"Self!" by Deep Cotton

(c) 2006 Rina S. Prussin

Here are the song lyrics to a very terrific song ... song called "Self!" by Deep Cotton ... it's the first song on the compilation for this month's edition of the magazine The Believer ... the Music Issue ...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Getting ridiculous!
I'm getting ridiculous!
Always feel like I'm ...
playing games and I ...
losing all the time
Maybe it's just my mind

Guitar says to me:
Self!
Extra points if you refuse to take your medication.
Self!
Extra points if you're black and dance whiter
... Or if you're white and talk blacker
Self!
_ [unintelligible words] if your own girlfriend thinks you're game
You think she's right

Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it

Who will help me with the mirror?
Who will help me with the beat?

SON, TAKE OUT THE TRASH!
Dad, there are maggots in there
Dad, there's maggots in there

Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it

Dad, there are maggots in there
Dad, there's maggots ...

Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it Get right down to the game right now This fool is dying, don't forget it

Self!
Extra points if your shadow has a [unintelligible words] for a transfer
Self!
Extra points if the lyrics have just stopped making sense.
Self!
Extra points if you wonder where all those grey hairs came from

Raise your hand if dancing is your therapy
Self!
Extra points if you thought this game was going to end differently now
with two children, a house, and an electric car
Raise your hand if you'd like to buy a new body
... Or a little more timing
Self!
Extra points if you do not know how to put your heart back together
Raise your hand if it all sounds like science fiction and
it's just your life
And if you have memories for sale,
see the ushers in the yellow suits
They can help you now

-- Deep Cotton

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I wish I could upload the file!!! It is such a good song ... the beat, their voices, the instruments. The underlying subject is very serious but the music and beat makes it *sound* fun and lighthearted. This song reminds me of The Talking Heads ... that balance of very serious subject matter but sounds fun ... the lyrics ("... stop making sense" are the most obvious ones) and the instruments. If any of you subscribe to The Believer and listen to this song ... let me know what you think -- leave a comment.

Music: The Amazing Blondel

You might say the denizens of La Casa de Los Gatos are mightily fond of the delicate plucking of stringed instruments. Lutes, sarod, pi-pa, shamisen. We love them all. Combined with the delicate breathing of some dulcet wind instrument, say, a flute, and bringing life to a creation of Renaissance/prog rock, one achieves The Amazing Blondel.

Here in part, Fantasia Lindum:



Swifts and Swains, Leafy Lanes and God Must Doubt. It makes us long to visit Lincolnshire, the land to which this album is an homage. Lindum is the Latin name of the town of Lincoln, set in verdant Lincolnshire, as the video clip shows.

Happy Birthday, Joan Baez!

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the folk singer and activist Joan Baez, born on Staten Island in 1941. Her mother was from Scotland, and her father was a physicist from Mexico. She grew up in California, playing rock and roll on the guitar. When Joan was a teenager, the Baez family moved to Boston, and she started hanging out with folk singers and learning their ballads. She was 18 years old when she performed at the Newport Folk Festival for an audience of 13,000.

The first song I ever heard Joan Baez sing is this one ... and I loved it ...




Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word
by Bob Dylan

Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word

I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word

Copyright ©1967; renewed 1995 Special Rider Music

James Brown and Pete Seeger

Today are the birthdays of James Brown and Pete Seeger. Now, what in the hell do they have in common? Besides music? I guess wanting to change the world. You can say that about the Godfather of Soul ... the King of Funk ... the ex-Hardest Working Man in Show Business. He got side-tracked more than Pete Seeger ... but he was wanting to change the world for sure: "Say it Loud -- I'm Black and I'm Proud."


So, I"ve got two songs here by both men. "Doin' it to Death" has been one of my favorites my whole life. I was in a music appreciation club with co-workers for many years and we once made up a Top Ten list of songs -- "Doin' it to Death" was one of my top tens. The rhythm and beat and melody is so fantastic!!! It is so very impossible to stay seated during this song.

James Brown, may he rest in peace ...


Doin’ it to death - James Brown

Hit it! How you feelin' brother? (Feelin' good!)
You're feelin' good
You play so much bone, brother
How you feelin', man? (I feel alright!)
I won't call your name
I don't want no people to know you're in here
How you feelin', fellas? (Alright!)
Now jam! Sure gettin' down
We're gonna have a funk good time...
We gotta take you higher
Huh! Alright!
We gotta take you higher, huh!
Brothers! Now I want everybody to blow
About two choruses
And then I'm gonna wave you in
I wanna get the fella
With the little horn over there
Fred's gonna take us higher, take us higher
Fred, Fred, Fred!
You know what, when I hear a groove
Like this groove, oh!
I say, I got to get higher
Yeah baby, yeah, yeah
Look a'here
When someone's got a groove like this
You know, you know, no!
I need to grit, gotta grit
Gonna eat, gotta eat
Need to grit, gotta grit, no breath
You know, brothers
I'm gettin' ready to wave y'all in
You know what
I feel so down, I need to get down
In order for me to get down
I got to get in D.
In order for me to get down, I got to get in D.
Need to get in D., dog for D.
Down D., funky D., shakin' D.,down D.
Oh! Huh! Ha ha!
Get on down!
Look a'here, look at that
What we gotta do
Gotta have a funk good time...
Oh, yeah
I didn't know you were singin', Fred
Don't moan so much
Buddy, don't moan so much
We gotta take you higher
Wait a minute!
Know who you say that was over there
(Man, you're lookin' better)
(I know I've seen him somewhere)
Is that Maceo?

