Master Of The Universe/The Sad Clown - January 14, 2012

One Day At A Time was not a shoo-in last week to launch this blog and to be the first song of the year.  With both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Sunday, I had been singing some Sunday songs....Kris Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming Down and the Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning.  My dark passenger liked the idea of launching the year with lyrics like...

I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt

And the beer I had for breakfast tasted good, so I had one for dessert

or

Sunday morning / brings the dawn in / It's just a restless feeling / by my side

Early dawning / Sunday morning / It's all the wasted years / so close behind

But One Day At A Time was the right song and I figured I'd follow up this week with a Sunday song.  Then this song reared its head.  It tumbled out of me.  Sometimes you have to painstakingly whittle a song out of a big motherfucking log. Sometimes you gotta dig it out of the ground, you might have to hose it down, or maybe  wrestle it and kick its ass around the living room a few times - this particular one jumped out of my mouth.  When that happens my theory is that it's one of two things:  one, the song blows; two, the song is tapping into my subconscious and will reveal its motives at a later date.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.  So strange to put a song out there without bouncing it off friends, collaborators, and cohorts first.  Betty-Ann heard it and she said it was alright, so here it is.

Master of the Universe / The Sad Clown

The sun topples from the sky

like a head rolls off the executioner's platform

And the moon demurely gives way

to the passage of an oncoming storm

And I lie in bed with my detached head

He's a gaseous mass, often behaves like a jack-ass

But what can be said, when the jackass is your own head

We watch the ceiling descend, pretend it's not the end

of the world

 as we know it

DON'T BLOW IT......says my head

'Cause this is your chance to finally wear the pants

Be the master of your own universe, cast of the curse

could things really get any worse

And dream and dream and dream and dream 

And dream and dream and dream and dream

The sun rises from the ashes of the night

like a canary flies up from a poisoned mine

And the sky is so insanely blue

it stages a coup d'etat in my mind

And I walk this town with my old friend the sad clown

I tell him, don't wear your heart on your sleeve, it becomes tattered and dirty

and your friends and your enemies can all watch you bleed

and though he acknowledges me, he doesn't say he agrees

when I boil it all down, I conclude he's just a sad clown

We watch the sky descend, pretend it's not the end

of the world

as we know it

DON'T BLOW IT - I say to the sad clown

'Cause this is your chance to finally wear the pants

Be the master of your own universe, cast of the curse

could things really get any worse

And dream and dream and dream and dream 

And dream and dream and dream and dream