Community Corner

Listening In: Made By Hand

We want to know what you're listening to. And we're willing to give you free stuff to find out.

Look, in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s just this week’s high-flying installment of Listening In. (Yes, I missed the chance to try out for the new Superman movie. Why do you ask?)

Listening In is sort of a weekly jukebox, where you get to pick the songs, and I give you free stuff just for playing. It’s easy. If you want a turn, simply email me with your name and hometown. I’ll pick one name a week, and if it’s your turn, you send me the names of five songs you’re listening to. I publish that list here, and you get free Patch gear. Simple!

This week, we welcome a man who takes his music very seriously. Jeff Weber runs Vulcan's Workshop in North Aurora, and makes custom guitars. That’s right – if you pay him, he will make you a guitar, by hand. That’s a pretty impressive skill. (Here is a recent feature on Jeff written by the folks at Backthird Audio in Aurora.)

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Here’s what Jeff is listening to, with my comments on each song.

1. “Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren),” by the Rolling Stones. This is one of the bonus tracks from the recent re-release of the Stones’ 1975 masterpiece Exile on Main Street. The instruments are 36 years old, the vocals recorded last year. Never been the biggest fan of this band, but even I can tell that their ‘60s and ‘70s stuff rocks like a house on fire.

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2. “I Can't See Your Face in My Mind,” by the Doors. I can tell already we’re going to be plumbing forgotten corners for Jeff’s selections. This is an overlooked gem from the Doors’ second album, Strange Days, released in 1967. With “People Are Strange” and “When the Music’s Over” on the same side of vinyl, it’s no wonder this has been left in the dust a bit, but it’s a good, spooky song. The vibes make it for me.

3. “It's all Over Now, Baby Blue,” by Bob Dylan. Well, it would be hard to call this one forgotten. It’s from Dylan’s fifth album, Bringing it All Back Home, and it sums up his early, folky style: his love-them-or-hate-them vocals, strummed acoustics, and poetic lyrics. I’ve never been Dylan’s biggest fan either, but I know why people love him. It’s songs like this.  

4. “Straight into Darkness,” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Does it make me a bad person that this is my favorite of Jeff’s choices so far? This tune is from 1982’s Long After Dark, and has been a live Heartbreakers staple since. I think this is one of Petty’s best songs, and the Heartbreakers, well, what’s left to say about them? Possibly the best band in America. Possibly.

5. “99 Luftballons,” by Nena. What a weird way to end. I first heard this song in 1984, when I was 10 years old. It was a radio staple, and I had no idea what it was about. In case you don’t either, it’s a protest song about children who release red balloons over the Berlin Wall, which triggers a military response and, eventually, nuclear war. Crazy, right? The original, linked here, was sung in German, although Nena later re-recorded it in English. Some people seem to think this is an ‘80s party anthem, but since I figured out what it’s saying, it’s always struck me as a little disturbing. What do you think?

Thanks to Jeff Weber. If you want to play Listening In, send me an email at andre.salles@patch.com. That’s it for this week. Be good to each other out there.


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