NEW
DEPRESSION SONGS
Live from the school of
arts hall:
home made instruments, economical melodies and no budget production.
DATSON
ALBUM $20.00
Words © Geoffrey
Datson 2009
(Sweet Matilda Waltz © Annette Hughes)
Music © Geoffrey Datson
'Having spent a few
decades listening to music, popular and otherwise, I know what sound
I want to make and how to make it. There is much to be said for monody.
An old punk at heart, these days I rage against the major scale and
obvious harmonies and so, 2009 finds me knee deep in electrohillbilly.'
Geoffrey Datson
'It's kind of country/folk, Guthrie/Dylan, with a bit of of Eno
on the side, using handmade instruments and spare combinations of
guitars, ukulele, cello, dulcimer, banjo, water whistle, recorder
and some electronic augmentation; you know, electrohillbilly!'
Annette Hughes
Tracklist
1. Tesseract Bird 3:54
2. 5 Notes From Beauty 3:03
3. Beautiful Daughter part 1 1:14
4. Inverse Sun 0:47
5. MNBVXC 1:53
6. The Pied Plucker of Cooroy 2:14
7. Zombot 1:21
8. Uptown Local 1:23
9. Conceit of Light 6:14
10. Terminal Hermit 2:21
11. Sweet Matilda Waltz 3:14
12. Eva Feral 2:40
13. Fluddites 2:31
14. String 3:27
15. DF Recorder 3:24
16. Cellofane 1:35
LINER NOTES
1. Tesseract Bird
Was reading an article by Robert Hunter (lyricist
for the Grateful Dead) who suggested that they wrote music for "modes
of the tesseract". A tesseract is a 4 dimensional projection
of a cube. Imagine a cube where the bottom back edge is pulled up
through it to become the top front edge, rather as if it's unfolding
through itself. My mother had given me a toy, one of those cards with
a bird on one side & a cage on the other, when you spin the card
fast, the bird is in the cage, presto! The bird noise is a ceramic
water whistle.
To build a thirteen sided square
turn it slowly in mid air
Deep in a mirror and bird's nest
soft mud gully is the best
for shrinking down humans
very small, very small, very small
When the breath is citric on top lip
Pinaforte, pinaforte, pinaforte
on war hero's chest
Dissection diction bible black
the square's still rolling front to back.
Make a seven layered date
combining centuries old and late
Knowledge by the birdsong voice
the sound is squared its volume doubled
a spell of choice is spelling trouble
Two drops of blood now mingle
tender war engine awaits the signal
Why did you enter these trees
with neck and collar exposed to lure?
Don't fear the Rooster
Don't fear the Rooster
Don't fear the Rooster
It's the three crows you can't use.
(And that's an alphabetic forest
for all you bright rambling
latter day romantics.)
2.
Five Notes From Beauty
Thought it was interesting how the economy went into a tail spin as
they turned the Hadron Collider on. Perhaps it would be wiser not
to mess with the fabric of time!
Come all ye pretty posy maids,
enjoy the bed the spring displays.
You know what the wise man says?
Nothing.
They turned the big collider off
I think it made the banks go soft
So lift your dress for donkey rites
We might as well stay up all night
When you add the weights all up
atomic and the other stuff
Don't forget to factor in
The spiritual of reverse spin
Five notes from Beauty
All talking to me.
All at once in rhyming time
In intervals that are divine
Buy anthrax on the rabbit skin
To wrap your baby bunting in
They turned the big clolider of
I think it's made the banks go soft
The end of time grows near
I'm also running out of beer
In the future, there will be no future
In the future, there will be no future
3. Beautiful Daughter Part 1
This is the intro to a song that ends with the lyric "at dawn
there'll be smoke on the water and a deep purple gash in the beautiful
daughter.
