Faulkner – The Wild Palms [If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem]

“Because crows and sparrows get shot out of trees or drowned in floods or killed in hurricanes and fires, but not hawks. And maybe I can be the consort of a falcon, even if I am a sparrow.”

- William Faulkner, The Wild Palms

Emerson – Introduction to “Nature”

“We must trust the perfection of creation so far as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Introduction – “Nature”

Spanish Moss

This was going to be a song, but I couldn’t find the right chords and rhythm. So it’s just words now. One of these days maybe it will click.

—————–

I wish I was down in Savannah
Where the spanish moss hangs from the trees
I see all these people in pairs on the street
And wonder, “Why can’t that be me?”

This man stops me and asks for a quarter
And I wish that I had it to give
I tell him, “Money ain’t everything, man”
Riches can be culled from within

That doesn’t help his situation
But it illustrates my personal plight
And I wish I was back in Savannah
Watching all the crows taking flight

This girl, she stops me on the sidewalk
Says, “Hey mister, could you give me the time”
“Honey, time is just an illusion,
Can’t be ignored, can’t be escaped, can’t be denied.”

She ponders my words for just a second
“In that case, can you buy me a drink?”
“There’s a bar down the street and around the corner,
Where I go when I just need time to think”

And I wish I was down in Savannah
Where the spanish moss hangs from the trees
And I wish I had someone here
To put this lonely mind of mine at ease

And I wish I was back home in Nashville
Where the leaves are turning colors on the trees
My friend, I hope your heart is never broken
By a woman who just up and leaves

About the playlist

Originally from… regarding…

To get the full effect of this blog, I recommend reading it in “stream-of-consciousness” style, reading it as quickly as you can possibly comprehend the words presented to you on the screen (or on the page, if you’ve chosen to print this blog out for some strange reason). By doing so, you’ll get sort of close to the thought process, although, from what I understand, we think faster than we read by a significant margin and I probably think a little bit faster than most. (I’m not bragging about that, It’s kind of a problem. I take pills for it. Which reminds me, it’s about that time of night.)

One thing leads to another. I started out adding the Old 97’s “Barrier Reef” mainly because I like the “My name is Stewart Ranson Miller and I’m a serial lady killer” and because I sometimes wish my last name was Miller simply because of that song.

So, then I get over to some Son Volt, which isn’t a far cry from Old 97’s, really. Not as rowdy, but still “Alt-Country”. That kind of takes me over to Ryan Adams and I’ve been playing “La Cienega” on guitar obsessively for about three weeks now. That leads me, of course, to Ryan Adams’ “Down in a Hole” cover. That, in turn, reminded me that Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice” has been stuck in my head (best drum intro ever!) for a while, so I added that, too. BTW, that song is based on the book “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind (the “u” is supposed to have an umlaut but I’m too lazy to look up the ASCII code for it). I haven’t read it yet, but it’ll be on my list.

Anyway, so I found my way back to the alt-country genre and added some Jason and the Scorchers. They did a cover of “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (which The Killers did better, IMHO). It was made famous by Kenny Rogers, which reminded of “The Big Lebowski” scene. So I had to add “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”. That, in turn, lead to the addition of Gipsy Kings’ cover of “Hotel California”, CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle” (beautifully dark song there, one of their best, I’d say) and then, of course, “Viva Las Vegas”. I was looking for the Shawn Colvin version that plays at the credits, but I had to “settle” for Elvis. Well, that brought me to my favorite Elvis song, “Fever”.

Now, not only is “Fever” a really hot song, but when I hear it, it reminds me of the Muppets skit with Rita Moreno trying to sing “Fever” and Animal playing drums. That skit is in the YouTube playlist. Hilarious. One of my favorites, both as a kid and as whatever I’m considered now… Well, I again got distracted by my favorite Muppets skits on YouTube. Bunsen Honeydew’s Gorilla Detector is a classic (it’s in the YouTube playlist, too). I wound up on the “Mah Nah Mah Nah” skit, though. That reminded me, Cake did a version of that, too. Oh yeah, and Cake did a cover of “War Pigs”, too (which has a SWEET groove to it). Oh, and then Cake did a cover of “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra, which is also the name of a song from their Fashion Nugget album. Speaking of Fashion Nugget, I have to add “The Distance” because, well, it’s “The Distance”.