My New Year's Message from Led Zeppelin
On New Year's Eve I was living and working on the Lady Washington which was docked (at that time) in Long Beach, CA.
Long Beach has a rather new tourist area called "Rainbow Harbor" - basically a shopping mall with a lighthouse. This lighthouse serves no official/safety purpose but its walls glow at night and change colour through the spectrum - red, pink, blue, green, purple... it is so ridiculous yet pretty neat at the same time...
Here is the Lady's bowsprit with the Rainbow Harbor lighthouse in the background. I watched New Year's fireworks out on the bowsprit in this Harbor...
The traditional tall ship sailor New Year's Eve party is the "P" party... where everyone goes dressed as something starting with the letter "P" (off limits are Pirate, Pimps, Prostitutes and Penises). We had the crews of the Tole Mour, the Hawaiian Chieftain, and the Lady Washington, lots of beer and champagne, and some very imaginative costumes. In attendance were: Pabst Man, the Phraggles, a Pixie, Pretty Pretty Princess, My Pretty Pony, a Penitent Priest, a Pederast, Pancho Villa, a Pistolero, a Pregnant lady, a Pregnant man, the Pickwick Papers, and a Proctologist (I cannot remember the rest but there were more). I went as a Polyp.
So, as the midnight hour approached, I found myself listening avidly to the wonderful Led Zeppelin songs blasting from the sound system of the Chieftain. I had a fellow music appreciator (the Proctologist... the Engineer from the Tole Mour, but a Captain in his own right). Both of us began to obsess about what Zeppelin song would be playing at midnight and what words Robert Plant would be singing. Okay, so we were rather trashed but it became very important to us. So we watched the clock and listened and debated about whether the song that was playing ("How Many More Times") would still be playing at midnight. As a matter of fact, had the CD not skipped, it would have been over... but it seemed as if something was holding it on that particular song. At midnight, we got our message:
Well they call me the hunter, that's my name
They call me the hunter, that's how I got my fame
Ain't no need to hide,
Ain't no need to run
'cause I've got you in the sights of my..........gun!
Still trying to figure out exactly what that means...
He also grabbed me for a kiss at midnight. So the combination of those words and the fact that I was kissing a sea captain (I am choosing to see him as a symbol of the Sea, not of sea captains) at midnight I believe sets my tone for the year. What tone is that?
Still working on the interpretation... but I needed to record it here so I won't forget!
Long Beach has a rather new tourist area called "Rainbow Harbor" - basically a shopping mall with a lighthouse. This lighthouse serves no official/safety purpose but its walls glow at night and change colour through the spectrum - red, pink, blue, green, purple... it is so ridiculous yet pretty neat at the same time...
Here is the Lady's bowsprit with the Rainbow Harbor lighthouse in the background. I watched New Year's fireworks out on the bowsprit in this Harbor...
The traditional tall ship sailor New Year's Eve party is the "P" party... where everyone goes dressed as something starting with the letter "P" (off limits are Pirate, Pimps, Prostitutes and Penises). We had the crews of the Tole Mour, the Hawaiian Chieftain, and the Lady Washington, lots of beer and champagne, and some very imaginative costumes. In attendance were: Pabst Man, the Phraggles, a Pixie, Pretty Pretty Princess, My Pretty Pony, a Penitent Priest, a Pederast, Pancho Villa, a Pistolero, a Pregnant lady, a Pregnant man, the Pickwick Papers, and a Proctologist (I cannot remember the rest but there were more). I went as a Polyp.
So, as the midnight hour approached, I found myself listening avidly to the wonderful Led Zeppelin songs blasting from the sound system of the Chieftain. I had a fellow music appreciator (the Proctologist... the Engineer from the Tole Mour, but a Captain in his own right). Both of us began to obsess about what Zeppelin song would be playing at midnight and what words Robert Plant would be singing. Okay, so we were rather trashed but it became very important to us. So we watched the clock and listened and debated about whether the song that was playing ("How Many More Times") would still be playing at midnight. As a matter of fact, had the CD not skipped, it would have been over... but it seemed as if something was holding it on that particular song. At midnight, we got our message:
Well they call me the hunter, that's my name
They call me the hunter, that's how I got my fame
Ain't no need to hide,
Ain't no need to run
'cause I've got you in the sights of my..........gun!
Still trying to figure out exactly what that means...
He also grabbed me for a kiss at midnight. So the combination of those words and the fact that I was kissing a sea captain (I am choosing to see him as a symbol of the Sea, not of sea captains) at midnight I believe sets my tone for the year. What tone is that?
Still working on the interpretation... but I needed to record it here so I won't forget!