The world took Dickinson too literally
Now all of truth is at a slant
Tipsy from all the glasses of false cheer
Every time we crack open our phones
But truth was never our strong suit
Stories were our salvation
A god to explain how every rock and stream
Came to rest on the back of a turtle
Stories about who paid the first light bill
And who’ll flip the last switch
The story of a dream could shape the world
Glorious lies that grasped at the truth
Great storytellers may have been the best liars
Now the liars can’t even tell a good story
Ancestors sat ‘round the fire and spoke the universe into being
Our contemporaries light a match to see it all burn
I dream of tickling Atlas’s marble armpits
And making the turtle laugh
Make them tilt the world, just a bit
Shake us loose of our current narrative
Then gather‘round the storytellers, learn why clouds rise in the west
The sun bounces on the horizon
Learn to search for truth again
About the Creator
Sean A.
A happy guy that tends to write a little cynically. Just my way of dealing with the world outside my joyous little bubble.
'20/20'
"Do It Again" the track that would ultimately open the Beach Boys final album on Capitol Records which was released on February 10th 1969 had originally been released as a single in August of 1968. The track was the first of many post-Pet Sounds era throwbacks to the early Beach Boys sound which would become continually more cliched and eventually lead the Beach Boys to the level of self-parody they would eventually succumb to in the 1980s while their closest contemporaries The Beatles nearing the end of their run in 1969 would go on to be viewed as the most influential band of all time. However, the song itself is not bad on its surface, and it opens with a futuristic sounding (for 1969) drumbeat captured by then-Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper using tape delays on the drums performed by Dennis Wilson and John Guerin. The song has been re-recorded numerous times over the years on various Beach Boys-related projects most notably the 2011 re-recording at Capitol studios featuring the five surviving Beach Boys at the time backed instrumentally by various members of both the Brian Wilson Band and Mike Loves touring "Beach Boys" to promote the then upcoming Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour in 2012. The hammering and power drill sound at the end of the song was an excerpt from a track called "Workshop" that was to be a part of the uncompleted "SMiLE" album.
By Sean Callaghan6 days ago in Beat
Comments (6)
"Ancestors sat ‘round the fire and spoke the universe into being Our contemporaries light a match to see it all burn" Those two lines really hit me, Shaun. Great thought -provoking work.
"Stories about who paid the first light bill And who’ll flip the last switch" Oooo, that certainly was intriguing. Loved your poem!
This is marvelous as both an homage to, and a cynical improvisation upon, the immortal Emily!
This is very insightful and really speaks to how to world views "factual information" and "stories" these days.
❤️Nicely written, Shaun <3 Last three lines really hit
History indeed has a lot of truth that we need to look for. Great sharing, Shaun.