Pocket full of shells

I was driving around this morning and happened to hear Rage Against the Machine's Bulls on Parade, a lovely little ditty from the '90s in which Zack de la Rocha screams into a microphone to the point of distortion over the same guitar chords they use for every other song.

As a teenager, I loved this song. I was very "hard" and angry at the world and this song encapsulated my suburban teen angst. I'd seen Rage in concert, joined in the mosh pit (remember those?) and was feeling pretty tough when the song came on at a party one time. It was a new song at that point and I was going to impress my fellow world-weary teens with the fact that I already knew the lyrics.

The microphone explodes, shattering the molds
Either drop tha hits like de la O or get tha f--k off tha commode
Wit tha sure shot, sure ta make tha bodies drop

Aw, yeah, that was so my life dude! And then I put on my best scowl for the chorus:

Rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells!
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells!
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells!

[I should note that I couldn't catch all of what de la Rocha was saying so I lip synched something like, Eraharahrahrahrah!! With a pocket full of SHELLS!]

So, not knowing myself well enough to know that I really need to quit while I'm ahead if I ever start looking cool, I got in a discussion with another Rage fan and he said something about the gauge of the shotgun shells de la Rocha was talking about. In the minute it took for me figure out what he'd said, the confused look on my face belied the fact that I was picturing shells as in sea shells.

The entertainment for the rest of the evening was everyone laughing their asses off that I was picturing the Rage singer screaming in angst about having a pocket full of little sand dollars and starfish.

And in that moment, my dreams of being the baddest middle-class white chick on my suburban block were shattered.