Psience Quest

Paul McCartney - Eleanor Rigby

On the "metal" theme, and inspired by the Michael Tsarion on Race, Jordan Peterson, and Why Conspiracy Work is Spiritual Work |372| thread on Skeptiko, here's Soundgarden's cover of Black Sabbath's "Into the Void", with the Soundgarden lyrics adapted from a purported speech by Chief Sealth. Whether or not the lyrics are genuine, they at least reflect a plausible and laudable Native American approach and response to the colonialists:

And one of my favourite songs from one of Soundgarden's contemporaries in the same genre, Garden by Pearl Jam:




I haven't thought about the lyrics much before. Some people seem to think they're about death ("garden of stone" being a cemetery). They might though be interpretable as a critique of materialism: "garden of stone" being a world in which the (love of the) suppleness of life has been perverted into (the "love" of) hard, lifeless objects; a world into which we are forced to walk with our "hands bound" and "face blood", our souls having "defected" to these "modern needs".

The new TV show, Legion (an X-Men spin off) has a lot of Pink Floyd references so I was prompted to play a few tracks. Right now I'm listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Sublime.

Another very good TV show that stimulates the mind is "The Leftovers" which happens to have a pretty good soundtrack with songs from artists I was not aware of. One of them (S02e09) is Strugill Simpson who fits into the Country/Americana genres. The song they played on that episode is called "The Promise" which prompted me to look for more of his work. Here's a song that might appeal to some of us here. Rolling Stone described it as "the thinking man's country song".




Turtles All the Way Down


Sturgill Simpson

I've seen Jesus play with flames in a lake of fire that I was standing in
Met the devil in Seattle and spent 9 months inside the lion's den
Met Buddha yet another time and he showed me a glowing light within
But I swear that God is there every time I glare in the eyes of my best friend
Says my son it's all been done and someday your gonna wake up old and gray
So go and try to have some fun showing warmth to everyone
You meet and greet and cheat along the way

There's a gateway in our mind that leads somewhere out there beyond this plane
Where reptile aliens made of light cut you open and pull out all your pain
Tell me how you make illegal something that we all make in our brain
Some say you might go crazy but then again it might make you go sane

Every time I take a look inside inside that old and fabled book
I'm blinded and reminded of the pain caused by some old man in the sky
Marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT
They all changed the way I see
But love's the only thing that ever saved my life

So don't waste your mind on nursery rhymes
Or fairy tales of blood and wine
It's turtles all the way down the line
So to each their own til' we go home
To other realms our souls must roam
To and through the myth that we all call space and time


Songwriters: Sturgill Simpson
Turtles All the Way Down lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing

(2018-04-10, 06:16 PM)Jim_Smith Wrote: [ -> ]

Funny, I put on Canon last night as I got into bed. I always listen to music before I sleep but classical is rarely my first choice. I made a note to do so more often.

Sharing for no other reason that I like this oldie



Syreeta, with backing vocals by Stevie Wonder.

I still remember the first time I heard this, watching fascinated as the fabric cover in front of the loudspeaker on the old valve radio blew in and out as it did its best to reproduce sounds that were probably undreamed of when it was built.