The Word - Cormac McCarthy on the ashes of the late world

He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.



- from "The Road" (2006)

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The Telly - Greatest 20 Moments of The Simpsons' great 20 Years

The 20 best moments of The Simpsons' 20 years on TV

by Anna Pickard
www.guardian.co.uk

Happy Simpsonniversary! It's 20 years since The Simpsons graced screens as a fully-fledged series. Let's celebrate two decades of "Doh!"

Pedants might argue, but the official Council of Simpsons has decreed that the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons falls today, 14 January 2010. (The episode that aired December 1989? That'ss counted as a one-off special!)

So Happy Simpsonsanniversary!

To mark the yellowbration, here – in no particular order – are just some of our best moments from the past 20 years. We'd bring them to you with clips of course, except there's no legal way of watching them in the UK. Doh! Indeed. Still, see what you make of our choices (in no particular order) and then tell us what you'd add.


Homer fails to jump the ravine

One of the most frequently repeated clips of the show ever, a perfect Simpsons mix of traditional family sitcom with things you could only do in a cartoon. Ridiculously painful. Painfully funny.

Bart The Daredevil, season one


Spider Pig

The feature-length Simpsons film was years in the making, and felt as if perhaps they saved up all the good gags of the decade for it. Homer's pet pig is one of the best bits (especially the song).

The Simpsons Movie, 2007


Wiggum PI

Chief Wiggum and Ralph move to New Orleans to clean up the mucky underbelly of the south. Well, for a Wiggum moment it was either this or his invisible typewriter.

The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase, season eight




Bart studies for a test for the first time ever…

…and fails anyway. Until the moment he comes up with a brilliant historical reason for his failure, and passes after all.

Bart Gets an F, season two


Gentle Ben: talkshow host

A surreal throwaway aside in an episode about sexual harassment and gummy bears, the sight of the lovable 1960s TV bear with a microphone strapped to his head suddenly going on murderous rampage at the sight of the doughnut table was Brilliant.

Homer Badman, season six


Sideshow Bob and the Rakes

A device that has been used many times in the show, they made a standard sight-gag, repeated it until it wasn't funny anymore … then carried on repeating it till it started being funny again.

Cape Feare, season five


More dangerous than she looks

Although my favourite Maggie moment is any sight of her padded to immobility in a snowsuit, she's most famous for being one answer to the two-part episode question "Who shot Mr Burns?", the wee minx.

Who Shot Mr Burns, season six/seven




"So I tied an onion to my belt…"

All Grandpa Abe's stories of the good old days are brilliant, but this particularly rambling example of one – apparently about strikebreaking in the 1930s – must count as the best.

Last Exit To Springfield, season four


Brain vs stomach? No contest

Helping the local news bust Apu for selling rancid meat, Homer was torn between outrage and hunger: "Your old meat made me sick!"

Apu: "I'm so sorry. Please accept 5lb of frozen shrimp"

Homer: "This shrimp isn't frozen! And it smells funny!"

Apu: "Okay, 10lb"

Homer: "Woohoo!"

Homer and Apu, season five

You've finally made a monkey out of me…

When Troy McClure married ever-smokin' Selma as a beard for his fish fetish: clips of all his "You may remember me from such films as…" projects were a highlight. Planet of the Apes: The Musical, won.

A Fish Called Selma, season seven


Mulder and Scully investigate Homer's alien encounter

"We're going to run a few tests. This is a simple lie detector. I'll ask you a few 'yes or no' questions; you just answer truthfully. Do you understand?" Homer: "Yes" [cue lie detector machine blowing up]

The Springfield Files, series eight


Homer and Bart convert to Catholicism…

… to the horror of Marge and Rev Lovejoy, who struggle to win them back to the "one true faith" (The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism). We did get to hear Homer's confession, though: "I coveted the wife in Jaws 2, I lied to a waiter, I masturbated 8 billion times and have no plans to stop masturbating in the future. Woo hoo! I'm clean! In your face, Lord!"

The Father, The Son and the Holy Guest Star, season 16


Michelle Pfeiffer as Mindy almost steals Homer's heart …

… or at least penis (apologies for mental images). Just in time, Homer remembers who he loves. Cue his tender lovesong: "Oh Margie. You came and you brought me a turkey. On my vacation away from worky."

