This Song! "Chapter Eight" by The OffRamps (and the 50th Anniversary of JAWS!)

In the late 1970’s, the era of the summer blockbusters was in full swing, thanks in large part to JAWS, celebrating the 50th anniversary of its original release in 1975 this summer. The movie was Steven Spielberg’s breakout hit and changed everything. People flocked to the theatre and away from beaches. Sharks were killed en masse for sport out of a new, unfounded fear. You can’t escape it today; the merchandising and AI takes on scenes and artwork are borderline nauseating. But it’s a near-perfect movie that checks all the boxes and hit at just the right time.

In 1979 there was no internet, no AI-generated little kids lip-synching the iconic USS Indianapolis story scene, no Jaws-themed Crocs, no Comic-Con lines for the actor who played little Alex Kintner signing autographed photos of his character’s ripped flesh flying into the air above his yellow air mattress. By the time JAWS hit HBO for the first time, we were all in, my friends and I. When the movie wasn’t enough, we grabbed Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel off of our parents’ bookshelf, and somewhere along the way, we learned about Chapter Eight.

You see, in the book, but not in the movie, Matt Hooper (the Richard Dreyfuss character) and Ellen Brody (played by Lorraine Gary, the wife of the story’s protagonist chief of police) relent to an insatiable sexual attraction and have an affair in a seaside motel room after a lunch date, just before the Orca headed out after the shark. Benchley narrates the encounter with the same detail and emotion he does with the shark attacks, providing these ten-year olds in northern Michigan with the next step-up from the Sear’s catalog and retro-Playboy’s found in our classmate’s stepdad’s work-bench drawer.

Fast-forward to the early/mid-00s; I was a 30-something songwriter from Detroit emerging from the PTSD of playing & touring in a struggling and often-feuding punk band searching for my lost muse. I’m not sure how the idea came to me, but it came fast and easy, and was by most accounts a standout track on The OffRamps’ first album Hate it When You’re Right (Deluxe Records, 2006). I was immersed in open-G tuning (capo 3, so open B♭ if you’re interested) and obsessed with the coolness of Keith Richards. The song is built around a riff that I envisioned sitting on a quarter-note Motown drum beat and a driving eighth-note bass-line that would have fit anywhere on Wilco’s Summerteeth album. Drummer Mike Popovich and bassist Jason Bowes pretty much nailed the feel right off.

Happy Birthday JAWS, and thanks to Peter Benchley for kicking my puberty into full gear in 1980 and re-kickstarting my songwriting journey a couple decades later. 

LISTEN/BUY Chapter 8 HERE (or the whole record HERE).

 

Chapter Eight

You got a flair for the dramatic and dirty housewife hair
It’s borderline fanatic, and maybe I’ll meet you there
A short drive up the coast takes you to a tucked away café
Where the scallops come from flounder,
And you practice what you’re gonna say

There’s a beetle in the parking lot of the Abelard Arms hotel
Where the cars drive by and think “what’s inside?” and baby you’ll never tell
There’s a shakeup on the home front or in that hotel room
Now you’re bored to tears with everything
That’s happened since the baby boom

What do we do if we get caught
Maybe we should or maybe not
Shut up and tie me a sheep-shank knot

I woke up from a deep blue sleep, alone and feeling great
I grew up with a front row seat on the pages of chapter eight

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit, fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos, and plays acoustic shows all over the place. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.thetucos.com
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www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic