For a good decade or so, I have had an implacable foe, an entity which I have formally and officially declared to be my arch-nemesis.
Making this struggle more complex is that my arch-nemesis is the brother of a good friend.
In truth, I don’t know David very well. I’ve been buddies with his brothers for close to twenty years, but I’ve been around David no more than a handful of times.
Our rivalry has no origin other than a decision I made to declare him my arch-nemesis.
(it actually was encouraged by his brothers)
But David is a good guy, so this confrontation has gone no further than our mutual understanding of the conflict and our verbal acknowledgement of it on the rare occasions that we do meet.
Our relationship lacks the cold war sizzle that existed with my previous arch-nemesis –
The Dutch.
I had never had an arch-nemesis until a half dozen or so of us who were drinking buddies and worked at a record store together suddenly began hating the Dutch.
(it happened during an evening of drinks)
We took to the idea with enthusiasm, blaming the Dutch for all of the ills of the world several years before it was chic to blame Canada.
We would shuffle into the back room of the store, muttering expletives directed at the Netherlands under our breath after dealing with difficult customers.
If our usual barkeep at our favorite watering hole was not working and the music being played did not meet our approval, it was a plot originating in Holland.
But our distress over the Dutch was inexplicable.
I had assumed – for some reason – that it dated to the 1994 World Cup, which we had followed that summer.
One evening, during the 1998 World Cup, I asked one of my buddies why we hated the Dutch.
He proceeded to tell tale of another large record store where he had worked and a customer visiting from the Netherlands who threw a tantrum over some perceived grievance, bellowing to all who listen that his mistreatment was because he was Dutch.
“I figured that we must have some long-standing issues with the Dutch and I wanted to do the least that I could do,” my buddy said with a shrug. “It would have been unpatriotic to not hate the Dutch.”
Of course, we didn’t really hate the Dutch. We just enjoyed having an arch-nemesis.
Here are four enemy songs since arch-nemesis is a bit cumbersome to use in a lyric I suppose…
Swan Dive – Sweet Enemy
from Circle (1998)
Swan Dive’s music has been described as bossa nova pop.
Sweet Enemy is light, breezy, and sophisticated stuff, but its just a hint of the wonderous sounds made by the duo of Bill DeMain and Molly Felder.
The Waterboys – Be My Enemy
from This Is The Sea (1985)
This Is The Sea was my introduction to Scottish band The Waterboys. I’d been prompted to purchase the cassette after hearing the glorious The Whole Of The Moon before school one morning on a rock radio station out of Dayton.
(it might have been the only time I’ve ever heard the band on radio)
I was immediately smitten by their “big music” and the tape spent a lot of time in my Walkman that senior year. The rollicking Be My Enemy clatters alongs with a dizzying urgency that caught my attention and made me hit rewind a time or two.
(which, of course, drained the double-AA batteries rather quickly)
Roger Hodgson – Had a Dream (Sleeping with the Enemy)
from In The Eye Of The Storm (1984)
If you have followed my babbling on this site, you might be well aware of my affection for Supertramp (at least Breakfast In America). By 1984, founding member Roger Hogdson had left the band for a solo career that didn’t exactly pan out.
Had A Dream (Sleeping With The Enemy) got some airplay on some of the stations to which I was listening at the time. In truth, it could have been on Breakfast In America and not sounded out of place.
Rage Against The Machine – Know Your Enemy
from Rage Against The Machine (1992)
I didn’t immediately gravitate to Rage Against The Machine. I thought their politics to be somewhat half-baked. However, seeing them live, opening for U2 – a band for whom the same accusation could be made regarding politics – made me a fan of the sheer sonic force of Rage’s music.
A few friends and I bumped into the band before that show at a vegetarian restaurant. The might have made some angry music, but the band members and crew were quite polite and friendly.