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Lyrics (vocoded through didgeridoo):
I can't take it, Lord, you know
I meander and roam
In the desert I roast
I just want to go home
So I can feed my soul
And play my harmonica
And channel my woe
Except that I lost it
So I can't play no mo'
It's a tall mess I'm rottin' in
* * *
A score for an imaginary Western film in three movements, bookended by intro and coda:
The Great - He has power, but no finesse. He has a personal army and rules them by fear and blackmail. He's a coward without his army and weapons, but bluffs and fights to the bitter end so long as he still has someone (or something) at his disposal. He's the most persuasive speaker and mostly tells lies.
If he rules over the other two, he will build up his forces and influence until he's unstoppable, and the world will consist of only outlaw gangs, with no normal people left.
The Righteous - He's virtuous, but spends just as much time being preachy as he does helping people. He only fights when he absolutely has to, preferring to use his words, his sense of timing, the objects near him, and the environment to his advantage. When he does fight, he raises absolute Hell!
If he rules over the other two, chaos will again befall the region, as The Righteous will soon become too old and too complacent to do anything.
The Bold - He's strong and mostly good-hearted, but reckless and prone to vigilantism. He'll do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, even betray you, but if you know how to talk to him and work with him, you can do great things!
If he rules over the other two, peace will endure, but everyone will settle down and become normies who never do anything interesting again.
Since this writing, two other characters have been introduced:
Moon Doggie - An observer, sent by the gods to watch how things develop and report back, and who travels to and from the sky in a form of ball lightning or St. Elmo's fire which resembles a running dog. He's also the narrator.
Windspear - A horse. Nothing else has been decided about the horse yet, other than that it is a horse.
* * *
Of course, the imaginary film happens in a desert where not only water, but horses, towns, and other people (especially lawmen) are scarce. The sparse string playing and slightly adverse atmosphere reflect this. Anyway, they probably have a bunch of epic confrontations laden with one-liners and then a final showdown where they shoot each other, only one survives, and he gets the girl, the gold, the horse, the dog, the ranch house, the TV, the lamp, the washer and dryer, the fridge, the beer, the wine, the whiskey, and even a custom Funko Pop statue of himself, and they all mosey on into the sunset. What a film! I'd give it two thumbs up but I can't because I'm using my thumbs to hit the space bar as I type this.
* * *
A lot of instruments were sent through guitar amps for this: Didgeridoo, granularized/vocoded didgeridoo, shruti box, piano, sitar, and tambura among others. There's also a lot of bussing, including one bus with 8 freakout delays chained together, one with the whole song going through multiple reverbs that's then getting high- and lowpassed and then put back into the mix, and another with yet more reverb, this time in the form of an impulse response made from the sound of Steve Wallis walking on rocks in a Cold War bunker on YouTube.
This tune also contains three ambient textures made from the oldest surviving recordings of myself, Gwennie, and Fengmiao. Guess which characters represent who and win an Oreo McFlurry!*
* = Oreo McFlurry will be consumed by me
- Genre
- Avantgarde