Monday, June 06, 2005

Three Centuries of Rock and Roll

In the coming days I'm going to be doing something similar to what my friend Kelly is doing. He is counting down the top 100 Metal songs. I'm not particularly fond of Metal, so even naming 100 true metal songs would be quite the task for me. However, I do know some music. So, I'm hoping to be doing the "Top 100 Songs/Sonata's of the Past Three Centuries which influenced Rock and Roll". I plan on getting some musical discussion here, but since no one reads this its mainly literary and musical knowledge masterbation. If nothing else, it will get me to delve into my long dusty music collection to see if I can find some nuggets that I've been missing. Numbers 100 - 90 will be coming soon!

I claim no expertise on anything and I plan on messing up alot. However, maybe you'll find some songs you've forgotten or some that will be forgotten soon.

Get Behind Me Satan

What follows are the liner notes from the above mentioned album. Never before have I been moved by liner notes. Generally, they merely thank the production company that will one day rob them and their children of royalties, but this is an intance of someone using the space provided to actually say something. What's more important than saying something? Saying something that needs to be said. I'm starting to think that the pendulum may actually be swinging from the misguided "hippie" ideal towards a genuine search for truth. I'm happy with this because any genuine search for truth will result in the finding of truth, eventually. Which is a beautiful thing because truth is beauty, beauty is love, love is justice and God runs the market on all of these. It's a buyers market. As an editorial point, it seems Mr. White went to the e.e. cummings school of capitalization and the Bob Dylan institute for punctuation. All errors, intentional or otherwise, are not the scribes, but the authors.

Liner notes, Jack White III

there once was a story i wanted to tell, but i assumed it was one you all knew too well. maybe i was wrong. was wondering how cleare we were gonna say it. how to keep us all interested enough to not drift off and start fantasizing about romantic things. but then again, what about those things in books, and in movies? are they real? does anybody care? you ride the bus don’t you? ain’t nobody ever bumped into you before? was it an accident? lotta questions. rhett and scarlett, what they are? can’t be true love. but there are others. unrequited is a word too. it’s in the dictionary. after truth i believe. everyday life some others i guess look at as romantic. but what about us people? are those elements impossible for us to experience? do you know and welcome the idea of tru love, staging, destiny, mis en scene, hope for internal completion? everyone’s talking about their hurt and their rage on the radio. and the armchair judge is the family bible in prime time today. what reality is fake? then drama is superficial and not admired, the judge and the apology is shallow, love is put aside. i think there’s one truth, with no subjectivity. and in the corner is a booth with some productivity. under my are is a device with conductivity and gave it to you. no lessons o.k.? the city i live in it ain’t no different man! your sidewalk has less cracks in it? how spoiled we are right! funny, funny, funny. but you must have bought a book, and it is a reality to hold in your thought, let’s put it together though. we know not to kill after seeing a murder on the screen, but do we know not to love when we see two fulfilled? your morning can go however you want it. no one owes you breakfast for example. no one owes you a ride. and you know damn well you could walk there if you wanted to. and you know too that you could have what you need. to give is true and admirable too, but to be taken from is loss and and totally false. imagine that you are being taken from. what faith is tested? what hope is wuthering? what angel was persecuted who worked so hard at something never to achieve it? prove it to me. and what child who was innocent was pushed to the ground never to get up again? where’s he/she at right now? where’s a starbucks when you need one? am i in destiny, am i in my kitchen? you’re the book dammit. you are the morning. don’t deny yourself with this duty-woman! don’t damn yourself with a painted smile on a skull-man. put it on the table. and don’t deny it. whatever it is. do yourself a favor and breathe real, get it? funny, were all still here man. nobody left, and it’s odd because the more you deny it, the funnier it gets. three kids are playing on the playground, and one turns to the others and says “are they making us go to school or are we learning for the sake of beauty?” the other kids love this idea, and they laugh and pass notes about it for days. so we all know the right thing to do, and we all root for the underdog in the book, and in real life?. not just in some sports game. you know, but—hey wouldn’t it be nice if every sports team was only allowed to have team members from its own city? no trading. evil can be funny. rightousness is a barrel of laughs too. come on, we all know! it’s a new century, no sarcasm kids. boy these kids can take! how bout take the tongues out of the cheeks? no blasphemy. no talking under your breath. tell me what you want, and we can get together. i’m not kidding. they wrote the books to share with you what they assumed could be. they made the films to expolore what you didn’t get to do at work today. and they wrote the songs to fill in the gaps between being someplace, and getting there. but it by no means, don’t mean, it can’t be. you’re probably already there, just admit it. just say it. then you’ll get it. stay the truth and hold with this word behind tooth, to know that truth pushes truth forward, and to be taken is to be held, and to be stolen from is to lose what truth you deserve, pretending this is pretending the play with no audience but yourself, the options are sometimes not options at all, but distractions or temptations to live for something or someone else instead of yourself, breathing can’t be taken, the fact can’t be shaken, and the truth is still waiting always for you. i think we’re gonna be ok.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Congrats Jack White!

Jack (Gillis) White married uber model Karen Elson. I'm really diggin' this guy. Not only does his new album have one of the best titles ever for a rock n' roll record, but he gets married the way a gentleman would. He got married in a canoe by a Shaman priest in the middle of a river at a point at which three rivers intersect and then he went and had the marriage blessed by a proper catholic priest in a proper cathedral. Oh, and his ex-wife/sister/drummer was also a (slash) maid(matron to be specific) of honor. What a cool guy. Did Mick Jagger ever do anthing this cool? Did Robert Plant? What an extraordinary life this man is leading and how lucky I am to be able to read and watch it.

in his own words.

"Well I'm sorry but I'm not
interested in gold mines,
oil wells, shipping or real estate
what would I liked to have been?
everything you hate

There is a man
a certain man
and for the poor you may be shure
that he'll do all he can
who is this one?
who's favorite son?
just by his action has the traction
magnets on the run
who likes to smoke?
enjoys a joke?
and wouldn't get a bit
upset if he were really broke?
with wealth and fame
he's still the same
I'll bet you five he's not alive
If you don't now his name"

And another...


"Well i hold the rope
and i hold the sail
and i kept my papers
to keep from land in jail
and i fought piranhas
and i fought the cold
there was noone with me
i was all alone

Well it's easter morning now
and there's noone around
so i unroll the cement
and walk into the town
there was noone with me
and i was all alone
and i fought piranhas
and i fought the cold

Well you know what it's like
i don't got to tell you
who puts up a fight
walking out of hell now
when you fought piranhas
and you fought the cold
there's nobody with you
and you're all alone"