Matthew Zapruder's poetry collection "Come All You Ghosts" was the jumping-off point for this song; specifically, the line concerning being "I am the president of a glass of water." For better or worse, I was struck by the relative simplicity and self-contained authenticity/present-mindedness of that lyric. In thinking and writing about my own experience, this song manifested into a reflection on the "inherited" notions that populate one's (my) everyday existence. Quite simply, the song is an attempt to come to terms with what feelings, notions, anxieties, ideas, thoughts, reactions, et al. are "mine" versus those that were modeled, impressed, given value, et al. for me. The quest, then, is to arrive at a point of rebellion, rather than resistance, or worse, unconscious consent. Unfortunately, those unconscious "ghosts" have sharp claws that tend (more often than not) to "hook me in" and keep me connected to an old system that undercuts and betrays my authentic self. It was written in the middle of the night mostly on the inside and back cover of Jennifer Egan’s 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' in Times Square at one of those tiny metal table-and-chairs things they have set up for people like me who can't (or won't) sleep. XOXO.
lyrics
Come all you ghosts, we trust as true
To believe in the lies the measure the things that we do
The danger hails implicit in rock-n-roll
The blood denial in the eyes of a suicide soul
Please, don’t let me be like them
The tide turned familiar like it was there all along
In the space we kept for ourselves
The remote abolition of the things we denied
Stained with the ink from my arms
Please, don’t let me be like them
And here in this moment, the blood in my veins
A heart of rebellion, a claim to change
To hell with our idols, it’s these dreams we kill
With swollen ambition; anxiety stills.
This moment stand severed, a blank space underneath.
Tom Vollman (Whiskey Contrails Music, ASCAP) Copyright, 2016
credits
from These Ghosts,
released November 25, 2016
Lyrics & Music: Tom Vollman
Vocals & Instruments: Tom Vollman
Tom Vollman (Whiskey Contrails Music, ASCAP) Copyright, 2016
Tyne Darling is a Milwaukee, WI-based musician. Sometimes, though, he lives in Brooklyn. He has some black-ink tattoos on
both of his arms. He often spells his name "Tommy Vollman." He’s toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and Canada, played festivals such as SXSW, Wakarusa, and CMJ....more
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