I have been mildy obsessed with Ricky Nelson of late, because of how sweet/gentle/innocous his voice and reputation is (cf Ozzie and Harriet) . There is the strangely passive agressive Garden Party, one of the nastiest fuck you I used to be famous songs of course, but even better is a song called Last Kiss. Unlike most other teenage death/car crash songs, this one has much more detail. Fantastic and grisly detai. In a voice that sounds like milk and cookies--the best lines:we were out on a date in my daddys car/we hadnt driven very far/there in road, straight ahead/the car was stalled/so I swerved to the right/so i will never forget the sound that night/the grinding tires/the busting glass/that i heard last" There are also the lines about his babys warm blood, and how "shes gone to heaven, so ive got to be good/so I can see my baby/when I leave this world"--it actually is more melodramatic then that, almost more melodramatic then any of the girl groups.

it seems such a cliche, but has anyone written about the death impulse in these songs, the realtion between fucking and dying, in the cultural atmosphere before rock and roll, or in the safer edges of rock and roll?

(Sidenote: has anyone worked the dates b/w the golden age of the gore/exploitation dead teen in car song, and the golden age of the gore/exploitaiton dead teen in driver's ed film--are their any over lap?)

(sidenote ii: has warhol seen these?)