Last Temptation of Homer, season five






Homer has a drink with Stephen Hawking…

Then tries to stick him with the bill by putting on a robot voice, and gets punched in the head by the boxing glove concealed in Hawking's chair. Hawking actually has that boxing glove installed, right?

They Saved Lisa's Brain, season 10


See My Vest

Happily rattling through all manner of unpleasant things you could do to puppies, made palatable (even jolly) by the power of song, Mr Burns details what he plans to do with his new pets.

Two Dozen And One Greyhounds, season six


Hank Scorpio, visionary

The hi-tech plant the family moved to turns out to be an evil lair, but the CEO is pure Steve Jobsian dotcom-corporate dynamism: "Look at my feet. You like these moccasins? Look in your closet; there's a pair for you! Don't like them? Then neither do I! Get the hell outta here, shoes! Ever see a guy say goodbye to a shoe before?" Homer: "Yes, once."

You Only Move Twice, season eight


"Orf with their heads!"

The Simpsons often holiday in foreign lands and mock the locals. Luckily, on their visit to England, her majesty was there to defend us. Blair's guest appearance at the height of the Iraq war? Less funny.

The Regina Monologues, season 15


Chief Wiggum's consummate professionalism

"Alright everybody. Nothing to see here, nothing to see here, please go away. nothing that we already haven't seen … Oh! My Gaaad! Look! It's a flaming wreckage! Hey, everybody, come and look, crowd around, no need to be shy! Everybody, take something!!!"

Bart the Fink, season seven


Couches

The ever-changing title sequence is good in itself. But the evolution one, where Homer went from organism to prime human specimen (and back down to Homer) is the king of them all.

Homerazzi, season 18


And those, of course, are just a tiny tiny (and subjective) sample. What are some of your favourites? And is it just me, or is it quite hard to edit down great moments from the first 10 years … but insanely hard to think of outstanding moments from the past 10?

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The Poster - Kurt Sutter's "Sons of Anarchy"

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The Music - The The's "Infected" (1986)

 

Take me by the hands and walk me to the end of the pier. Run your fingers through my hair and tell me what I wanna hear. Will lies become truths in this face of fading youth? From my scrotum to your womb, your cradle to my tomb.

I used to love this one way back in the day when I was but a rabid pup! One of the first albums I was able to buy; one of the first I really got obsessed with!

In the midst of mid-eighties dross, this challenging mix of New Wave/ Post Punk / Agit Pop stood out like a sore thumb.

It's a record that was very innovative at the time, both thematically (with unflinching existentialist perspectives, a focus on political issues and an exploration of the power of the few over the masses, etc.) and stylistically (with experimental sounds and effects ahead of its time).




Matt Johnson here lets loose with real - and proper - invective against the vile Yuppy Kingdom and many other societal fuck-ups in the midst of that execrable period of Reagan & Thatcher greed, evil and ruin (not dissimilar actually to the current execrable period of Obama & Brown greed, evil and ruin!)

With intelligent - often hilarious - barbed poetic lyrics framed in expansive post-punk and a variety of other musical styles, this is an excellent cohesive work and surely Johnson's magnum opus.




A propos his invective against selling out, it now seems, however, that Matty's changed his tune and submitted somewhat to the Yuppy God of Moolah! Yap, recently The The enjoyed a surge of attention in the United States thanks to an M&M advertising campaign, which used the band's great "This is the Day" as its theme music.

M&M's! ... WTF? Who said leopards can't change their spots? Oh ... a leopard said it? Well, OK then! ... I guess if a Tiger can do it, why can't his cousin?




Anyway, "Infected" was The The's third album (although Burning Blue Soul was originally credited to "Matt Johnson".) It's reputed that the album used 67 different musicians and 3 producers!

The money lavished on the LP and companion full-length video seemed, even at the time, to be extravagant for an obscure band. Epic were still prepared to take the risk (something that would never happen today!)




Many of the tracks explore Johnson's recurring existentialist themes such as the inherent evils of modern society and the inevitable reactive alienation from that society amongst the few intelligent enough to really think for themselves.

Around this time too, Johnson was also beginning to focus on the maladies inherent in so-called "World Issues" - stuff like the arms race, the so-called "AIDS disease" and the violent culture clash between the West and Islam.