*****

In my teenage years, I madly loved this song -- "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" -- and couldn't understand how our leaders, if they listened carefully to this song, could lead us into war. Hitler is a challenge to many many pacifists and he and other evil bullies of that ilk are why I cannot truly call myself a pacifist. I would have joined the services in WWII. If someone seriously attacks one of my friends or families, I would fight to kill. But there's a H-U-G-E difference between that and going to war for all the greedy reasons the U.S. and other countries have gone to war.

Pete Seeger was a pacifist before WWII and it sounds like he debated a lot with his friends about what to do about Hitler. He joined the Navy in 1941. He was trained as an airplane mechanic but was reassigned to entertain troops.

The song is a bit heterosexist but I can overlook it. Years of 12 step programs: "Take what you like and leave the rest."


Pete Seeger is turning 89 today.



Where Have All the Flowers Gone - Pete Seeger

Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone,
Young girls picked them every one
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn

Where have all the young girls gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the young girls gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the young girls gone,
gone to young men every one
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn

Where have all the young men gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the young men gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the young men gone,
gone to soldiers every one,
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn

Where have all the soldiers gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the soldiers gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the soldiers gone,
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn

Where have all the graveyards gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the graveyards gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the graveyards gone,
Gone to flowers every one
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn


To the young men and women all over the world who find themselves fighting in a war: we bless you, want you to return to us, and pray for you. I just wish you weren't there.

They Walk Among Us

(c) 2007 K Smokey Cormier

Halloween - Dead Kennedys

So it's halloween
And you feel like dancin'
And you feel like shinin'
And you feel like letting loose

Whatcha gonna be
Babe, you better know
And you better plan
Better plan all day

Better plan all week
Better plan all month
Better plan all year

You're dressed up like a clown
Putting on your act
It's the only time all year
You'll ever admit that

I can see your eyes
I can see your brain
Baby, nothing's changed

You're still hiding in a mask
You take your fun seriously
No, don't blow this year's chance
Tomorrow your mold goes back on

After halloween

You go to work today
You'll go to work tomorrow
Shitfaced tonight
You'll brag about it for months

Remember what I did
Remember what I was
Back on halloween

But what's in between
Where are your ideas
You sit around and dream
For next halloween

Why not everyday
Are you so afraid
What will people say

After halloween

Because your role is planned for you
There's nothing you can do
But stop and think it through
But what will the boss say to you

And what will your girlfriend say to you
And the people out on the street they might glare at you
And whadya know you're pretty self-conscious too

So you run back and stuff yourselves in rigid business costumes
Only at night to score is your leather uniform exhumed
Why don't you take your social regulations
And shove 'em up your ass

Old pirates, yes, they rob

On this day in 1980, Bob Marley gave his last performance in concert.

Bob Marley played his final concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1980. The live version of "Redemption Song" on Songs of Freedom was recorded at this show.

Redemption


Old pirates, yes, they rob i;

Sold I to the merchant ships,

Minutes after they took i

From the bottomless pit.

But my hand was made strong

By the and of the almighty.

We forward in this generation

Triumphantly.

Wont you help to sing

These songs of freedom? -

cause all I ever have:

Redemption songs;

Redemption songs.



Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;

None but ourselves can free our minds.

Have no fear for atomic energy,

cause none of them can stop the time.

How long shall they kill our prophets,

While we stand aside and look? ooh!

Some say its just a part of it:

Weve got to fulfil de book.


Wont you help to sing

These songs of freedom?

cause all I ever have:

Redemption songs;

Redemption songs;

Redemption songs.



Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;

None but ourselves can free our mind.

Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,

cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.

How long shall they kill our prophets,

While we stand aside and look?

Yes, some say its just a part of it:

Weve got to fulfil de book.

Wont you help to sing

Dese songs of freedom?

cause all I ever had:

Redemption songs -

All I ever had:

Redemption songs:

These songs of freedom,

Songs of freedom.

Rest in peace. We're not there yet.

Happy Birthday, Leonard Cohen!

Photo from the Canadian Songwriters website

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.


This little bit from Wikipedia:

Leonard Norman Cohen, (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

If you want to read more, go here.