“…yes, said… playing that organ must count for something…”
Tori Amos, “Little Amsterdam” - live in New York, January 23, 1997.
“Hello Mr. Dollar” (2011) by Eddie Amos, Father of Tori Amos. Yes, it’s true, this is a brand new video by Tori’s Dad, and her Mom is in the video, too. Very bizarre and interesting.
youtube description: Eddie’s first release is an avant garde comical sketch about the current American debt crisis. Using low production for humor and awareness of more serious issues, Eddie’s video presents the question — what will happen to the Arts and Media if the power behind the dollar is destroyed?
Lyrics:
WHO ARE YOU FROM WHENCE HAVE YOU COME
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR AND I AM SICK
LYING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON A RESPIRATOR
MEDIC EDDIE WILL TELL YOU MY SAD STORY
NOT THE GOLD MAN NOT THE SILVER MAN AM I
NOT THE COPPER MAN IT’S THE SICK TIN MAN
WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS THERE SHALL BE YOUR HEART
ALSO HELLO MR. DOLLAR YOU ARE WITHOUT A HEART
YOU HAD A GOLD HEART DURING THE DEPRESSION
WE WERE POOR MR. DOLLAR YOU WERE KING
I DREAMED OF HAVING GOLD A GOLD COIN SOME DAY
I KNEW THERE WAS GOLD IN FORT KNOX
WHO ARE YOU AND FROM WHENCE HAVE YOU COME
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR AND I AM SICK
LYING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON A RESPIRATOR
MEDIC EDDIE WILL TELL YOU MY SAD STORY
NOT THE GOLD MAN NOT THE SILVER MAN AM I
NOT THE COPPER MAN IT’S THE SICK TIN MAN
IF YOU AIN’T GOLD MR DOLLAR WHO ARE YOU
OH THERE WERE THE DAYS OF SILVER
A SILVER DOLLAR A BOX OF CHERRIES TOO
TO CELEBRATE GEORGE WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY
PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS HONORED BY MR. DOLLAR
NOT GOLD NOT SILVER BUT A COPPER SILVER DOLLAR
WHO ARE YOU AND FROM WHENCE HAVE YOU COME
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR AND I AM SICK
LYING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON A RESPIRATOR
MEDIC EDDIE WILL TELL YOU MY SAD STORY
NOT THE GOLD MAN NOT THE SILVER MAN AM I
NOT THE COPPER MAN IT’S THE SICK TIN MAN
MR. DOLLAR AND I WENT AROUND THE WORLD
I HAD A FIST FULL OF COPPER DOLLARS
WHAT A GREAT TRIP JOY ME AND MR. DOLLAR
COME YANKEE BOY WITH COPPER MONEY
MY HEART WAS LOST WHEN THEY SPIT ON YOU
THAT’S TRUE MR DOLLAR THEY SPIT ON YOU
WHO ARE YOU AND FROM WHENCE HAVE YOU COME
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR AND I AM SICK
LYING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON A RESPIRATOR
MEDIC EDDIE WILL TELL YOU MY SAD STORY
HOW LOW CAN I SINK A BUM IN THE WORLD
NOT GOLD NOT SILVER IN MY HEART
NOT EVEN COPPER IT’S TIN IN MY HEART
THERE IN MY HEART I AM TIN THE LOWEST
MY NAME IS MR. DOLLAR THEY SPIT ON ME
DOC JUST ONE MORE CHANCE TO GET THE GOLD
WHO ARE YOU AND FROM WHENCE HAVE YOU COME
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR AND I AM SICK
LYING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON A RESPIRATOR
MEDIC EDDIE WILL TELL YOU MY SAD STORY
NOT THE GOLD MAN NOT THE SILVER MAN AM I
NOT THE COPPER MAN IT’S THE SICK TIN MAN
MY NAME IS MR DOLLAR THEY SPIT ON ME
DOC JUST ONE MORE CHANCE TO GET THE GOLD
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
On July 21, 1996, in Portland, Oregon, Tori Amos opened herself to the life-force/spirit and gave one of the most unique performances of “Precious Things” of all the live versions of her career. It is beautiful, intense, and apparently she was possessed by the music, drifting into new melodies that would never be repeated (if not for the single person recording this show, we would never even know about it at all!), guided by inspiration, which is indeed often called in spiritual circles “the holy spirit.” Good stuff for sure, when music is so pure. Listen to the whole show here.
