After yesterday's Ray Davies soaring sleep song performed by Marion, a more psychedelic take on different levels of consciousness by those Canterbury pioneers from their first album of 1968, The Soft Machine. With a name inspired by a William S. Burroughs novel, you couldn't get a more eclectic or eccentric trio of musicians than Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals, Kevin Ayers on bass and vocals, and Mike Ratledge on keyboards, creating foundations of British psychedelia and jazz-rock fusion in this landmark album. Of course they all went on to many other great and diverse projects and have a spider's web of connections with so much other music, with Chas Chandler, manager of The Animals, Jimi Hendrix and Slade here as a producer. The song also refers to Daevid Allen, Australian guitarist and poet and another of the band's original founding members who was unable to record with the others due to a British visa problem, and so stayed in Paris with the band Gong. But joined on this record is the girl backing group The Cake, making one of the more accessible, if still eccentric songs on the album, including Ayers drily delivered, low-key spoken vocals.
It begins with a blessing, it ends with a curse
Making life easy by making it worse
"My mask is my master," the trumpeter weeps
But his voice is so weak, as he speaks from his sleep
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
People are watching, people who stare
Waiting for something that's already there
"Tomorrow I'll find it," the trumpeter screams
And remembers he's hungry, and drowns in his dreams
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
My head is a nightclub with glasses and wine
The customers dancing or just making time
While Daevid is cursing, the customers scream
Now everyone's shouting, "Get out of my dream!"
It begins with a blessing, it ends with a curse
Making life easy by making it worse
"My mask is my master," the trumpeter weeps
But his voice is so weak, as he speaks from his sleep
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
Want to suggest songs for Song of the Day or to say anything about it? Does this song make you think of something else? Then feel free to comment below, on the contact page, or on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. Please subscribe, follow and share.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...