginning to wonder if Unqualified Offerings is "having Electrolite on," as the "jive talk" of today's young "hipsters" would have it. Electrolite notes that it is beginning to talk like an Unqualified Offerings post. For once, Electrolite is relieved that its childlessness precludes talk of "Electrolite Boy." Electrolite had probably best go back to reading Clarion student manuscripts. Miles to go before Electrolite sleeps.

For what it's worth, I've never heard the X or the Dave Alvin version; I only know the song through Robert Earl Keen.

I did know that Henry Rollins was in Black Flag, though.

Is it correct to refer to Dave Alvin "covering" "Fourth of July" considering he wrote the song? I do, however, prefer X's more rockin' version of the song.

Electrolite would like to announce that Justin O'Connor is right, and that Electrolite is full of shit.

Dave Alvin did write "Fourth of July"! And another thing Electrolite didn't know is that Dave Alvin was briefly a member of X. Which did in fact record the song before Alvin did -- but it's Alvin's song.

Entry corrected to reflect this. Electrolite retreats from its evidently stupid comments directed at Unqualified Offerings. Electrolite is now going to retire to a dark room and be quiet for a while.

This may come as no news to the X buffs around here, but Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in Jackson's LOTR series) was at one time married to the delectable (if somewhat scary) Exene Cervenka.

I don't know if I ever saw the video for "Fourth of July", but the X cover of "Wild Thing" was in heavy rotation on Catch 22, an indy music video station in Anchorage back in the early 80s. They played a lot of LA punk (Suicidal Tendencies was another perennial) along with oddities like the German band Trio . Think of three Mike Myers "Dieter" characters singing bizarre lyrics in a heavily German-accented monotone.

Essentially, Catch 22 would play any tape that anyone sent them, and they got stuff from all over the world.

I sure miss that station.

Trio's best known song is "Da Da Da" (aka "I Don't Love You/You Don't Love Me"), which has shown up in some American car commericals. Great stuff. When I think of them, I am reminded of Yello and of how much good music there is in the past which I don't hear any more.

Patrick,

Welch & I were at a nice 4th/BBQ last night on Alvarado, with the beloved Mexican kids shooting fireworks below as we stood on the deck smoking cigarettes (but not alone). Matt reminded me that a decade ago, we fronted a little band playing the July 4 party to welcome our little newspaper to Bratislava, Slovakia. I believe we played that 4th of July song, heavy on the X version but with a bit more Dave Alvin twang because I don't have a choice, being southern and all. Don't remember the Slovaks' response. Don't remember our response. But it was fun, and then all the Prague people left, and I went back to my lonely office in the Pravda building on the Danube. And I slept on the 4-1/2-foot-long commie sofa, like every night.

4th of July is a great song, but one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time by anybody is Marie, Marie. I interviewed Alvin on this subject once and Marie, Marie is his favorite of his songs he wrote. If he could be remembered for only one song, that's the one he would pick.

NB: Shellac, a band with as much street cred as X (or the Ex, for that matter, and certainly much more than King's X), covered two Trio songs, neither of which was "Da Da Da" or (sadly) as wonderfully loopy as their cover of AC/DC's "Jailbreak".

PNH:Electrolite bows to no one in its respect for Dave Alvin.

Call.

I'm a huge fan of Dave Alvin, but I must admit that I still think X's version of "Fourth of July" is superior. In fact, I started the Fourth of July edition of my radio program with it. (Danger, shameless plug.)

On an unrelated note, I have to express my opinion that the author of Electrolite is one of the coolest human beings in the universe for subtitling his weblog with a line from Peter Blegvad's "King Strut".

Throughout the noisy orphanage, his name was widely sung ... Electrolite.

Howard -- You are a man of taste! "Marie, Marie" has been on my all-time great list ever since I was first introduced to the Blasters (by Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, if we're talking '80s LA rock cred); I wore that sucker out on vinyl, I called loudly for it when I saw them live, I played it at all my parties, and just thinking about it makes me happy as I sit in this office. Thanks for the memories.