An extreme example, was the wonderful "Sweet Bird of Truth", telling of a pilot trying to save his flailing plane whilst flying on a bomb run over Arabia.

"We're above the Gulf of Arabia.
Our altitude is falling
and I can't hold her up.
There's no time for thinking
... 'All hands on deck!
This bird is sinking!'"

"Sweet Bird of Truth" was actually released just prior to Ronnie Retard Reagan's Libyan bombings, and was prophetic of the insidious, large-scale, greed-driven, imperialistic attacks by Yankland, Britland and certain other "western powers" on sovereign Islamic lands that would take place much later.  

The timing of the record's release really messed up its sales, especially in America, where numerous record shops refused to stock the song and media outlets refused to promote it!

In 2000, Q magazine listed "Infected" amongst its "100 Greatest British Albums Ever.”

It is indeed a wonderful and powerful collection. And  a joy to hear once again these decades later!

No, actually I need to rewrite that last sentence ... "A joy to hear once again these years later!"

Yeah, that's better! The word 'decade' makes me feel so f*cking ancient!


(thanks to andy dog for the wonderful art)






The "Infected" LP spawned the following fine singles;:

* "Heartland" - which reached No. 29 (UK) in August 1986.

* "Infected" - which reached No. 48 (UK) in October 1986.

* "Slow Train to Dawn" - which reached No. 64 (UK) in January 1987 (Matt Johnson was accompanied by Neneh Cherry on vocals here.)

* "Sweet Bird of Truth" - which reached No. 55 (UK) in May 1987 (Matt Johnson was accompanied by Anna Domino on vocals here.)

 

The The - "Infected"

I can't give you up, til I've got more than enough.
So infect me with your love.
Nurse me into sickness. Nurse me back to health.
Endow me with the gifts of the man made world.





The The - "Heartland"

Beneath the old iron bridges, across the Victorian parks,
& all the frightened people running home before dark.
Past the Saturday morning cinema
that lies crumbling to the ground,
& the piss stinking shopping centre
in the new side of town.
I've come to smell the seasons change
and watch the city,
as the sun goes down again.





The The - "Slow Train to Dawn"

I followed that bead of sweat
to the small of your back,
from the nape of your neck,
lightin' it up, with every drag upon my cigarette.





The The - "Sweet Bird of Truth"

Six o'Clock in the morning
and I'm the last person in this plane still awake.
Y'know I can almost smell the blood washing against the shores
of this land that can't forget its past.
Oh, the wind that carries this plane is the wind of change,
Heaven sent and Hell bent!
Over the mountain tops we go,
just like all the other GI Joes!

EE-AY-EE-AY..... ADIOS!!!

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The Song - Townes Van Zandt's "Katie Belle Blue"

Dream pretty dreams, touch beautiful things, let all the skies surround you. Swim with the swans and believe that upon some glorious dawn, love will find you.

A very special song dedicated to the beautiful Rachel Pearl.

This wonderful, emotional and intimate Townes track was written about his baby daughter Katie Belle - born February 14, 1992 - and watching her big blue beautiful eyes before she drifted off to sleep. It appeared on Van Zandt's final album, 1994's under-rated "No Deeper Blue," which, somewhat bizarrely, was recorded in Limerick, Ireland.

Townes, with immense modesty and understatement, describes "Katie Belle Blue" as "a nice song"! Yap, it is indeed that - but to the power of infinity! A little like Cezanne describing one of his Mont St. Victoire masterpieces as "a nice picture"!

It's a joyous song that fills my heart with a joy even more profound than ever before in this momentous week when I fully understand what Townes really means in the poetry of this supreme song of purest potent love.

Townes exalts Katie Belle's current glory - "There is no deeper blue tin the ocean that lies, as deep as the blue of your laughing eyes" and there's "no sweeter sound than your gentle sigh, no heart was ever so pure" - and pains with hopes of a happy future for her; a future filled with love ("Swim with the swans and believe that upon some glorious dawn, love will find you.")

As was typical with Townes' art though, the song is more complex than first appears. The tumultuous joyfulness of the sculpted pastoral poetry is tainted with an innate sadness. Writing this, Van Zandt knew he would soon be gone away from Katie Belle - either temporarily, as was the wandering wont of his wounded restless soul, or even worse, soon gone away forever. This "duende" is expressed in the gorgeous line "but whatever may, you must stay and remain my beautiful daughter".

