Manafonistas

on life, music etc beyond mainstream

2013 24 Dez

Child’s Christmas in Wales

von: Michael Engelbrecht Filed under: Blog | TB | 4 Comments

With mistletoe and candle green
To Halloween we go
Ten murdered oranges bled on board ship
Lends comedy to shame
The cattle graze bold uprightly
Seducing down the door
To saddle swords and meeting place
We have no place to go

Then wearily the footsteps worked
The hallelujah crowds
Too late but wait the long legged bait
Tripped uselessly around
Sebastopol Adrianapolis
The prayers of all combined
Take down the flags of ownership
The walls are falling down

A belt to hold
Columbus too, perimeters of nails
Perceived the Mama’s golden touch
Good neighbors were we all

 

I’ve never understood this song. What’s it about? Maybe a Welshman can tell me something about its hidden secrets. Or Ian, or Bob! At the same time I’ve always loved this song, which has definetely a Christmas feel (in a good way) though some of the lines seem to undermine a too peaceful atmosphere. It’s from John Cale’s masterpiece „Paris 1919“ which he recorded, funny enough, with members of Little Feat.

This entry was posted on Dienstag, 24. Dezember 2013 and is filed under "Blog". You can follow any responses to this entry with RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Comments

  1. Uwe:

    I still have a vinyl copy of „Paris 1919“! Seems to me to be one of the more ‚accessible‘ John Cale records …

    … I remember vividly John Cales concert at german Rockpalast where he played a drastically slowed down version of „Heartbreak Hotel“. *That* Rockpalast concert comes for me right after Mitch Ryders legendary full moon concert at Grugahalle, Essen.

  2. Michael Engelbrecht:

    Maybe it´s about children’s masquerade on halloween …

  3. Ian M:

    Paris 1919 and Fear are my favourite Cale records. Just brilliant. No idea what the song’s about either – my best guess is that its jumble of images are like those of the character who narrates the Dylan Thomas work of the same name:

    „One Christmas was so much like another in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before I sleep…“

  4. Michael Engelbrecht:

    My favourite Cale albums are Paris 1919 – so happy to have seen him perform it live in Essen two years ago -, and Music for a New Society. And the duo with Eno and their song sharing on Wrong Way Up. So many great songs on other albums: Dying on the Vine etc etc


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