You learn from two loons when they call.
Song #5: Twice The Luck
"Twice The Luck" was the final song written and recorded for "Poppy Seeds", and is basically a Karla solo effort. Although we live with two black cats, I have it on good authority that the inspiration for the song was actually two other black cats that we met in Cambridge while walking to ASDA with Anton Barbeau to pick up some Quorn for curry after playing a gig in a boat on the river and singing Soft Boys songs in the park on the day that the world was supposed to end. I take it to be a dissertation on the triumph of the natural over the supernatural, the real world over the imagined one. Each verse takes to task a different creation of the human mind (superstition, new-age mysticism, & organized religion) and makes you realize how small and recent it is compared to the grandeur and wonder of the natural world. Cutting off a rabbit's foot doesn't make you lucky; seeing a rabbit in the wild does. It's fun to make up stories about what the lines on your palm mean, but why not use your hands to do meaningful, creative work instead? Seeing what looks like a picture of a religious icon on your toast is kind of cool, I guess; but you know what's even cooler? The fact that there's such a thing as toast that can be made from fire and things that grow out of the ground, and you can put it in your mouth and it's the most delicious thing ever.
If you've ever watched David Attenborough's "Life On Earth", you know that there's nothing dreamed of by the greatest human minds of science fiction and mysticism that's even one-millionth as weird and crazy as what already exists here on our own planet. Folk duo Lou & Peter Berryman wrote another song with a similar theme, and I've always loved this verse:
Of all of the things we've invented, from indelible ink to elastic
I would say without batting an eyelash, that nothing is stranger than plastic
And the oddest of all are the posies, that seem perfectly real till you feel one
But I don't think they'll ever convince me that a plastic one's weird as a real one
It's just perfect. Too bad they can't sing.
More often than not, you find the opposite sentiment in pop music - that reality and science is somehow unromantic and boring. Take the otherwise very catchy song by Farrah entitled "DNA" which opens with the line "If all that I am is DNA". As if that isn't the most amazing and incredible thing that has ever happened or ever will happen??? I'd like to think of "Twice The Luck" as a clever, succinct response to the anti-intellectualist strain that infects so much of modern life. Or maybe it's just a cute, twee, sunshiney little pop song. Either way, I like it.
Notes On The Recording:
*Aside from a few pieces of percussion, Karla played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocal parts. There are no drums, bass or guitars.
*The rhythm track is a loop of non-traditional percussion instruments such as: a filing cabinet, a can of chinchilla food, a container of Zoloft and some tea.
( Wikipedia Trivia:Collapse )
"Twice The Luck" was the final song written and recorded for "Poppy Seeds", and is basically a Karla solo effort. Although we live with two black cats, I have it on good authority that the inspiration for the song was actually two other black cats that we met in Cambridge while walking to ASDA with Anton Barbeau to pick up some Quorn for curry after playing a gig in a boat on the river and singing Soft Boys songs in the park on the day that the world was supposed to end. I take it to be a dissertation on the triumph of the natural over the supernatural, the real world over the imagined one. Each verse takes to task a different creation of the human mind (superstition, new-age mysticism, & organized religion) and makes you realize how small and recent it is compared to the grandeur and wonder of the natural world. Cutting off a rabbit's foot doesn't make you lucky; seeing a rabbit in the wild does. It's fun to make up stories about what the lines on your palm mean, but why not use your hands to do meaningful, creative work instead? Seeing what looks like a picture of a religious icon on your toast is kind of cool, I guess; but you know what's even cooler? The fact that there's such a thing as toast that can be made from fire and things that grow out of the ground, and you can put it in your mouth and it's the most delicious thing ever.
If you've ever watched David Attenborough's "Life On Earth", you know that there's nothing dreamed of by the greatest human minds of science fiction and mysticism that's even one-millionth as weird and crazy as what already exists here on our own planet. Folk duo Lou & Peter Berryman wrote another song with a similar theme, and I've always loved this verse:
Of all of the things we've invented, from indelible ink to elastic
I would say without batting an eyelash, that nothing is stranger than plastic
And the oddest of all are the posies, that seem perfectly real till you feel one
But I don't think they'll ever convince me that a plastic one's weird as a real one
It's just perfect. Too bad they can't sing.
More often than not, you find the opposite sentiment in pop music - that reality and science is somehow unromantic and boring. Take the otherwise very catchy song by Farrah entitled "DNA" which opens with the line "If all that I am is DNA". As if that isn't the most amazing and incredible thing that has ever happened or ever will happen??? I'd like to think of "Twice The Luck" as a clever, succinct response to the anti-intellectualist strain that infects so much of modern life. Or maybe it's just a cute, twee, sunshiney little pop song. Either way, I like it.
Notes On The Recording:
*Aside from a few pieces of percussion, Karla played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocal parts. There are no drums, bass or guitars.
*The rhythm track is a loop of non-traditional percussion instruments such as: a filing cabinet, a can of chinchilla food, a container of Zoloft and some tea.
( Wikipedia Trivia:Collapse )
