Planetary Breakdown - Part 2

(This video was NEVER meant to be seperated into 2 parts. WATCH PART 1 FIRST!)
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*** Refugee ***
hear that talk of revolution
(it's revolution, only revolution)
as I wage this inward fight
-- pure as fire
ours the right

youth betrays me to my face
age controls my tears
seeming some fogotten race
left standing o'er the years
has fallen now a victim of
it's dark and narrow fears

so: be it said that the truth
is revealed in silence

*** Garden Wind ***
walk in the garden
earth is rejoicing
watching as the water falls --
sky's the limit over all
a beautifully radiant blue light wall

talking to old friends
the kind of love that never ends
from on further spaces
it descends
as if the garden wind

you know
roll, revolve and evolve
it's you planet damn it
it's fading fast


Bruce Notes:
Religious Heads and Ancient Memories
Written primarily on piano in 1979. The beginning is one of several "retrogrades" featured in the collection. I opened the piano, held down the sustain pedal and raked a pick across the strings. Then I flipped the tape over and recorded the same effect backwards, so that the two met in the middle. This is followed by a brief introduction that is built out of various themes that appear later. This section also features liberal use of a 12 tone row. This is a melody that includes each note in a chromatic scale before repeating any. The idea is to avoid implying any harmonic structure, another attempt by "modern" composers in the early part of this century to make new music. The 12 tone row is used in this way in the intro, and then later set against a chord progression.

Refugee
Another song for two guitars. This time, I used an acoustic and an electric. This section is written in the "Phrygian" mode, which has a lowered 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th relative to the traditional major scale. The voices that separate this section from the first section was constructed from recordings I made of foreign students working in a factory where I was employed during part of my college days.

Garden Wind
Another rock song with no drum set. This was written on one of the many wonderful old pipe organs at the university. Anything played on one of those monsters sounded majestic. There's just no way to get that effect without one. This section features organ, acoustic guitar and voice, with handclaps thrown in for percussion.

R. Mageddon Notes:
Further introspection from 1978, in three parts. Written, as I was increasingly doing by this time, in one session. My "pretentious" title (thanks, Brooce) was an obvioulsy missed reference to Steppenwolf's "Foggy Mental Breakdown", itself a take on the title of the Bluegrass standard "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." Lots of different takes on Breakdown titles, it seems. So much for subtle references. Brooce omits the last few lyrical lines, but it works well.

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ColorX

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Music

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• Color
• progressive
• rock