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Dream Songs

December 27, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Here’s a bit of fun to close out this Xmas weekend. This video, by British comedian (and accomplished Bowie impressionist) Adam Buxton, imagines the recording session for “Warszawa,” a track from David Bowie’s 1977 album Low. Buxton’s video isn’t new, and you’ve probably seen it before. But this is one of those rare things that gives me a chuckle and brightens my mood every time I watch it. I’m probably responsible for at least one hundred of its 600k+ views.

Adam Buxton also interviewed Brian Eno on the former’s excellent podcast. A good sport, Eno refers to this video as “one of the funniest things I’ve seen on the internet” but, “unfortunately, I keep meeting people who think it’s a real depiction of how things were between us in the studio.” Don’t make the same mistake, dear reader. 

The interview, in two parts, is casual and fun. Here it is on SoundCloud:

Adam Buxton · EP.37 – BRIAN ENO PART ONE
Adam Buxton · EP.38 – BRIAN ENO PART TWO

I also ran across Tony Barrell’s history of Brian Eno’s solo song “The True Wheel,” from 1974’s Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. (I love in-depth articles that break down the origins of individual songs and recordings.) It turns out that the song is a reenactment of a mescaline-fueled dream. Even some of the exact lyrics appeared to Eno in his fevered slumber:

[Brian] had a surreal dream about a bunch of girls, which included his friend Randi, serenading some sailors who had just come into port. The men weren’t exactly regular sailors: “They were sort of astronauts,” he clarified later, “but with all the psychological aspects of sailors.” […] The girls in the dream were singing: “We are the 801 / We are the central shaft.” When he returned to the real world, Eno jotted the phrases down and realised he had something interesting (to use one of his favourite words). It sounded meaningful, though he didn’t understand it, and it used the first-person plural. “I woke up absolutely jubilant, because this was the first bit of lyric I’d written in this new style.”

Barrell touches on other songs and lyrics written while asleep, including when Paul McCartney famously had a dream that bestowed “Yesterday.” Have you ever had a song, or anything, given to you in a dream? 

When I was in my early 20s, I dreamed that I was in the passenger seat of a car that was speeding precariously down a dirt road. It was night, and I could only see the road and the surrounding forest in headlights, kind of like in a David Lynch movie. I was frightened and looked over to the driver’s side to see who was at the wheel. It was Lou Reed. 

Lou noticed that I was scared, so he looked at me reassuringly (while still driving) and sang a song to calm my nerves. The song went, “You’re so evil, oh Macbeth … you’re so wicked, oh Macbeth …” 

I woke up and hit smartly hit ‘record’ on the boombox next to my bed. I sang the fresh song and then fell back to sleep. In the morning, I looked at the boombox and wondered if that really happened. I hit ‘play,’ and there’s half-asleep me singing the lyrics and melody for this dream song. It wasn’t bad. A few years later, the first band I joined in Orlando played the song (with me singing). I have a recording of it somewhere in that box of 4-track tapes I mentioned in the previous post.

From the clandestine processes in the studio to the shadowy visions in our heads, music (and music-making) remains a delightful mystery.

Update: Adam Buxton has released a delightful follow-up to his video above to commemorate David Bowie’s 74th birthday, almost five years after his death. Check out the “Ashes to Ashes” Clown Suit Story.

Filed Under: From The Notebook, Items of Note, Watching Tagged With: Adam Buxton, Brian Eno, Dreams, Humor, Lou Reed, Paul McCartney, Podcast, Songwriting

Fun Fun Fun at the Weddingbahn

January 8, 2017 · 2 Comments

Last Wednesday I was honored to attend the wedding of my longtime close friends David and Jennifer, who opted to transform their ceremony into the most delightful homage to influential electronic music heroes Kraftwerk. I’ve known David since my somewhat misanthropic college years in northern Louisiana, and I remember our shared love of Kraftwerk as present even then. Of course, David reportedly went on to fully exemplify the Kraftwerk lifestyle, and the ‘Weddingbahn’ is only the latest episode in this couple’s meisterplan.

I was thrilled to be on hand to not only DJ at Weddingbahn, but I also recorded some very special wedding music. Check out several photos (mostly taken by the intrepid Jon Wolding), read a couple online accounts from the local press, and have a listen to two tracks I specifically recorded for Weddingbahn (featuring vocoder contributions by @pimpdaddynash), all below:



→ Tampa Bay Times: German ’80s Band Inspires ‘Kraftwerk’ Wedding

→ Creative Loafing: This Tampa Couple had Full-On Kraftwerk Nuptials




Update: Jennifer just posted a wonderful ‘behind the scenes’ recap on her blog.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Esoterica, Humor, Krautrock

Crazy Walls

December 7, 2015 · Leave a Comment

“For When A Scrapbook Is Not Crazy Enough”

h/t the Back To Work podcast … listen to the hosts come to terms with Crazy Walls HERE.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Esoterica, Humor, Podcast

Here Come The Black Cats

October 9, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Brian Eno: I am my own worst critic. Cat: Not while I'm alive. pic.twitter.com/OZWXGdUu25

— Mark Baker (@1630revello) October 6, 2015

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Brian Eno, Humor

Hitting The Links

September 20, 2015 · Leave a Comment

It’s time for our semi-regular round up of articles and links that we found particularly interesting over the past week. And, yes, I do need a better title for this section.


A History of Female Afrofuturist Fashion

The term Afrofuturism might only have been coined in 1993 by author Mark Dery, but the black cultural experience of freedom achieved through sci-fi, ancient African cosmology and magical realism has been underway since the middle of 20th century. Time, for an Afrofuturist, is a fluid concept, and the terms past, present and future aren’t necessarily linear.


A Plea for Metadata for Music. What’s Wrong with You Label People?

I’ll just be blunt: why can’t you get metadata right? What’s keeping you from tagging digital song files with all the information I and everyone else needs? This is important data. And supplying everyone with this data is your job!


I Accidentally Convinced Voters That Donald Trump Hates Pavement

It’s just funny to imagine Donald Trump listening to Pavement. Trump has written real tweets praising stadium acts like Taylor Swift and Aerosmith. What if he heard Pavement? He probably wouldn’t like them very much! I imagine a man of such extreme wealth and ego being repelled by the uncompromising, lo-fi aesthetic of early Pavement recordings.


Finally, It Will Be Possible To Flip Someone Off Via Emoji

It appears that when Apple ships iOS 9.1, iPhone users will have access to a key symbol of human communication. In a beta posted yesterday, Apple greatly expanded the number of supported emoji, including multiple new hand gestures. Of course, there’s one gesture that all have been waiting for, and it looks like we’ll be getting it at long last.


The 8 Hipster Districts of Orlando to Explore Like a Local

Orlando is known around the world as a theme park playground for children and adults alike. Yet visitors often miss out on the relatively undiscovered sections of Orlando, cherished by locals as up-and-coming cultural havens. In our humble opinion, these neighborhoods—your friends may not have heard of them yet—are a destination vacation in and of themselves.


Chess Player Caught ‘Using Morse Code To Cheat’

Mr Ricciardi did not get up at all during hours of playing and kept his thumb tucked in his armpit. The 37-year-old player was also “batting his eyelids in the most unnatural way”, (referee Jean) Coqueraut said. “Then I understood it. He was deciphering signals in Morse code.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Esoterica, Humor, Orlando, Sun Ra

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