on the long days in oceania
when i have run out of words
i send you down to the shops to buy me some
get half a pound of mixed adjectives i say
but no adverbs...theyre cheaper up the junction
while i'm waiting
i take drugs
i write some songs
i touch up a few portraits
i choreograph the sculptures
i parse the colours on my i-life
i switch on summer from a slot-machine
(i shoulda put the Cat out)
i loll in my hammock as the south seas winds blow
someone gently strummin' a uke
plunka plunka plunka plunka plunka in the afternoon
grant comes over to my beach shack
totin' his maton guitar
and the inevitable bottle of red
dont let me smoke any of this ...grant says
taking a huge puff on my spliff
dont let me drink any of this ..i say
taking a huge gulp on his bottle
bloody pot gets me all stoned ..he says
(like i'm forcing him to do it)
after we are both pleasantly refreshed
grant starts to tune up his guitar and talk
so steven how have you been filling the long hours here?
well grantley i wrote a couple of songs just this morning.....
grant laughs
yeah ...i bet their real beauties too...
actually, grant, scarlets just gone down the shops
to get me some new adjectives.....i say
grant rolls his eyes
oh...i just got some...
really?
grant lights up a stuyvo
has to be stuyvo soft pack
dont give grant a stuyvo hard pack cig...he'll know
as he inhales he closes his eyes and winces a little
and then he blows it all out upward n away
in some schoolboy smoking gesture he has never seemed to've outgrown
he chucks down the vino from the bottle reluctantly
(havent you got a clean glass...?!)
everything about grant is a soft kind ironic fussiness
he talks quietly but he laughs heartily
i love to bignote myself to him
and oh how he loves to laugh
fuck em grantley...i'll show em..the kids 'll love my new songs
grant almost chokes on his cigarette in merriment
yes steven...oh ha ha ha ha..i'm sure they will...
the fucking critics grant...they cant understand me...i'm too good
grants rolled up in a ball laughing
who could understand you steven.. ha ha ..except me
you wont fucken laugh grant when i got my own tv show
no....no one will... he says
presently scarlet kilbey returns with the adjectives
sorry dad she says
what are you sorry for sweetheart ? says grant
i dont think dads gonna want any of these.....
i poke thru them
too latinate
maybe this one
oh no...too cliched
hmmm....too ordinary
this one.......too florid
this one....too obvious
this ones good....oh i already used it
this one....nah! too obscure even for me
grant starts to strum out a tune
he's got a capo on the fourth fret
and he's picking the guitar slowly
"i cant believe (he sang)
i cant believe that you left me on new years eve
i was taking you to the dance
now my tears just water the plants...."
scarlet says i like it!
grant continues
but the song has gone all minor-y
and sad
"i cant believe i never saw
how you loved me less
as i loved you more
and i cant believe
that you dont know
that i want you back
and i miss you so..."
gee thats pretty sad there grantley ...i find i'm saying
you really think so says grant
warming up to it now
you really think its sad..?
i do says scarlet kilbey
shes 5 foot 10 inches tall
she has wild hair that looks like a dryads
she has the deepest blue eyes
like looking at a summer sky
dad what should i do with these adjectives ?she says
ah ...i dunno....stick em inna cupboard i s'pose... i say
its beginning to rain
grants off strumming again
he's changed the capo up two frets
and hes picking out this countryish thing with a D shape
he starts singing
his beautiful voice up close is always a treat
"the rain is falling down on my true loves town
where the clouds roll down upon the brown river
everything i have i give her
everything she does
makes me love her"
did you write that, grant ...i ask
most of it...he winked at scarlet
most of it...
public domain?
traditional arrangement...
oh the old trad arr....?
send royalties to g w mc then....
immediately!
we all have a laugh
gee oceania is beautiful this time of year ..i say
a little warm though perhaps steven says grant
dabbing at his forehead with a little hanky
god hes got a bloody hanky...i exclaim
its alright steven...he says...
i know you old people like their warm climes...!
