Annabelle Lee | Cutlass Supreme | South Of The Border Jonny Foo: Ninja Chiropractor | Devil's Slide | Consuela's Revenge Moon Over Marin | The Saracen Gift | Rt. 666 | Apache '99

Annabelle Lee by Edgar Allen Poe It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know, By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought, Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love-I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven, Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling, My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre, In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love          Of those who were older than we-          Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in heaven above,          Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul          Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,          In the sepulchre there by the sea,          In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Cutlass Supreme Our song "Cutlass Supreme" was written and arranged to evoke the feelings of watching the classic splatter filled driver's education films of High School- "Red Asphalt" or "Terror on Highway 8". Moralistic tales about the horrors of drinking and driving. For anybody raised on "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Night of the Living Dead", these films were laughably bad and just made me want to steal the car more often. The song moves through a series of '70s inspired musical themes: a bass-line reminiscent of the Dixie Dregs' "Cruise Control", funky wah-wah stolen from the "Theme from S.W.A.T.", and a melody line from Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold". So many car songs are written about unobtainably expensive hot-rods: "409", "Jaguar XKE", "Little Duece Coupe", but whoever writes about the cars that kids really drive? The cars they borrow from their moms and punch a hole in the muffler to sound bad-ass. Personally, I drove a '78 AMC Pacer. I even put a 4-bbl carb on that dog. What a waste, and "Pacer" would be a terrible song title. So, this song is named for my friends' mom's car, a Cutlass. But this just wasn't any ordinary Cutlass, this was a Cutlass Supreme! And I am not talking about the cherry convertible muscle car of the early '70s, I am talking about the square sided, air-conditioned, white with red and blue pinstripe Bi-Centennial edition two door Brougham coupe that we would spin donuts, go to concerts and trash lawns in. Ah to be young and stupid... for more on "Cutlass Supreme" see "Cutlass Supreme: Bitchin Ride or Occult Conspiracy?"

South Of The Border Jono had been dieing to play this song for years, and we finally had an excuse to work it up when Wildebeest Records asked us to be on their Herb Alpert tribute CD, "Surfin Senorita". This version differs from the compilation version in that we have added a horn section courtesy of the band HERB. We gave the song a samba beat, and when we play it live, it often turns into rhythm fest inciting the audience to form conga lines.

Jonny Foo: Ninja Chiropractor Here is the true story of the song... A friend of ours, who has to remain nameless due to a legal settlement, was at San Francisco International Airport waiting for a flight to Hong Kong, where he was consulting on a 6 million dollar networking contract. His plane was delayed several hours, and he passed the time in the airport bar, drinking. Well, the flight ended up being delayed more than 8 hours, and he got pretty sauced. When the boarding call came, he demanded an upgrade, but somehow got reclassified as baggage and was stuffed into one of those plastic trays that airlines usually use for garment bags. When he arrived in Hong Kong, he couldn't remember anything about the flight, and couldn't explain the claim check stapled to his jacket. Needless to say, after spending 18 hours in a coat bag tray, he was walking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and his hangover left him as groggy as a punch drunk fighter. Unshaved, disheveled and in great pain, he ambled aimlessly about the streets of Hong Kong. As he wandered down an abandoned alley sometime after midnight, he became aware of movement in the shadows around him. At first he was sure that it was stray cats, or street people rolling over in their sleep. Suddenly and without sound, a man dropped from the fire escape above him, gripped him around his neck and shoved another arm stiffly into his lower spine. In broken English, the black clad warrior said that he noticed slippage in the disc between the number 3 and 4 lower lumbar. Our friend, fearing for his life, broke into a cold sweat and almost wet his pants. Again, without warning and with extreme prejudice, our friend felt his spine pulled, stretched and straightened. Each individual vertebrae from his coccyx all the way up to his neck cracked like a ratchet. A euphoria came over our friend, like a deep spiritual awakening, with visions of health and prosperity for all his family, and generations of progeny. As he stood erect and finally opened his eyes after the seemingly hours long astral dream, he turned to thank the mysterious doctor for his work. But alas, as the smell of breakfast rice cooking in the street merchants woks pervaded his senses, he stood alone, watching the dawn sun rise at the end of the alley way, somewhere in Hong Kong. Reaching his hand into his pocket for a breath mint, he found a card, one side printed with a row of unintelligible Chinese characters, the other side carried a simple introduction: "Jonny Foo: Ninja Chiropractor."

