tag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:/blogs/i-ching-songs-project?p=1I Ching Songs Project2020-06-04T18:02:34-05:00Robert Harrisonfalsetag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/62578562020-06-04T18:02:34-05:002020-06-05T09:46:38-05:001. The Creative- "Close to the Sun"<p><span class="font_regular"><em>"Close to the Sun" by Cotton Mather </em>- </span><span class="font_small"><strong>The Creative</strong> is the gateway to the I Ching, and according to Confucius, the key to understanding all the subsequent readings. The hexagram is formed by doubling the figure of "Qian" translated "Heaven" and consists of all yang lines. It represents the ultimate condition of yang, which we associate with sun, the heavens, or the male archetype. And in the same manner, Hexagram 2. Kun, The Receptive, is created by doubling the figure of "Earth" to create the ultimate condition yin, which we associate with the moon, the earth, or the female archetype. The most powerful manifestation of yang isn't strength or power. It's creation. The hexagram explores how and when one is in or out of sync with the way of heaven, by correctly or incorrectly emulating the "nature of nature". And in the fifth changing line, which most successfully exemplifies the condition of the creative, the I Ching explains that in order to create the new, take action, establish collective harmony, or even overthrow tyranny, one needs wise leadership and a community of worthy helpers. One can use the power of the creative to create or destroy.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Close to the Sun </p>
<p>High inside the mansion of the ancients </p>
<p>Blind to all the mysteries of creation </p>
<p>We were ensconced in a parlor where the statuary dons </p>
<p>Wedding gowns from a slumber, next to the wonder, backs to the thunder </p>
<p>And close to the sun </p>
<p>I want you my love but I feel destined for a different sort of medicine </p>
<p>I've got to transcribe what's inside into these cylinders of Edison </p>
<p>Faces pressed against the window </p>
<p>Where we feel the warmth of love </p>
<p>Waking up from a slumber, next to the wonder, backs to the thunder </p>
<p>And close to the sun </p>
<p>I'm close to the sun, close to the sun </p>
<p>I want to rise above the pyramids cause I just can't see enough </p>
<p>I would try to say I love you girl but you'd miss that trendy stuff </p>
<p>We were ensconced in a parlor where the statuary dons </p>
<p>Wedding gowns from a slumber, next to the wonder, backs to the thunder </p>
<p>And close to the sun</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/62009702020-06-04T18:02:14-05:002020-06-05T09:29:39-05:002. The Receptive <p><strong>The Middle of Nowhere</strong></p>
<p>Slip the moorings of the all familiar </p>
<p>Get into a second car and go </p>
<p>Somewhere late </p>
<p>Looking out the window and I see we're in another state </p>
<p>Now we're standing, and the clouds rush the sky </p>
<p>In the sweetness of the morning stars you glow </p>
<p>Take my hand </p>
<p>Tell me that you're really in the presence of a wanted man </p>
<p>The middle of nowhere is an easy place </p>
<p>I'm taking you there </p>
<p>All the way </p>
<p>The middle of nowhere, I can see your face </p>
<p>I'm taking you there </p>
<p>All the way </p>
<p>I'll defend you when the bells crack the sky </p>
<p>And the workers fall into the day </p>
<p>We'll know </p>
<p>Land or sea </p>
<p>Can never separate us from this moment that will always be </p>
<p>The middle of nowhere is an easy place </p>
<p>I'm taking you there </p>
<p>All the way </p>
<p>The middle of nowhere, I can see your face </p>
<p>I'm taking you there </p>
<p>All the way </p>
<p>Robert Harrison</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63389532020-06-04T18:01:58-05:002020-06-05T09:31:06-05:003. Beginning- "The Land of Flowers"<p><strong>The Land of Flowers </strong></p>
<p>Welcome to the land of flowers </p>
<p>Everything is overgrown </p>
<p>There lie my idle hours </p>
<p>Underneath this unmarked stone </p>
<p>You could say your once great prince </p>
<p>Surrendered his kingdom to the wild </p>
<p>But we’ll take back some days </p>
<p>And if you come around again </p>
<p>I could make it worth your while </p>
<p>Counting down from ten </p>
<p>Like a little child </p>
<p>Welcome to the land of flowers </p>
<p>Nothing here disrupts the soil </p>
<p>There lie my earthly powers </p>
<p>Far from any trouble or toil </p>
<p>You could say your once great man </p>
<p>Delivered his reason to the night </p>
<p>But we’ll take back some days </p>
<p>And if you come around again </p>
<p>I could make it worth your while </p>
<p>Counting down from ten </p>
<p>Like a little child </p>
<p>You could say your once great prince </p>
<p>Surrendered his kingdom to the wild </p>
<p>But we’ll take back some days </p>
<p>And if you come around again </p>
<p>I could make it worth your while </p>
<p>Counting down from ten </p>
<p>Like a little child </p>
<p>Yeah, if you come around again </p>
<p>I could make it worth your while </p>
<p>Counting down from ten </p>
<p>Like a little child</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63409222020-06-04T18:00:21-05:002023-12-10T10:33:04-06:004. Youthful Folly- "Child Bride"<p><em>Child Bride</em></p>
<p>seldom a favorite reading to receive and typically a reminder that my life is an ongoing exhibit of lessons unlearned. for instance i can tell you that if you're ever going to jump over a fence on Halloween night in an effort to rescue a drunk driver, you'd better remove your nun's costume first, unless you want to spend the next two months on crutches. not that I know anyone who would ever do such a thing , but it's a good example of childish folly. of course you don't need a costume to screw up royally . millions of people are making complete jackasses out of themselves every day with just their smartphones. i wonder-has any invention in the course of human history afforded more people the chance to commit ruinous acts of "youthful folly"- than the smartphone? i think that after finishing this song journal i shall write a book of etiquette called,"you are not invisible, you're only on your smartphone". it will sell like hot cakes next Christmas- girlfriends giving it to their boyfriends, parents to children and visa versa- always with a little wink and unspoken rebuke that would make Emily Post proud.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425532020-06-04T18:00:11-05:002020-06-04T18:00:11-05:006. Contention "Life of the Liar" <p>What is it that so energizes us about the enemy? My sister recently recalled how positively giddy my parents became during the Watergate hearings. How they couldn't wait to turn on the television after lunch to watch Sam Irving, Howard Baker, and the rest slow-roast Nixon's criminal entourage on the spit. And when suddenly it was all over, how a kind of pall settled over the house, as if our collective identity had become temporarily shapeless. </p>
