Pete Townshend's Ghost
(2009)

My name is Jimmy and I'm 17. My uncle told me one time that my Mom named me after the "Jimmy" from the Who's Quadrophenia record, but my uncle hasn't drawn a sober breath since the day before Woodstock, so I wouldn't bet my life on the story. My Mom spends most of her time slobbering over TV preachers so I don't have the heart to ask her if she was ever a fucking Townshend fan. Fire might shoot out through her eyeballs at me or something. It'd just be more shit I do not need. And Dad, well, getting a few grunts out of him is like a Shakespearean monologue. Best to let sleeping dogs lie eh? I just make sure he's always got a full glass and he pretty much treats me like a ghost he can't talk himself into believing in. Fine by me.

I learned to sing and play without falling over, and then I realized that pretending to be somebody else made me sound like a fraud. So I started writing my own songs. Plus I thought being the forever tortured soul might get me some girls (as Keith Richards was aksed, "Why 'Some Girls'?" His reply? "Because we couldn't remember their names." Ha.). But the day this one fat chick told me I sounded like Kenny fucking Loggins was the day I almost decided that following Dad into the factory might not be such a bad idea after all. That bitch nearly ruined me. Next time I saw her I was drunk and I ripped into the strings so hard that blood started splashing all over the guitar, and she never mentioned Kenny Loggins again. It might have been that day I decided that teens were born when "My Generation" was written, and have been stuttering like mad fucks ever since. Or maybe it's all the pills that make me stutter. I'll take anything really, just to feel something other than the way I usually feel. I know one guy who took this to extremes and died, but I think he started dying the day he was born. Some kids are like that and if you get in the way they'll take you down too.

I didn't need anybody. Just me and my girl. The best for last. I'd be Pete Townshend or Billy Joe (he stole "Jimmy" too) for everybody else. For her, I'd just be me. But you know how this ends. She pissed off with some football player in a flash car. No different from the rest. Maybe none of us are. I knew it was coming. When you're 17 you can see the future....which is why we don't want to grow up. But then again, being 17 sucks, so I want out of here too. Pick your poison, see?

So this is my generation. You can fucking have it. I feel old already, and I'm too scared to die. 

I ain't no  rock star either, in case you're wondering. But I cut and bleed, and in my experience that's always worth giving a listen to.

Alright, enough of this. In a bit.