1. |
What Thou Art
04:00
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Time line, 1977
Spring I guess
Sunrise on Black Mountain Road
the air a-pulse with incandescent wildlife
Hello universe!
Imagination
it’s a field of abandoned cars
Native tobacco, and ferns burst through rust
Oxidation
We’re all on the slow burn down here
So, to the floor of a fifty-seven De Soto:
discarded tools, feathers,
crushed beer cans, greasy rags
and a message from the out-lands -
As without, so within
And I’m hearing Patti Smith and
I’ve been reading the symbolist poets and
I’m fairly pretentious
Another lonely boy
out on the weekend
But, it’s a big land
and given to dreaming
Through the windscreen
the morning clouds pile up
our heaped canopy of joy
And fearful
that my head will explode
from too much cumulonimbus
out and spinning, spinning
Spin the world
Slow
till racing backwards
retreat into our own eternal sunset
‘Hey Sheba, hey Salome, hey Venus
eclipsin’ my way’
And a quarter of a century later
I dreamt of this same morning
crouching in the wet grass
hugging myself hysterical with connection
and voicing all time
in the wet grass
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2. |
Ketamindfield
03:04
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Beneath the gilded dome
flaked leaf paper altar burn
Collapse inwards
Your garden of Eden unfolds
within the eye of God
Pantheon of clouds
stream o’er head
past iris, tulip, pupil
bulb of all knowledge
flickers in a half life so intense
of ten million light years
You who have read to me
memories of mother
laid upon mother
laid upon mother
back into the earth
The fragile grid
of all our race histories
held, tender to heart
and wrapped as heirlooms
silent under care
So soft, as not a hares breath
disturbs
utter
rapt
concentration
Prayers passed forward
mother to son
son to daughter
daughter to child
And you said,
Look only at six paintings
because the seventh is you
This Easter
symmetrical but not quite
in smell so sacred
we know it
in the dark night of the soul
across crowded dance floor
Shimmer the fabric of time
slow spinning,
magnetic in gyroscope
transparent globe, flux
field
Forever
is never
through the portal of consciousness
as true poet
is the fenestration
of fire word
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3. |
Brissance
03:12
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Pacific Highway
Reprise to
scuttling coast
across broken land
Previous imagination
is feral in the forest
At night the fluttering wings
disrupt all sleep
Drinking
at the Buddah’s temple
or stranded
horizontal on nightclub floor
Panic
at the wrong end of a telescope
To sense all futures eclipsed
by the roaring hollow of now
Bark, freedom
and by tetragrammation
L .o .v. e.
Ankle, calf, heifer
Eventually
we all get to godhead
apparently
Brisance
gateway to Queensland spirit realm
Spring Hill baths at 1am
the pool surface
roiling oily moon altered fable
Where is the changing room Minotaur?
Under the hostess fast asleep
so we set her on fire
and watched his bow peep
What sacrifice can atone
for this state of disgrace
where even the peanut
wants to join the space race?
Speak her magnetic core
from gauss to Goss
minus to cross
potential difference
emitting the loss.
