chris whitley, “dust radio”
from: living with the law, 1991
“Walk it with the father
Talk it with the son
Baby got vision child
Like a loaded gun
She use my body
Like carrion crow
Doing our transmission thing
On dust radio
Baby call the number
Nobody left in town
Baby paint skulls and constellations on the ground
Where she lay me gently, she lay me slow
Somebody receiving up there
On dust radio
Walk it with the spirit
Talk it with the spine
Mama sing “Open up yourself when worlds align”
My secret Jesus,
The good red road
On blood antenna
And dust radio”
In late 2005 I was living in DC and first-dating again. We were eating tapas and talking music. The Venn diagram of our musical interests had a large overlapping section. The conversation was animated with discovery. She mentioned Chris Whitley. I mentioned he had died recently of lung cancer. She started to cry.
Dust Radio is from Whitley’s first album, selected for the Bop Shop, where every song triggers a “what will play next” reflex as does the radio show of our collective unconscious.
I suggest you travel further along in Whitley’s catalog as he gets grungy, then eclectically experimental, and later very dark. Some of his work in challenging. Some if it may lead you to tears
-Neil Glassman-
“you wouldn’t heve won if we’d beaten you”
