Phencyclipædia of the Gertrudan Eclipse

Phencyclipædia or the Gertrudan Eclipse
by Norman B
(Deviations from the Norm)

In bayou Mississippi,
Mister, was this hippie,
One early morn,
And Mississippi's trippy
When you're whippy tippy
With John Barleycorn.

He was gonna hitchhike
Way on up the turnpike
T' see his lawyer.
I said "I'll take ya there,
Just only pay me fair.
(I've no employer.)

"I'll forget love lost and travel
On the pathways made of gravel
Hot in August. I'll be ready very soon."
All the day we walked the weed,
And into evenin', then the speed.
Crossed the border. A red shadow ate the moon.

If I were back in Flor'da,
The hour of the order
Would be to roll up some joints,
But they had crossed the border horrider,
In descent, indecent corridor,
Said "Let's score us some points!"

In a sniff I met the magician,
Then Mississippi fishin'.
We threw 'em back, not one did we kill.
We went to a bar and played at billiards,
But then we felt much sillier,
Because the building had been built upon a hill!

On the wall above the kegs
Were the tail and the hind legs
Of the hind that almost got away.
The balls were curvin' all over the places.
The smiles were curlin' all over our faces.
I don't recall the rest of that day.

"Just watch if there a ranger is!"
John said, "This place is dangerous!
I don't know who that is. HIDE!"
I asked him "Why live thusly?
Why so danger'usly?"
He said "Because it keeps me satisfied."

So you think it may be seemin'
That you were maybe dreamin'
Of the schemin' one early morn,
But nary 'nother demon
Ever came in screamin'
Like John Barleycorn.

(p)(c)2009 Norman Schulerud Bie, Jr., All Rights Reserved. Written in 1982. First performed live and first broadcast in 1985 on Dana Gilmore's Freak Show on WMNF 88.5 FM Tampa Community Radio.

a note from ms socks:
on this torrid summer night in the early eighties whilst our thrill seeking young hero ( i didn't know him yet) and his travelling companion, the mysterious mr. ootoo, were gadding about somewhere in mississipi, i was enjoying a view of the total lunar eclipse through the large plate glass window of my room in the maternity ward of the stonybrook university hospital on long island, holding my just-born baby adam dario , whose coloration at birth matched the winedark hue of the earth's shadow on the face of the moon. that's how i know with certainty that this fateful episode occurred in july of 1982, not august.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• rock
• cappella
• poetry
• university
• phencyclidine
• pcp
• angel
• dust
• red
• skelton
• k-hole
• special-k
• ketamine
• TEA
• THC
• cannabinol
• animal
• tranquilizer
• 7/3/82
• total
• lunar
• eclipse
• seagulls
• mysterious
• mr.
• ootoo
• Aunt
• Gertrude

[Happycripple]

Awesome song.

[medicinesocks]

thanks for visiting.

[protester]

Brilliant lyrics, Norm!

[medicinesocks]

Thanks. Good to hear from you. AARP's still tearing up the course, trying their hardest to ruin our chance at national health care. If we do it their way, we'll have to fix it again.

[Barklord]

roll em!

[medicinesocks]

Yeah, it's a culture thing.

[limeslimey]

Awesome!

[medicinesocks]

Funny you should mention that -- we're working on a presentation on Homer's Odyssey. It's maybe more studious and less humorous, less musical than some. Still kind of fun.

[AntaresInScorpius]

i want to hear you do "the odyssey"

[medicinesocks]

madame is a new england girl. we live in massachusetts now, but norman in his youth was a floridian. there is a joke often used here about words with no *i* in them~ like *team*... there is no *i* in the name of the state where floridians live when they pronounce florida... it comes out *flor'da*, or even, with a real southern drawl, "flow duh"