letter 13

sorry to hear you're in a tornado. just because someone has a need for monogamy doesn't mean they necessarily practice it. there is honesty in laying with whores. i've never had a professional massage. i think i owe myself a couple thousand.

i've heard numerous times that your favorite horror journalist is a regular at cathouses. i get so dry when i'm working. like a desert that needs an encompassing rain. not a good analogy, but i guess i'm saying i can see it somehow. from the branch of a petrified tree.

but is that it for you and the baron. it's hard to tell. you always talk like it's over but when i suggest such a thing you're quick to correct me.

my television died. the picture squinched to a blurry cube and then it was gone. i almost got up and went straight to the tv store, like putting out your last cigarette while heading for a fresh pack. found out i was bottle- not breast-fed. was chic at the time. me and sister fig got the bottle while oldest brother thomas got the breast. now he has a wife and three trefuckingmendous kids. fig is more swooping. and well, you've seen the way i treat people.

letter 14

you resolved that fast. not sure if that's a good sign or a bad one.

this day seemed like it could have gone either way. the sky half blue, half gray. when i looked again the gray had lost to blue (a civil war sky), and then it rained a cloudless rain.

the place next door is vacant. did i tell you. cry-baby baker is gone. now it's just painters hanging out the window with the occasional cig. i wonder who's going to move in next and if they're going to leave their curtains open as much as chef sensitive. if they are considerate of my feelings, they will. that is the problem with the world today. no one thinks of his or her neighbor.

nice story about the grouch behind the counter. i was thinking, as i read it, how insurmountable some people are. but then you proved me wrong, you got him to smile. i am so often wrong but find it more rewarding than being right. i had bad experiences with clowns as a kid, too. these ones had guns. what makes certain alcoholics become clowns.

i once spent five days on my knees scrubbing the black fat between the tiles in my cabin at hq. ponderous labor was what i was after. one of the docs came in to yell at me. i regretted the hug i had given him on arrival and slept with a hat for six nights.

you ought to write me abaut what you're going to write me about and some other stuff, too.

bill callahan. de letters to emma bowlcut, 2010

canción-bandera

bill callahan, my apocalypse (2011)

el disco.

it's never easy to say goodbye
to the faces
so rarely do we see another one
so close and so long

i asked the room if i'd said enough
no one really answered
they just said, "don't go, don't go, don't go, don't go, don't go.."
well all this leaving is neverending

i kept hoping for one more question
or for someone to say,
"who do you think you are?"
so i could tell them

with intensity, the drop evaporates by law
in conclusion, leaving is easy
when you've got some place you need to be
i'm giving up this gig for another season...

with the tv on mute
i'm listening back to the tapes
on the hotel bed
my my my apocalypse

i realized i had said very little about ways or wheels
or riding for the feeling
riding for the feeling
is the fastest way to reach the shore, on water or land

riding for the feeling...

what if i had stood there at the end
and said again and again and again and again, and again
in answer to every question

riding for the feeling...
riding for the riding, for the riding and for the ride
riding for the feeling...

... would that have been a suitable goodbye?

si no escuchaste a river ain't too much to love... hacelo!

bill callahan, a man needs a woman or a man to be a man

bueno y ya llegamos a la última entrega, con a man needs a woman or a man to be a man, otro temazo de aquellos... este cierra el disco, cuya portada reproducimos a continuación, con un lenk pra il bajar. espero que alguno haya escuchado estos temas y haya descubierto algo que le guste... bueno, en fin. disfrutad!

bill callahan, woke on a whaleheart, 2006

--------------------------------

when you leave, i go into our room
and lay me down on birds of paradise
it's pretty womanly in here!
roses noting every move
nothing goes on except what should
a vast legacy of good

and i don't know if i can uphold it on my own
i don't know if i can uphold it on my own
i don't know if i'm to be trusted
in our room
alone

a man needs a woman or a man to be a man
a man needs a woman or a man to be a man

a light that is explicit
between nine and noon
the light shows a life to things thought dead
like oaken legs and fireworks beneath the bed

fireworks are wasted in the day
i set 'em off anyway
to pass the time, 'til you return
i can't see a thing, 'til you return
maybe a little smoke 'til you return
with fireworks!
more fireworks!
with fireworks!
more fireworks!

and you tell me to wait...
just wait...
wait, just wait...

a man needs a woman or a man to be a man
a man needs a woman or a man to be a man

and when it's good and dark
the sky a wet black
like earth has turned
you say ok
now is time, ok
like earth has turned

above us explode a golden lion dripping red
a blue bear spitting white
a spider of fire on a web of sparks
a green dragon with spiralled eyes
fireworks light the way
fireworks light the way

before us lie many a night
before us lie fireworks in boxes
but only in you
deep in you
only in you
deep in you
is the fire that lights them

a man needs a woman or a man to be a man
a man needs a woman or a man to be a man

bill callahan, the wheel

y ya ya ya ya termina sycamore y en seguida empieza the wheel, no puede ser de otra manera.