<p>I remember picking up my son after his very first day of First Grade, and when I asked him how it was, he hopped into the car and chirped, "Awesome, daddy....Guess what? I already have an arch enemy!" This was good news? As if creating and choosing to see one's photo-negative in the other somehow validates and empowers our imagined sense of who we are? </p>
<p>I'm truly at a place in my life where I'd like to be done with that. Sure, there are plenty of people I'd love to place aboard the 37th President's last chopper ride into oblivion, but I'd take no joy in escorting them across the tarmac. And now that his direct political descendants have managed to spawn something far more grotesque, hideous, and dangerous than any of them could have imagined, a season of contention is upon us all I fear. God Bless America - quick! </p>
<p>2. </p>
<p>Statue of Liberty Play </p>
<p>Suddenly I love Richard Nixon and need him more than ever </p>
<p>Crouched in the corner of the oval office </p>
<p>Like a rhesus monkey picking at peanut shells </p>
<p>Or passing out towels at the convention </p>
<p>While the Democrats' balloons burst blood </p>
<p>He ran on law and order - and won! </p>
<p>How deliciously wicked, rotten to the core, and evil to the bone </p>
<p>Was our great green grinch of Pennsylvania Avenue </p>
<p>A mail-order arch villain who came fully loaded </p>
<p>And once called in the old statue of liberty play </p>
<p>On the Cold War hotline for a ten-yard loss </p>
<p>I want him back because I have nobody to blame for anything </p>
<p>I miss those nights he used to sneak into our house </p>
<p>Sabotage the thermostat </p>
<p>Throw an extra blanket over me </p>
<p>Scoop all the loose change into his pockets </p>
<p>And disappear </p>
<p>Hexagram 6- Contention or Conflict, instructs on how to bear with the contentious situations which are inevitable in the course of life. The third moving line refers to a scenario in which the only solution is to wait patiently and rely upon the virtues of one's ancestors for strength. The fifth counsels that dealing with matters in fairness and impartially will bring good fortune in the end. And the sixth warns of contention's insidious appeal. All three lines applicable here.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425542020-06-04T17:59:45-05:002020-06-04T17:59:45-05:008. Union "Candy Lilac"<p>Sophora secundiflora, perennial legume, </p>
<p>USDA Hardiness Zone 8 </p>
<p>In the movie Camelot, Julie Andrews chalked it all up to the "lusty month of May" when she up and flung herself into the arms of Robert Goulet, while Richard Harris took it on his prodigious chin. When I was a kid, I identified with Arthur's bewildered dislocation and could never understand (and still don’t) what it was beautiful Julie saw in the insufferable Frenchman. Maybe it's that she looked into the future and had a peek at the ghastly string of 1990's movies Richard Harris made portraying the same creepy old longhaired villain. </p>
<p>Here in Austin, Texas, May comes in March and extends into April. In May, the heat index has gotten the better of all blossoms and by June everyone here hates their lives and continues to for at least three more months. But there is nothing so breathtaking in March as our purple Mountain Laurel, whose impossibly stunning flower knows nothing of summer. And on one exquisite afternoon walking past one of these with my children, I remarked - "it looks like candy lilac!" Count us in, Darin... </p>
<p>“Candy Lilac” performed by RH, WW, George and Darin </p>
<p>Recorded by RH at The Star Apple Kingdom and by Lars Goransson at Sounds Outrageous </p>
<p>Mixed by Lars and mastered by Bob Ohlsson</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425382020-06-04T17:59:30-05:002020-06-04T17:59:30-05:0011. Advance/ Peace "California" <p>In our kudzu cathedral </p>
<p>Nothing need be said </p>
<p>The simplicity of love</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425402020-06-04T17:59:23-05:002020-06-04T17:59:23-05:0012. Standstill "The End of DeWitt Finley"<p>I first met DeWitt Finley after he was gone. My brother introduced us. Joseph Harrison is a tremendous poet- and if you think I'm showing family favoritism then consider instead the endorsements of Richard Wilbur, Harold Bloom and the late Mark Strand, none of whom are related to him. In his first beautiful book of poems, Someone Else's Name, my favorite poem "The End of DeWitt Finley", tells the true story of a salesman who survived 54 days in his car, buried in the snow. A man of deep faith, he believed that if God wanted him to be rescued, he would be. We know this from his daily journal entries. And yet all the while a plowed road was a makable walk away. So after my thoughts on the condition of "Standstill" I'll turn the floor over to my brother and the tale of a man who has inspired now both poem and song. </p>
<p>How often we get "stuck" in situations that seem hopeless, interminable and inescapable when there is a plowed road a "makable walk away". The walk does require will, effort, and certainly risk. But the alternative is about as bad as it gets. I remember back in the nineties when I used to swim laps at the YMCA in downtown Austin, there was this big walrus of a guy always parked in the hot tub, dispensing advice to anyone within earshot. I called him the "hot tub counselor". The counselor's steadiest client was small middle aged man, with wavy salt and pepper hair, sad deep-set eyes, and a long drawn face. Like every else there privy to their sessions I knew he was from Spain, taught at UT, and was absolutely miserable in his marriage. "She did this, she said that, and now you wouldn't believe what she's done... " and on and on, night after freaking night! I just wanted to scream "this is your only life - take charge of it!" </p>
<p>When I moved out to the country I started swimming at the Y in Oak Hill Texas. But last Spring, some fourteen years later, I was in downtown Austin, had my swim stuff and decided to work out at the old place . And guess what? They were still there, yakking in the tub about the same old thing - they just looked saggier and white haired now. So I reckon sad Spaniard plans to stay in that car until death does them part.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425582020-06-04T17:59:14-05:002020-06-04T17:59:14-05:0013. Seeking Harmony/Fellowship Among Men “The Cotton Mather Pledge" <p>When I taught a first grade class last week I asked the children to draw a picture of Spring, which has come early to Texas this year. One little boy sheepishly raised his hand and when I knelt down beside him he whispered, "Which one is that"? </p>
