Thursday, December 11, 2014

Smack My Bitch Up by Prodigy

A bus full of less than sober Cal Bandsmen are heading down I5 in the fall of 1998.  We were on our way to the Cal - U$C game in Los Angeles and it was a memory making kind of trip.  The Cal Band Basses, for this was the Basses bus, had outdone themselves.  As we boarded the bus early in the morning, dressed in our finest Hawaiian shirts, we all got lei'd.  I think there were even boarding passes. The bus was decorated and our spirits were high.  I had a 2 liter bottle of Calimotxo, the decidedly disgusting (but easy to guzzle, which was likely the reason for its popularity) combination of red wine and Coca Cola that I had grown to love during my year in Spain.  Everyone had their preferred libation or snack food and needless to say, we were all sound asleep by Bakersfield.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.  The trip was a moving party, everyone up and dancing in the aisles, talking, laughing.  Of course my very best friends from the band were also on this bus (there were 4 buses that traveled to LA: the Study Bus, 2 "normal" busses, and the Basses bus). At one point, Jon P. props up the boombox and out comes the sound of something I had never heard before.  I had missed out on a year of American pop culture, but during that time, Prodigy's Fat of the Land had seemingly become somewhat of an anthem in the Band, at least among the Basses (Diesel Power!).  In fact, it turned out I was familiar with some of the songs, ahead of the curve even, as some of them were popular in Europe over a year prior to this trip and I had heard them there. However, Smack My Bitch Up was not one of those songs.  As soon as the opening beat kicked in, I was already hooked.  Then Kat R started singing along,  I saw Jon P bobbing his head to the beat.  What a ride. There were jokes, stories, traditions, legends, most of which I no longer remember.  What I do remember is having a blast, relishing my last LA trip as a Cal Bandsman.

1 comment:

  1. Greg Kato · Friends with Jonathan Pangburn and 17 others
    The Hawaii basses bus was infinitely better than the Tijuana basses bus in 97. I had an Elvis wig on, that's all I remember.
    December 11, 2014 at 1:34pm
    Karen Porto Hamilton I remember this well--insanity and Basses mayhem all the way to Buttonwillow! I wouldn't have had it any other way!
    December 11, 2014 at 1:56pm ·
    Jose Duran · 27 mutual friends
    I remember a coconut bra, the basses cage and our lack of common sense
    December 11, 2014 at 2:20pm
    Katherine Robison That was an epic LA trip! And how apropos to post on a Throwback Thursday.

    ReplyDelete