And who is that boy 'sleep outside the door
Manna washed up on your shore
the long boats are gone now
into seas of deep time
And the love
that's in heaven
streams down
on the spires of this town
Song knows me well
before starting to sing,
a woman with pail
as beating a ring
Albatross
across impost on sky
awaiting the sail
that will lure her away
4. Inverse Sun
I used to frequent a club in NY (late 80's)
called Save the Robots, with very post apocalyptic decor. There was
sand on the floor & red gloss furniture from recollection. It
used to open at 2am and run till about midday, always strange to emerge
into the work-a-day sidewalk. It was there one might meet the envoy's
son.
In the red lit liquor room
after hours and uninsured
I said my name in gloria
and that I was the inverse sun
5. MNBVXC
Instrumental
6. The Pied Plucker of Cooroy
Winter 08 a plague of rats in the studio and I'm repairing an Eko
six string banjo type instrument. Wrote the song to celebrate the
departure of the rats & the repaired instrument. The Eko reminded
me of Chickenfoot Crawp passing this way in 1976. He played with a
plucking thrashing action. Chickenfoot, AKA William Crawford,
is one of the best songwriters of his generation & is out there,
somewhere.
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 shat 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 Piper 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 shat 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
7. Zombot
All that money in your account
by remote control they are taking it out.
(Zombie Netbots)
8. Unptown Local
'A' train to Harlem 1987, three am, a homeless
woman & I were the only passengers in the carriage. She was saying
"nothing but rain drops inside".
Nothing but raindrops inside
I was moved by the story
A tale of backbreaking love
Humans dissolved into nothing
All the river banks broke
I made myself absent
I've harboured that sentiment long
Its right, but kind of tragic
How can it profit someone
I declare I am soulless
Though at the end of the world
You will find there's one left
Sing Hollywood sing
That song I heard.
9. Conceit of Light
Brixton Skate Park 1989 was a location of very
cutting edge street fashion. The Hotel in Pomona Queensland this winter
had a few fashion statements too!
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
Virgil ...
10. Terminal Hermit
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
11. Sweet Matilda Waltz
From the fabulous "drifter " sessions, with Dave Bonnifoy
on electro kit.
123 123 123 123
Waltz me round again
you know that I'm a drifter
tonight could be the end
Sweet Matilda
run you round again
Matilda
turn me down again
you know I saw it coming
when we lost it on that bender
Sweet Matilda
waltz me round again
Sweet Matilda
down again
Matilda, Matilda
Waltz me round again
spin me out again
but you won't see me coming
when it's time to start again
Sweet Matilda
take my hand again
be my baby
be my baby again
you know there's bad times coming
and we both could use a friend
Sweet Matilda
Waltz me round again
Sweet Matilda
Waltz me round again
Matilda, sweet Matilda
12. Eva Feral
My sister has a rental property in Brisbane.
It must be one of the last outposts of the independent music scene.
Under the house a tangle of busted drum kits, mic stands, torn band
posters and beautiful grungy paintings...
Eva Feral is a punk folk hero
ugly sweet songs from her father's garage
Sing 'em from the stocks in the village square
her mind was really sharpened, right there
Ten dollar guitar
from the Claimant's Union
Make good art
and sleep with your boots on
When she takes her armour off
you can finally see her heart
Angels disguised as devils in the light
they keep the holy up dancing, all night
Grimace and bear it with your Goldilocks looks
on the side a line of smuggled books
Eva Feral! Eva Feral!
a craft of hope on a sea of peril
13. Fluddites
... and under that house took me back to the Brisbane floods of '74.
Some went down to the river
and some got stones to eat
Some waited till the velvet water
licked up over their feet
Under the house she's busy painting
a passing portrait of a Brisbane girl
The dam is building
and the troubled waters swirl
In afternoon the tiled acres
emit a tonal tired ache and
out on every tape deck turning
Its hymn,
a setting son
sent down to sea
without a star to steer
A plastic doll
stuck in the S bend.
We climbed the hill
and drank warm beer
Some went down to the river
and some got stones to eat
Some waited till the velvet water
licked up over their feet
14. String
Instrumental. I'd love to do this with an orchestra
some day.
15. DF Recorder
Instumental. That'll be D & F played on
a recorder.
16. Cellofane
Instrumental. Yes it's a cello and many guitars!
