It was sometime in the early 1980’s.
I was in my late 20s and doing postgraduate work in the United States of America.
As luck has it, I was cohabitating with a woman. I do not want to comment on the merits of cohabitation before marriage here. Suffices to say that it was one of the wisest things I have ever done. And I will explain why later.
My good cousin “J” one day introduced me to the genius of Dan Hicks.
“I scare myself” became an obsession for me.
Before I continue, I must warn the reader (if there is any) of this that the text and the images and the songs and everything about it may appear to be totally incoherent and structureless.
This is one of the conditions of life that cannot be changed. So I take it for granted, as a given inevitability and continue. (You have been warned!)
But who is Dan Hicks?
In order to answer this question in a respectable way I will borrow from Wikipedia.
“Daniel Ivan Hicks (born December 9, 1941, in Little Rock, Arkansas), is an American singer-songwriter.
Hicks’ father, Ivan L. Hicks (married to the former Evelyn Kehl), was a career military man. At age five, an only child, Hicks moved with his family to California, eventually settling north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, where he was a drummer in grade school and played the snare drum in his school marching band.
At 14, he was performing with area dance bands. While in high school, he had a rotating spot on Time Out for Teens, a daily 15-minute local radio program, and he went on to study broadcasting at San Francisco State College during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Taking up the guitar in 1959, he became part of the San Francisco folk music scene, performing at local coffeehouses.”
And now I switch to another source, “Triviana Magazine”.
‘After earning his bit of fame and fortune in his early 20s, as a folkie in Bay Area coffee houses, singing and finger-picking in 1963, he joined the Charlatans as a drummer in 1965 — the Charlatans being the blues-rock band that a lot of people are now calling the beginning of what became the San Francisco rock scene.
But Hicks wasn’t content to sit behind the traps, so started his own band, doing an acoustic swing-folk kind of thing with just him on guitar, a bass player and two female singers. That eventually became Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and from 1968 through about 1973, they were, indeed, hot.
Dan Hicks has said about the song: “I was in love when I wrote this song…either that, or I’d just eaten a huge hash brownie.”‘
As I have already mentioned, I gor to know Dan Hicks because of the song “I scare myself”.
‘I Scare Myself’ and ‘It’s Not My Time to Go’… I think they’re two of the best songs ever written” – Elvis Costello
If Elvis Costello says so, we better listen!
The thing is though, I loved the song long before I Read what Elvis Costello said about it.
With hindsight, I can say that I loved the song because I was scared when I heard it.
I did not know what the hell I was going to do with the cohabitant.
I was receiving mixed signals and was perplexed.
Was she true love, or was she just a passer by?
She already had a failed marriage in her bag, I was a marriage free person at the time.
Life always twists things and gives the answers to the unsuspecting humans.
This is exactly what happened with my situation.
One day my cohabitant fell out of our love nest, then she came back in tears asking for re-admission.
But is there a jailed person who sees an open door in the jail complex and shies away from it?
I beg to say there is not!
And so my cohabitation ended in glory, but my love of the song remains to date.
And I continue ot be scared. Mostly for other reasons now.
The song was released with the album “Striking it Rich” (1972).
I scare myself
I scare myself
just thinking about you
I scare myself
when I’m without you
I scare myself
the moments that you’re gone
I scare myself
when I let my thoughts run
and when they’re runnin’
I keep thinking of you
and when they’re runnin’
what can I do?
I scare myself
and I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
it can get frightenin’
I scare myself
to think what I could do
I scare myself
it’s some kinda voodoo
and with that voodoo
I keep thinking of you
and with that voodoo
what can I do?
but it’s oh so, so, so different
when we’re together
and I’m oh so so much calmer, I feel better
for the stars have crossed our paths forever
and the sooner that you realize it, the better
then I’ll be with you
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll know what to do
and I won’t scare myself
and then I’ll think of you
and I won’t scare myself
and then my thoughts’ll run
and I won’t scare myself
then I’ll be with you
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll know what to do
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll think of you
and I won’t scare myself
and my thoughts will run
and I won’t scare myself…
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks live at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, Sunday, December 9th, 2007, Dan’s Birthday!
Original Recordings
Dan Hicks is a wise man.
He knows that love can hurt.
And so he sings that he does not want love, if love ….
This is a treatise on gastrolinguistics. In case you wonder what gastrolinguistics is, do not worry, you are not the only one.
Instead of giving an answer to the difficult question, I cope out and invite you to read what Dan Hicks says.
I don’t want love
“Hey, that’s pretty cool
Why don’tcha turn that up?”
Some folks say when you fall in love
You lose your appetite
If love makes you feel that way
Listen to what I say, dear
If love makes you give up steak and potatoes
(That’s what you eat?)
Rice, corn, chitlins, and tomatoes
If love makes you give up all those things
I don’t want love
If love makes you give up ham and greens
Chicken pot pie and lima beans
If love makes you give up all them things
(Don’t want it)
(Don’t want it)
I don’t want love
Ooo…
Well, I am here to say to you that
I love my bread and my meat
Take a look at me and it’s plain to see
That I’m a man
That loves to eat
So, if love makes you give up steak and tomatoes
Eggs over easy and hashbrown potatoes
If love makes you give up stuff like that
(Oh no)
Heh, I don’t want love
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
If love makes you give up corn-dogs and mustard
Cracker Jacks, tootie fruity custard
If love makes you give up onion rings
I don’t want love
(Don’t want it)
If love makes you give up pizza night
Garlic mashed potatoes, then it’s outta sight
If love makes you give up all those things
No no, not me
Well, my baby’s awful skinny
And she don’t like meat
And she can’t stand breakfast in bed
And as for me, well, where’s my seat?
‘Cause it’s time that I was fed
So if love makes you give up saute and pate
And foie gras
And stuff you have to flambé
If love makes you give up buffalo wings
I don’t want love
No, no
Not me
No sir
No siree
I, I, I, I, I don’t want love
Pass the sausage!
“I don’t want Love”
After this wonderful declaration lets watch an original 1970’s video for old times’ sake.
Dan Hicks and his hot licks in 1972
In closing, two more songs, one by Dan Hicks and another by Tom Waits.
Both wonderful.
Thank you Dan!
…and please,
“Pass the sausage!”
Dan Hicks & His Sidekicks – Canned Music
The Piano has been drinking – a Tom Waits Song
Sources
1. Triviana Magazine “Gettin’ in His Licks!”
2. Wikipedia