<p>What I remember most about first grade is how confused I was - all the time. What kind of a name was "Mark"? How did Cynthia Jones' missing mechanical pencil set end up in my lunch box? And why didn't my teacher laugh uproariously when I hid behind the classroom door and jumped out to scare the pants off her. Instead, her crimson crab-apple face started screaming at right me, "What in the Sam Hill are you doing!?" And then of course, "Who was Sam Hill?" </p>
<p> But nothing befuddled me more than turning towards the corner of the room each morning and solemnly reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance" to a piece of cloth. I sort of understood the "Star Spangled Banner", because at least you sung that and it had action. Even years later, watching my son and his Cub Scout troop raise their hands to recite the pledge kind of gave me the willies all over again. Maybe it's because he had a buzz cut at the time, and if you're a long haired guy from Alabama, the sight of somebody in a blue uniform with a crew cut is petrifying. Then again, I'm also the guy who doesn't feel the need to turn every single sporting event that's not golf or tennis into a celebration of the armed forces. It seemed a stirring national impulse to do so in the wake of 9/11, and it was fitting - but now the two worlds have become inextricably fused. Before you take umbrage and send your emails about how I'm only able to sit around playing this guitar and all that - let me say that I deeply admire and respect the men and women who defend and protect our country. But as a pacifist sports fan, I'd feel equally pleased if we were to all stand up before the opening pitch and recite "The Palm at the End of the Mind", by Wallace Stevens. Or how about Issa's death poem. 75,000 voices at Arrowhead Stadium en masse intoning A bath when you're born A bath when you die How stupid Instead, I take my kids to a baseball game and have to endure some NASCAR flunkie prancing atop the Atlanta Braves dugout with a cordless mic murdering "God Bless America". I don't think it's unpatriotic to find that a complete drag. On the actual 9/11, Cotton Mather had a rehearsal scheduled. I remember Dana and I talking on the phone and deciding it was important for us to meet and make music anyway. That night we gathered in stunned disbelief, set up, plugged in and played "Rocket Man" over and over again for an hour. It's the only thing that made any sense to us that night. The 13th hexagram of the I Ching, Fellowship Among Men, or Seeking Harmony, lays out guiding principles for establishing harmony and integrity within a community. And how a collective mindset may err towards the selfish, or bellicose should they fail to "bind with morality and justice" in the words of Confucius. And also how those who are of one unselfish heart can be "sharp as a knife that is able to cut iron". Walker Percy was fond of saying. "One must do the thing they are most fit to do". And if there is one thing I'm better fit to do than anyone it's to write a song about being in Cotton Mather. I don't know if it's a pledge or an anthem, since a pledge is technically spoken word. But feel free to place your hand over your heart when you listen.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425552020-06-04T17:58:44-05:002020-06-04T17:58:44-05:0015. Humbleness/ Modesty "It's Better Not To Be The King" <p>A phone call came in one Saturday afternoon from one of my rock star friends to let me know he'd just been recognized by a fan in an Ohio shopping mall! Before I had a chance to offer my condolences it became apparent to me that my friend was actually thrilled and congratulations were in order. So struck was I by how differently we were wired for our mutual chosen profession. Mine being the faulty wiring. </p>
<p>When a fan spotted me at Whole Foods coffee bar recently and chatted me up, my son asked, "Daddy are you kind of famous"? I answered, " kind of- you just have to ask the right person" </p>
<p>Happily Hexagram 15 of the I Ching points out the advantages of flying under the radar, so to speak. And I can add to that. I'll put my black pepper cauliflower curry up against anybody's. And my weekends are usually free. For instance I've got no plans for this coming Friday in case you're wondering.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425362020-06-04T17:58:32-05:002020-06-04T17:58:32-05:0021. Biting Through- "Fighting Through"<p>What Became Of Your Lamb, Clarice? </p>
<p>There's a bar near my house that I used to go to about once a week for a beer and to watch sports at the end of the night. And this woman who works there I don't even know has twice accused me of lying to her. The first time, I was talking with my friend Jack about this website and she overheard and asked me to tell her the name. The next time I was in there she rushed up to me and snapped, "you tricked me, there isn't website called Songs I Ching! I thought she was joking and laughed uncomfortably at first, and then noticed her face was contorted in anger! "It's Ichingsongs" I replied. "Oh, that makes sense" she said and marched off. No "I'm sorry", or "how silly of me". Yes, because that makes sense. What I want is for even more people not to know about this project! Another time I was in there, signed my bill and was getting ready to leave, when she grabbed my arm and said, "you tried to pull one over on me!" I had forgotten my glasses and totaled things incorrectly. I guess she supposed she'd thwarted a devious one-dollar grift that had been months in preparation. I'm not a trained professional, but can we say - trust issues? </p>
<p>Well dear, if you ever do read this website, allow me to direct you to the 21st hexagram of the I Ching, Biting Through, which uses the image of teeth biting through a piece of dried meat (most likely a lot of that in ancient China) as a metaphor for eradicating old habits of mind and body. We all have them. These could be physical addictions, entrenched patterns of thought, or anxieties based on the past but not warranted in the present. Whatever the obstacle, it remains immovable until it is first identified and then confronted...sound familiar? Otherwise aforementioned deeply embedded psychic expectations will reload in a new relationship and wreck it! </p>
<p>"Biting Through", however, is not so good a song title because it made me think about vampires and Hannibal Lecter. When I told Whit Williams the name of this one on the phone, he said, "No, I think "Fighting Through" is a great song title. Oh right, Fighting Through it is then.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425562020-06-04T17:57:50-05:002020-06-04T17:57:50-05:0023. Splitting Apart- "Queen of Swords"<p>Chutes and Ladders </p>
