I wasn't even thinking about all of the other 'numbers' in this song (that you are so fond of...)
A musician friend of mine explained to me once that the title refers to the very unusual time signature that the song is composed in of 11 beats that then return to the first note.
But then, there are Robert Hunter's lyrics as you aptly pointed out.
Robert Hunter is one of the greatest unsung wordsmiths of our time.
Here he is 'explaining' the lyrics of one of his finest creations, 'Dark Star' :
I assure you numbers were the bane of my life at school. Viewed as symbols I can actually see them. Prior to this they were vile sticky things.
The friend I mentioned who adored GD thought the same way as you. I tried to convince him that *some* electronica did something to the brain but he'd have none of it.
I want to do a proper techno post on a CIA document; they went deeply in to the way 'clicks' in electronic music held open one side of the brain (whereas usually it would have to negotiate). These clicks supposedly tune the brain like a laser in concentration. As if they had created a formula to help crank open the dormant part... ?
Can't I just bloody enjoy the music? Ha... I really do. But.. It's become a tool for focus, to upload information quickly. I went looking for a track with the clicks just now. One can feel them in the upper part, stimulating both sides. This isn't the best example, just an example.
It was interesting to see the videos accompanying them, most of the 'Solar Fields' videos are planets, galaxies etc. I use it as a sound screen to block the children, never watched them before. Your music requires active listening and participation, an art form. I think I've done that with maybe three or four albums my whole life. Such fast generational changes...
I worked in a 'New Age' bookstore in Harvard Square many years ago, where we played a lot of this stuff in order to 'set the mood', but I don't really care for it as much as a lot of the 'old hippie' stuff.
As much as I love the music side of it, I'm very much a lyrics oriented type person also.
Here is an example of another one of my unusual favorites:
Don't be sorry, I got about two bars in. I can't go back to music with lyrics either, though appreciate them still. GD's Crazy Fingers is still gold standard imho.
These String guys sound like hardcore trippers, this from the Cellular Song:
> I want to do a proper techno post on a CIA document; they went deeply in to the way 'clicks' in electronic music held open one side of the brain (whereas usually it would have to negotiate). These clicks supposedly tune the brain like a laser in concentration. As if they had created a formula to help crank open the dormant part... ?
This statement about "clicks" doing something to the brain makes me wonder if anything like this might be related to the phenomenon of ASMR.
I looked up a brief definition of ASMR (hadn't heard of it) and they used the grooming chimp idea to describe a bond "bordering on euphoria". Euphoria is the very best way to describe the opening of the 'other side', so much so that the even though the nearby amygdala is screaming bloody death (it really feels like one must die), one doesn't particularly mind, and cuts their losses and prepares, under a golden glow of (divine-feeling) Love-Most-Euphoric. Presumably chimps are conscious of love while the grooming happens, consciousness and love is what it's all about, and the only safe way to ignite the pineal gland, which can also be likened to star formation in a scale model.
> they used the grooming chimp idea to describe a bond "bordering on euphoria". [....] Presumably chimps are conscious of love while the grooming happens, consciousness and love is what it's all about, ....
This is coming dangerously close to plausible. Hmmm. I'm now balancing on a fence rail between the grooming bond you found and something else purely neurological. I'll keep at it. Meanwhile ...
You said this:
> Euphoria is the very best way to describe the opening of the 'other side', so much so that the even though the nearby amygdala is screaming bloody death (it really feels like one must die), one doesn't particularly mind, and cuts their losses and prepares, under a golden glow of (divine-feeling) Love-Most-Euphoric.
Which reminds me of a friend I knew years ago who, while walking in the big city during rush hour one morning, slipped, fell backward, and hit concrete. Out like a light, completely unconscious, surrounded quickly by people trying to revive her.
The interesting part is -- and these are my own words trying to approximate her description from years ago -- she said she felt herself immersed in rapturous (my word) warmth, acceptance, comfort, -- maybe even a sense of being surrounded by golden light. When she eventually started coming back to consciousness, she protested to herself, absolutely did not *want* to come back.
The Eleven
https://youtu.be/J5McdXcZKbw?feature=shared
No more time to tell how
This is the season of what
Now is the time of returning
With our thought jewels polished and gleaming
Now is the time past believing
The child has relinquished the reign
Now is the test of the boomerang
Tossed in the night of redeeming
Eight-sided whispering hallelujah hatrack
Seven-faced marble eye transitory dream doll
Six proud walkers on jingle-bell rainbow
Five men writing in fingers of gold
Four men tracking the great white sperm whale
Three girls wait in a foreign dominion
Ride in the whalebelly
Fade away in moonlight
Sink beneath the waters
To the coral sands below
Now is the time of returning
I wasn't even thinking about all of the other 'numbers' in this song (that you are so fond of...)
