Monday, November 28, 2016
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
I want to share with you...A mysterious song! A most mysterious song!
I offer you a song that has haunted me for years and given me hours of sheer wonder considering the meaning of the lyrics. Here is the link to Youtube so that you can hear this masterpiece of dramatic choreography.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9LJkyZU-QMAl Stewart- One Stage Before 1975 |
| It seems to me as though I've been upon this stage before And juggled away the night for the same old crowd These harlequins you see with me, they too have held the floor As here once again they strut and they fret their hour I see those half-familiar faces in the second row Ghost-like with the footlights in their eyes But where or when we met like this last time I just don't know It's like a chord that rings and never dies For infinity And now these figures in the wings with all their restless tunes Are waiting around for someone to call their names They walk the backstage corridors and prowl the dressing-rooms And vanish to specks of light in the picture-frames But did they move upon the stage a thousand years ago In some play in Paris or Madrid? And was I there among them then, in some travelling show And is it all still locked inside my head For infinity And some of you are harmonies to all the notes I play Although we may not meet still you know me well While others talk in secret keys and transpose all I say And nothing I do or try can get through the spell So one more time we'll dim the lights and ring the curtain up And play again like all the times before But far behind the music you can almost hear the sounds Of laughter like the waves upon the shores Of infinity Guitar solo played by Tim Renwick: Drums: Stuart Elliot Produced by Alan Parsons Recorded at Abbey Road Studio Now my commentary: It seems to me as though I've been upon this stage before self-referential, especially if one is performing the song on stage And juggled away the night for the same old crowd Which gives a clue to the song's title---one stage before. These harlequins you see with me, they too have held the floor Harlequins-fellow players. As here once again they strut and they fret their hour they too have been here before (deja vu) I see those half-familiar faces in the second row Ghost-like with the footlights in their eyes what a masterful poetic perception! And note its realism, he even desfcribes the lighting. But where or when we met like this last time I just don't know Here is a deep mystery It's like a chord that rings and never dies tying in the song itself and noting its endless temporality For infinity And now these figures in the wings with all their restless tunes verse two introduces a new cast of characters---not players. Are waiting around for someone to call their names spirits of music itself or the tunes which enliven this stage They walk the backstage corridors and prowl the dressing-rooms And vanish to specks of light in the picture-frames these characters are transported on specks of light and vanish in paintings But did they move upon the stage a thousand years ago In some play in Paris or Madrid? And was I there among them then, in some travelling show Was I there?---the singer reveals himself And is it all still locked inside my head Is this all in his head--i.e., hallucination For infinity And some of you are harmonies to all the notes I play Now he addresses those who are listening---calls them 'harmonies' to his notes. Although we may not meet still you know me well When I first met Al Stewart in Seattle, I shook his hand and quoted this line. But many others who never meet Al "still [may] know him well."While others talk in secret keys and transpose all I say There are others who talk in secret key (signatures) and transpose these lyrics And nothing I do or try can get through the spell This causes a 'spell' through which the singer cannot penetrate. So one more time we'll dim the lights and ring the curtain up So one more time-fulfilling the title:One More Stage. Also, "So" as in therefore...And play again like all the times before To play again like all the times before. Are all stages one four dimensional outpouring? But far behind the music you can almost hear the sounds But----behind this song you might hear something else that is almost audible--- it is laughter like wavesOf laughter like the waves upon the shores Of infinity Upon the shores of infinity. This is merely my "take" on the song, each one may come to his own interpretation. However, remember that the interpretation that is 'optimal' accounts for the meaning of the verses without importing ideas and images that are not literally there. The Music
The song begins with an eery and hypnotic 12 string guitar strumming in a basic triple meter between Em and C. The beat is a complex meter when you listen to the syncopated hi-hat rhythm. When I met the drummer who played this song for Al Stewart in Seattle the night I met the entire band and partied with them (the same drummer that played for
the Spencer Davis Group), he showed me how to play the hi-hat figure."OF INFINITY" adds a twinkling bell phrase that ushers in the guitar solo. THe guitar solo is truly one of my favorites. It is well known that Al stewart has a reputation of hiring many fine guitarists, moreover in the choice of Tim Renwick, who played on Al's previous two albums the familiarity seems to grow until he plays this masterful piece. Alan Parsons also produced the two albums leading up to Year of The Cat, the album from which this song is pulled. The solo is played on a stratocaster, if I am not mistaken. The solo plays over the chord changes: Em/C/Em/C [Capo at the 3rd fret---sounds in Gm] |
The bridge begins in G
G--D--C--G/B--Am
D--Am--Bm
C--G/B--Am--G--D/F#--Em
Am--D--B--Em ("for INFINITY") Notice how the B chord sets up the key phrase: FOR INFINITY
Notice what the drummer plays behind the solo---it is as good as it gets in studio drumming---Stuart Elliot.