Tail lights
I told Venus
sweetest dreams
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4. |
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At the towns edge
a straggle of deluded trees linger
ignored behind the culvert
The local kids hang out there
lolling listless on the gutless sofa
staring vacant into the powerless TV or sprung
laughing from a doorless robe
Halfways ‘tween a tip and a non-place
ideal for sniffing glue
or staging tuneless operas
Cigarettes are smoked
and a stolen bike re-birthed
A grey dishrag flutters wired to the breeze
the once spangled bandana
of some dumb-arsed club
you’d never be in
Old glory indeed
In the archaic sense of the word it’s a common
not beyond rules
but they are unspoken here
and today it’s under threat
Let me reiterate that this
is the most real of real estates
everything and nothing goes on
it’s a buffer zone between us and the future
I decry its passing
and would furthermore claim
it’s gotta lot of inside-out for structure
Wastelands are the birthplace of culture
I did my learning here
A place owned by nobody
furnished me
with the bittersweet community of belonging
Attendance was optional
avoidance impossible
Priceless moments
suspended amongst the pathetic remnants of nature
Hope
kindled along the high tide mark of affluence
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5. |
See City Burn
03:42
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Whether April is fair or cruel
it’s got all the numbers
for re-birthing the fool
So much more, so much was meant
So much of style
and so little content
Not long ago, once gods were dancing
now they glide from the shadows
moving like Nazis
Between the columns aeons shifting
cheek to cheek chiffon is drifting
all the haze of empire collapsing
We are young
carefree
and scarcely worth catching
I’ll tell you what I see
I see city burn
I’ll tell you what I see
I see city burn
How often we said you can see it a mile
There’s no poke in the eye
just plain denial
Whether April is fair or cruel
it’s got all the numbers
for re-birthing the fool
So much more, so much was meant
So much of style
and so little content
Now you might say that I’m some pessimist
Who’s enjoyed all the highs
and had all the hits
Now I’ve turned a disparaging eye
I’m sitting back
to wait while we die
I’ve looked at the matter cool in the face
I’m ready to die
and I’ve taken my place
Along with the people who tried
and who cared
it was all that was left
Not long ago, once gods were dancing
now they glide from the shadows
moving like Nazis
Between the columns aeons shifting
cheek to cheek chiffon is drifting
all the haze of empire collapsing
We are young
carefree
and scarcely worth catching
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6. |
Dawn Patrol
05:30
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If I lived alone at the end of a long street
with curtains drawn dusty
and smoke chimneying up my air
glistening pavements in the wet
footfalls
Long night of the suburb
Fire’s break out
but I’m not a starter
A watcher,
a walker a thinker.
by subway or culvert
Loneliness is never clandestine
just outside and lonely
like mail man
Like mailman
No news, no sack,
no shift, no uniform
more carrier pigeon than
Kurtz’s cursed delivery boy
Perhaps though
I’d send myself a letter
Then, received expectant
note from then until now:
Dearest sister,
I’d say, paraphrasing myself
Your family and husband send
their deepest affections
Please find enclosed your application
for migration
How did I then end migrated
like a southern bird
who’s lost all will to go home?
That not one of my generation should taste freedom
freezes the genes and civilisation stagnant
The press depressing
the people insular
the climate forgiving
the economy profligate
the church fitful to sporadic
sport…
now you’ve got them talking!
You didn’t chose me to arrive
and I didn’t expect you to greet me
but tonight behind sleepy eyes
rest assured
that I am out here
patrolling for you
Let me explain it this way;
As I see it
your society is an insurance job
a stand over tactic of understatement
an insider job committed by sociopaths
administered by control freaks who definitely know best
and funded by every one of us
according
to our greed.
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7. |
Woodcut
03:11
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Unto the capital
where some forces fall
To seek a woodcut
I’ve seen before
Old man with lamp
chases beauty down
His soul is torn
on the stony ground
She understands land
just by standing still
Sky split asunder
swallow storm
How they fly
in compassion song
Seeking truth
by lamp is fine until
The oil runs out
She understands that path
that the woodcut shows
Is not just knowledge
or its antidote
The girl is fair
the man is old and blind
Unto the capital
he’s bound to go
And buy a woodcut
of the episode
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8. |
Poor Time
06:47
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Poor time, riding down
stealth night on stolen horses
Road north runs right
runs right by her heart
It’s not what I think
that you should be believing
Old man, drunk fool
he was once king like they say
After the silk and gold
after silk and gold are stripped away
He got it so right then so wrong
Charlie sing that old song
‘Forgotten, forgotten, forgotten
but not gone’
God says, take no
living prisoners
So hard time is over
if they find us
It’s not my hope
that you should be breathing
Things past, future tense
back to the beginning
Poor time, stolen nights
on stealth black horses
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9. |
All Fall Down
02:35
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Even though he held us
in his tractor beam
we all fall down
Even though he held us
aloft on tractor beam
the god who tried to guide us
had somehow not foreseen
despite our best intentions
and hearts alive with love
the eternal fall of all
from heart to earth above
we all fall down
The cup that runneth over
fulfil the source’s lip
we all fall down
He caught the living humans
suspended in thin air
Some achieve valhalla
but I’m consigned elsewhere
we all fall down
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10. |
Planet
02:40
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Do you ever eat too fast?