Nico: “My Only Child” / “All That Is My Own” - from her album Desertshore, released in 1970. [more Nico]
lyrics:
Your winding winds stood so
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul I sit
Upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
Every child will be a leader
Every wise man’s word a rule
Every keeper will be a sleeper
And a guide to ways unshown
Your winding winds did sow
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul I sit
Upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
He who knows may pass on
The word unknown
And meet me on the desertshore
Meet me on the desertshore…
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Jónsi: “Boy Lilikoi” — a beautiful and amazing song (in English) from the first solo album by the lead singer of Sigur Rós. [live download archive]
lyrics:
I want to be a lilikoi, Boy Lilikoi
You grind your claws, you howl, you growl unafraid of a bullet
You run, you’re free, you climb endless trees - You reignite
You growl, you howl, you show your teeth
You bite, it’s alright
Just say no more, use your eyes, the world goes and flutters by
Use your eyes, you’ll know you are
Use your eyes, the world goes and flutters by
Use your eyes, you’ll know you are
Wild beam, wild boy, you burn so bright
‘Till you illuminate
One day you’re out, you give up the fight
You slow down heart-rate
We all grow old, use your life, the world goes and flutters by
Use your life, you’ll know you are
Use your life, the world goes and flutters by
Use your life, you’ll know you are
Electricity wires are down
Rainbow colours fading to brown
Adventurous smile shifting to frown
Courageous boy, now you’re a clown
Your antarctic hair, off with the crown
Your spirited friends, now a ghost town
You are… (Alive)
You are… (Alive)
I want to be a lilikoi boy - You
You grind your claws, you howl, you growl, unafraid of a bullet
Electricity wires are down
Rainbow colours fading to brown
Adventurous smile shifting to frown
Courageous boy, now you’re a clown
Your antarctic hair, off with the crown
Your spirited friends, now a ghost town
You are… (Alive)
You are… (Alive)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Kate Bush: “Rubberband Girl” (2011 Director’s Cut version) — there’s definitely nobody in the music world quite like this lady…
lyrics:
When you see the trees bend
And when you see the trees bend.
I feel they’ve got a lot more sense than me.
I try to resist…
A rubber band bouncing back to life,
A rubber band bend the beat.
If I could learn to give like a rubber band,
I’d be back on my feet.
A rubber band bounding back to life,
A rubber band pony tails.
I could learn to twang like a rubber band,
I’d be a Rubberband Girl.
A Rubberband Girl me, a Rubberband Girl me,
I wanna be a Rubberband Girl.
When I slip out of my catapult,
I wanna land with my feet firm on the ground
And let my body catch up.
A rubber band bouncing back to life,
A rubber band bend the beat.
If I could learn to give like a rubber band,
I’d be back on my feet.
A rubber band bounding back to life,
A rubber band pony tails.
I could learn to twang like a rubber band,
I’d be a Rubberband Girl.
A Rubberband Girl me, a Rubberband Girl me,
I wanna be a Rubberband Girl.
A rubber band bend the beat back.
A rubber band bend the beat back.
I wanna snap like a rubber band.
I wanna twang like a rubber band.
A Rubberband Girl me.
“Peter Aidu plays Steve Reich’s Piano Phase with a left hand on one instrument and the right hand on the second piano - he alone performs the score for two pianists.”