the wheel has turned
one full circle
time for my meal of wood
to make my home lord
in a stable spoke lord
inside a turning wheel would be good
to make my home lord
in a stable spoke lord
inside a turning wheel bound for good

a woodbee tries to find purchase
in a turning spoke
from memphis to potomac
never giving up hope

i'd die in your jails lord
but you'd die by my laws lord
i think you got it worse
no rebel i, lord
i follow the river
when i'm lost
when i'm lost

the wheel has turned
one more circle
the payload is now immense
so climb aboard all
climb aboard
because the heavier we get
the heavier we get
the harder we crush, oh

the wagon rolls like an old millstone
driving bad deeds six feet deep

to make my home lord
in a stable spoke lord
inside a turning wheel would be good
to make my home lord
in a stable spoke lord
inside a turning wheel bound for good

bill callahan, sycamore

there's sap in the trees if you tap 'em
there's blood on the seas if you map 'em
christian, if you see your poppa
tell him i love him
he taught me to love in the wild and
fight in the gym
he taught me the bottle gives birth to the cup
and you won't get hurt if you just
keep your hands up
and stand tall
like sycamores

sycamore got to grow down to grow up
young roots toil the soil like baby's first cup
and when they bend you in two
and say too green for the fire
when all you wanna do is be a part of the fire
all you wanna do is be the fire part of fire
like sycamores

there's sap in the trees if you tap 'em
there's blood on the seas if you map 'em
christian when i see your poppa
i'll tell him you love him
and remember to love in the wild and
fight in the gym
remember the bottle gives birth to the cup
and you won't get hurt if you just
keep your hands up
and stand tall
like sycamores

bill callahan, diamond dancer

me parece que se nos vino encima la semana de woke on a whaleheart. quizás no la semana, el par de días.. o lo que sea. voy a subir así como ayer algunos temas del disco, con la letra... no creo que vaya a escribir nada sobre ellos, porque me parece que no me da. pero es una forma de compartir, de mostrar algo que puede despertar en uno cosas tan grandes... en fin. casi le pediría a todo el mundo que escuche este disco. el de ayer era el primer tema del disco, from the rivers to the oceans.
y hoy toca un hitazo, diamond dancer. hitazo.

she was dancing so hard
she danced herself into a diamond
dancing all by herself
dancing all by herself
and not minding

doing the the thing as she dreamed it
doing the the thing as she dreamed it

her skin was sky blue
her skin was sky blue
under the lights

diamond dancer, diamond dancer

she was dancing so hard
she danced herself into a diamond
dancing all by herself
dancing all by herself
and not minding

and the one thing on her mind was
the one thing on her mind was:
it's time i gave the world my light
it's time i gave the world my light
starting tonight

diamond dancer, diamond dancer

bill callahan, from the rivers to the ocean

when
when you were blind,
you touched things
for their shape

have faith in wordless knowledge
have faith in wordless knowledge

well,
i could tell you about the river
or...
we could just
get in

the body the rain made of our days before we knew

we are swimming in the river of the rains of our days before we knew
and it's hard to explain what i was doing or thinking before you

i guess i was a decent man,
all in all

followin' the river from above
like a bird
with faith in wordless knowledge
and the fallen stars they flew too
and i knew
they were sewing something,
something well made,
made
for me
and you

we are swimming in the river of the rains of our days before we knew
and it's hard to explain what i was doing or thinking before you

the city was a fist,
i lived on its wrist
and i took myself a good long look around

and the river grew higher and wider,
deeper, and darker
as i was closing in

and it led me to you,
which led me to say
let's get
in

we got in the river and it broked us
made us think of sex between us
at a time in our lives, oh, before we knew

we were swimming in the river of the rains of our days before we knew
and it's hard to explain what i was doing or thinking before you

and that beautiful thing you said, lying in bed
about all the things i could think of, oh, at the end of the day
but of all the places my mind could go
it always comes
loping
back to you

we are swimming in the river of the rains of our days before we knew
so meet me in the ocean, and we'll ride the waves
from the rivers to the ocean
each wave a lounging panther
sharp-eyed and true

we are swimming in the river of the rains of our days before we knew
and it's hard to explain what i was doing or thinking before you

have faith in wordless knowledge
have faith in wordless knowledge

bill callahan, rococo zephyr en vivo

she lay beside me like a branch from a tender willow tree

i was as still, as still as a river could be
when a rococo zephyr swept over her and me

she watched the water ripple ripple ripple ripple light
light watched the water ripple ripple ripple ripple she
i did some kind of dance, jaunty as a bee
i tried to look my best, a finch in wild mint vest
a fiercer force had wrenched her from where she used to be
i caught and caressed the length of her, a tender willow branch floating on me

well maybe this was all, was all meant to be
maybe this is all, is all that meant to be
a rococo zephyr crept up and stepped over her and me

well i used to be sort of blind
now i can sort of see

QUE VUELVAAA

hoy me pasó que me desperté en el corazón de una ballena...
¡se está haciendo cada vez más frecuente!

bill callahan, woke on a whaleheart! sí señor!!

(puedo contarte acerca del río, o podemos meternos y fue)

bill callahan, sycamore

una de las canciónes más beyyyas del mundo!

sycamore

there's sap in the trees if you tap 'em
there's blood on the seas if you map 'em
christian, if you see your poppa
tell him i love him
he taught me to love in the wild and
fight in the gym

he taught me the bottle gives birth to the cup
and you won't get hurt if you just
keep your hands up
and stand tall
like sycamores

sycamore got to grow down to grow up
young roots told the soil like baby's first cup
and when they bend you in two
and say too green for the fire
when all you want to do is be a part of the fire
all you want to do is be the fire part of fire
like sycamores

there's sap in the trees if you tap 'em
there's blood on the seas if you map 'em
christian when i see your poppa
i'll tell him you love him
and remember to love in the wild and
fight in the gym
remember the bottle gives birth to the cup
and you won't get hurt if you just
keep your hands up
and stand tall
like sycamores