Dirty Daniel

So, now James is back and I'm gone. Soon... soon all of Free Rob G will be back in LA and ready to rock.

Well, the title of the song may seem a little autobiographical, but it's really not (though I'm sure I could find some connection to myself). The lines in the song were either going to be "Mighty Majnoon" (from the Iranian tale of lovers Layla and Majnoon, best known in the west as the story that Eric Clapton reminded Pattie Boyd of in order to seduce her away from George Harrison) or "Dirty Dreamcoat" (I mistook the biblical Joseph for the biblical Daniel). This may make more sense with the lyrics first.

Dirty Daniel

Every time I think about it, then I begin to doubt it
She sits on her oily throne, which begins to creak and "Mine," she croaks
And rarely did she grin so gaily, until the day when sons Israeli
Climbed up on Jacob's ladder and fell before heaven, but it didn't hurt

Them no
Head gold
Feet stone

Heart? No

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who'd been asked to leave that place of sand
Won't she? Won't she?

And if your boss men count to three
And you wonder just if history
Could be discreet. Accept deceit.

Mighty Majnoon\Dirty Dreamcoat\Dirty Daniel sits in his room, telling me stories of doom
Of salt and sand and marching bands, and the virus that has gripped his land
Split the desert, walk on through, this charade is enough for you
And please don't make me applaud, my praise is mine, it's kept for..

God no
Don't roll
That stone
Just yet

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who'd been asked to leave that place of sand
Won't she? Won't she?

And if your boss men count to three
And you wonder just if history
Could be discreet. Accept deceit.

Now this song is very referential and I tried to make it deliberately so. Going back to what I said in an earlier post, this definitely falls more on the scale towards the obscure. However, I enjoy it when I read something or hear something or see something that compels me to further research the topic. Regardless of the validity of that which is compelling the research it is at least serving a productive purpose by encouraging people to look into the topic further, which I think, at least in the way I see the world, is a good thing. Sorry if that sentence was convoluted, because I'm saying it while thinking of a a web film I saw today in the vein of "Loose Change" (9/11 conspiracy theories stuff) and while this does rehash a lot of the same things, it at least was captivating and interesting in a Da Vinci Code sort of way. And, furthermore, it did, in fact make me look up the events and the people that they were referring to. Some of my impromptu research made me agree with the movie... some of it (a lot of it) made me disagree... however, I liked the fact that it was referential, simply because it stimulated my interest and made me discover something I might not have discovered otherwise. OK, tangent's done. (If you want to see the movie, it's here... http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/)

The main theme of the song is the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar that the prophet Daniel (who's being kept in Babylon as a Jewish advisor to the king) not only interprets for him, but also recalls (the king had forgotten it upon waking, but knew it was important). The basic gist of the dream is that there's a big statue and the head is gold, the chest and arms silver, the torso and thighs copper, the legs iron, the feet iron and clay. And they represent all the kingdoms of the world. Then all of a sudden there's a stone and it rolls down and smashes the statue, then it grows larger until it encompasses the whole world. The stone is God. God is a stone.

So, that's the song. And here are two other facts:

1. The title of the text file I have the chords written in is percybysshe.txt
2. Originally all I had were the first two lines and here's what was at the bottom of the text file (the (were?) was added later):
   
   These are (were?) terrible lyrics and I am ashamed of them. I blame drugs.

Keeping with the list aspect, here are things I like about the song:

1. 1) The words.
2. The little "Them no/Head gold/Feet stone/Heart? No" 7th chord and vocal pattern.
   
3. The part at the end where I am reading from the Book of Daniel in reverse.

Here's what I don't like:

1. The rhythm
2. Everything else

So, Gary and James and Bert need to get in there and funky or rock or cha cha or riff it up brother and make it work.