Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Beer versus Computer


It wasn't much of a fight. I killed the keyboard but the computer is still running so I'll use the external keyboard. If anyone wants to donate to get me a new keyboard it's the sony vaio PCG FRV26 keyboard. But then again, I would only pour more beer on it to get the writing demons drunk so they would stop yelling at me and let me write. On second thought, forget the keyboard and buy me a '69 Triumph Twin so I can get the fuck out of here.

Where's the orchestra?

Chuck Klosterman (hipster author) raves about this song so here it is. I can't say I'm familiar with it and I want to introduce it but have no anecdote related to it. This is unusual because it will mean your listening to it, if you've never heard it, will become part of the life history of this song, like hearing Let it Be for the first time.



Where's the orchestra?
Wasn't this supposed to be a musical?
Here I am in the balcony
How the hell could I have missed the overture?
I like the scenery
Even though I have absolutely no
Idea at all
What is being said
Despite the dialogue
There's the leading man
The movie star who never faced an audience

Where's the orchestra?
After all
This is my big night on the town
My introduction to the theater crowd
I assumed that the show would have a song
So I was wrong
At least I understand
All the innuendo and the irony
And I appreciate
The roles the actors played
The point the author made
And after the closing lines
And after the curtain calls
The curtain falls
On empty chairs
Where's the orchestra?


Here's another tune Klosterman raves about, the Beatles influenced "Laura". It's hard to be a solo artist and channel a four man band but Billy Joel and Brian Wilson easily are the closest who ever tried.



Laura
Calls me
In the middle of the night

Passes on her
Painful information
Then these careless fingers
They get caught in her vice

Til they're bleeding
On my coffee table
Living alone isn't all that
It's cracked up to be

I'm on her side
Why does she push the poison on me?

Laura
Has a very hard time
All her life has
Been one long disaster
Then she tells me
She suddenly believes she's seen
A very good sign
She'll be taking
Some aggressive action
I fight her wars
While she's slamming her doors
In my face

Failure to break
Was the only mistake
That she made

Here I am
Feeling like a fucking fool
Do I react the way exactly
She intends me to?

Everytime I think I'm off the hook
She makes me lose my cool
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
And she can push any button I was programmed through

Laura
Calls me
When she needs a good fix
All her questions
Will get sympathetic answers
I should
Be so
Immunized
To all of her tricks

She's surviving
On her second chances
Sometimes I feel like this
Godfather deal is all wrong

How can she hold an umbilical chord
For so long?

I've done everything I can
What else am I supposed to do
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
And she can push any button
I was programmed through

Laura
Loves me
Even if I don't care

That's my problem
That's her sacred absolution
If she had to
She would put herself in my chair
Even though I
Faced electrocution
She always says
I'm the best friend that
She's ever had

How do you
Hang up on someone
Who needs you that bad?


I'm indifferent to these songs after listening to and playing Fountain of Sorrow continuously for a week. Jackson makes Billy Joel tunes sound like jello jingles.

Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.