Tragically, the line proved all too prophetic. On both counts!

Van Zandt and Katie Belle's mum Jeanene Munsell were divorced on May 2, 1994 when Katie Belle was just two years old.

Even more sadly, less than three years later, Townes would be no more for the world -suffering an early death on New Year's Day of 1997, caused by years of severe substance abuse and the most turbulent of lifestyles.

Thanks though to the peerless catalogue of songs he left behind - high amongst which is this timeless tribute to his "beautiful daughter" - Townes Van Zandt's will never be forgotten.

The great vid below comes from the a gig of on 17 January 1995 for the "Solo Sessions" on Austin Music Network.

There is no deeper blue
in the ocean that lies
as deep as the blue
of your laughing eyes.
No sweeter sound
than your gentle sigh,
no heart was ever so pure.

Dream pretty dreams
touch beautiful things
let all the skies surround you.
Swim with the swans
and believe that upon
some glorious dawn
love will find you.

Come some day
I'm bound away
wind and wings on the water.
But whatever may
you must stay
and remain my beautiful daughter.

There is no deeper blue
in the ocean that lies
as deep as the blue
of your laughing eyes.
No sweeter sound
than your gentle sigh
no heart was ever so pure.

Goodnight Katie Belle.

Goodnight.

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Close to Heaven - Big Star's "Keep an Eye on the Sky" (2009)

There are box sets and there are box sets. And then there's this!

A few weeks back, I got my mitts on the recently released "Keep an Eye on the Sky" box-set by one of the most important groups of all, the mighty Big Star!It's definitely one of the best box sets I've ever listened to - and I'm not even a member of "Teenage Fanclub"!!

If I was a Samurai; and if I met Maria Ozawa; and if Maria refused to do the 'Tokyo Tango'; and if I therefore, in the interests of honour, had to commit Hari Kari; and if I had to choose a box set to play right before committing suicide ... this would be the one!! I would slit my wrists with glee and have a bloody smile on my face!

"Keep an Eye on the Sky" is a wonderful 98-song collection - yap, that's ninety eight, mofos! Importantly, unlike most box sets, the majority of these tracks are previously unreleased, encompassing an array of demos, alternate takes and live performances! All in all, a wet dream for any Big Star fan!

As well as material from founder Chris Bell's earlier groups Rock City and Icewater, "Keep an Eye on the Sky" includes all of the titles (in many cases as alternate mixes or demos) from Big Star's first three studio albums, '#1 Record', 'Radio City', and 'Third/Sister Lovers', as well as a recording of the legendary January 1973 Big Star concert which took place after Bell's departure and before the group began work on "Radio City."

Here's a nice piece on the set from the label  Rhino.com;


Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times- into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story.

Big Star's trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped-until now. Rhino presents the definitive look at the definitive power-pop band with a four-disc boxed set divided between key cuts from Big Star's three studio albums and unreleased music.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY will be available September 15 from Rhino Records at all retail outlets, including www.rhino.com, for a suggested list price of $69.98 (physical), it will also be available as a digital release the same day. A Deluxe Edition release of Chris Bell's solo album I Am The Cosmos is due September 14 from Rhino Handmade.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY spans 1968 to 1975 and shows the progression of Big Star through selections from such studio precursors as Rock City and Icewater; music from Big Star's acclaimed recordings (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers); and relevant solo work by group principals Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, who formed Big Star in 1971 with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. The collection also uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis.

In these 98 tracks you can hear what turned artists as diverse as Cheap Trick, R.E.M., and The Replacements into Big Star fans. Spotlighting the band's roots, the boxed set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including “Try Again,” one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Those early cuts are followed by Big Star's 1972 debut #1 Record, reimagined here using a mix of album tracks and unreleased alternate mixes of favorites like “Thirteen,” “When My Baby's Beside Me,” and more. Among the disc's rarities are “Country Morn'” (issued as a flexi-disc single by a Big Star fanzine), the demo for “I Got Kinda Lost,” and an unreleased acoustic demo of Chilton singing Loudon Wainwright's “Motel Blues.”

