Quarantined

from the LP Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel, Kranky Records, 2008



So, if you hadn’t already gleaned this, I had myself an adventurous and, some might say, tumultuous adolescence; this took me all across our country, getting kicked out of schools, running away, jail, rehab, et al… The most difficult and surreal of those obstacles came in the form of a severe boot camp I was finally sent to as a last resort, where I was held for over 2 years in captivity, part of that time outside the country, by individuals who thought they had been put there by God to heal us naughty kids of our wicked ways. We weren’t allowed any contact with the outside world, no letters, no communication with your friends, no music, no TV…not even mentioning the above without facing severe punishments. I suffered through a mentally deranged & abusive housefather who prayed every night at dinner that God would let him be a martyr, and who beat us if he thought we were channeling the devil. There was never any light at the end of the tunnel, as they told us that our progress (as determined by them) would govern our departure date, and some kids had been there over 3 years, an eternity when you’re a teenager. That whole time, the songs I had stored in my memory, which I had once loved and danced to, served as my sanity and touchstone---so when I heard this track last year, you can imagine the magnitude of a wallop I felt, connecting to it, reeling backwards to a period in my life I don’t often think about anymore. Although this song was inspired by the story of AIDS orphans in Russia, the phrases hit awfully close to home for me, flooding my head with emotions that I'd sometimes rather forget…the strangest life I’ve ever known…