<p>If the I Ching was a game tracking your life's journey, it wouldn't so much resemble roulette as it would chutes and ladders. You know, the children's board game where you try to go from start to finish, thumping a spinner that settles on a number from 1-6 to indicate how many spaces you advance? And along the way when you land on a ladder you take a shortcut up, and when you land on a chute you slide back down. The distance you climb or fall depends upon the good deed or infraction depicted on the square. The pulling of the cat’s tail, for instance, sends you down, whereas washing your Dad's car sends you up. It's all very karmic. But if it were the I Ching, after you reached the end you'd start all over again. Because the point is, we all experience everything. It's just that some of us are more inclined to find the ladders and for others of us, it's the chutes. I know a lot about the chutes. I'm currently approaching one that's fooled me before and I'm dangerously close to it again as I write this, hoping my posterior doesn't have a date with terra firma anytime soon. The I Ching would call this particular chute 23. "Splitting Apart", or "Falling Away", and it's a big one. It refers to a situation or relationship in which one has left, or is being tempted to leave, the path of their well-being and personal integrity. Of course we all succumb to the temptation of dangerous situations at some point, especially when they concern the heart, perhaps asking - "what would happen if I just ......arrrrgh! Damn, back to the start!" </p>
<p>Vamping on Mark Twain, Edna St. Vincent Millay famously once said, "Life isn't just one damn thing after another...it's the same damn thing over and over and over again." The Who sang, "we won't get fooled again". And Cotton Mather has chosen to weigh in with a song about "splitting apart" called, "The Queen of Swords", which you can find on our new record. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with the ground.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425572020-06-04T17:57:39-05:002020-06-04T17:57:39-05:0024. The Return "The Book of Too Late Changes" <p><strong>Mama Sugarly's Yum-Yum </strong></p>
<p>buttermilk base </p>
<p>one tablespoon turtle food </p>
<p>two tablespoons tobacco </p>
<p>one teaspoon folgers instant coffee </p>
<p>spoonful deviled ham </p>
<p>leftover green beans </p>
<p>black pepper </p>
<p>one chunk of gainesburger </p>
<p>gerbil food to taste </p>
<p>white pepper </p>
<p>a few wheat thins </p>
<p>one tablespoon nine lives </p>
<p>some pickle juice </p>
<p>prune juice </p>
<p>1/4 cup canned corn giblets </p>
<p>ketchup </p>
<p>fritos </p>
<p>more prune juice </p>
<p>in ancient times when rock gods roamed the earth in eleven garb and took stage under cover of fog, my brother ruled our roost with dark mischief, while sugarly, a drooling, dopey, one- eyed st. bernard giantess, patrolled the neighborhood leaving cow-pat traps in her wake to detonate all over our hush puppies. hubris was a punishable offense in my brother's kingdom. should an impulsive boast pass our lips in error he would confer upon us a "medal", and sarcastically wracked on his mental abacus. i- was highly decorated. </p>
<p>one blazing alabama afternoon i confessed that the weight of my theoretical shame jacket had become too much to bear and pled whatever might i do to rid myself of all this and start anew. his chief counsellors dewey english and bushy french (real names) were summoned, a discussion ensued, cabinet doors began to fly open, and a blender produced along with- ingredients. someone said, "don't over blend, it's gotta be chunky"..."add ketchup and fritos", "more prune juice....". and at last the grey slop was delivered into a twelve ounce glass, placed before me, and dubbed "mama sugarly's yum-yum. then to the amazement of all present, I downed it. </p>
<p>we used to capsize the johnson's canoe on lake martin and swim up under it, calvin and i. we'd hoist ourselves up into the air pocket, tell jokes, make nonsense. and that next day when we did i began to sing- nonsensically, incessantly, effortlessly one little spontaneous tune after another, then all day while we fished and played off the dock. when mr. johnson called us in at sundown, and we were dragging the canoe ashore up the muddy bank, calvin grabbed my arm and asked me, "how are you doing that"? "what, oh i don't know"? then he looked at me wide-eyed and said, "it's the yum-yum"! </p>
<p>so you see i had to tell you this story because i'll be needing my medals back and i'm out to earn some more. for I feel the power of that old piney woods elixir stirring again. go tell my brother, dewey, bushey, aunt rhodey, and the rest, that by the power vested in me by mama sugarly's yum-yum, i declare cotton mather risen, rehydrated, resuscitated and reconstituted. removed from the registries of DOA and MIA, and reclassified under ADD and UFO. and should you like what follows you might just want to give it a try yourself. i've given you the secret. it's an old family recipe.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425372020-06-04T17:57:28-05:002020-06-04T17:57:28-05:0026. Taming the Power of the Great "Beast in the Clover"<p>Understatement, reserve, and withholding ones power are distinctly un-American traits, especially in the age of social media, where the guiding axiom seems to be "if you've got it flaunt it ". I met a girl last summer who had just started playing guitar and decided she was a songwriter. By the time she completed her first song a week later it had been posted on Facebook for all the world to see. I was horrified, this being the counter opposite of everything I was raised to think and do. One has to get one’s ducks in a row, put your best foot forward, get it together… before presenting to the world is- has always been my way of thinking. And yes the sucked.Of course maybe I've always represented the opposite extreme. Whit used to joke with me that I wrote songs and buried them in the backyard. </p>
<p>And then there's the whole thing with relationships, where some folks believe we should share our feelings at any time and cost because if it emanated from the world of feeling it must be valid? No. I happen to think there's a time and a place. Of course, I bet if I didn't have this guitar I'd probably explode or maybe look like this picture.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425412020-06-04T17:57:11-05:002022-05-09T01:10:31-05:0037. The Household "King William" <p> If you don't have children, please don't ever go up to somebody that does and tell them you know exactly what it's like because you have dogs. People really say this. And if you're one of those people and feeling a little offended by this statement, then ask yourself the following questions. </p>
<p>How much soul searching did you have to do before sitting down to talk your dog about the "facts of life"? </p>
<p>How's your dog's college fund coming along? </p>