The final note of the solo seems to fade into the wind sounding synth production, like "a speck of light into a picture frame."
There is more that I could say about this eery and wonderful song but I prefer listening to music rather than talking about it.
Friday, November 18, 2016
November 2016: Reflections on the Crunchkin Blog
Re: The term 'Crunchkin'
Today, when one searches Google for 'Crunchkin', you will find a whole host of products, services, dog biscuits, chocolate candy and many more. When I coined the term back in the late '90s I had no idea that 'Crunchkin' would be so widely disseminated. It is a flattering thing. This blog presents artwork, music, opinion, and other sorts of "content" which reflects the Crunchkin brand.
The World Today
To my mind the 21st century is a grave disappointment. When I say 'world' I mean the human world, and not nature. Nature strikes me as the closest thing to God and a permanent blessing, no matter how badly lovers of technology deny their destructive impact. Now we have so-called environmentalists attempting to combat so-called Global Warming with Geoengineering---it is truly a case of the blind leading the blind---flimsy science concocting apocalyptic scenarios which are de facto atheistic. Now it is the engineers who must "save" the earth---what incredible blasphemy! And in their know-it-all do-gooder modus operandi they go about seeding clouds with chemtrails and ushering in consequences far more devastating than the symptoms of climate change they seek to ameliorate.
9/11
The american people continue to be in the dark concerning the fall of the world trade centers while 1000s of architects, pilots and firefighters testify to the utterly erroneous account for the catastrophe given in the Official Report. WTC7, the 48 story skyscraper that is circled in the image above fell by controlled demolition at 5:24 PM September 11, 2001. It is called "the smoking gun" by 9/11 truthers and rightly so. Further evidence of controlled demolition in the North and South Towers can be discerned in the form of pyroclastic clouds billowing at a 90 degree angle as the first tower "falls" at 9.8 meter per second per second free fall which physicists have concluded is impossible.
Truth= God
Guardians of political correctness (BTW: this is a Stalinist Term. In russian: 'politicheskii pravitel'nost) warn, cajole, and discourage any mention of the True God by teachers and believers. Talk of religion and spirituality is OK as long as it is buffered by a relativistic philosophy---but should any believer give powerful arguments supporting truth---they are practicing hate speech and intolerance. Such pompous ignorance reigns in all departments of the contemporary university, even so-called Christian universities. The bottomline is that if there is found one piece of truth, then it follows that God exists, for Truth must have an author. On the other hand, when discussing the true God---it is self-evident that this God is 'ONE and TRUE'---there can be no plural of the term "God". Yes, there may be many "ways" to this One, True God---but if the term is to be employed at all it refers to the Creator, the Master of the Universe. A pathetic attempt to refute this is put forward by astrophysicists such as Stephen Hawkings who speak of multiverses. The term is a misnomer pure and simple, medieval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas already understood that this mention of multiverse ushers in a "regression to infinity".
Judaism, Islam and Christianity all acknowledge the same Creation as described in Genesis---the so-called name of God is a moot point. As Dylan wrote: "You can call Bobby, you can call me Zimmy, you can call me RJ, you can call me Ray, no matter what you say YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SERVE SOMEBODY." So what do I care how the Hebrew or the Muslim or the Christian prays the name of God? No matter what you say each one must serve the ONE, TRUE God!
Did I fail to mention that God is LIVING and PRESENT? To all backwards looking people---when are you going to wake up? The True God is Living and Present (here and now). You see human opinion matters not one whit---GOD IS---this is the ROCK that we must conform---God is no respecter of persons! Let's say that one begins with one's own human intelligence and belief, and yes, at this level we find opinion and relativity. But for the man or woman who proceeds toward the true, living God, opinion, is overcome, then one cannot say: I think God is multiple or has retired (Deism), or is a Higgs-Boson particle---this is literal ignorance. Each people have their own revelation of God---this statement is blatantly false. There is one pure revelation of God, this is the Son of God. The Son of God became flesh and was crucified by politicians and religious leaders. Nothing has changed.
The doctrine of progress is sheer vanity, nothing more. There has been no progress, The Son of God is still routed out and hated by ignorant men and women in power. Power not progress prevails, and this world knows nothing of the power of love and truth which Jesus Christ brought to light in the teachings of his brief life. IBM believes in progress---see the ad above---as I keep pointing out IBM is like the Wizard of Oz---projecting an awesome technological show, but when Toto pulls back the curtain, Dorothy sees that the Wizard is a pathetic charlatan---so too with Watson and those who think that all the apps and computer tricks are somehow better than the tools of the past. They are not.
