SongsSongshttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/2009-12-09T17:29:07ZSquarespace"Heaven" by The Talking Headshttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/heaven-by-the-talking-heads.htmlCole Bitting2009-12-09T17:20:43Z2009-12-09T17:20:43ZThe last taste of the first bite of caviar fades. I wait until longing becomes palpable. “Don't talk to me!”

As I bring the slim, polished mother-of-pearl spoon to my mouth for the second bite, I recognize lust - the open mouth, the pursed lower lip, the little tremble. No surprise this time. My attention is aroused and the anticipation exquisite.

The second taste is bigger, more nuanced. I push the little eggs around and feel their silky delicacy against my tongue. I break them against the enamel of my teeth. I pop several at a time, a few at a time, one at a time. Each burst counts time. Many eggs lie in one spoonful.

The second taste was like re-reading a great book, the jokes got funnier, the emotions richer, the drama more poignant, and the resolution more fulfilling. If in the first reading, I saw myself, in the second I can see beyond myself.

The Talking Heads sing,1

When this kiss is over it will start again
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same
It’s hard to imagine that nothing at all could be so exciting, could be this much fun
Heaven, heaven is a place, a place where nothing, nothing ever happens

Longing now grows into a sharper craving...

Here is the full story: Heaven Vs. Caviar: Savor Before The Crave


FOR MORE musings on songs

  1. Heaven is a great song by any measure. Two other Talking Head’s songs I love are Once In A Lifetime and This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody). These three songs together convey more insight and wisdom than a clutch of self-help books.

    Also, I must admit that I like Shawn Colvin’s cover of This Must Be The Place as least as much at the original. ↩

]]>"Bohemian Rhapsody" by The Muppetshttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/bohemian-rhapsody-by-the-muppets.htmlCole Bitting2009-12-03T02:23:43Z2009-12-03T02:23:43ZThis YouTube video couldn't be more awesome!

Bohemian Rhapsody "by" The Muppets

]]>Music For Writing On A November Sundayhttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/music-for-writing-on-a-november-sunday.htmlCole Bitting2009-11-22T16:59:18Z2009-11-22T16:59:18Z“Bone Of Song” is a November song, quiet, just Josh Ritter, his guitar and his remarkable gift for songwriting. He has yet to give back the instrument of the muse even if he contemplates that day in this story.

Then I saw on a white space that was left

A blessing written older than the rest

It said leave me here I care not for wealth or fame

I’ll remember your song - but I’ll forget your name

So true. I remember whole songs without an inkling of the musician.

You don’t know Josh. You should. Hello Starling is a wonderful album and includes “Snow Is Gone,” my favorite Josh Ritter song. His whole catalog is spectacular.

Josh is also a great song writer. I have affection for writers. His name is on a list I won’t forget:

  • Bob Dylan
  • Connor Oberst
  • Ben Harper
  • Adam Duritz
  • Neil Finn
  • Jeff Tweedy
  • And so on..

Where are the great contemporary women song-writers?

]]>Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthriehttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/alices-restaurant-by-arlo-guthrie.htmlCole Bitting2009-11-20T17:12:23Z2009-11-20T17:12:23ZAlice’s Restaurant is my favorite Thanksgiving song, particularly when there is a war going on. So it’s been a particular favorite during much of the past twenty years.

It’s great even without a war.

Off the side of the side road was another 15 foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff was another pile of garbage. We decided that one big pile was better than two little piles and rather than bring that one up, we decided to throw ours down. That’s what we did.

Arlo isn’t just being funny. He is describing the whole genre of self-help. Why clean up, when you can toss your garbage over a cliff, clap dirt of you hands and drive on? That’s self-help!

They gave me a piece of paper that said, “Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604.”

I went up there. I said, “Shrink. I wanna kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill. Kill! Kill!! Kill!!!”

And I started jumping up and down, yelling, “Kill. Kill! Kill!!”

And he started jumping up and down with me. And we was both jumping up and down, yelling, “Kill! Kill!!”

And the sergeant came over pinned a metal on me. Sent me down the hall and said, “You’re our boy.”

Thanksgiving is a day we pause from our one-person journey and celebrate the people in our life. Together, like Arlo and his audience, we sing, with feeling,

“You can get everything you want at Alice’s Restaurant...”

No doubt we can. With friends. If we take care of the garbage.

]]>The "I-Love-You" You Will Never Hear Againhttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/the-i-love-you-you-will-never-hear-again.htmlCole Bitting2009-10-23T15:57:14Z2009-10-23T15:57:14ZWhen I write about music, I write on older songs for some reason. Apparently, this forum is where I connect with my past, an act of integration, I hope.

I was working an essay on the value of reflecting on experiences and “Sometimes” by Jonathan Edwards played.

It’s a beautiful song about the I-Love-You you will never hear again. In a moment, I experienced an old relationship, the love, the joy, the tenderness and connection, the falling out, the what-ifs, the sadness and the gratitude. One moment, all that.

“Sometimes” embodied the completeness of my moment.

His lyrics are sad,

I think I heard a phrase
Echoed through the haze
And it’s just beyond my vision
Something that she said one night
Before we went to bed one night

Yet, his song is poignant and finds joy. And I shivered with the sensation of grace.

The odds of this song playing on any given hour are no better than 0.1%. This morning, iTunes created the mystery of synchronicity and the groundedness of closure - a worthy gift.

]]>Blue Sky by The Allman Brothershttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/blue-sky-by-the-allman-brothers.htmlCole Bitting2009-10-15T20:55:01Z2009-10-15T20:55:01Z“Blue Sky” from Eat A Peach by the Allman Brothers always stops me in my tracks. I drop whatever I’m doing however deep the flow and listen.

The song repeats one verse/chorus twice. The lyrics are worthy of a Halmark card, or heavy rotation from the Twitter affirmation/quotes groupies.

The song expresses such aching joy in the music. The guitar play gives me goosebumps. The song is 5 minutes long, the singing is 30 seconds. That is a lot of goosebumps. If this music was in church, I’d go daily.

The music redeems the lyrics. To me, the song would be diminished without their sentiment, such is the power of the feelings aroused by the guitars, such is the power of redemption.

]]>Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobilehttp://www.goodfables.com/songs/bob-dylan-stuck-inside-of-mobile.htmlCole Bitting2009-10-07T12:51:26Z2009-10-07T12:51:26ZHave you ever tried to make sense of Bob Dylan lyrics? I have. Eventually, to avoid going crazy (again), I gave up and abandoned my thoughts to the music and the swirl of imagery. Maybe I'm no better off than the characters in the song. But Cole made sense of it. And he is lucid amid the wacky asylum of characters. Then again, he might have made everything up. Even so, faulty sense feels better than incomprehension. Next time I need to make sense of something, I'll ask Cole. -- Jeff May, AskWriteFish

]]>Baz Luhrmann: Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)http://www.goodfables.com/songs/baz-luhrmann-everybodys-free-to-wear-sunscreen.htmlCole Bitting2009-10-04T15:01:25Z2009-10-04T15:01:25Z"Everybody's Free" might seem like a commencement address, but really, it's self-acknowledgement, a litany of wishes, desires and papered-over regrets. It's a life story. Listen, watch which elements you respond to and understand you are looking at yourself. Enjoy the perspective. Pay attention to how it feels in the body.

I mentioned this song in Lie To Me.

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