A musician friend of mine explained to me once that the title refers to the very unusual time signature that the song is composed in of 11 beats that then return to the first note.
But then, there are Robert Hunter's lyrics as you aptly pointed out.
Robert Hunter is one of the greatest unsung wordsmiths of our time.
Here he is 'explaining' the lyrics of one of his finest creations, 'Dark Star' :
https://youtu.be/k3tB_6iJD7Y?feature=shared
I assure you numbers were the bane of my life at school. Viewed as symbols I can actually see them. Prior to this they were vile sticky things.
The friend I mentioned who adored GD thought the same way as you. I tried to convince him that *some* electronica did something to the brain but he'd have none of it.
I want to do a proper techno post on a CIA document; they went deeply in to the way 'clicks' in electronic music held open one side of the brain (whereas usually it would have to negotiate). These clicks supposedly tune the brain like a laser in concentration. As if they had created a formula to help crank open the dormant part... ?
Can't I just bloody enjoy the music? Ha... I really do. But.. It's become a tool for focus, to upload information quickly. I went looking for a track with the clicks just now. One can feel them in the upper part, stimulating both sides. This isn't the best example, just an example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ek0xEAc3O0
It was interesting to see the videos accompanying them, most of the 'Solar Fields' videos are planets, galaxies etc. I use it as a sound screen to block the children, never watched them before. Your music requires active listening and participation, an art form. I think I've done that with maybe three or four albums my whole life. Such fast generational changes...
I worked in a 'New Age' bookstore in Harvard Square many years ago, where we played a lot of this stuff in order to 'set the mood', but I don't really care for it as much as a lot of the 'old hippie' stuff.
As much as I love the music side of it, I'm very much a lyrics oriented type person also.
Here is an example of another one of my unusual favorites:
https://youtu.be/Ezl-Y27xNrM?feature=shared
Sorry about the commercials! You ought to check it out on Spotify or something so that you can hear the whole thing uninterrupted like...
Don't be sorry, I got about two bars in. I can't go back to music with lyrics either, though appreciate them still. GD's Crazy Fingers is still gold standard imho.
These String guys sound like hardcore trippers, this from the Cellular Song:
Who would go and who would come
Or who would simply linger?
And who would hide behind your chair
And steal your crystallized ginger?
Wtf man. Lyrics you can taste... :)
"... they were vile, sticky things." Hilarious.
But this part:
> I want to do a proper techno post on a CIA document; they went deeply in to the way 'clicks' in electronic music held open one side of the brain (whereas usually it would have to negotiate). These clicks supposedly tune the brain like a laser in concentration. As if they had created a formula to help crank open the dormant part... ?
This statement about "clicks" doing something to the brain makes me wonder if anything like this might be related to the phenomenon of ASMR.
I looked up a brief definition of ASMR (hadn't heard of it) and they used the grooming chimp idea to describe a bond "bordering on euphoria". Euphoria is the very best way to describe the opening of the 'other side', so much so that the even though the nearby amygdala is screaming bloody death (it really feels like one must die), one doesn't particularly mind, and cuts their losses and prepares, under a golden glow of (divine-feeling) Love-Most-Euphoric. Presumably chimps are conscious of love while the grooming happens, consciousness and love is what it's all about, and the only safe way to ignite the pineal gland, which can also be likened to star formation in a scale model.
> they used the grooming chimp idea to describe a bond "bordering on euphoria". [....] Presumably chimps are conscious of love while the grooming happens, consciousness and love is what it's all about, ....
This is coming dangerously close to plausible. Hmmm. I'm now balancing on a fence rail between the grooming bond you found and something else purely neurological. I'll keep at it. Meanwhile ...
You said this:
> Euphoria is the very best way to describe the opening of the 'other side', so much so that the even though the nearby amygdala is screaming bloody death (it really feels like one must die), one doesn't particularly mind, and cuts their losses and prepares, under a golden glow of (divine-feeling) Love-Most-Euphoric.
Which reminds me of a friend I knew years ago who, while walking in the big city during rush hour one morning, slipped, fell backward, and hit concrete. Out like a light, completely unconscious, surrounded quickly by people trying to revive her.
The interesting part is -- and these are my own words trying to approximate her description from years ago -- she said she felt herself immersed in rapturous (my word) warmth, acceptance, comfort, -- maybe even a sense of being surrounded by golden light. When she eventually started coming back to consciousness, she protested to herself, absolutely did not *want* to come back.
#9 Dream
https://youtu.be/7zZsKOvXiFo?feature=shared
You find great meaning in numbers, and I can certainly appreciate that!
It's pretty obvious that I am very fond of music and lyrics for their power to convey meaning and transmit experience...
9 and the 5, 6, and 11 ... Insights I've not heard anywhere. Fascinating, as usual.
Thanks Cardinale. :)