<p>OR </p>
<p>Did you ever, in an unconscious moment, say something to your dog that absolutely crushed him, and you spent the next week just wanting to die? </p>
<p>Enough about dogs. When it comes to parenthood, how many times I've wished for a "do-over". And just as I'm getting the hang of this thing they're almost grown. I remember one day so vividly when my little boy was about two, and he earnestly approached me in the kitchen with a cup full of gravel and asked where he should pour it? I told him, “back outside". So he dutifully marched to the front door, opened it, and dumped the gravel all over the front doormat - and I actually became cross with him. His little face crumpled up with hurt. After all, he thought he was doing just as I asked. I mean, what the hell was my problem that day anyway? </p>
<p>Hexagram 37, The Household, counsels on how a parent must constantly strike the balance between overindulgence and firmness. To err in either direction is to disrupt harmonious life.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/61403562020-06-04T17:57:02-05:002022-05-19T11:00:53-05:0038. Diversity "Eleanor Plunge"<p> “Craig Number Seven” played guitar for Big Fish. He looked like a redheaded golf ball in blue jeans cut-offs wielding a hollow-body Gibson 335 knock-off. A guitar effects wizard who toted his pedals in a periwinkle Samsonite overnight case (before powered pedalboards, you made do with luggage). I must have praised the suitcase at some point, because he turned up stage- side one night with a duplicate. And so it accompanied me throughout the nineties – even on our Oasis dates where it received looks askance. <br>When I happened upon it in the garage a few months back, I was amused to remember how I’d covered it with band stickers and a “NO NEWT IS GOOD NEWT” slogan from 1992. That Cotton Mather sticker being the lone survivor represented (unless you count Newt) lent the suitcase a somewhat pitiful ennui. All those dreams and band meetings. Those sad post-gig schleps. <br>“Who was Eleanor Plunge?” Whit asked me one night after I’d re-enlisted the old Samsonite warhorse. There had recently and mysteriously appeared, Shroud of Turin-style, the faintest hint of a sun-bleached band logo spread diagonally beneath NEWT. Eleanor Plunge. I surely could not remember, but we had a few glasses and guesses and some foggy memory of the name. There was this one gal who lived here in the early nineties and she seemed to have a new band every fives minutes. We were acquaintances and should have been friends really, but we had one of those relationships fraught with perpetual awkwardness. We always started sentences at the same time, and seemed to make one another uncomfortable. Maybe it wasn’t her band – but this is her song nonetheless. <br>38. Diversity explores ways one navigates differences in relationships that might seem irreconcilable. In my experience amongst I Ching readings examining potentially negative circumstances, it’s one of the more benign. Eleanor Plunge performed by Robert Harrison, Whit Williams and Darin Murphy. Recorded and mastered by Lars Goransson</p>
<p> </p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425662020-06-04T17:56:06-05:002020-06-04T17:56:06-05:0043. Eliminating- "Better than a Hit" <p>Color My World </p>
<p>The movies of our own lives are typically black and white, there being no place for reality's subtle color in a film populated by white knights and black-hatted villains. This may be more agreeable to the ego's plot line, but not terribly useful when it comes to self cultivation. </p>
<p>We were the last family among my friends to get a color television and its arrival was a very big deal. A Zenith (even the name was exotic) with faux wood speaker grating, and weighing more than an Oldsmobile. After the initial excitement wore off, I concluded in typically melancholic fashion, that something important was permanently lost and life had been better in black and white. As much as I loved watching NFL football on the Zenith, my favorite shows weren't holding up as well to the scrutiny of color. The sanctimonious Steve McGarett of Hawaii Five O, for instance, was completely undeserving of Maui's aquamarine vistas because he was, after all, cut from the cloth of Dragnet. </p>
<p>The I Ching, by and large, advises against a black and white point of view, with the notable exception of hexagram 44 Encountering - which warns against the presence of evil forces in and around you and how you must summon the strength and support required to dispatch them. And as for the agent of "evil" - according to Master Alfred Huang - their misfortune is entirely of their own making, and there's nothing you can do about it. He references the ancient sage adage, "If one plants melons, one reaps melons". </p>
<p>When I've received this reading either for myself or on behalf of someone else asking for my help, the advice couldn't be much clearer. Eject! Get the hell out of Dodge! Cut your losses! And once you do, whatever your immediate difficulties may be, at least you'll be operating from a place of peace. Or in the words of the late Peter Tosh, who may have appreciated the title of this song....it's time to "Walk and Don't Look Back."</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425652020-06-04T17:48:14-05:002020-06-04T17:48:14-05:0052. Stillness - "The Way of the Samurai"<p><strong>The Way of the Samurai </strong></p>
<p>Oh the way we live here </p>
<p>Running up and down </p>
<p>Like the passing of a bullet train </p>
<p>For the local bound </p>
<p>You meet me at the station </p>
<p>With a brave new fact </p>
<p>I can see the work in front of you </p>
<p>And I got your back </p>
<p>Jagged falling leaves </p>
<p>Who will instruct me </p>
<p>In the way of the Samurai </p>
<p>When you are seventeen? </p>
<p>Called to higher order </p>
<p>Ever brave and true </p>
<p>And the clouds they mimic everything </p>
<p>Where the air is new </p>
<p>Soon you'll leave our mountain </p>
<p>And these temple days </p>
<p>When the trees announce your vanishing </p>
<p>And the season fades </p>
<p>Jagged falling leaves </p>
<p>Who will instruct me </p>
<p>In the way of the Samurai </p>
<p>When you are seventeen?</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425212020-06-04T17:45:07-05:002020-06-04T17:45:07-05:0053. Progressing Gradually<p>Might Get Fooled Again </p>