we all have another good laugh
grant produces another bottle
he lights another ciggie with the same malarkey as previous
he takes the capo off the guitar altogether
and begins to strum strum strum
the soft rain keeps falling
and grant strums between 2 simple chords
but with subtle differences each time
a melody seemed to imply itself somewhere in the chords
grant looked at us and smiled
then he looked off at some point miles away
and some deep sadness informed his song
he began eventually to sing
" i remember you from a dream
walking beside me
we were a team...."
he choked up a little
oh grant ...scarlet says
he continued
"i remember the way your smile curled
around words like
i give you my world
and i dont think
that i'll find you in this place..."
jesus thats another sad one too... i said
grant seemed well satisfied with himself
he put his guitar down and uncrossed his legs
he looked at scarlet
hey listen to this he said
"you move around on your island
your baby blues shine like diamonds"
i nodded my head
thats very nice
i said
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33 comments:
"These words are too solid
They don't move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain
That flies by and is gone
Gone
Gone
Gone
I'd like to meet you
In a timeless, placeless place
Somewhere out of context
And beyond all consequences"
Suzee Vega
thanks for the last 2 ones, they were painfully inspiring. the bit "do you think if i walked far enough into this forest i'd find my father" is driving in circles in my head all day, like an especially sad refrain. all the angst of growing up and noticing the warps and cracks in the world...it's a strange counterpart to that spooky kate bush verse..."just put your feet down child, the water is only waist high". most frightening moment in pop history i guess...
it may be amorphous and ephemeral and digital - but I really like this little place you've built
im about to get a massage,in the warm winter light of the streets of my town.peace be with me .
This I do believe is my favorite post yet.
Like a trip to heaven that was sk.
Oceania, wish I was there right now instead of gloomy, cold, rainy, grey Melby town today.
GW writes the saddest love songs, but I love them, the perfect weather to listen to his voice today.
It seems like you're missing a lot of people you care about lately sk, hope you cheer up soon killsy:)
Love Amanda
drowning in grantley lately.
and it's okay
richard
Very enchanting Steve. Oh the feelings you words conjured...
Grant you are missed..
Steve, Your daughter is in our thoughts...
Brian Turner
Atlanta, Ga
p.s. I think I will finish that bottle of red wine....
I also appreciate today's blog for a very selfish organizational modus operandi reason. For weeks I could not find my Jack Frost CDs. Months ago I seperated them from my Church and solo SK CDs.
I just found them with the two Finn brothers CDs on a shelf. They're back to music room center stage with Steve's solo CDs and Isidore and 2 Gilt Trips. My glorious center stage is JB(Guitar God), CHRISSIE HYNDE, MACCA, CHurch/Kilbey. Morrissey's adjacent to it with the likes of KD, Joan Jett, La Haslam and La Durham. That's alot of estrogen for Morrissey to deal with. He better not sing "All The Lazy Dykes."
Sk's on a poignant blog roll this week. The Higher Power has imbued him with mystifying and evocative artistic and literary gifts. I close with Morrissey's "Satan Has Rejected My Soul."
my 5 yeard old son is currently obsessed with grant's "hammer the hammer" - this post made me cry...
...tried to leave a message last night but my computer has pmt....
so pleased to hear elli's at home now, good thoughts your way, mate...
today's blog made me smile, just lovely, a few ghosts that keep your company, aren't there...
is it ok to order your painkiller t shirt and cd through the mail, i got a bit of a thing about putting my credit card details on the net (know somebody who got royally ripped off like that), i won't miss out, will i (please say i won't)...
love always...
I really enjoyed reading this Steve. An easy friendship is not too easy to find, I find. Linda x
Hellbound go ahead and order never a problem from churchband or Karmic Hit. Right to the states fast.
i can't help but feel sad, sk, what you write. but its funny in spots too! its always great writing about happiness and sadness all in one.
i'm getting psyched for painkiller
;]
morning steve!
we're sending all our good thoughts and healing vibes skywards to you and your family.
the tribes of germania
oh, Salim, I love it that your five year old child is obsessed with Hammer the hammer!
Life, like love, goes on...
Dear readers.
