A POET IN THE NIGHT...

To this day, I still believe that Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy is the greatest album ever recorded. The now-defunct San Francisco (more specifically, Mission) three piece truly changed my life in 1994 when a friend gave me a cassette with this album on it. But it wasn't just the music, it was Blake Schwarzenbach's ability to tell a painfully personal and emotional story. In my head, I always pictured him writing the lyrics while sitting on a fire escape with a beer and a smoke, most likely after breaking up with a girl. It forced me to do a lot of thinking, reading, writing and soul-searching... even at the age of 17. Schwarzenbach is the greatest lyricist (or poet) since Bob Dylan. To learn more about Jawbreaker, check out this brief overview. Enjoy.

"I rode down to the tracks.
Thinking they might sing to me.
But they just stared back.
Broken, trainless and black as night.
Climbed out onto my roof.
So I'd be a poet in the night."