<p>I have a long history of misreporting the weather due to my natural optimism. I only listen to the part of the forecast I like, and then scramble the rest. Just today, for instance, I packed my kids off to school with extra layers announcing that it was going to be "dropping into the 50s by afternoon!" They were so excited. It’s actually going to be dropping into the 50s next Sunday night after they’re asleep but I heard differently somehow. They could be miffed when I pick them up, but at least this particular dysfunction comes with a natural scapegoat. I can always blame the weatherman. So with apologies to KUT staff meteorologist, Burton Fitzsimmons - better you take the fall than me, friend. It's like the time Cotton Mather left balmy Austin, Texas for a show in Norman, Oklahoma, and by the time icy precipitation began to come down in Dallas, I was the only one not outfitted with hat, gloves, and coat. So we had to stop at Walmart to clothe the bandleader, whose personal weather channel is based more on hope than hard data. </p>
<p>I probably understand the weather better than I do women, and that's fine by me. Don't worry, I'm not one of those "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" guys. I can live without 'em, don't want to, and furthermore find them fascinatingly foreign and that's the thrill of the thing. In spite of what you may think about my interest in ancient texts and eastern mysticism - I'm actually just a dude who likes SEC football, fishing, beer, and action adventure movies, AS WELL AS vegetarian Indian cuisine, Robert Lowell, The Tao Te Ching, and Fellini films. My first girlfriend was a great starter girlfriend for me who taught me very little about the road ahead, because she was what people used to call a "tomboy". She liked to throw the football, go on all my favorite rides at Six Flags, burp out loud when she finished her beer, and punch me in the shoulder when I said something funny, which happened a lot. So I thought dating was a snap. I managed to get through almost my entire first year of college without a single date until the first year class held their Sadie Hawkins dance. That's the tradition when the girls formally ask boys out for the evening. I thought it sounded perfect because up until that point in my life I'd only ever gone out with girls who'd pursued me and this didn't seem to be a naturally occurring event in my college career thus far. The night before the dance I was still dateless when some well-meaning dorm mates drafted a young woman at the cafeteria for the honor after, unbeknownst to me, pointing me out to her. She must not have been too repulsed by what she saw. So I was feeling pretty good about myself the next night, crossing the quadrangle bound for the women's dormitory modeling new jeans, a yellow oxford shirt, topsiders, and the tan sports coat with dark brown elbow patches that my mom had bought me the Spring before at Gayfers for the high school sports banquet. </p>
<p>But I felt immediately out of place on my date and vehemently uncool when she opened the door, festooned in scarves and beads, wearing a tight purple halter-top and enshrouded in a cloud of reefer smoke. "Hi, I'm Sara, come on in, we have to wait for the scream". It was hard to hear her because The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again was playing at a crushingly loud volume. So I was led by the hand into cannabis central and plopped on the end of her bed while she fiddled in front of the mirror with her ensemble. Meanwhile, Townsend, Entwistle and Moon fiddled with the end of their song, which I was hearing for the first time. The scream we were waiting for was Daltry's. Then as the room came into focus, I was shocked to see that every square inch of her painted cinder block walls was plastered with pornographic images of male genitalia - at full salute. At which point the words that should be emblazoned on the eventual tombstone of my life with women flashed through my mind: What Else Don't I Know? </p>
<p>And so I did what every well-heeled Presbyterian lad would do under the circumstances - I complemented the furniture. And then began to babble incessantly about church camp until Daltry's scream (and what a scream it was) put a merciful end to my nervous chatter before I got the part about agape love. She lifted the needle off the record, turned to me smiling and said with an air of pity, "You're a good boy, aren't you"? </p>
<p>The dance itself was a stiff dimly lit affair held in the first year dining hall. She was completely uninterested, and quickly suggested we make our way over to the gymnasium where a reggae band was playing. I doubt I even knew what reggae music was at that point, but I played along as she talked our way past the door guy. Once inside, she told me she needed to find the girls' room and that was the end of my date, though it took me waiting around 30 minutes to figure it out, which I did after spotting her across the room talking with the dreadlocked bassist. </p>
<p>I remember that walking home my immense sense of relief quickly gave way to indignation. Instead of thanking Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that I'd been spared initiation into some dark tantric ritual and enshrinement in the temple of the erectile, I preferred see myself as someone who'd been grievously wronged, jilted, dumped, thrown overboard - yes I could work with that and did for a time. I decided to pretend that I was deeply wounded because it sounded far more romantic than the truth. I recall arranging my frisbee throwing session the next day squarely in front of the women's dorm in hopes that she would walk by and I could say something clever, but she never did. The point is, that even though I'd dodged God only knows what, I was far more interested in the fiction of despair. </p>
<p>That was a long time ago. I still have to contend with the same clamoring ego that assailed my thoughts on the walk home that night, though I'm happy to report I'm better at identifying it's machinations and to holding it in check. What do we really want and need from the other? Companionship? Forgiveness? Acceptance? A witness? Yes! All that. And I'd say for myself - someone with and through whom I can touch the very ground of existence. The 53rd hexagram of the I Ching, Gradual Progress, concerns itself with the development of a love relationship using the imagery of swans flying and nesting. The final changing line of the reading, apropos to the atmosphere of this song, talks about the loftiest kind of love we can experience with another, signified by a single swan flying high in the clouds, whose falling feathers bless all below. My interpretation of this line is that it identifies a most powerful love which emanates from a place of elevation: the vertical dropping into the horizontal plane; timelessness entering time to render stillness; the eternal revealing itself through a momentary dissolution of the ephemeral. </p>
<p>The night before I wrote this song, just before dawn, I dreamt I was lying in my bed, holding and looking at a gold-framed oil painting of my life that looked like a Dutch master. Then suddenly the muted colors on the canvas began to crack and all the paint began flaking off until I was staring at a radiant palace that was washing me in light. I held the frame before me and let the light engulf me. It felt so amazing. My arms began to tremble, and I noticed I was waking up but didn't want to. I didn't want this to ever stop! Then my eyes opened to the sight of a drab popcorn ceiling, which I stared at for a while. </p>
