I caught glimpse of the fabled “guy who just walks around on the old trails”, staring at little bits of nothing, starting at the wind, never a man have I seen more in need of rescue. What if…he muttered. He obviously doesn’t belong in Ivy, Ivy must be a garden, right? And neither do his songs, but where should he/they go, if not there?
I lost the mixes for these songs and rescued these versions from the myspace page. They have been myspacified and are of an even lower quality than they would have been! But that doesn’t matter at this point.
Needle
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
World Without Wheels
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ana’s Attic
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
There’s this Russian guy, he lives in the old defunct gas station, he must have come over with the Confucian. His name is Max, and when I visited him, he assured me that he stood astride the Berlin Wall with a pickaxe as that wall fell beneath him, and he shared a little story about what really brought about the fall of the Soviet Union…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Max then told me he believes history is made by individuals eating other individuals. I then left.
Letter from Yeltsin to Gorbachev, 1991
im sorry gorby but youre gonna hafta leave
take your ugly wife and your big important party
take down your flag, see, mine’s red white and blue
here’s your marching orders for you
all I said was that she was greedy like a vole
and all your goodwill was falling down the hole
and I told Vladimir she had an ass like a house
and that the people want a little mouse
screw your demotion, gorby, i’ll get my revenge
ill be president and i’ll drink all day again
like when I worked on houses for the proletariat
all the toilets worked in my oblast
i kept a secret from myself since ’32
now I can build the houses, gorby, here’s one for you
not unlike the one your party built for my dad
when he got back from the gulag
And this man, also from some strange clime or time, crossed a million waves to be here, to sing to me, him alone, it seems, and unlike the trailer man and the chinese passenger, his brow was light. Perhaps he still gazed upon the stars.
A Million Waves:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
the waves break on the sides
gotta keep the sail wide
then im rocked for a million miles
of endless waves and my heart says
that is all that awaits
a sleeping bag around me
i guess ill sing my self to sleep
old tin cans rattling
and ancient whispers
keep me breathing
and my heart beating
keeps me wise and pulling lines
in the light of the sun
in the morning
A stranger, not from here at all, a man of foreign visage and demeanor, with a permanent crease on his brow, but a fellow scientist I gathered.
Oh, Gunpowder:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
they went looking for the essence of life
did they find it?
they went looking for the balance of everything
did they find it?
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
they went looking for the origin
did they find it
in the beginning was the explosion
did they find it?
oh gunpowder
you are forever
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
they went looking for immortality
did they find it?
they went looking for perfect morality
did they find it?
oh gunpowder
they found you, oh gunpowder
we killed each other
and set each other free
and the fireworks went flying
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
sulfur
saltpeter
a paperweight
and honey
What a sad shell of a man, an empty shell, and I shuddered to hear his song.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
then theyre gonna put you in the tunnel
then theyre gonna lie you on the table
what am i gonna say to your mom
shes gonna think that its my fault
x rayed rose
x rayed rose
x rayed rose
x rayed rose
then theyre gonna stick you with a needle
then theyre gonna cut your pretty petals
then theyre gonna prune your thorns
baby are you gonna be reborn
baby are you gonna be reborn
The first inhabitant of Wahoo was pretty straighforward, the local type, lots of those guys in these parts. Did I know, before he opened his mouth to sing, he lived in a big old RV?
Some Disenchanted Morning:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
i’ve been stuck in this old trailer
in the darkness and the rain
down by the field where i met her
at the edge of the hay
i spun my wheels into the mud
it raining hard and im stuck real good
she told me I missed all of my chances
and i wont get any more
in a cold trailer with no romances
waiting at my front door
all the powers down tonight
the water’s coming up over the dike
some disenchanted morning out on the sea
my door is wide open will you run into me
some disenchanted morning here’s hoping
your door is wide open come on baby
come on baby
come on baby
On my way to Ivy, or where I hoped Ivy would be, I passed through a little town called Wahoo, population: five. The five people told me that ‘Wahoo’ was Indian for ‘Really Fucked Up’. Anyway, each one gave me a song.
A Million Waves:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Some Disenchanted Morning:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Oh, Gunpowder:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
X Rayed Rose:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
They all started at the same time, but after a while I deciphered the cacaphony and realized that they were all just telling me what they did that summer, in their own way.
And lo and behold, buried in the dirt, a song of similair vintage… does this explain the player’s poor performance or is he buried all by himself?
Look what I found underneath the tree…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Gosh, golly, Betty Jean, here’s one for the high school musical. I thought I did everything right and this is it?
Jack Shit
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I hear Ivy has a sports team, or they did, a really long time ago. They could never get it right.
Number 86
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A really incredibly ancient song, followed by a sort-of-newer one. Half of the second one is actually a rewrite of the first song, but can serve as a sequel. The second half of the second song is actually older than the first song. I think.
So obviously ‘number 86′ is about football. Maybe they should try baseball.
This is a newer recording of a very very very very VERY old song. I dropped a verse, did some spit and shine, and here it is. More High School Musical. This was recorded in Glorious Mono then
S T E R E O I Z E D
You’ll just have to use your imagination for the kick ass guitar solo.
