Emotions, Books, Outlooks On Life

Sonic Youth “Skip Tracer”

“Skip Tracer” starts off as a story about watching a band – specifically Mecca Normal, if you’re into trivia – but ends with a sequence in which the song slows down for a moment of fragility before zooming off into the future. It’s very sci-fi; it sounds like travel, and the song seems to burn out upon reaching its apparent destination. Right before that moment of disintegration, Lee Ranaldo shouts out: “HELLO 2015! HELLO 2015!” It was 20 years in the future from the moment the album came out. I’ve known this song for 20 years, and even up until pretty recently, it always sounded like the far future to me. But here we are, on the edge of 2015. This song about the future is about to become a song entirely set in the past.

Lee makes 2015 sound like a good place, maybe. He sounds nervous and thrilled when he shouts it out, and the moments leading up to it feel like a sci-fi prayer leading into a moment of acceptance: “Borrowed and never returned: emotions, books, outlooks on life.” I’ve always loved this song in part because I’ve always had the conviction that the future was always going to be a better place than right now. Maybe part of the reason I’ve connected with the “HELLO 2015” section is because I wish I could just zoom off into the future, to speed ahead to some place in time that’s more exciting and advanced than where I am at the moment. I know a lot of people are scared of the future, but I can’t relate to that feeling at all. Twenty years ago, I wanted to shout “HELLO 2015,” and as the calendar turns to the actual 2015, I just think, “HELLO 2035! HELLO 2055! HELLO 2075!”

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