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Jason Elijah: “Impossible Dream” — a song/poem written and recorded spontaneously in one take, live as you hear it. [image is The Empyrean from Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrated by Gustave Doré]
lyrics:
if I choose to listen
to everything you say
if I choose to take it
take it away
if I choose
to listen to you
would I still live
will I still live
she said you have the
impossible dream
she said
it’s something
you can’t really mean
she said you have
an impossible dream
it’s not really anything
it’s not really anything
don’t you wanna see
how it could be
it could be
don’t you know
what you have got
don’t you know
what you’ve got
don’t you know
what everyone else
has got
even you
even you
holding on
I think it’s time now
for you
for you
to realize
some things
darling
I believe it’s time now
for you, darling
to realize
something
she said
I’m dreaming the impossible dream
she said
she said
it’s everything
it’s everything
it’s everything
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Diamanda Galás: “Let’s Not Chat About Despair” — from her classic album, You Must Be Certain of the Devil. Diamanda doesn’t hold back, and her bluesy piano is awesome. Overall, intense, good stuff. (live video: here)
lyrics:
You who speak of crowd control,
of karma, or the punishment of god.
Do you fear the cages they are building in
Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas
While they’re giving ten to forty years to find a cure?
Do you pray each evening out of horror or of fear
To the savage God whose bloody hand
Commands you now to die alone?
Let’s not chat about despair.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Do you taste the presence of the living death
While the skeleton beneath your open window
Waits with arms outstretched?
Do you spend each night in waiting
For the devil’s little angels’ cries
To burn you in your sleep?
Do you wait for miracles in small hotels
With Seconal and Compazine
Or for a ticket to the house of death in Amsterdam?
Let’s not chat about despair.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Do you wait in prison for the dreadful day
The office of the butcher comes to carry you away?
Do you wait for saviors or the paradise to come
In laundry rooms, in toilets or in Cadillacs?
Are you crucified beneath the life machines
With a shank inside your neck
And a head which blossoms like a basketball?
Let’s not chat about despair.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Do you tremble at the timid steps
Of crying, smiling faces who, in mourning,
Now have come to pay their last respects?
In Kentucky Harry buys a round of beer
To celebrate the death of Billy Smith, the queer,
Who’s mother still must hide her face in fear.
You who mix the words of torture, suicide, and death
With scotch and soda at the bar,
We’re all real decent people, aren’t we.
But there’s no time left for talk.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Let’s not chat about despair.
Please, don’t chat about despair.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Rasputina: “Black Hole Hunter” — an epic 2-part song from the new album, Great American Gingerbread, which comes with an amazing live concert DVD, so order it on Rasputina.com!!!
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Sufjan Stevens: “Get Real Get Right” from his 2010 album, The Age of Adz. I really love this song; it’s creative, beautiful, fun, spiritual, and perfect for Sunday.
lyrics:
I know you want it
I know you really wanna get it right
Have you forsaken, have you mistaken me for someone else?
Saturday night you sleep with a rifle at your side
Delivering speeches, delivering speeches left and right
Follow those created deaths
Fortune save me from his wrath
Spaceship out the house at night
Prophet speak what’s on your mind
You know you really gotta get right with the Lord
Visit the future, visit the future from the outer space (space space space space)
A ring of fire, a ring of fire falling on your face (face face face face)
You dream of the dark age, you dream of the dark age of your youth
Consider the danger, consider the danger, as it moves
Prophet, brother, priest and king
(I know you want it, I know you really wanna)
Snake-skinned master at your feet
(I know you want it, I know you really wanna)
Barricade the bathroom doors
(I know you want it, I know you really wanna)
Find some things you can’t ignore
(I know you want it, I know you really wanna)
I know you really gotta get right with the Lord
You know you really gotta get right with the Lord
I know I’ve caused you trouble
I know I’ve caused you pain
But I must do the right thing
I must do myself a favor and get real
Get right with the Lord
I know I’ve lost my conscious, I know I’ve lost all shape
But I must do the right thing
I must do myself a favor and get real
Get right with the Lord
I know I’ve always loved you
I know I’ve always been
But I must do the right thing
I must do myself a favor and get real
Get right with the Lord
Get real, get right for you will not be distracted by the signs
Do not be distracted by them
Do yourself a favor and get real
Get right with the Lord
Get real, get right for you will not be distracted by the signs
Do not be distracted by them
Do yourself a favor and get real
Get right with the lord
Get real get right with the Lord