Finally, to conclude, I am not at home in the current world---life was better in the 1970s or in many other eras. This is a cold world, America has lost its charm, Dostoevsky wrote that the average citizen has within their soul the same bloodthirsty tendency to be a tyrant as Zherebiatnikov, the brutal prison guard. Nature alone remains unblemished and proximal to God's beauty and truth. Leon Russell sang: "I am a stranger in a strange land." You keep your Starbuck's coffee, and Spotify, and all of your fancy things, The Lord is my Rock and my Shelter, I will serve Him.
The World Today
To my mind the 21st century is a grave disappointment. When I say 'world' I mean the human world, and not nature. Nature strikes me as the closest thing to God and a permanent blessing, no matter how badly lovers of technology deny their destructive impact. Now we have so-called environmentalists attempting to combat so-called Global Warming with Geoengineering---it is truly a case of the blind leading the blind---flimsy science concocting apocalyptic scenarios which are de facto atheistic. Now it is the engineers who must "save" the earth---what incredible blasphemy! And in their know-it-all do-gooder modus operandi they go about seeding clouds with chemtrails and ushering in consequences far more devastating than the symptoms of climate change they seek to ameliorate.
9/11
The american people continue to be in the dark concerning the fall of the world trade centers while 1000s of architects, pilots and firefighters testify to the utterly erroneous account for the catastrophe given in the Official Report. WTC7, the 48 story skyscraper that is circled in the image above fell by controlled demolition at 5:24 PM September 11, 2001. It is called "the smoking gun" by 9/11 truthers and rightly so. Further evidence of controlled demolition in the North and South Towers can be discerned in the form of pyroclastic clouds billowing at a 90 degree angle as the first tower "falls" at 9.8 meter per second per second free fall which physicists have concluded is impossible.
Truth= God
Guardians of political correctness (BTW: this is a Stalinist Term. In russian: 'politicheskii pravitel'nost) warn, cajole, and discourage any mention of the True God by teachers and believers. Talk of religion and spirituality is OK as long as it is buffered by a relativistic philosophy---but should any believer give powerful arguments supporting truth---they are practicing hate speech and intolerance. Such pompous ignorance reigns in all departments of the contemporary university, even so-called Christian universities. The bottomline is that if there is found one piece of truth, then it follows that God exists, for Truth must have an author. On the other hand, when discussing the true God---it is self-evident that this God is 'ONE and TRUE'---there can be no plural of the term "God". Yes, there may be many "ways" to this One, True God---but if the term is to be employed at all it refers to the Creator, the Master of the Universe. A pathetic attempt to refute this is put forward by astrophysicists such as Stephen Hawkings who speak of multiverses. The term is a misnomer pure and simple, medieval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas already understood that this mention of multiverse ushers in a "regression to infinity".
Judaism, Islam and Christianity all acknowledge the same Creation as described in Genesis---the so-called name of God is a moot point. As Dylan wrote: "You can call Bobby, you can call me Zimmy, you can call me RJ, you can call me Ray, no matter what you say YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SERVE SOMEBODY." So what do I care how the Hebrew or the Muslim or the Christian prays the name of God? No matter what you say each one must serve the ONE, TRUE God!
Did I fail to mention that God is LIVING and PRESENT? To all backwards looking people---when are you going to wake up? The True God is Living and Present (here and now). You see human opinion matters not one whit---GOD IS---this is the ROCK that we must conform---God is no respecter of persons! Let's say that one begins with one's own human intelligence and belief, and yes, at this level we find opinion and relativity. But for the man or woman who proceeds toward the true, living God, opinion, is overcome, then one cannot say: I think God is multiple or has retired (Deism), or is a Higgs-Boson particle---this is literal ignorance. Each people have their own revelation of God---this statement is blatantly false. There is one pure revelation of God, this is the Son of God. The Son of God became flesh and was crucified by politicians and religious leaders. Nothing has changed.
The doctrine of progress is sheer vanity, nothing more. There has been no progress, The Son of God is still routed out and hated by ignorant men and women in power. Power not progress prevails, and this world knows nothing of the power of love and truth which Jesus Christ brought to light in the teachings of his brief life. IBM believes in progress---see the ad above---as I keep pointing out IBM is like the Wizard of Oz---projecting an awesome technological show, but when Toto pulls back the curtain, Dorothy sees that the Wizard is a pathetic charlatan---so too with Watson and those who think that all the apps and computer tricks are somehow better than the tools of the past. They are not.
Finally, to conclude, I am not at home in the current world---life was better in the 1970s or in many other eras. This is a cold world, America has lost its charm, Dostoevsky wrote that the average citizen has within their soul the same bloodthirsty tendency to be a tyrant as Zherebiatnikov, the brutal prison guard. Nature alone remains unblemished and proximal to God's beauty and truth. Leon Russell sang: "I am a stranger in a strange land." You keep your Starbuck's coffee, and Spotify, and all of your fancy things, The Lord is my Rock and my Shelter, I will serve Him.
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