Ardent Records, the band's label, experienced problems with distribution that hindered any chances at success for #1 Record. Its failure was a major blow to Bell, who quit the band to go solo. In 1974, the Alex Chilton-led Big Star regrouped and released Radio City, an album more attuned to the band's live energy that featured the power-pop confections “September Gurls” and “Back Of A Car.” The second disc of KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY opens with a trio of unreleased demos: “There Was A Light,” “What's Going Ahn,” and “Life Is White.”

The original song sequence for Radio City follows, combining album versions with unreleased alternate mixes (“Way Out West” and “You Get What You Deserve.”) The disc features unissued versions of “She A Mover” and “Mod Lang,” several unreleased demos for Big Star's third album, plus Bell's acclaimed 1978 single “I Am The Cosmos” and its B-side “You And Your Sister.” Sadly, Bell died in a car accident a few months after the single's release.

When Big Star reconvened in 1975 to record Third/Sister Lovers, only Chilton and Stephens remained (Hummel left shortly before Radio City's release). Famed Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson was enlisted to supervise the recording, which languished on the shelf for years before its release in 1978. Despite its bleak timbre, wild dynamics, and fragility, the music possesses a startling grace. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY's third disc opens with seven demos (most previously unreleased) for songs that appear on Third/Sister Lovers, including “Jesus Christ,” “Take Care,” and “Holocaust.” Among the album's 19 songs collected here is “For You,” “Kizza Me,” and “Kanga Roo.” Also featured is “Lovely Day,” an early, unreleased version of “Stroke It Noel” with different lyrics; Chilton vamping with photographer Bill Eggleston at the piano for Nat King Cole's “Nature Boy” and a raucous cover of The Kinks' “Till The End Of The Day.”

The collection's final disc contains unreleased highlights from three sets Big Star performed at Lafayette's Music Room in Memphis in January 1973. It is the best live recording ever of the band. The show captures Chilton, Hummel, and Stephens playing many of the songs on #1 Record, which had just recently been released. The set list includes a retooled version of “ST 100/6” lengthened by both guitar and drum solos (with a middle eight heisted from the Rock City song “The Preacher.”) Also in the repertoire are “There Was A Light” and “I Got Kinda Lost.” In addition, the concert includes fully formed versions of several songs recorded later for Radio City: “Back Of A Car,” “Way Out West,” “O My Soul,” and a particularly rocking “She's A Mover.” Those originals are mixed with a selection of covers: Todd Rundgren's “Slut,” T. Rex's “Baby Strange,” The Kinks' “Come On Now,” and The Flying Burrito Brothers' “Hot Burrito #2.”

The lavish packaging for KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band's history. In the notes, Stephens reflects on the band's belated triumph. “Sure, it would've been nice to have been huge at the time. But, here we are, 30 years later, and Big Star is still playing, our music is turning up in movie soundtracks, and young people are still excited to discover the records. I mean, if that isn't success, I don't know what is.”

*Previously unreleased

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The Go-Betweens perform the classic "Cattle and Cane" Live on Rock Arena

In the sky, a rain of falling cinders. From time to time the waste. Memory wastes.

The greatest work from the late great Grant's magnificent catalogue? Possibly! Well, one of them anyway!

Here the Go-Betweens perform the classic "Cattle and Cane" from the seminal and supremely influential "Before Hollywood" LP.

Grant camps it up - with a bleached Robert in tow to provide the wonderful poetic coda - live on the Aussie TV show 'Rock Arena' back February 1983.

The Prisoner remake hitting TV screens now

No.2: “Good day, Number Six.”
No.6: “Number what?”
No.2: “Six. For official purposes, everyone has a number. Yours is number 6.”
No.6: “I am not a number! I am a person!”

Surely one of the greatest cult TV series ever made was the sublime and seminal "The Prisoner" from the Sixties, a portrait of a paranoid, manipulated, f*cked-up Freemason world, co-created by the great Patrick McGoohan along with George Markstein. It's a series we really love!

A man known as only ‘Number 6’ - played by Patrick McGoohan - wakes up in a surreal village that's a cross between a holiday camp and Alcatraz! All he wants to do is get out. But his countless escape atempts are thwarted.

McGoohan had been a British government agent who abruptly resigned without indication and then was immediately drugged and sent to a place known only as “the Village”.

In the Village, no one is known by name. They are only known by a number, and Patrick McGoohan's number is 6.

Throughout the series, the powers-that-be of the Village continually try to find out why No.6 resigned, only to be thwarted time after time by No.6's steadfast refusal to give in.

