Five for the Fourth

This is a Dave Alvin song from X's 1987 album See How We Are.  X went through a lot of changes around this time - Exene and John were splitting, Billy Zoom had left the band - and the tone of this song seemed to capture that sad feeling that something really great was gone.

Here's the original

I loved this band.  I first saw them at the Waterloo Folk Festival in Stanhope, New Jersey and was blown away.  They didn't take themselves too seriously and they had awesome harmonies. Check out Tom's Eddie Van Halen moves on the banjo! They broke up in 1994, way too soon, after the way too early death of one of their members (Bruce, the guitarist).

With the verse they never taught us in school!

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Going to the shore meant escaping from the parents, hitting the Boardwalk, smoking in public without getting busted by my mom, incredible pizza from Freddie's on Broadway in Asbury Park - last I checked it's still there so go check it out - and hitting massive traffic on the way home.  

Nobody does it better than Brother Ray.