January 2010

no Haiti puns please--we know it's hard for you to stop:

"Haiti Government Struggling" would have been fine here. Conventional but you don't always need to be "on."

Have been listening closely to Marc Bolan's A Beard of Stars LP lately. Hated it when I was younger because it is so affected. (A friend calls this "Hobbit Rock" and Bolan's sideman was named Steve Peregrine Took, for chrissakes.) But the drony, double-tracked guitars heard through headphones have won me over and am giving the lyrics a second listen. This is a combination of Internet and ear ("day" sounds like "neigh" to me but it makes no sense):

Her with moon trodden prow
Herds of African cows
Graze on her beauty
Fragrant and pale

Young once, youthful still now
Muse to the willow and ploughed fields arched with orchids
Blooms of the stars

Day whipped his black dray
Opaque orphan of Ring
Myrrh coated rider
Ride a husband to Matron the King

Stream of yellowy mud
Run to the one that I love
Chained to the chalky
Chalice of night.

"Matron the King" was some serious gender bending for its day. "Ride a husband" for that matter. The whole line ties sex identity into a pretzel. She with moon trodden prow (not "her" but that's a quibble) is a river that runs like a cheetah--the combination of Africa and medieval Europe is strange and we may be missing something.

Update, May 2017: Finally saw a lyric sheet with Bolan's words. "Guider husband to Matron the King" is the main difference -- even stranger. Here's the official version:

Her with moon trodden prow
Herds of African cows
Grazed on her beauty
Fragrant and pale.
Young once, youthful still now
Muse to the willow and ploughed
Fields arched with orchids
Blooms of the stars.
Day whipped his black dray
Opaque orphan of Ring
Myrrh coated rider
Guider husband to Matron the King
Streams of yellowy mud
Run to the one that I love
Chained to the chalky
Chalice of night.