Television-Handed

Ghostess:

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

First came the 1952 novel by Amos Tutuola; next came the 1981 album by Brian Eno and David Byrne.

Vickie France Stavish, my oldest sister, earned a master's degree in Linguistics up at Oakland University about the same time as the album came out, and I remember her waxing eloquently about the deep structure of language, about underlying patterns of communications. This is exactly what Eno and Byrne get at, where people's repeated, impassioned babblings ("found vocals") are looped and employed as rhythmic patterns. The whistles and bells the musicians add make it sound all the trippier, of course -- perfect for driving across vast expanses of country and urban landscapes, quite hallucinatory when combined with the various eerie lights one notices in the dead of night.

America Is Waiting

All of the tracks have their own place and sound, but the ones that really interest me are those with wild ravings off the airwaves, mostly a.m. radio talk shows and religious broadcasts. Take "America Is Waiting," for example. It sounds like a sample from every political talk show I've ever dialed across out of sheer curiosity. There are a lot of ravers riding those waves, and their voices are now bouncing along into eternity. "America is waiting for a message of some sort or another," indeed. This track, along with "Mea Culpa," also made up part of the original Wall Street (1987) soundtrack. The excellent new CD release of the album includes a short film, by the way -- it's about as exciting as watching Space Invaders, truth be told, but a good idea.

"Regiment" is a haunting, beautiful track featuring an Islamic singer.

"Help Me Somebody" features an old-time-religion preacher whipping his congregation into ecstatic visions: "He's so BIG you can't get AROUND him! He's so SMALL you can't get UNDER Him! Whoop! He's EVERYWHERE! Help me Somebody!

So You Hear Voices, You Are Possessed

"The Jezebel Spirit" is awesome -- excerpts from a real time exorcism. How often can you hear that? People may be plain crazy, but they are never dull -- even if sometimes I can relate to fellow UNC grad. Lewis Black when he said "every day I feel like I'm waking up on the Titanic and I may be the only one who realizes what's coming" (rough paraphrase). Or James Thurber: "There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else." So you hear voices? Please tell me all about them!

So what can I DO?

The new CD release has a good booklet full of new stuff and better yet, a "Side 3" that includes more Arabic sounds, experimentals like "Solo Guitar with Tin Foil," and the most excellent funk-backed found vocal, "Defiant." I love it!

If you agree to a free licensing arrangement, you can download some of the sounds and mix your own thing. Groove it at http://bush-of-ghosts.com/



All aboard for the Night Train!