Take the SSRI Citalopram(cipramil)and methadone together and the odd zanax here and there. My cure for the tollerance of existence. It rids me of anxiety and social phobias, it allow me to write my 'great Australian Novel' and yes it hold your ejeculation for so long, your wife will cum 2-4 times before you- and you are bulking up and getting fit at the same time. You only need to be on a small dose of Citalopram (20mg) and a moderate Dose of Methadone(16ml-80mg)
And yes pot fiends out there like I once was, you don't even need the toxic shit. You can get all of the above very easily just by some fiseptone tablets (methadone hydrichloride) or methadone syrup-(hang aroud a chemist until you find someone willing to sell it to you. Hold onto it till you find a a prescribing doctor, say you have a horrendous habit and he/she will eventually get you up to 80mil. (drink your the dose you boughtas it needs to be in your system before they can prescribe it) then go to a doctor say you have social anxiety disorder and have been having panic attacks and need to go on antianxiety meds-cipramil takes a month to work so they give you zanax in the interim,. repeat process till you get a script of zanax with 3 repeats and a script of cipramil with 5 repeats then you are set. get your methadonedose from a chemist (you can get up to four take aways) then folks kick back and the blues are gone for good.
yours sincerally, Sister Madly.
aaahh those frosted days
you pegged it
Love
"you wont fucken laugh grant when i got my own tv show
no....no one will... he says"
Made me laugh.
You return to Grant quite a lot and obviously miss him, Steve. Doing what you do for a living can be very lonely. Maybe you felt that he was more real than most people you meet? Maybe I'm getting a little too close for comfort, but maybe he was the closet thing to a male friend you've had for quite some time? Just guessing.
5.01 anon, mojo deflator combo extraordinaire and metho teeth....
Hey where's Davem gone, Ibiza? Linda
Why wasn't Cousin/Angel a bigger hit than Losing My Religion?
telephone,a noun,...and a verb,...and an adjective.zat obscure enough?x
That was some very nice and uncannily accurate GW McL lyric channeling! I still miss him terribly. So glad you were friends.
a very delightful read today. dreamy yet maybe a glimpse into the future?
how is elli? how are YOU holding up?
lotza love......
But is that Go-between's biography true when it says that Grant introduced you to the smack?
my friend and I decided last night that you and the band should cover Pink Floyd's Animals in its entirety.
warmupthetourbus,
I think Les Claypool beat them to it.
Not to say that it's a bad idea...
John Garratt
Veleska, you're a lovely lass and ya take great photos. Don't tease us about the bra size like that though, buddy!
nobody beat you to anything.x
"i cant believe i never saw
how you loved me less
as i loved you more
and i cant believe
that you dont know
that i want you back
and i miss you so..."
no puedo creer que nunca vi
como menos me amaste
cuando mas te ame
y no puedo creer
que no sabes
que quiero que regreses
y lo tanto que te extraño...
Un abrazo,
Cee
xox
good morning steven.xoxoxo
beautiful words, esskay. A time to think of absent friends...
Got my pre-order in for Painkiller and t-shirt the other day. Lookin fwd to that one.
And i've gotta say that the performance clip on the Martin Kennedy myspace page was really great. You looked and sounded in full form, and that song is forking beautiful. You may be a bohemian ratbag now, but one day your daughters will look at stuff like that and be proud.
brilliant blog steven...someone else above mentioned their kids listening to the GBs...my boy loves Mrs Morgan...during that "she never wanted to see the rain" part, he says to me "thats so sad dad" and tears well up in his eyes...fucking amazing what great music can do...
pure magic in here
"grant laughs
yeah ...i bet their real beauties too...
actually, grant, scarlets just gone down the shops
to get me some new adjectives.....i say
grant rolls his eyes
oh...i just got some...
really?
grant lights up a stuyvo
has to be stuyvo soft pack
dont give grant a stuyvo hard pack cig...he'll know
as he inhales he closes his eyes and winces a little
and then he blows it all out upward n away
in some schoolboy smoking gesture he has never seemed to've outgrown
he chucks down the vino from the bottle reluctantly
(havent you got a clean glass...?!)
everything about grant is a soft kind ironic fussiness
he talks quietly but he laughs heartily
"
As someone said to me "I can actually see Grant smoking"
xoxox
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