“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left”
Two curios from the visionary Tucson band Calexico. Their exemplary discography will reward your investigations!
“Sunken Waltz
Washed my face in the rivers of empire
Made my bed from a cardboard crate
Down in the city of quartz
No news, no new regrets
Tossed a Susan B. over my shoulder
And prayed it would rain and rain
Submerge the whole western states
Call it a last fair deal
With an American seal
And corporate hand shake
Take the story of carpenter mike
Dropped his tools and his keys and left
And headed out as far as he could
Past the cities and gated neighborhoods
He slept ‘neath the stars
Wrote down what he dreamt
And he built a machine
For no one to see
Then took flight, first light
Of new morning”
““Jet” by Tony Hoagland from Donkey Gospel. Published by Graywolf Press 1998
JET
Sometimes I wish I were still out
on the back porch, drinking jet fuel
with the boys, getting louder and louder as the empty cans drop out of our paws like booster rockets falling back to Earth
and we soar up into the summer stars. Summer. The big sky river rushes overhead, bearing asteroids and mist, blind fish
and old space suits with skeletons inside. On Earth, men celebrate their hairiness,
and it is good, a way of letting life
out of the box, uncapping the bottle
to let the effervescence gush
through the narrow, usually constricted neck.
And now the crickets plug in their appliances in unison, and then the fireflies flash
dots and dashes in the grass, like punctuation for the labyrinthine, untrue tales of sex someone is telling in the dark, though
no one really hears. We gaze into the night
as if remembering the bright unbroken planet
we once came from,
to which we will never
be permitted to return.
We are amazed how hurt we are.
We would give anything for what we have.”
You can thank my tireless friend Chris True for this book showing up in your life today. It leaves every other poetry book I ever picked up in Sheboygan!
“Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes
Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes
Under normal, we change the wind
Facing every direction
Planted in the future, we live two lives
All to reveal a secret we can’t hide
Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes
Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes
We search the sky, planets chasing the stars
Pulling toward deep affection
Weights and numbers measure a wound that won’t heal
All to reveal a secret we can’t hide
Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes
Ah... Ah... Ah Ahhh Ah Ahhh
When we open our eyes and dream
We open our eyes”
A under appreciated number from their lp “Oranges and Lemons,” sung here by Colin Moulding. It features those subtle, fresh pop ingredients: tight vocal layers, bright instrumentation and the assured attitude that so prominently operated in the work of XTC.
“Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Michael White
Impulse Artists on Tour at Atwood Hall, Clark University 1972
The call came from Impulse Records asking whether the Clark Social Affairs Board would be interested in sponsoring a tour stop featuring three of their artists. The cost of sponsorship was free. Impulse’s only stipulation was that the admission charge should be $1.
By this time the 658 seat Atwood Hall had hosted concerts by the Grateful Dead, Roland Kirk was the opening act, Jimi Hendrix, Soft Machine was the opener, Ten Years After with James Taylor as the opener, Janis Joplin and a speech by Malcolm X.
Of course the Social Affairs Board said YES.
Michael White was the opener. He had been a member of John Handy’s group in the mid 60’s and in the late 60’s was part of the early fusion band The Fourth Way. Their recording The Sun and Moon Have Come Together came out in 1969 on Harvest Records, but failed to gain any traction. In the early 70’s he signed with Impulse, first as an excellent sideman on Pharoah Sander’s Thembi. His first three Impulse albums, Spirit Dance, Pneuma and The Land of Spirit and Light are of a lighter, spiritual, Caribbean, gospel feel. His band was mature and the performance was uplifting.
The night before the scheduled concert at Clark, Pharoah Sanders decided to leave the tour. It never became clear as to why. This left Alice Coltrane with a reduced band as some of the members, including Pharoah, played in both ensembles.
Frankly I do not recall all the details of her performance. I believe that at least one of her children was helping out on percussion. But the stunner happened relatively early when saxophonist, Frank Lowe placed the bell of his white tenor saxophone over a stage microphone and proceeded to wail for what seemed like ten minutes. The audience of roughly four or five hundred quickly shrunk to one or two hundred at most. Alice’s harp playing was, as always, magnificent.
”
1.21.41 Mr. Havens halo remains @@@ 81! Here’s a triumph lost in his passing wake!