I do, love’s like that
In the city, summertime
your heart goes out naive and cool
Are you angry and afraid?
I can confess to that
Do you look at the mess we’ve made
hope to ever learn from it?
Don’t despair
people united under hope
helping hand, emotions mute
we’re washed in each other’s blood.
It’s not wrong to pray for those things
that your brothers and sisters might need
but if they take too much you’re going to
have to fight, there’s no room for greed
Without money, you’ve got faith
think once and get it right
It’s OK, we’re all possessed
ideas and dead mythology
Don’t despair
people united under hope
This stuff we spill
is just the living breath of earth
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11. |
Old Message
03:21
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Hey, I’m sorry about the biscuits
what, with the radio and all
I forgot
It’s strange don’t you think?
How did all this all get to be so big brother?
Why all the voting out
couldn’t we just vote in for once?
The ghost of democracy scores a TV show
It’s dumb, but I watch
How’s Brion?
I know you think he’s wrong
but just lately
I’ve been hearing his side of the story
Is the stuff about the dog true?
Went to Vic’s show at Art Veldt on Wednesday
Samo, samo. You know
‘Bourgeois Reassurism’
more theory than Einstein
and it’s small and ugly to boot
Amazes me how they ever get funding
but anyway
Max was there
blathering on about the collapse of language
I’m sure he’s right
but how do you market it?
I’ve got the reverse problem
it just costs
I ring up those chat lines
to discuss meaning
At least they listen for a while
or fake it
Hey, have you seen that new water?
I got some the other day and
can’t tell the difference
stuff you take for granted
Um, sorry about the biscuits
Hey listen
do you think that there’s something weird’s going on?
It’s about the Australian vernacular
wheat silos and all corrugated iron -
no, not really
But it didn’t used to be all lifestyle did it?
I’m not hearing it
Where’s it going?
There’s nobody out there with my voice
and I think
that I’m not the only one
You live somewhere for most of your life
making assumptions about
who your friends and neighbours are
and suddenly
you wake up one day to find
that you’ve been voted out
Hey sorry about the biscuits again
and
sorry about filling up your message bank up
with all this stuff
Have a good day.
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12. |
Bucolica
03:01
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Long before the sun
the children asleep
we are the reckless ones
Out in the field with birds
under pine trees
what are we hoping for?
