Night Music: Richard Hell and the Voidoids, “Walking on the Water”

This is a fabulous song that is about religion and faith, and all the richer because the Ur punk Hell is covering the Ur hippie band Credence Clearwater Revival.

What you need to know? Catchy as heck. With meaning. And a great guitar solo.

This is another song I can remember hearing the first time, though there really isn’t a story attached. But in those days buying an album, almost always at a tiny story on Second Avenue just south of Eighth Street, on the west side of the street, was an act of faith. I was working lots of hours to pay for school, and actually closing the deal on some vinyl was a little like sacrament.

I don’t know that anyone listens to The Blank Generation album today with anything more than academic interest, which is probably right. I don’t recall thinking that this was music for the ages, but I do remember the intense pleasure that came from Love Comes in Spurts and Down at the Rock and Roll CLub and Walking on the Water. And really every cut on the album was, if not perfect, it represented the imagined perfection of the time.

And at that point we were getting close to the end of the time when any of us would think that one good thought might solve all of us.

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