Talk is a Lever

1999

Programme notes

‘Talk is a Lever was part of a song cycle called The Hammerhead Arias that toured in 1999 with Anne La Berge and Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. It was very loosely based on an argument between the followers of Rameau and Rousseau in the 18th century called the Querelle des Bouffons, which was really an argument about the origin of music itself. Did it start with the human voice, with melody developing alongside language? Or did arise from harmony, coming from the Platonic vision of the harmony of the spheres and nature itself? I thought of arranging the songs so that they would alternate between the two sides of the argument. Here I was trying to side with Rousseau, who argued that man and language are the ‘natural’ origins of music – although, as usual, I got a bit off track and wound up wondering if between us and language, who’s in charge?

“Who’s got their finger on my remote control?”

Lyrics

Talk is a Lever

A is for Adam
the Adam of Eve
B is for babble
word up, you know you better believe

chorus:
Talk is a lever
Talk is a lever that’s pushing me, pushing me

C is for chatter
the world is the effect and the word is the cause
D is for devil
your words are on fast forward but your mind is on pause
E is for Eden, F is for fate
the word is the hook between the mouth and the bait

(chorus)

G is for girlfriend
laughing in the Garden of Love
H is for homeboy
hanging with the snake and the dove
I is the infection that’s Jamming through his head
it Kicked a little backbeat and this is what it said:
“Get up and get-get-get down
You can’t pick up the message if you ain’t in town.”

L is the lever that’s pushing that kid
he be damaged if he didn’t, he be dead if he did
M is for mouth-to-mouth resensitation
Its the same train of thought but a different station
N is for no-go, O is for overflow
P is the point I missed by going solo
Q is the question that drags my soul
who’s got their finger on my remote control?

(chorus)

R we for real or are we for something else?
semantical antics full mental jack off gimme dizzy spells
logic hanging on a S is for slip of the T is for tongue
tranmission noise toys united reaches everyone
so take your wake U is up call
get your head V for vertical and read the writing on the wall
dark is the night, reach up and flip the switch
stratchin’ two beats at a time don’t kill the itch
double talk, double take, seeing double with the Hubble
rear-view mirror, never clearer, who’s the deafest of us all?
rub-a-dub with King Tubby ’cause its midnight at the ball

(chorus)

the why is the W
the who, the where but the how is what troubles you
o say can you see that you see what you say
Teleturkeys wanna show you when they come out to play
talking swerves on a blind man’s curve
X marks the crosswalk that splits the conversation
your info highway didn’t go my way
the mix is the message in this mega-meta-media-morphic-monophonic meditation
whoops, I let it out, its too late to Y is for yield
my fate’s posted but I’m toasted ’cause the ‘lope’s unsealed
Z is a zebra ’cause its black and white
my bark is worse; I need a nurse for my soundbite

(chorus)