Water. Basic to all life. So relaxing to listen to.
My remix of airtone’s H2O instrumental features beautiful liquid clarinet by Stefsax , bass clarinets by Geert Veneklaas (from snowflake’s Hot Core) and Jurgen Herrmann (from Ciggi Burns’ Rest) and my own shakuhachi and guitar work. As always, thanks to ccmixter.org and all who make their work freely available to be enjoyed by anyone.
(click on “H2O” below to hear it.)
Native American flute by EphemeralRift.
Shakuhachi by Rob Walker.
Production by Chuck Berglund.
Wind instruments appear in all cultures. Despite variations in construction, playing techniques, modes and scales, there’s a remarkable similarity in the sound. There’s something very close to the human voice in the timbre and its reliance on breath makes it seem like an extension of your own body. Once you’ve internalized the basic techniques it becomes a part of you, using your diaphragm, stomach muscles and tongue – like singing with suppressed larynx. My sensei constantly reminds me to use minimal breath, just as good vocalists use their abs, expel little air and make it look effortless. (It takes years of hard slog to make it look effortless!)
Thanks Chuck for melding the instruments of two cultures to make this wonderful celebration of diversity. I find the sliding notes on the indigenous American flute especially thrilling.
(Hear it by clicking on the title below)
The Prisoner
Galleria d’Accademie, Firenze
March, 2003
just steps from David ‘s perfect form
humanity’s epitome determined gaze
tendonned hands and muscled flesh
it stands
love’s labor lost.
five hundred years unfinished still
roughhewn by Michelangelo
Atlas.
pressing upward powerfully
outwardly forever doomed
faceless white translucent flesh
eternity denies parole
incarcerated in Carrara
halflife halfdeath
halfchiselled marble
as David
we aspire to perfection
but most of us
locked potential prisoners
bearing world’s weight on rough shoulders
are Atlas.
© rob walker.
sparrow in an airport/ New Poets Ten, Friendly Street, 2005.
ISBN 1 86254 670 3
(if you haven’t worked it out already, click on “Atlas” at the top to hear the composition.)
Original music and lyrics by Javolenus. Additional words by me. Thanks to Javo.
(click on ‘Just Ordinary People’ above to hear it)
Ordinary people
We’re confused. We’re abused. We’re bemused. And misconstrued.
Javo: People. Ordinary people. People. Ordinary people.
Rob: Overfed and underfed.
On the junk or slightly drunk.
Paying off the home loan. Living in a war-zone.
Arrogant or quiet. Going off the diet.
Javo: Confused by politicos. Abused by religicos. Hung up on romanticos. Strung up on semanticos.
Javo/Rob: People. Ordinary people. People. Ordinary people.)
Rob: Planning for the Great Escape. Obsessing over body shape.
Powerless. Needier. Sucked in by the media.
Javo: Overfed on popcorn, TV sex and cop porn, internet and war-torn. Karma sees him re-born.
Javo & Rob: People. Ordinary people. People. Ordinary people.
Rob: Millionaire tax-cuts getting people’s backs up.
Under-manned and overjoyed. Working late or unemployed.
Confident, ambitious. Washing up the dishes.
Grieving. Feeling pain. Late for the city train.
Javo & Rob: People. Ordinary people. People. Ordinary people.
Rob: Flirting. Breaking up. Violence. Making up.
Polluting the planet Earth. Aborting. Giving birth.
Being pregnant, being born.
Time to cut the front lawn.
Amputees from landmines. ‘Victims’ of parking fines.
Grief from a child’s death. Profits from the crystal meth.
Javo & Rob: People. People. Ordinary people. People. Ordinary people.
Rob: Biggest Loser. Big Brother.
We are Us. You’re The Other.
Self-effacing. Self-denying.
Winning. Failing. Simply trying.
Being on the winning team.
Luther-King’s “I have a dream”…
Saving for a rainy day.
Male/ female. Straight / gay.
Pretty. Ugly. Short. Tall.
Wandering through the shopping mall.
Dulling pain with analgesics.
Able-bodied. Paraplegics.
Raped in a backstreet.
Abused by the fat priest.
All you want’s a roof, a bed.
Working hard to get ahead.
First sex. First child.
Feeling calm. Feeling wild. Celebrities.
and Refugees.
(lead guitar break.)
Javo (on vocoder): Ordinary people.
Think of it as a funky Public Health Announcement of a Sexual Nature. This was my entry in ccmixter’s Agent Blues secret mixter project. My secret collaborator was BigBonobo Combo, upon whose Safe Sex production this is based. Big Boner Beau is me (with some audio enhancement for audiophile dysfunction.) Thanks to my real-woman Bonee (who chooses to remain incognito), Daniel Cambier on very funky bass, and sax player Mauro Durão, who sounds a lot like Derek Pascoe in our band Max Mo back in Adelaide, South Australia. Thanks to Bigbonobo for the inspiration and original production.
Let’s have safe sex.
I’m your big boner beau…
You want da boom boom? Ya come up to ma room room.
I’m not into purity, I need a bit of security.
I may be sleazy – but I ain’t easy.
Let’s get climactic with a prophylactic.
Bigbonobo: Ladies I’m talkin’ to you. All the ladies. If ya wanna have fun. I you wanna have a great time. Come on.
Big Boner Beau/ Bigbonobo:
Big Boner Beau says Peace. Peace. Big Boner Beau says Love. Big Boner Beau says Happiness. Big Boner Beau says Let’s have safe sex. And be happy.
I may be sleazy – but I ain’t easy.
You sexy girls can save the world
You gotta watch your health, look after yourself
Don’t get redactive – you gotta get proactive. Yeah.
Just tell him:
Bonee:
If you ain’t wearin’ –
I’m not ain’t sharin’
Don’t wanna get “clapped”
I take my sausage shrink-wrapped.
You can get boney
but leave the skin on the baloney.
I’ll take off my Playtex
if you put on a latex
Call me Gretel –
(I need my ’Ansell!)
Life’s for livin’ –
but the condom’s a given
I’ll come up to your condominium
but the condom’s a minimum
Put that cock in a sock
It’s a lovely erection
but where’s the protection?
Just wanna holdya
my Trojan soldier
I’ll take your Big Bubba
if he’s dressed in a rubber
I won’t take no whanger – ‘less it’s dressed in a franger*
Hey Superman,
put on your suit.
* ancient Aussie slang for ‘french letter.’ (Showing my age!)
