Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 41-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Not that many years ago, I consciously stopped asking questions as a way to make points. The “now” of this song was written well before that time. The “how many” was intended to be up for interpretation, yet is specifically asked about “summer stories.” Summer stories; how many now? This feels like it could be a reference to childhood and time passing. The “all” that the “we” is looking at would be the overwhelming nature of everything. Everything that follows any kind of hard-fought ease that childhood is supposed to afford one.
All that aside, depending on one’s concerns, it feels like asking this as a general question now could easily be regarded as a semi-rhetorical reference to Palestinians killed in Gaza (way too many) or related facts, such as the number of students arrested opposing genocide on various campuses (quite a few).
“How Many Now?” from Jarred Up (K, 1993) (download):
