Trains They Stop

Special Birthday Edition

Faux Damen und Herren,

This week I’m digging WAY WAY WAY into the past to bring a new track to the “Mixed Up Files.”

I recorded “Trains They Stop” in Germany on January 17, 1990 on a boombox that had a built in condenser mic on it.¹

It is not a great song or a great recording, but it is one of the first songs I ever committed to tape, and so falls into the “Mixed Up Files” rubrik.

Also, tomorrow, February 8, is my birthday!

And so I’ve dug back 33 years to my old journal, where I wrote about turning 21 and becoming “legal,” which you can listen to here if you wish:²

I did predict in 1990 (perhaps correctly) that universities were on their way to becoming “credit obsessed, money-crazed institutions.”

Faux Jean on his 21st Birthday with young, intelligent Michael, and a cake baked by Juliana.

a drawing from the journal, day after 21st birthday.

Here are the lyrics:

Lyrik written in journal.

Faux Jean, hippy, with his 12 string Terrada acoustic, Germany 1990.

I remain your humble servant,

OX&C,

Faux Jean

1. This damn thing is 33 years old!!? And it’s a little embarrassing, but “so la la,” as the Germans would say.

2. This is a lightly edited version of what I wrote on my 21st birthday, while sitting cross-legged for three hours. One might listen to this and think I’m a bit of a snob, and that’s okay.