Fires On The Beach:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
When the afternoon gets too deep for me
Let’s go outside and meet the sea
Tonight we’ll build a fire on the beach
When we can join in
With the other kids
Let’s kick our feet like dying swans
And fall out of reach
And laugh and yawn
Shake your body, baby
Like it’s all that you’ve got
Tonight we’ll build a little fire on the beach
Lay down with me
Wrapped in a sheet
You and me, we got time enough to dream
Of monarch butterflies
That dance across the dawn
When the chrysalis is gone
Can’t you hear their song?
When the afternoon gets too deep
Let’s go outside and meet the sea
Tonight we’ll build a fire on the beach
(Plenty of mistakes here. Oh well. Better luck next time. It’s just a test flight.)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(I think this might be more of a Mondokhan song, but here you go…)
my last flight
running late for a paper plane
jet lag comin back again
superhero of the runaway
saving time i lost today
check my bags
i’m home tonight
im holding on tight
for my last flight
flying kites in a mindstorm
falling back on a cruciform
cut the string and rock and roll
wait for me, im halfway home
sometimes i get so high
i cant come down
sometimes i see you burning on the ground
sometimes i believe, sometimes i forget
I took a ride up on a rainbow
and lost my grip
check my bags
i’m home tonight
im holding on tight
for my last flight
In the symmetric turbulent wake
of a flat paper plate
today a distinguished scientist has made
the discovery of rain
falling on his face
(One of these lines is a throwaway… can you guess which one?)
(I recorded my icckkyyy junior high school musical song. Shove it in your locker!)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(For the girls with all the boyfiends. Little Johnny is sitting in the gymnasium, all alone with his guitar, his best friend, the guitar. He doesn’t even have a pick. Sniffle sniffle. Boys don’t cry, they don’t cry.)
Even When the Road Has Gone:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Demo. All of these are demos to varying degrees.)
(Even further down the road I found a broken old mandolin. Or maybe not. Maybe a little sentimental, but it’s a true story as far as it goes, I can see it out my back window. So I just call it like I see it. True story.)
(Let’s pretend I found this lyric by the side of the road – on a page torn from a diary, crossed out, names scribbled over a hundred times with tight little circles, wadded up, stomped on, and left in the gravel and mud.)
“no more hearts to break”
hearts of gold get sold
hearts of fire fade
all the young hearts are getting old
and light hearts blow away
you were the first to say OK
i took your hand so i did not feel so strange
but sometimes a flower blooms
it spreads its petals and just runs out of room
hearts of gold get sold
hearts of fire fade
the young hearts are getting old
and light hearts blow away
where is the heartache
when theres no more love to take
cross your heart and hope to die
theres no more hearts to break
sometimes a flower blooms
it spreads its petals and just runs out of room
(“Ivy Dell”? More like “High School Musical”. Should I drown in vomit or just record the thing and be done with it? I sort of like the refrain bits. It’s sort of like a ‘fuck you’ greeting card.)
(I just don’t know that this marks the way to Ivy. Maybe this is some other project altogether, must make a note in my journal…)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
wonderful leaves turning gold, turning brown
wonderful leaves are falling down
we live in the leaves
and hear the roots singing
we’re shaking like bees
we set the leaves tumbling
wonderful leaves spinning round spinning round
will we leave them on the ground
the roots in my heart
but the year gets long
let me show lost ages
delicate and crumbling pages
wonderful leaves turning gold, turning brown
wonderful leaves are falling down
sometimes its spring sometimes its fall
beautful fall
ill get the leaves and keep them all
wonderful leaves turning gold, turning brown
wonderful leaves are falling down
wonderful leaves spinning round spinning round
will we leave them on the ground
(Sort of hopeful and sad at the same time?)
(Plenty of trees and rivers in these parts…)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Little Milton’s Repose
through your charnel houses high
you’ll return to the sky
from fields hung high with fire
from the day and from the night
everyone returns
if you run
you will learn
down rivers green with gold
if you’re young if you’re old
to your scattered bodies go
you’ll return to your home
everyone will return
if you swim
or if you burn
everyone returns
(Is this from a disgruntled resident of Ivy Dell, or am I on the wrong track altogether?)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
people come to my shithole
they never put it down
people like this shithole
spend the day in a shit hole town
people come to my shithole
they shit on the streets
i’m cleaning my shithole
everybody gotta have a dream
rednecks with radios look like rodeo clowns
i live in a shithole
i live in a shithole town
look around the shithole
one time the river was running
wipe your feet on the shithole
it was running from you and me
one time in the shithole
in the graveyard me and you
someplace good not a shithole
I just want to feel good good good
i live in a shithole
shit all over me
shit all over me
i live in a shithole
shit all over me
shit all over me
shit all over me
Could be Ivy Dell Trailer Park…
(I stuck a couple of mics out on the porch to get the rain and door sounds, and proved that the mics could get moderately wet and be simultaneously dropped and still function at one hundred percent. My newer Chinese mics might not fare so well, though…)
(Trying to get a bnetter examination of the Goatman song. With honest, genuine unsimulated crickets!)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
i hear the goatman calling
i hear the goatman calling
he is calling you
he is calling you
i remember running by the river
i remember drowning in forgiveness
we’ll still shed our snakeskins
we’ll ride that river til its red
we’ll leave our little wind
down at the edge
i remember what you said
some things are barren but not dead
baby forgive me, make it all my fault
because my whole life
wherever i was
i wanted to be gone
except for that once
i hear the goatman calling
i hear the goatman calling
he is calling you
he is calling you
(Is this from Ivy Dell? GOATMEN?? I’m starting to think it might not be the lost paradise that people say…)
