Friday, January 27, 2012

The Chorus declares, "Barest of Bones!"

** spoken in the voice of Homer Flynn of The Residents **


You smell that sound? Huh... Do ya?

It's anger. Pure, unapologetic anger.

Look around! Anger in the news. Anger in music. Anger in comments left at the Betty Crocker forum. Anger in the half-played axis and allies game board collecting dust on a forgotten table somewhere.

Even in the eyes of your 40 year old Teddy Bear.


And he's pissed.


It's scary, man. But I've got a plan.

I'm gonna collect all those people that matter to me; all those people that I love. I'm gonna collect them and tell them there ain't no more anger. Or bitterness. Or cynicism.

Those days as an angry young dog are behind me.

Are they behind you?

.
.
.

But then I get to thinkin'.

Hey, Dad! Remember the time you were called in to pick me up at the Parma Police station at 3 o'clock one Saturday morning? Remember how you spit in my face and declared me a disgust?

I do.

I remember it like one of those grainy VHS tapes of something recorded off late-night t.v.; low contrasted and jagged-edged with just a whisper of disjointed sound crackling through the static.

Still... I do have to admit my admiration. With nothing but Colt 45 and saliva, you managed to create a black hole.

There isn't a scientist alive who can say the same.



I kid myself more than I kid you all.

The angry young dog will always morph into a mistrustful hog, rooting not for truffles - but for fragmented memories.

Finding slim pickings, self-consumption typically begins with the tail and ends at the snout.

But...

But I do got a plan.

I'm gonna collect all those people that mattered to me; all those people that I loved. I'm gonna collect them and bury them like a dog does his bone.

Those days as an angry young hog are behind me.

Are they behind you?

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Short Attention Span Theatre #2: A Case of the Punks!

Probably my all-time favorite song ever put to vinyl: Ashtray Heart by Beefheart and the Magic Band. Don Van Vliet dynamites the punks and new wavers for essentially ripping him off - in particular the 'Man on the Porcupine Fence', Johnny Rotten.

Fair or not, the man had a point.

And Beefheart's word play in this one is simply off the charts.

"Make Invalids out of Supermen..."


You used me like an ashtray heart

Case of the punks. 
Right from the start

I feel like a glass shrimp in a pink panty

With a saccharine chaperone

Make invalids out of supermen

Call in a "shrink"

And pick you up in a girdle

You used me like an ashtray heart

Right from the start

Case of the punks

Another day, another way...

Somebody's had too much to think

Open up another case of the punks

Each pillow is touted like a rock

The mother / father figure

Somebody's had too much to think

Send your mother home your navel

Case of the punks

New hearts to the dining rooms

Violet heart cake

Dissolve in new cards, boards, throats, underwear

Ashtray heart

You picked me out, brushed me off

Crushed me while I was burning out

Then you picked me out

Like an ashtray heart

Hid behind the curtain

Waited for me to go out

A man on a porcupine fence

Used me for an ashtray heart

Hit me where the lover hangs out

Stood behind the curtain

While they crushed me out

You used me for an ashtray heart

You looked in the window when I went out

You used me like an ashtray heart.

- Van Vliet

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Beast Cream For Doc

While I have long given up on the pastime of clamming through endless music blogs in search of pearls, I feel it worth the effort this time...

The good Captain Beefheart was soon to sail off into the none-set of mysterious illness. But not before digging through his back pages and delivering a three album return-to-form. Four, if you consider the original Bat Chain Puller recordings.


Great fan-made video

The 'Ice Cream For Crow' video that MTV felt was 'too weird' to air.

For as many brilliant artists as we've had throughout history, at least according to their doting fans, family and friends, it is a surprise we haven't risen to greater heights as a species. And no matter how many times I hear the 'genius' expression, it never gets old.

Hyperbole, after all, was laid off moons ago.


No. To me, there is no brilliance. There is no genius.

There is only Beefheart.

Bat Chain Puller - (Front), 1976
Never Officially Released
The Unheard Music blog


Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) - (Front), 1978
Warner Bros. Records #BSK 3256
Forest Roxx blog


Doc At The Radar Station (Front), 1980
Virgin Records (Canada) #VM 2209

Visionearz blog


Ice Cream For Crow - (Front), 1982
Epic Records #ARE 38274
FRGK blog

Short Attention Span Theatre #1: The Hot Fudge Show

Early mornings have never been the same...

Syndicated out of Detroit from 1976-1982, it's the Hot Fudge Show!


While the memories are fading, I am pretty sure WKYC (Channel 3) in Cleveland used to broadcast this at 7:00AM every weekday morning.



"Hot Fudge. Right on!"


Links of Interest:

* Hot Fudge Show - Official Site