Restrained in this very bizarre community, the strange inhabitants - known by number rather than name - are controlled by an unknown oppressor known only as "Number 2" ... who "Number 6" doesn’t meet until the finale of the series after its 17 episode run. And he's in for some f*cking surprise when he does finally manage to reach him!!




Now the uber-imaginative TV execs are remaking this classic (aka blandly re-processing an existing excellent  product!) We sense another nightmare!!

McGoohan's widow said in a recent interview that Patrick had adamantly declined to be involved in the production when approached by the producers. Enough said!




Anyway, the remake is to premiere in mid November 2009 as a miniseries on AMC, in cooperation with British broadcaster ITV.




American actor James Caviezel stars in the role of Number 6, with Ian McKellen taking on the role of Number 2.

The new Village was shot in a desert tropical area instead of the original Wales! I guess most folks would rather spend time in a grim barren desert than spend time in Wales!!!

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Raymond Carver - Stupid

 

by angelreich



Raymond Carver - Stupid

It's what the kids nowadays call weed. And it drifts
like clouds from his lips. He hopes no one
comes along tonight, or calls to ask for help.
Help is what he's most short on tonight.
A storm thrashes outside. Heavy seas
with gale winds from the west. The table he sits at
is, say, two cubits long and one wide.
The darkness in the room teems with insight.
Could be he'll write an adventure novel. Or else
a children's story. A play for two female characters,
one of whom is blind. Cutthroat should be coming
into the river. One thing he'll do is learn
to tie his own flies. Maybe he should give
more money to each of his surviving
family members. The ones who already expect a little
something in the mail first of each month.
Every time they write they tell him
they're coming up short. He counts heads on his fingers
and finds they're all survivng. So what
if he'd rather be remembered in the dreams of strangers?
He raises his eyes to the skylights where rain
hammers on. After a while --
who knows how long? -- his eyes ask
that they be closed. And he closes them.
But the rain keeps hammering. Is this a cloudburst?
Should he do something? Secure the house
in some way? Uncle Bo stayed married to Aunt Ruby for 47 years. Then hanged himself.
He opens his eyes again. Nothing adds up.
It all adds up. How long will this storm go on?

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Moments in Art - Andrei Tarkovsky's "The Mirror" (1975)

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Moments in Art - Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (1979)

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Charles Bukowski - Raw With Love

 




Charles Bukowski - Raw With Love

little dark girl with
kind eyes
when it comes time to
use the knife
I won't flinch and
I won't blame
you,
as I drive along the shore alone
as the palms wave,
the ugly heavy palms,
as the living does not arrive
as the dead do not leave,
I won't blame you,
instead
I will remember the kisses
our lips raw with love
and how you gave me
everything you had
and how I
offered you what was left of
me,
and I will remember your small room
the feel of you
the light in the window
your records
your books
our morning coffee
our noons our nights
our bodies spilled together
sleeping
the tiny flowing currents
immediate and forever
your leg my leg
your arm my arm
your smile and the warmth
of you
who made me laugh
again.
little dark girl with kind eyes
you have no
knife. the knife is
mine and I won't use it
yet.

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Art of the Poster - Wings Of Desire (1987)

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The Love Song - Grant McLennan's "Fingers" (1992)

Now you know what it's like to be a man.

A beautiful, moving, enigmatic song of love, of loss, of regret. A sad tale of true love's end.

From the late great Grant McLennan's excellent second solo album "Fireboy" released in 1992; an album I played a thousand times the week it came out!

In the album's liner notes, Grant said the songs were for Gloria Swanson, Kenneth Slessor, Brett Whiteley and Dean Martin! This song is told is from the female's prespective, so there could well be allusions to Swanson. There also here seems to be the ghost of Amanda Brown,  former long-time lover of Grant and former Go-Between.

Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
I will spill away like sand.
Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
Now you know what it's like to be a man.

I still remember
the night you sang "Moon River."
The way the moonlinght lay
like the moonlight on your wrist.

You said "I want my ring back."
I said "Indian giver."
When all I wanted was your finger
not your fist.

Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
I will spill away like falling sand.
Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
Now you know what it's like to be a man.

I said ... Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
I will spill away like falling sand.
Hey you! Watch me fall through your fingers.
Now you know what it's like to be a man.