The map we’ve got is wrong
people just aren’t
like that anymore
There’s a lot of loose ends
but you can bet
that all this has been before
Let me take you home
the shoes you’re in
the earth you’re standing on
What does it mean to them? Not much
but between you and me
it’s everything
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13. |
Back Up The Car
03:55
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Let the sun go down on your last regret
Forty years wrong on a barbed wire fence
Feeling it over, pack up your books and clothes
Back up the car, you took the wrong road
Easy forgiven, empty the whispering wire
I watched you two burn
Beat into ploughshares the hammer and sickle of song
Get out of town you don’t belong
Swearing that day from deep in your heart
as they made you, so you’re a part of them
Try not believing when you’re leaving, it’s the wrong time
You might change their hearts, but never their minds
I know, mistaken as I often am
with plenty of time and too many plans
Let the sun go down on your last regret
Forty years wrong on a barbed wire fence
Feeling it over, pack up your books and clothes
Back up the car you took the wrong road
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14. |
Feels Like Geoff
03:41
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This is planet Earth
your stop ‘tween birth and death
Chaquira calls it life
but to me it feels like Geoff
Capture flock of birds
who suck in fevered breath
sweep out of the past
after everyone has left
Saddle up wild herd
extinguish barbecue
then unblock the drain
if there’s nothing left to do
Receive every blessing
of hero god right now
put bottles out the front
for the sacred cow
Try exercising discipline
of having too much fun
father scratches head from
too much time in sun
Get the golden fleece
use it as a rag
soak up all the oil
that’s leaking from the hag
She’s come in for a service
mechanics are unfound
bed her down in feathers
enfold her in the sound
The oracle of lips
you should read them every day
A serpent, big apple
a holy mad man’s quest
each of these resides
inside the mind of Geoff
A template, a metaphor
a software fluid plan
of how to be a child
trapped in body not quite man
Suddenly the knees
are folding towards the chin
I’m falling back inside
preparing to begin
This is planet earth
your stop ‘tween birth and death
Chaquira calls it life
but to me it feels like Geoff
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15. |
Mincemeat
02:35
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16. |
Mad Cows
04:39
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King Malchy reigns his domain
as cool as alabaster
Order and peace supreme till
indelible bedroom scenes etch
screaming poet
in service of his queen
Precipitous,
shades drunk, awnings awry
gay withe atmosphere
liaisons disappear
Caravans of phonography
set forth awash
with a sacred cargo of sound
ENTER Grand Vizier
Most highly esteemed bovine overlord
the choreographer of cows
walking and gliding
slipping and sliding
rapping and breaking
twisting and shaking
Keeper of all the sacred steps
behind the hill obscured from human view
Caution!
A peasant approaches
Pooh-bah of nought but despot of
fleas, lice, bedbugs and
assemblaged and sundry vermin
A plague of indifference
seizes the kingdom
We need a hero to release us!
Sport and cake are of no service
Revolution! Struggle!
Overthrow of the old infestation by the new
Strands grow together
clump
reshoot
a map extends across our hopeless topography
A flickering matrix of half truths
nodule to ganglion
link
The message jumps and falsely transmitted
feeds back upon the tithe
till ten
times ten
times one hundred
times one thousand
goes exponential and explodes
fuminescence and destruction
upon all of our houses
PART THE THIRD
A new number arrives from the wilderness
summonsed by carrion crow
The caravan gone mutant
Its load reconfigures
and revisits itself upon us
fresh variation
Move steps, three by four
four by five
five by six
An outsider
delivers to the blasted progeny
a dainty trill embroidening up the settling air
Vizier retiring
a simile concealed beneath his horns
by tube of digestion
we thrive to dance another dusk till dawn
TIP
Don’t eat brains; don’t fly in planes
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17. |
Hen Whisperer
03:34
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There’s trouble in the henhouse brewing
pullet into ginger’s gone
and down the long backyard is coming
a thin man in a black frock coat
He roosts outside the fence
and tells them what they need to hear:
Watch out chooks, the yanks are coming
chicken-fat kitchens drawing near
Now you can greet the axe like fowl
or fly like eagles, the lie on wings
The choice is yours, the gate is open
I’ll give you five to get your things
Like St Francis of graffiti
all across the land they roamed
sleeping cold under the stars
or sometimes they’d find a barn
Unguided like a worm they travelled
and all along the thin man raved
(a half of it weren’t true)
Reject experts their radio
who’s condescending accents show
just how much they don’t
know, no no no
You’ve left behind the servitude of yolk
Dress in denim, play guitar and mingle
with the common folk
The world is big, you’re free to range
I’ll agree the kangaroos are strange
Battery no more for us, it is a living hell
come on enjoy the noise of Avian Freedom Cell
Such tunes come in at number one
Drive parrots screeching from the air
Replace one nonsense with another
Come on, we’ve suffered long enough
it’s only fair
Yeah you can point your camera at
many things so dumb
but I can think of eight plus one
His mouth is as a flower
bees and such are buzzing there
Number Nine is beyond those hills
she is our muse
another rumour sings the air
There’s trouble in that henhouse brewing
pullet into ginger’s gone
and down the long backyard is coming
a thin man in a black frock coat.
