Eating lady fingers at Donner Lake
Bobbing up and down around the jet skis' wake
Counting all the kayaks and the S.U.V.s
On a summer afternoon that's as pretty as you please
Thinking bout the winter hundred fifty years ago
When the Donner Party ran into
some twenty feet of snow
Eighty-nine set up the camp
but less than half survived
And they had to eat their families just to stay alive
And I’ll sink down with you until
We both drown or drink our fill
We could die from feeling great
And forever lie by Donner Lake
Still snow on the summit, but winter's far away
It's hard to conjure cold so grim on such a perfect day
You can look at folks in swimsuits,
and wonder how they'd taste
Nibble on your lover's ear then whisper,
"What a place"
There are times when you imagine
that your life's a big mistake
And times you feel as fine as you did on Donner Lake
You can tally all the times in two columns on a chart
Or just go find someone to whom
you'd gladly feed your heart
One hundred years from now
you and I will both be dead
And our children's children's children
will be frolicking in bed
If they should carry memories of anything we've done
Let them be of days on Donner Lake
beneath a blazing sun
It's the essence of TMJ to follow up a smart song about the need to forge new memories with a killer that grooves on everything great and awful about the 1970s. Brash, confident, and deeply pleasurable -- and its vibe is punctured by the new old b-side's warning "living backwards in time/losing your mind." As always, TMJ has it all ways, beautifully. Alan S