Jean the Birdman

David Sylvian & Robert Fripp
from the album The First Day

Hat's off to Roy Harper John Schertzer, for introducing me to David Sylvian.

I've been waiting for years to hear a Buddhist cowboy song. . . Albeit, this is a winged cowboy. But that's nothing too unusual.

Unfortunately, the video doesn't really go with the words. I'd skip the pictures (interesting as they may be) and go with the text on this one.



He gambles on the saddle
He's pulling on the mane
He thrashes at the horse's back
Ambition is a bloody game

Horse doesn't want to jump
The river looks too wide
Well, he faces every hurdle
With a nervous state of mind

Stay with me, breathe deeply,
Take three paces back,
Turn and make a full attack

The gods are laughing
And they're tugging at the reins
But he's taken to his wings
And they hit the bank

Heaven may stone him,
But Jean the Birdman pulls it off (x2)

His finger's on the trigger
His eye is on the clock
He doesn't give the game away
And quickly fires the bullets off

Six hearts cut short
Still dreaming they're alive
Blown 'round in dusty circles
Like an absent state of mind

Who hunter? Who victim?
God love America
He surely doesn't love him

Hitching out of nowhere
Lines of traffic knee-deep
A chance to stave the morning off
And get some sleep

Heaven may stone him,
But Jean the Birdman pulls it off (x2)

He wears a crucifix
His mother left to him
It's wrapped in chains around his heart
Rusted and wafer thin

Don't count on luck son,
All the angels sing
Don't need to check a weather vane
We all know what tomorrow brings

Life is a cattle farm
Coyotes with the mules
Life is a bullring
For taking risks and flouting rules

Who needs a safety net
The world is open wide
Just look out for the card sharks
And the danger signs

Heaven may stone him,
But Jean the Birdman pulls it off (x4)

The Song Stuck in My Head When I Woke Up This Morning

Bloody television commercials. I'm still struggling spiritually with those Cadillac ads using "Start" by The Jam. Though why it would surprise me at this point is a good question.

I've finally accepted that all of the "we're rock and roll rebels!" of the Sixties have sold out, starting with Eric Clapton's Michelob ad back in 1986. But to hear The Clash and The Jam used to sell things on TV . . . My frail punk-era heart can hardly stand it.

And so, one effect of being subjected to Kapitalism's insidious psychological warfare is to start the day with "Start" stuck in my head.

The song comes from The Jam's great 1980 album, Sound Affects, which - as you can tell - showed the influence of the Beatles (the bassline is straight out of George Harrison's "Taxman") and, according to All Music Guide, reflected singer-songwriter Paul Weller's "recent readings of Blake and Shelley (who was quoted on the sleeve), but more specifically Geoffrey Ash, whose Camelot and the Vision of Albion made a strong impression."

Did I miss the Blake and Shelley connection when I was 16? I don't remember that part.

Here's The Jam. . . .



It's not important for you to know my name -
Nor I to know yours
If we communicate for two minutes only
It will be enough

For knowing that someone in this world
Feels as desperate as me -
And what you give is what you get.

It doesn't matter if we never meet again,
What we have said will always remain.
If we get through for two minutes only,
It will be a start!

For knowing that someone in this life,
Loves with a passion called hate
And what you give is what you get.

If I never ever see you -
If I never ever see you -
If I never ever see you - again.

And what you give is what you get!

It's a New Day

I can't help it - I like the new video from will.i.am.



My God, what's happening to me? I've never felt so emotional about the American political system. I get choked up watching videos or seeing people on TV.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after eight bloody years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

I know the cynical stuff will return in time, but for now, I guess I'm happy to drink the kool-aid.

The Song Stuck in My Head When I Woke Up This Morning

If you've ever wondered what it would sound like if Tom Waits recorded Bob Dylan's "The Man in the Long Black Coat" with a little groove, it might go something like this.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: "Red Right Hand" from Let Love In (1994).



