Every once in a while you stumble across something that just works so damn well you can’t hardly believe it. I had one of those experiences the other day; what seemed especially fascinating to me was the fact that I’d had this particular piece of ‘perfect poetry’ in my possession for quite a number of years, and while I’d enjoyed it, it had never really struck me the way it did when I stumbled back across it a few days ago.

The object in question is a song by the Eels, Daisies of the Galaxy, from the album of the same name.

Every once in awhile music can do this; pure, simple, and as close to perfection as I need.

The entire album version of the song is the last media item on the page, the others are the verses pulled off a live performance and placed here to highlight my ranting about why this song works so damn well.

enjoy

Daisies of the Galaxy

the opening lines are comforting,
perhaps even conspiratorial

soon we’ll be far away, far from the street
where you learned how to be not what you are

implicit in my understanding of the song is this notion that “the street” or perhaps ‘mother culture’ is twisting about the human psyche in ways that it does not enjoy being twisted, the concept of fleeing, of actually making good some form of escape from a culture grown monstrous is far more comforting than the admonishment to “take heart”

americana, a small town with run-down accommodations
“a little motel and an old movie house”
this is what we seek, entertainment and rest

we’ll go to a movie,
whatever it is

i’d love to just say Steppenwolf (the novel not the band)
because this plays in with the ‘Magic Theater’ of the novel,
and on top of that the concept of – having nothing else to do, we must attend
the movie, regardless of whether we enjoy it or not

as we sit, entertained and un-participating, the cracks in our world
grow larger and more ominous

watching the movie
the world’s gonna end

there is nowhere you can hide

of course it’s called the “galaxy theater”
this is where we are, on this earth, in this universe,
with this strange culture and the personal desires
that said has fostered as we interact with it

i’ll pick some daisies from the flower-bed
of the galaxy theater while you clear your head . . .
i thought some daisies might cheer you up

daisies represent simplicity, innocence and perhaps even purity

what makes this beautiful is the concept of gathering flowers,
which are ephemeral and fragile,
to lend cheer to someone who would appear to have lost hope,

i’ve also been quite amused using this as a symbol for the whole
‘hippie’ generation, but to tell you the truth most of that movement
moves me in much the same way that the end of this song does . . .

a beautiful, and touchingly naive gesture made perhaps more powerful
for being as fleeting as it is . . .

link to amazon so you can buy the album

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 12:33 am and is filed under indiscriminate, music, poetry, quoted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.