Inevitably Speaking
by Dan
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Dan Deacon - "Wham City" [11:45]

"Wham City" is split distinctly into two parts. The first part is seven minutes, the second part is almost five. They seem like separate approaches to the same song, glued together, but their union evokes in me separate eras of a great and old city.

In Part I, we slowly enter Wham City, old stone pillars hold the sky resting just above the rooftops, and the town square is eerily deserted, tables and chairs empty, until (at 1:51) people, rows and rows of people, swoop into the carrefour from the woods and begin to sing, hands splayed, in tribute. They build a brass fountain in the center of the square, and it is the pride of Wham City. And in the infant days of this city, life is hard but worthwhile, as the citizens have found a common goal, and have successfully found a way to work on a community; with surrender.

In Part II (at 7:12), we return to Wham City, in the far distant future, where the poor have been replaced by robot slaves, and the rich that remain are organic humans. The poor sing a working song as they shove stacking blocks beneath their human masters elevating them higher and higher, as high as they can stack, digging up the dirt from the once-deserted square to make the artificial mountains even taller. Eventually they hit brass, and carefully sweep it away, to find the fountain, the one the original pioneers had built, and the robots are the only ones listening to the message that emanates from within, and they promptly stop their stacking and follow the newly-freed spirits of the city back into the woods outside of town. [Buy]

--

Neil Young - "The Way" [Buy]

these are the only words that come to mind

23-ayumi_small.jpg
(Saiga Yuji)

Posted by Dan at October 23, 2007 3:26 AM
Comments

"photo, uncredited, in Saiga Yuji's incredible photo gallery"

only to someone who's never witnessed a photography gallery...

jesus.

Posted by kofka at October 24, 2007 11:03 AM

Thanks for serving up that Neil Young song. How is it that he keeps making compelling music, year after year!?!?!?

Posted by ben at October 24, 2007 11:57 AM

kofka, I've made your implied changes, and may I say it's a pleasure writing for you for free every other day of my life.

ben - I don't know

Posted by dan at October 24, 2007 12:56 PM

many have probably already seen this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvoXgTEaLT8

I wish dan was my best friend, so i could take him out to meet my other boring friends and say "hey, this is DAN" and let him go nutzo like this until they know they sound as silly as the reporter's neutral voice when they talk about what dress they should wear for graduation.

Posted by Camille at October 24, 2007 5:03 PM

dan --

for another (still jubilant) reading of "wham city" go here:

http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/1536

Posted by the professor at October 24, 2007 11:22 PM

beautiful, thanks.

Posted by johnny at November 17, 2007 5:48 PM

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