Take a little walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,
in the humming wires
Hey man, you know
you're never coming back
Past the square, past the bridge,
past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
a red right hand

He'll wrap you in his arms,
tell you that you've been a good boy
He'll rekindle all the dreams
it took you a lifetime to destroy
He'll reach deep into the hole,
heal your shrinking soul
But there won't be a single thing
that you can do
He's a god, he's a man,
he's a ghost, he's a guru
They're whispering his name
through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
is a red right hand

Don't got no money?
He'll get you some
You don't have no car? He'll get you one
You don't have no self-respect,
you feel like an insect
Well don't you worry, buddy,
'cause here he comes
Through the ghettos and the barrio
and the bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his
red right hand

[Organ solo]

You'll see him in your nightmares,
you'll see him in your dreams
He'll appear out of nowhere but
he ain't what he seems
You'll see him in your head,
on the TV screen
Hey, buddy, I'm warning you
to turn it off
He's a ghost, he's a god,
he's a man, he's a guru
You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his red right hand

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Doesn't get much more Tex-Mex than this. . . .

Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiménez and a special guest sing the classic, "Volver, Volver."

The Beatles: I Am the Walrus

Just in one of those moods . . . . goo, goo ga-joob.

A clip of the song as performed in the 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.



You know, I've never actually seen Magical Mystery Tour. Originally broadcast on BBC1 on Boxing Day, 1967, the film was considered an unqualified disaster when it came out. And, from watching this clip, I think I can see why.

At least the song was weird enough to keep the visuals interesting. (I'm not sure what animal George Harrison is supposed to be in some of those sequences, but I find him terrifying.)

The song itself, however, has always been one of my favorite Beatles' tunes, even as a kid. Which probably explains why my mind's not quite right.

It was also one of John Lennon's own favorites. From The Beatles Anthology:

"I Am the Walrus" is also one of my favourite tracks - because I did it, of course, but also because it's one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later.

It's from "The Walrus and the Carpenter"; Alice in Wonderland. To me, it was a beautiful poem. It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the Walrus was the bad guy in the story, and the Carpenter was the good guy. I thought, "Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy." But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? "I am the carpenter..."

That's what happens, I guess, when you're taking LSD on a constant basis, as Lennon was at the time.

John goes on to talk about Bob Dylan's influence on the song:

In those days, I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, never saying what you mean but giving the impression of something, where more or less can be read into it. It's a good game. I thought, "They get away with this artsy-fartsy crap." There has been more said about Dylan's wonderful lyrics than was ever in the lyrics at all. Mine, too. But it was intellectuals who read all this into Dylan or The Beatles. Dylan got away with murder. I thought, "I can write this crap, too."

I don't know, do people really over-analyze Dylan and The Beatles?

(Cough.)

From Wikipedia's entry on "I Am the Walrus":

The song also contains the unusual exclamation goo goo g'joob. Various unsatisfactory hypotheses exist regarding the origin and meaning of these syllables. One popular, yet impossible, claim is that the phrase was derived from the very similar "koo koo ka choo" in Paul Simon's song Mrs. Robinson, written in 1967. However, the film The Graduate, where "Mrs. Robinson" debuted, was not released until December 1967, a month after the release of "I Am the Walrus", and The Graduate Original Soundtrack (which contained only fragments of the final version of "Mrs. Robinson") was not released until January 1968.

Perhaps due to the close chronological timing of the release of the two songs, the "Walrus" chorus is often misquoted as "Mrs. Robinson"'s "koo koo ka choo", although the lyrics to "Walrus" were published as part of the Magical Mystery Tour EP packaging, so there is no debate to the actual lyric.

It has also been noted that James Joyce's Finnegans Wake contains the words googoo goosth at the top of page *557, where it appears:

...like milk-juggles as if it was the wrake of the hapspurus or old Kong Gander O'Toole of the Mountains or his googoo goosth she seein, sliving off over the sawdust lobby out of the backroom, wan ter, that was everywans in turruns, in his honeymoon trim, holding up his fingerhals...

It is not clear that Joyce is the source, or what it would mean if he were, but it has been a hypothesis put forward by fans of both artists alike.

Well, long live the absurdity and meaninglessness of "I Am the Walrus" anyway!

Drinking the Kool Aid

Not exactly Sun City, but hey, it's a new day.

Yes We Can

Song & video by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas.
Inspired by Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech.
Directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob's son.

I recognize Herbie Hancock, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, will.i.am, and Scarlett Johansson, but I guess I'm showing my age, because the rest I don't know.




It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Another sad anniversary yesterday . . . Incredibly, it's been 26 years since John Lennon was shot dead. 26 years.