I’ve lost contact with a dear friend. I don’t know what to do to re-establish the connection. I’m not very good at waiting. Last time it was nearly two years before our communion was renewed, but the story was not all that good. Health & society had taken their tolls. Now radio silence once more & I am more concerned than ever.
I’ve been listening to some music he created some twenty to twenty five years ago. It is so wonderful but it is making me melancholy. I have decided to share it with you all in the hopes of stirring some cosmic vibration. Here’s what he has to say about it…
''Between 1989 and 1993 The Ghosts recorded a vast number of songs (the gathering hesitates to dub these sketches demos) on a living room installed Teac 4-Track. They never saw the light of day. The majority of those recordings were entirely spontaneous. Fueled by a seemingly endless diet of alcohol and various nefarious substances. A few of these songs - the best, though by no means the vaguest - proved oddly prophetic. ''
''Half muttered utterances and instrumental doodlings appeared to take shape arbitrarily on tape with little planning or provocation; fleeting snapshots etched magnetically like fragile antique photographs documented for posterity. Again, given their spontaneity, few seemed to benefit from subsequent reworkings. Repeated attempts to improve on the quality of those original scribbles resulted, at best, in yet more songs broadly hinted at; at worst, in dead-ends unravelling like string. ''
''The finished painting resisted editorial conceit.''
''The words 'ether' and 'happenstance' were increasingly employed with banal regularity, even as those more detailed aural pictures revealed themselves in unfolding events. The spectre of mockery loomed in and out, something faintly malicious glimpsed over one's shoulder. It came and went. Avoided definition. ''
''A pillow of moss ; a sliver of sneeze ; a broken pocket watch.''
''There was, in any event, a definitive collective of five persons involved. Sometimes just three. Frequently a pair. As time went by, the most naked of those sketches, quite possibly, were fathered by only two. They felt themselves to be diviners of curiosity rather than serious musicians.''
''And then they just grew tired.''
''The following 'snapshots' are Begg & MacDonald compositions, if they warrant such chutzpah. Take them with a pinch of salt. Dust off your snap-brim.''
''ib: vocals, table knocking;
gus macdonald: guitar;
fiona macdonald: bass.''
fiona macdonald: bass.''
''Chancers. Soap-dodgers. Gibbering in the drool of Jack Daniels. Pulling on a neck of Wild Turkey.''
The Ghosts - The Lost Album, TEAC demos (Maryjane), 1992.
Tracklist –
New Baptist (Dust Bowl)
Stickleback
Goldilocks
Stickleback (original live version)
The Ghosts – Hitler’s Watercolours: 56 Gower Street, 1989-1993.
Tracklist –
Sister Lino
Pony Nose
Unicycle
High Tungsten Filament
The Ghosts – The Rehearsal Tapes: 1989 – 1991.
Tracklist –
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
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ReplyDeleteBrØther, Nathan.
ReplyDeleteFuck. Thank you most kindly for your concern. I appreciate it very much that my protracted absence has not gone unnoticed; that you have gone to such lengths to disinter the ghosts of times past - to archive them so faithfully - surely brightens the corners, to quote one sidewalker out dodging the Tobacco Lords.
On listening to these sketches from time to time, it scarcely surprises that they indeed never "saw light of day". In fact. The few (who have heard them) may refer to the whole unkindly as something expended off the wrist. A nocturnal emission. Screw them. Some of the best sex I've ever had has been onanistic.
Given present circumstances, you'll no doubt forgive my bile. The "faintly malicious glimpsed over one's shoulder" steered me through the Interzone and off into the twilight there for a while. But as the official script goes, my condition has stabilized for now.
Indeed. I'm feeling quite chipper.
Don't know if you're aware, but I even got so far as to post a half assed confessional on the bleachers the other day. A touch down. Synchrony.
Sin well, friend.
Dearest Brother Ib,
DeleteWill wonders never cease?
As I said above about The Ghosts: "It is so wonderful but it is making me melancholy. I have decided to share it with you all in the hopes of stirring some cosmic vibration."
Screw them would be too nice. Pour some caustic soda down their gullets. Some folks taste is obviously in their nether sphincter.
Chipper is good unless it's wood (chipper).
Heading to the Bleachers where I belong.
Love you, man.
Totally unfamiliar with them. From the descriptions, sounds like I'd like it. Thanks....
ReplyDeleteAs these were never available to the general public, I am not surprised you are unfamiliar with them. But in my opinion, I think they are great. You decide. Thanks for the comment here & otherwhere.
Delete"New Baptist (Dust Bowl)" might be my favorite track I've heard all year. (Yes, it's only Jan 12 but dammit that track is brilliant!)
ReplyDeleteThank you for all you do. It doesn't go unnoticed.