He roosts outside the fence
and tells them what they need to hear.
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18. |
Calendar
02:11
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Put little springs and cogs in the landscape
so it can work for you
Travel cross country in an express bus
through fields of green
Look over yonder there’s a father figure
toiling in the midst of a dream
If you see sparrows in a shoe box gather
looking for a song and dance
rest it on a laurel tree
draped up like Christmas
Haven’t seen your loved ones for the longest time
ever since you came down with song
Miracles are easy when holidays pass
Click on that memory again
Made down payment on a three day week
lucky how often Sunday repeats
The rest of it is all the same
with February thrown in for free
Look over yonder though fields of green
there’s a father figure toiling in the midst of a dream
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19. |
Clockwork
02:08
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Clockwork with feathered wings
angels uncoiling spring
good people gather round
and when together sound
they’ll give you everything
Teacher taught us
the shell of course is
hard and faster
than the hare
So I would
given evening
sleep and dream
of clockwork feathered wings
angel uncoiling spring
good people gather round
and when together sound
each time it comes around
digs into deeper ground
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20. |
Conceit of Light
04:59
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Virgil sound system
skate park eighties Brixton
a fashion plate of tender chicken
cowpoke Belgian flick
country singer singing sick
Pomona Mike and her friend dick
seven cows mini herd
special third have you heard
the Persian bird ?
conceit of light you deserve
albino bat brain exposed
flesh pinned back wimper rose
lotus rain electrodes
feel the empire burn itself
little teeth devouring wealth
enter into acts of stealth
wise acre laying fallow
lazy boy drowns in the shallow
hoon point fast and narrow
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21. |
Lambswool Cymbal
01:41
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Where is he now?
Payslip
with his lambswool cymbal
That’s how he’s gone
into the clouds
Five farthings together
sing on a power line
land mine
pay back
Where is he now?
Were?
Is he gone?
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22. |
Stick and Carrot
02:13
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Got bag of sticks, I got donkey
got red cloth hat on a dry hillside
It’s some old fashioned painting
But you’re still good fun
He’s shy of children and says,
Every time you come around I just want to hide
It’s all bag and knife now
sad sack of breath holes
as bad belief comes rolling down hill
How close to my heart it spoke
Be careful song siren
that turtle once ate a bloke
At Asgard on jukebox
sweet sings the General’s Legacy
ten thousand eagles that plunge from above
Got bag of sticks, I got donkey
got red cloth hat on a dry hillside
It’s some old fashioned painting
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23. |
Field Man
02:40
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I am a such a field man
cloaked in love and green
with all the summer’s longing
trees earth the sky it seems
If you dream of restless things
whilst resting in the would
it will come out happy wise
the which you switched is good
Lay up your dove coloured marl
thin upon my youth
that we may remain fertile
for fifty years or more
As you walk out Baptist street
barefoot where you place your feet
avert your eyes from all you meet
‘cause they might be chimera
If you climb on giant’s shoulders
don’t whisper in their ear
keep your counsel to yourself
the big boys don’t want to hear
I am a such a field man
cloaked in love and green
with all the all the summer’s longing
trees earth the sky it seems
As falls the rain or settles dew
the plants push up the stars to view
Walk the road in harvest moon
It’s different now ‘neath silver glow
Weave you fingers through the strings
for all the joy that a life might bring
All that space folds into all that time
All that space folds into all that time
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24. |
Joe's Walk
03:41
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There is a summer road you’re walking on
through shady valley next to water song
Check out the lilies growing over there
they get their gear from who knows where?
