The last two weekends have been spent doing gigs with my current band, The Ape Shit Army. It's been nourishing and stimulating to practice and play regularly with this group of musicians: Dan Weisenberger on guitar, Jody Johnson on upright bass, and Rad Juli on drums. Sometimes entertainment juggernaut Hank Pine joins us for some apocalyptic cello licks, as he does on this recording. We are supplemented vocally at times by Jeanne Tolmie, Ana Bon Bon, and Betty-Ann Lampman. This shit is fun.
The skeleton of this song was born and documented on Song A Week 2012. I wrote it as an "introductory song" for a songwriting workshop I was attending as a lead up to Arts Wells. At that time it was New Blues #3....somewhere along the road of rehearsing and recording it became #2 and #3 became #2. Likely, you don't care about these trivial details. But dammit that's the meaningless crap I obsess about.
Since it debuted here as a little baby song in a shitty disposable diaper, it's grown some balls.
This version was recorded live at Solstice Cafe in Victoria, BC, Friday night on my zoom mic. Tonight I messed around with random video clips I've accumulated on my phone and Frankensteined together a "video" to provide visual stimulus.
Funeral Blues
Words and music by David P. Smith
I emote with icons
stumbling down the passage of time
with two thin dimes on my feet
silver dollars in my sockets
draped in a cool white sheet
I could see the storm a-rising
as I rolled on round the bend
I was thinking about the funerals
I've been planning to attend
in my cum-stained pants
my curly hair shirt
in my wagon of woe
dragging a world of hurt
with a sack of blood
a bottle of dirt
Lightning struck the cruise ship
it shattered like a pomegranate
and I clung to two hearts that keep me anchored on this planet
Chorus
Sightless and speechless
a maggot wriggles in the muck
contemplates the vagaries of old Lady Luck
Is a bum hand better
than no hand at all?
It it best to grovel in shit
or to climb up and risk the fall
Sun pierced through the clouds
a heavenly sword of wrath
and I said to the maggot
Yo maggot do the math
Chorus
I could see the storm a-rising
as I rolled on round the bend
I was thinking about my funeral
and who might attend
the haters
the lovers
my sisters
and brothers
Stars rained from the sky
tiny daggers in the night
and I said to myself hey Davey boy
it's fight or flight
it's fight or flight
it's fight or flight
Chorus