<p>But that - was a good dream! </p>
<p> </p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63425592020-06-04T17:44:07-05:002020-06-04T17:44:07-05:0054. Marrying Maider "She'll Never Get Out"<p>54. Marrying Maider "She'll Never Get Out"</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63409872020-06-03T15:14:21-05:002020-06-03T15:14:21-05:0055. Abundance- "Postcard Home"<p>55. Abundance- "Postcard Home"</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63409232020-06-03T15:00:14-05:002020-06-03T15:10:26-05:0056. The Wanderer- "Hijinks Dad"<p>56. The Wanderer </p>
<p>"Hijinx Dad"</p>
<p>It's been a while since I've waded into the fetid waters of the music industry but I doubt it's changed much. You'll meet some truly lovely people there of course, you just have to look past the floating corpses. Then there are times you climb aboard a chartered craft and the jaunty captain promises seasons in the sun, only to discover after its way too late to disembark that this guy has absolutely no idea where he's going. And if it's a waterfall you're headed for, you order the shrimp cocktail and drink the bar, because no one is ever gonna recoup anyway. (Wasn't there a little voice in your head that told you this was bad idea? Why didn't you listen to it?) But still I think it would be helpful if these guys came with a warning label, sort of like those daytime television pharmaceutical ads that promise to prevent this or enhance that, but are also likely to kill you in seven other ways. It might look like this... </p>
<p>Avoid contact with this music industry professional if you suffer from any of the following conditions </p>
<p>- hypertension </p>
<p>- an aversion to being humiliated in front of your friends </p>
<p>- clear uncompromising vision </p>
<p>OR </p>
<p>- an intolerance for phrases like, "where the rubber meets the road", and "stop me if any of this starts making sense" </p>
<p>Get away from this music industry professional if you notice any of the following things </p>
<p>- a picture of himself and Don Henley doing blow, prominently displayed in his office </p>
<p>- you having recurring nightmares in which his face is interchangeable with Freddy Kruger's </p>
<p>- he tans </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Run screaming in the other direction away from this music industry professional if ... </p>
<p>- he starts hitting on girls at your shows </p>
<p>- he enthusiastically gets the names of your songs wrong </p>
<p>OR </p>
<p>- he happens to mention that his big marketing plan for your band is to focus the campaign on targeting beach volleyball fans </p>
<p>(this actually happened) </p>
<p>Anyway-I've often thought of writing a book about my band Cotton Mather but the problem is people would want to file it under fiction because surely it couldn't have all been true. It's all true! </p>
<p>I swear. </p>
<p>Hexagram 56 of the I Ching, "The Wanderer" advises us to maintain inner vigilance and not succumb to aspects of the outer world, which would cause us to betray our path and or sense of correctness. Also called "The Traveler", 56 consuls on how to navigate being a "stranger in a strange land". Strange lands indeed. "Most peculiar Momma"! </p>
<p>Cue crunchy guitar intro now....</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hijinks Dad </p>
<p>Are you the host of some lost and found? </p>
<p>Some kind of ghost looking for a town? </p>
<p>Whose final words could maybe be uh-oh </p>
<p>Just like a kite a little girl let go </p>
<p>And for the sugar of a job </p>
<p>Standing in the shadow of a shady eight ball </p>
<p>Hijinks Dad- I jinxed that you could say </p>
<p>You’re really soaring- man it’s so boring </p>
<p>Cruising around back from Arizona </p>
<p>The Jinx has a girl, baby she’s a loner </p>
<p>That’s just the sick, sad nature of the beast </p>
<p>That that joker is made out like some high priest </p>
<p>You better call out for the nurse </p>
<p>He’s picking you up driving a hearse </p>
<p>Hijinks Dad- I jinxed that you could say </p>
<p>You’re really soaring- man it’s so boring </p>
<p>I try to call him up one day, have my say and I lost my nerve </p>
<p>For goodness sake, I road the brake on Dead Man’s Curve </p>
<p>It goes to show you really never know who’s got your back </p>
<p>Some kind of joke, draped inside a union jack </p>
<p>I’m happy seeing through the hoax </p>
<p>Putting pennies in my pocket and a pig into the poke </p>
<p>Hijinks Dad- I jinxed that you could say </p>
<p>You’re really soaring- man it’s so boring</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408992020-06-03T14:42:37-05:002020-06-03T14:42:37-05:0057. The Gentle Penetrating Wing- "October"<p>The first I wrote this fall of 2019 and have been dreaming on it- still considering. So many possibilities but am enamored of the bareness as the starting place- the entirely dry production with just this vocal, drum loop and piano. George Reiff would have done something really funky with this. One of my favorite hexagrams and as is the case with many of these I do intend to expound more on the reading, probably as I develop the track and share more with you</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408982020-06-03T14:34:01-05:002020-06-03T14:34:01-05:0058. The Joyous- "The Joy"<p>58. The Joyous </p>
<p>Joy is the natural response within all of us to the benevolent and bountiful cosmos. That response gets impeded by life events, conditions, disappointments, and challenges- but it’s always there waiting to express itself, sometimes in our darkest hours. After my dear friend George died, I was in the depths of despair when my friend Jack Chipman suggested I focus on the richness George’s friendship brought into my life. He said, “You know Robert, most people go an entire lifetime without a friendship that great, and you had it for 25 years”. When I think of George nowadays the recollections are underscored with joy and informed by gratitude. </p>
<p>I’m a very sentimental and emotional person, in case the last twenty plus years of songs weren’t evidence enough for you. I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the love I feel for the people around me, enough so that the only way I can fully express it is through music. In other words “I feel so much that I have to lose touch for the rest of tonight” ....the opening lines to this song. </p>
<p>Hexagram 58 “The Joyous” explores conditions of joy, ranging from the first changing line (an optimal condition of joy rising out of a peaceful immovable center) to the the sixth changing line ( a hollow “induced” condition of joy achieved through artificial means.) This little waltz originates from the first variety. </p>
