When I was just starting to be Violet Mice, which at the moment I’m counting as everything after I finished It Would Be Nice, I began to be the King of making up ridiculous (maybe fantastic, I don’t know) ideas for concerts and live experiences. It was an exciting time, anything was possible (it’s still possible, I’m just a lot more critical of myself, I guess). At one point I even was going to stage a retrospective of Elvis songs, framing his life around the movie Clambake. It was going to have an “American Phoenix” in it. Now that’s something I should actually finish.
Chief among all these ideas was certainly “The Nose Show.” The Nose Show was a story-of-love kind of presentation, fitting all the songs I had at the moment into a strange musical that involved four characters: The Pig, The Nose, No, and Father Nose. I had the Pig mask already, it’s a cornerstone of everything I’ve done. But for this I went so far as to make a Nose mask, patterning it off of the Strong Nose, which was this symbol of strength and beauty that I was obsessed with when I was writing O, Zeppelin (and every song after that, I guess. By the way, “Sron” means “nose”).
The thing about The Pig, and why it makes so much sense for me to be attached to, is that it’s secretly a Pygmalion mask. I didn’t realize it at the time I bought it, but the way I romance people is to build a “statue” of them and promptly fall in love with it, totally ignoring the real person and focusing on what I think they are, the symbol I’ve made in my head. It’s sort of difficult to explain, mainly because I don’t want to wax sentimental about my love life (gross), but I’m sure there are many who understand. Right? No? Dang.
Anyways, The Nose was (and sometimes still is) one of my statues (other examples are Grammar, Life, Christmas Spirit, and the French Flag), and The Nose Show was a tribute to that, even though at the time, I wasn’t quite aware of what I was doing. The show’s setlist (with annotated themes) was thus:
Opening: Violence (first part)
1. progress/my socks – beginnings, trepidation
2. as far away as i can be – interest, self-esteem
3. i’m feeling more cultured already – friendships
4. Aside, (Pig Mask miming writing this down while speaking):
5. Heart Like Toast – love, desire, (Sung in No mask) Aside:
6. all things being equal – nervousness (Sung in No mask)
7. it would be nice, with aside in bridge:
8. Go On. /”Call me if there’s a Monster under your bed.”
9. Water – love, realization.
10. Dearest, One. (Sung with Nose Mask) , with aside:
11. Water II – back story. (Sung with Father Nose Mask)
12. Water III (First verse Sung with Nose Mask, Second with No Mask, Third with Pig Mask, bridge with Father Nose Mask, end with Pig Mask)
13. Aside:
14. Hello, World. –plans, doubt (End with No beating up Pig)
15. Let me let you in –affairs, love
16. The Wan Sea – affairs, despair
17. What Will Never Be –bitter acceptance
18. Or Even A Telescope – time passing
19. Sron Song –dreams, confusion
20. Circles. –dreams, bitter memory
21. No Life In Oh
22. Pig Myths Part Two – The Nose Song (Sung in No mask)
23. Aside:
24 – Violence (Second Part) Afterwards, reminisce.
25. Pig Myths Part One
26. I Think It Would – resolution, despair.
As you can see, I kept adding more songs to the list as I wrote more, up until the song Violence, which almost closed the case on Nose songs.
The asides were going to be little spoken interludes that furthered the story with cryptic ramblings (I mean that positively). I had recorded music for a few of these interludes, though I’ve lost most of them by now.
The aside for that was this:
“the difference between private and public,
it isn’t very large, but it’s important enough that,
instead of fully explaining myself,
i’ll just say that
I stare and I stare hard behind a certain hotel,
because it’s there that i was happiest.
If I was to go back there,
i would be crushed with sadness. And why?
Memory’s too much for me.
But i hate feeling lousy.
And i do it all the time.
I wish i didn’t sigh so much.
i just have to try to right as much as i could.
not much, i don’t think. and i don’t know what it would do.”
Not very good, but earnest, I guess.
This one is embarassing because I haven’t yet gotten over the “I am monologuing, I must talk in a Southern Accent thing.” Damn you, Residents. It’s words are this:
“Why does all this matter? It doesn’t. It’s the past. It’s words sent to me in the past.
And I kept them then and never threw them away. I keep things.
It’s a problem I have. But I don’t care. Someday I will find a use for them.
Someday.
Someday.
Someday.
But for now, this is all I can do:”
then I’d take off the Pig mask and be Me! again.
I never wrote Pig Myths Part Two, because I could never figure out a melody to go with such silly lyrics!
But, from the ashes of this silly endeavor came at least one song that was new that I liked. Dearest, One was a dark song, and I tried to finish it for O, Zeppelin, but it wasn’t right for that, and it never worked out. Someday, I might try to finish it, because I’m still fairly enamoured of it. It had an aside, too:
“L’eau était-elle bleue?
Quelle coleur était-il?
Vert? Gris?
La coleure est-elle important dans la mémoire?
La vue d’une piscine les rend-elle incommodes?
La cause d’ “undertow” le mot panique-t-elle?
Devons-nous observer nos mots autour d’eux?
Enlevez tous le vocabulaire aqueux?
Ne chantent pas les chansons avec des choeurs au sujet de la noyade?
Qui doit dire quels effets ils et ce qui pas?
Seulement ils, et la n’est aucune voie polie de demander.
Ainsi ne mentionnez les littoraux, ou les plages, ou cassez les vagues, ou l’eau.
L’eau, l’eau, l’eau.
Ce n’est pas l’eau sous la pont, oui? La pont a été descendue?
Est-ce que c’est une métaphore appropriée?
Seulement ils pourraient dire.
Rappelé par la ville d’Albuquerque.
Bien que je n’aie jamais rencontre cette mémoire.
En termes de mon mémoire active, il a été toujours détruit en mer.”
Yes, it is in French, poorly translated.
This is where the funny connection to now is. The last three lines of the above aside, along with another aside that was going to link into Hello, World, ended up being the lyrics to a song on the album I’m working on now, Honeybear. Here’s the other aside:
“nous sommes montés un bâtiment
et nous avons regardé les etoiles et les lumières de ville
et nous avons pensé aux choses que nous avons voulu faire ensemble
et nous avons jeté le peu des roches du toit
alors nous nous sommes élevés vers le bas et sommes allés à la maison
je ne sais pas si j’ai jamais été plus heureux
je suis désolé pour tout ensuite”
Translated, the lyrics to this new song (called Remembered By The City) are thus:
we climbed up to the roof
and we watched the stars and the lights of the city
and we thought of things we could do together
and we threw rocks into the street
and we climbed off the roof and went back to my house
and i don’t think i’ve been happier than that
and i’m sorry for everything afterwards
he was remembered by the city
but to my memory, he was always lost at sea
How about that! It is strange how things come back. I have an even more mind-blowing story about Things Coming Back, but I will save it for later.
O, nose…
No Comments on “The Nose Show”
You can track this conversation through its atom feed.