Now you know what it's like to be a man.

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Mojo Working - The Wonderland of John Lennon's lyrical, lysergic "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"

In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast -
And half believe it true.

- Lewis Carroll


Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

- John Lennon

When "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" was released all the way back in 1967, it not only changed the way rock music would thereafter be seen seen, but also stirred up no small amount of controversy.

The main focus of controversy was the John Lennon song (albeit credited to Lennon & McCartney, it's really a John song) "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" which was banned by the BBC on the basis that they considered the song to refer to LSD - the first letters of the title's nouns forming that anagram.

Predictably, John Lennon always claimed the song never referred to LSD! Of course, Lennon always liked to throw curve balls in interviews, especially when some of his more ambiguous songs were discussed. In relation to this song - as well, of course, in relation to enigmatic tracks like "I am the Walrus" and "Come Together", amongst others - John liked to shroud song meanings in a cloak of lies and obfuscation!

In the same vein, during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine after the the release of "Sgt. Pepper's", Lennon claimed the idea for the song came from a drawing his son Julian had made at school! He said;

"Julian came home and showed me a picture he had drawn of a friend at school. He said: 'Daddy, look. It's Lucy, in the sky, with diamonds.' There was nothing more to it, really."

The Julian Lennon drawing about which Lennon claimed to have written the song!


And the LSD gal herself! Strangely neither in the sky nor wearing diamonds!

Nobody who knew anything about Lennon bought that spin though! Just listen to the lyrics, for f*ck's sake!! The song is a post-modern work of art attempting to document fragmentary remembrances of 'events' encountered during certain chemically induced trips away from the mundanity of the now to some momentary heaven!

John Lennon was a huge fan of Lewis Carroll, the Carroll influence being most overt when Lennon had earlier written his books of experimental poetry “In His Own Write” from 1964 and “A Spaniard In The Works” from 1965.

The love of Carroll began early. When John was 11 years old, he received a copy of Alice in Wonderland as a birthday present. The surreal, nigh nonsensical, idiosyncratic Carroll style left a lasting impression on the young man. Lennon spoke about this first encounter with the Carroll tome saying;

"I was passionate about Alice in Wonderland and drew all the characters. I did poems in the style of 'Jabber- wocky.' I used to love Alice ..."

Thereafter, Lennon was always wishing he could write something like Alice in Wonderland. That ambition would be made possible via his poetry books and by certain late period Beatles songs - no more so than in the lyrics of two of his most famous and enigmatic songs; "I am the Walrus" and this one, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"!

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is indeed something of a journey through Alice's looking glass right into the heart of some Land of Wonder, but with all the scary parts from Lewis Carroll's trip removed! It's a celebratory song, a paean to the joys of altered states of consciousness.

The verses describe different scenes from this Wonderland voyage. These scenes are grounded in a converntional setting ("a boat on a river", "a bridge by a fountain","a train in a station" etc.) that suddenly mutates into something amazing and magical! The "boat on a river" is bounded by "tangerine trees and marmalade skies" and the "train in a station" has "plasticine porters with looking glass ties" while "Rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies" on the "bridge by a fountain"!

The hyper-reality, tangibility and surreality of the evocative Carroll-inspired imagery takes the protagonist on a beautiful languid trip to a truly wondrous place, led by the enigmatic "girl with kaleidoscope eyes" (his own personal Alice!) who both acts as a guide and also plays an extended game of "hide and seek" with the protagonist.

Finally, he catches up with his guide - "Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile. The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" - and the song seems to end in a sort of carnal / metaphysical / psychological ecstacy with the multiple repition of the climactic line "Lucy in the sky with diamonds (Aaaaaah!)"!

Returning to the drug aspect of the song, the (Cheshire) cat eventually was eventually left out of the bag (not sure why the cat was doing in there in the first place! Maybe he was just high!) only some 37 years after the fact, when Macca admitted the truth! Yap, despite Lennon's ridiculous denial of the title and content of the song having anything to do with LSD, Paul McCartney told the BBC on 2nd June 2004, that the song is definitely about LSD!!

In any event, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is a seminal, innovative and powerful song, that still resonates all these years later! A song up there amongst the best of the Beatles' magnificent catalogue! No higher praise is scarcely possible!!

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you,
you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds


Lyrics: John Lennon

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