<p>I had and still have high hopes for this track. Whit and I made a great start on it before I trashed my knee last week pretending that I was still nineteen! And so I’m going ahead with this scratch vocal committed to waveform on a handheld SM57 under the “induced joy” of painkillers. Consider it a work in progress. As will be the case with many to come I’m sure, you are privy to our audio sketch pad.</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408692020-06-03T14:19:10-05:002020-06-03T14:21:14-05:0059. Dispersing- "Real Life Satyr"<p><strong>Fabulists</strong></p>
<p>You hang around long enough and you’ll accrue a list of folks who used-to-be this or that to you…a few ex-something or others, personally, professionally or both. So the memoir written about my other self, the one as recounted by the fabulists in my life whose roles I’ve had to …um…modify for one reason or another, would be a far more exciting, intriguing and salacious read than the unexciting truth. If you "modify" a fabulist you’ll become fictionalized in ways you couldn’t imagine possible .. unless you’re a fabulist. But I’m not. What you see is pretty much what you get here in the land of RH. In private I suppose I’m likely sillier, goofier and prone to free association - but not tall tales in which I’ve been wronged by people who appear benign to the naked eye. Stories do have a way of making their way back to the other person eventually. If anyone who knows me is fool enough to believe them - the hell with ‘em. Or at least that's what I come around to after a day of ulcers when the Sage wisdom of the I Ching directs me back to Hexagram 59 -Dispersing…. Or then again maybe it's all a clever ruse to throw you off my hoofed track… maybe I truly am a “Real Life Satyr”! </p>
<p><em>"Real Life Satyr" -yours truly on my Gibson 335, keys, acoustic and vocals with some slide guitar and telecaster fortifications from WW shipped in special delivery. More to come from the bass & drum departments. Keep it tuned here where this sucker will continue to grow its horns</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408672020-06-03T14:13:18-05:002020-06-03T14:27:31-05:0060. Limitation- "Cruel River"<p><strong>"Cruel River" (or holy crap i think i messed up my knee) </strong></p>
<p>The 60th hexagram of the I Ching is called Limitation, which uses the imagery of a river nourishing its surrounding lands to illustrate the necessity of balance in relationships.... and the perils of imbalance via flooding or drought. The latter being apropos to this ditty. I'm feeling not so balanced today due to the abundance of enthusiasm which inspired me to overexercise and badly injure my knee. So today was spent on one leg trying to pull. Harrison is playing hurt but he's staying in the game. </p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408652020-06-03T14:08:15-05:002020-06-03T14:18:08-05:0061. Innermost Sincerity- "Stay True"<p>stay true</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/61419742020-06-03T14:06:43-05:002020-06-03T14:07:10-05:0062. Little Exceeding - "Death of the Cool"<p><em><strong>“Death of the Cool” by Cotton Mather</strong></em> - “Hope I die before I get old”, was hardly an original anxiety. Wordsworth at twenty six had those clouds of artistic impotence nudging the horizon north of Tinturn Abbey. So perhaps it’s untraditional -two decades after the beloved fact of Kontiki (a pamphlet revered by hundreds!) – for us to saunter back to the podium and demand an audience. But tradition and Cotton Mather were never acquainted. <br>Should this jury of peers and elders find my 64 part dissertation unfit for publication please divert the requested pledge funds to bolster your depleted refreshments budget and speak of this no more. If I’ve failed to effectively bear the University standard, so be it, let a worthier man fly the colors. On the other hand, should this latest installment, crafted in the jocular style of Kontiki, please the committee, please consider my candidacy for the a stipend required to complete the work …. or in street vernacular, pony up! </p>
<p>62. Little Exceeding concerns questions of knowing how and when not to go too far, or press ones luck. My friend George Reiff used to always say, “Man you have you keep getting better, otherwise what’s the point.”- whatever this cautionary tale might foreshadow to the contrary I still submit to “make my move… while there’s steam in the pipes” <br>“Death of the Cool” performed by RH, Whit and Darin. Recorded and produced by Lars Goransson and RH. Mastered by Lars</p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408622020-06-03T14:06:33-05:002020-06-03T14:06:33-05:0063. After Completion- "Faded"<p><strong>Faded</strong></p>
<p><em>Dear Dr. Beachpechra, </em></p>
<p><em>I don't don't if you recall me but we met, shared anecdotes, and more than our fair share of Pernot, two summers ago on Helmut Valdez's back pavilion, upon the occasion his daughter's graduation from flight school in Guam. I am Lloyd Van Talmadge, heir to the Van Talmadge bauxhite empire, and the world's most renowned collector of historically significant false teeth ( Maime Eisenhowr, Baron Von Richthoffen). If memory serves, you were quite the fan of my young friend Robert Harrison and we spoke of his music like two sea captains who'd happened upon the same uncharted island. </em></p>
<p><em>Well I am a writing you today because I am desperately concerned about him, and our mutual acquaintance, Fitch Fielding, informed me that you've finally found favor following your formerly fledging fantasy to furnish families with fully functioning fiduciaries- in Austin. Oh Praise God! But lest we get carried away, please consider my friend for I fear he’s freaking out. As you may well know, his much publicized affair with the fine French concert piano Bridgette DuBois, ended quite badly. There are now rumors surfacing that he’s been spotted late nights, wandering the streets of south Austin in nothing but a bathrobe and Chinese slippers. pushing a shopping cart of her sheet music. And then today I received in the mail the enclosed- this finely fashioned fastidious farewell to a flickering flame fraught with fatal flaws. A cassette tape marked simply, “just in case” wrapped in a monogrammed silk pillowcase with the initials B. D. and stuffed in a paper bag! Oh it makes me want to use the F word. Please help my friend </em></p>
<p><em>fondly and affectionately </em></p>
<p><em>LVT </em></p>
<p><em>(chomp chomp)</em></p>Robert Harrisontag:robertharrisonmusic.com,2005:Post/63408632020-06-03T14:06:21-05:002020-06-03T14:06:21-05:0064. Before Completion- "This Leaving Train"<p>hang on</p>Robert Harrison