February 3, 2017
Paradise Café. I can just imagine twenty authors scrambling to use that title, but hey. It’s been used - by a rock band called the Arc Angels.
Back in 1992, the Arc Angels were four guys from Texas, two of which played with Stevie Ray Vaughan. That was why I gave them a listen. Then I saw them live at The Bayou in Georgetown. I loved The Bayou, but those days are now a lifetime ago. Anyway, to this day Paradise Café remains on my playlist. Great song, especially when one is cruising down the Interstate on a sunny day.
Paradise Café was written by Charlie Sexton, and in light of recent events, seems to be equally relevant in 2017 as it was in 1992. That's one of the benchmarks of a great song.
I grew up in the lower middle class, financially speaking, and I’m still there if you believe the information found on the Internet. The good news is I’m rich in ways that matter more than money. I have everything I need, and a lot of what I want but in non-material ways, I’m fucking loaded, baby. I got people. I got land. I got a good dog. But I’m digressing…
The news last night showed riots on the Berkeley campus in California. Again. What the hell is wrong with those kids? What the hell is wrong at Berkeley that this sort of thing has been happening there for decades?
I don’t have to imagine what would have happened to me if I had done something like that in my youth. I wouldn’t have people, at least not decent people, in my life. My lower middle-class family would have kicked my ass in a decidedly unfortunate-for-me direction.
All of this is, of course, my segue to my point.
I watched the images on the television screen and the words to Paradise Café were in my mind. I don’t understand how young people who are afforded the opportunity to go to college can waste the experience, nor do I understand why a college or university would facilitate, even approve, of such waste.
Everything is not rosy. Those “drunken” college students will be at the wheel one day soon. It’s a terrifying thought.
KC Kendricks
Paradise Café
Well now everything is rosy and the money's so well spent
This kind of education is worth every cent
When your momma pays the tuition and your daddy pays the rent
You could learn a lot in college although you never went
Now you ain't that funny and you ain't that smart
But you become a model student when you step up to the bar
They're drinking their life away at the paradise café
Talking with nothing to say at the paradise café
Daddy's money spends real good and he's spent a lot today
At the paradise café
The neon pink flamingo shines down on one and all
Lights up the drunken schoolgirl as she bounces off the wall
To the slurred shouts of college boys who'll soon be at the wheel
It's an awful lot to deal with just to get a decent meal
Now you ain't that funny and you ain't that smart
But you become a model student when you step up to the bar
They're drinking their life away at the paradise café
Talking with nothing to say at the paradise café
Daddy's money spends real good and he's spent a lot today
At the paradise café
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