Devil's Slide Devil's Slide is a barely accessible nude beach about 10 miles south of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean. It is a small crescent of a beach, protected and secluded by shear 200 ft. cliff that falls from the edge of RT. 1 all the way down to the beach. There is no nearby parking so revelers must hitchhike to the spot, and then climb down the steep descent.

Consuela's Revenge Consuela's husband was a brutal man. He kept her trapped in their apartment while he ran around town , drinking and womanizing. Night after night he came home stinking of perfumes and boos, demanding sex from Consuela, as well as meals, cleaning and other drudgeries of life. Consuela is portrayed by the sweet melody guitar, and her husband appears in counterpoint as the trumpet. In the first verse we meet Consuela working in the house, with a bittersweet memory of her husband ruminating in her mind. In the second verse, the husband comes home. Consuela, who is at the end of her wits, demands to know where he has been. He replies, full of braggadocio. As the bridge enters, the guitar and trumpet entangle, and Consuela eventually stabs her husband 37 times with a kitchen knife. For a brief moment, there is unison in the parts as Consuela realizes her life will end too, as the "Battered Wife" defense will be inadmissible in court.

Moon Over Marin Jono brought this song to the band. The last song on the Dead Kennedys' "Plastic Surgery Disasters", it is curiously melodic. The lyric describes the rich folk in Marin County California ignoring the disasters around them. Pollo Del Mar has played several shows with the band Jumbo Shrimp, whose members include East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. We have loved playing the song while they were in the audience, and have talked to them about the song. East Bay Ray told me that he wrote "Moon Over Marin" in High School, and the song sat around for years until it gained a new life with the DKs in the early '80s. When the DKs finished the song, it was quite different from most of their other material, because of its great melody. Ray says that the record company was very eager to release the song as a single, perhaps benefitting the DKs with some non-college radio/mainstream airplay. Jello Biafra vetoed this plan as he did not want to be known for a song so different from the rest of their work.

The Saracen Gift From the legends of the great Holy Wars around 1200 AD, the King of England sent his best trained Knights to the Holy Land to retake the Temple Of Soloman from the infidel. They were known as the Knights Templar, or Knights of the Temple. When the knights arrived in the Holy Land, they befriended their Arab counter parts, who they were originally sent there to defeat. The Arab warriors, known as The Saracens, were well versed in occult mysticism and they taught the Knights Templar their secrets. When the Knights Templar returned to Europe, they were branded as heretics and run underground. (This is fascinating stuff... do some research on it yourself). If you listen to our song, you may detect a familiar melody from a song that describes the gifts given to Jesus at his birth. As an allegory, the story of the gifts given by the Three Kings and the Little Drummer Boy were perhaps the same "gifts" given by the Saracens to the Knights Templar.

RT. 666 This song was originally written in 1987 as the theme song for Ed Favara's "Radio Vision" Tampa FL cable access show. The original version of the song was just over a minute long. Pollo Del Mar has played this song since our inception, and greatly expanded it over time as a noisy rhythm'n'feedback jam.

Apache '99 The original version of Apache is a touchstone in instrumental and surf music. We have played this song since we started in 1993. It has been covered, and covered well, by just about every surf band in existence. The original itself has a fantastic analog sound with lots of echo. So why bother covering it? As far as I know, the guy, who wrote the songs, only experienced Native Americans by watching western serials on TV. The beat is the kind of warpath rhythm that you here fans chanting at Atlanta Braves games. We decided to slow the tempo way down, and give the song a dreamy, meditative sweat lodge feeling, designed to induce the elders to appear.   Return to The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea page Return to the Pollo Del Mar Homepage