Between the wattle glimpse of barley corn
the walk is short but the learning long
Gather ye hayseeds whilst you can
they tax the chaff to feed the land
There is a summer road you’re walking on
through shady valley next to water song
All by the banks of Albion
I can’t see much because the water’s brown
As falls the rain or settles dew
the plants push up the stars to view
Walk the road in harvest moon
It’s different now ‘neath silver glow
Weave you fingers through the strings
for all the joy that a life might bring
All that space folds into all that time
All that space folds into all that time
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25. |
Full of Time
02:57
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Ours oft was the afternoon
Shiloh
emphatica
Last night by the engine
we were resplendent
co-eternal
I walked out into your world’s
golden
morning
I want to thank you for the longest weight
stood still
stood still
This is a song that you can sing
because you
can’t be with everything
This is a sing that you can song
because you
can’t be with everyone
It’s full of time
it’s full of time
Ours oft was the afternoon
Shiloh
emphatica
Last night by the engine
we were resplendent
co-eternal
I walked out into your world’s
golden
morning
I want to thank you for the longest wait
stood still
stood still
This is a song that you can sing
because you
can’t be with everything
This is a sing that you can song
because you
can’t be with everyone
It’s full of time
It’s full of time
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26. |
Pied Plucker of Cooroy
02:16
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The Pied Plucker of Cooroy had a plague of rats
they got into his studio and that was that
Ate up all his wires and shit on his sound
till the pied plucker of Cooroy had to move to higher ground
Can’t get rid of rats without exterminator
Rang up old Bull Lee, said, Come round later
We shot up all the rats, then started on our love
Tried to write a song but got sidetracked by drugs
Pied Plucker of Cooroy said to the reporter
Only story you’re gonna get’s in Bill’s recorder
tape recorder
So if you think that something round here stinks
be sure it’s not dead rats in your sink
Haven’t heard a sound like that in years
since Chickenfoot Crawp played his Eko guitar
The Pied Plucker of Cooroy had a plague of rats
they got into his studio and that was that
Ate up all his wires and shit on his sound
till the pied plucker of Cooroy had to move to higher ground
Can’t get rid of rats without exterminator
rang up Bull Lee, said, Come round later
We shot up all the rats, then started on our love
Had to make a song but got sidetracked by drugs
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27. |
Terminal Hermit
02:25
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The reward is over
step out of the cave
And in a leather waistcoat
a lone man
his lips in prayer defining
a singular vision
of startling ingenuity and beauty
offered to all
that choose to listen
The girls from the pub have driven out now
but we’ll never know why
it’s over
No more reward
step out of the cave
His lips are moving
His lips are moving
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28. |
Aristotle Says
02:19
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Aristotle says
the bees have no ears
and they cannot learn
the song of spring
but I’ve heard them sing it in the summer time
Burning mirrors of love
in year nineteen
I sang that song
but not for long
Aristotle says
the bees have no ears
and they cannot learn
the song of spring
but I’ve heard them sing it in the summer time
So Aristotle’s wrong
And I’d like to add
and it is my song
that bee thinks that you’ll never teach the humans things
as the air is thin, ‘they got no wings’
Aristotle says
the bees have no ears
and they cannot learn
the song of spring
but I’ve heard them sing it in the summer time
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29. |
Black Mountain
01:52
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He went up Black Mountain
did a deal with the devil
came back down
told the people on the level
You can have it all
if you give up God
you can have it all
and a custom hot rod
The splinter remained
wedged in his finger
he had thoughts of God
but they didn’t linger
Where he was going
he’d been promised land
the people there already
they’d understand
The devil he’d seen
up on old Black Mountain
was a radio tower
electric metal fountain
It spoke to him
on the FM band
like eight iPods
one in every hand
You can have it all
if you give up God
you can have it all
and a custom hot rod
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DATSON Australia
GEOFFREY DATSON is a sound artist, combining spoken word, electronica and instrumentation in his recordings. Many poets recite their work to music, but few are also composers. Datson's work is a synthesis of forms of sonic expression in which the voice and the sound field are interdependent. ... more
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