The Life Of The Fields

[imomus]

Here's an mp3 of my latest song, The Life Of The Fields.

Sorry, this track is no longer available. Please buy the CD when it comes out!

It's a folk-pop song heavy with shinto magic, spring and sex. It has a sort of New Order feel to it, if New Order had been a medieval folk group. There's a family tie between this song and the one I sing on the new album by Hypo, 'Random Veneziano'. They both contain the image of throwing wine 'in the face of nothing'. And, although it's much more of a traditional pop song than the material on Summerisle, my forthcoming collaboration with Anne Laplantine, this song is very much set on that same summer island, a parallel world of enchantment, animist religion and burgeoning sensuality. The lyrics are inspired by cult horror film The Wicker Man, but also by a documentary I saw on Arte about the battle of some Indian farmers to stop American companies claiming copyright on the gene structure of basmati rice. The documentary showed an Indian TV commercial for Bollgard, a gentech cotton strain which can resist insects. The imagery was of a beaming Green Giant-like nature god running through abundant fields. Its very non-Christian nature god imagery reminded me of 'The Wicker Man'.



If you like the song and keep it, I'd ask you to donate me a dollar via Paypal:

I'm time rich but money poor. A dollar makes a difference to me. If I get enough donations on this one, I'll keep posting mp3s of new material as it appears. Please don't redistribute these files via file sharing services. Send people to this page instead. The address is:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/2004/04/08/

I'm doing this for several reasons. First, I don't agree with the music industry's view that file sharing damages record sales. I don't think anyone downloading and liking this song will be prevented from buying a superior-quality hard copy of it (it may be quite a different version) when the album comes out in 2005. Secondly, the song is very much about things happening now -- spring, the return of vitality and sensuality to the world, the ceremonies of April and May, a certain shift in sensibility (mine, at least!) towards the organic. Third, the song is actually inspired by folk music (which tends to be pre-copyright) and by a documentary which showed the threat poor farmers face from private companies claiming ownership of the 'intellectual property' of rice. It seems only right that its own DNA should be made freely available. Fourth, although I've asked my labels to look into it, I don't yet have any of my songs on iTunes, so I'm doing my own iMomus version of iTunes. Fifth, I like the idea of people paying based on their ability and their sense of honour. It works for shareware, perhaps it can work for songs. Sixth, I'm just really excited about this song and simply cannot keep it under my hat for a year! I want it to fly around the world spreading its healing love and spooky country charm immediately! Here are the notes for the song:

Bollgard
The life of the fields
A smiling lord of the fields prances through green cotton leaves free of boll weevil
Man and plant in harmony
India, where many gods are already using gentech
pollen
good tree wool and not good
sperm blows in on the wind
the community seed bank
the seed of the earth
black rices and short green rices
beeja shows me a gramme
she is the guarantor of our harvest
hundreds of varieties of rice
rice as intellectual property
ricetec

And here's the finished lyric:


The Life of the Fields

Your eyes are flat, the city's hot
Night falls over the barren system
Leave the cracked city block
Come back to the old religion
Throw your seed behind the plough
Throw your wine in the face of nothing

Feel the sea anemone
Children play in the rockery garden
We're all John Barleycorn
We're all one in the old religion
Meet me by the waving rye
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye

Gaelic runes and harvest moons
Shinto dogs at the phallic symbol
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die
Meet me in the waving leaves
The question mark in the scarecrow summer
Meet me out by the lemon trees
Pull me down, and pump me dry

Lie back now and think of rain
In the blossom of the willow
Mastering the morning pain
Gorgeous on your petal pillow
Mustard seed and dandelion
Treading wine for the old religion

The high priest and the artisan
Piping at the gates of knowledge
Saturnine as the hammer god
Hammering, getting it on
Meet me by the waving rye
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye

Gaelic runes and harvest moons
Shinto dogs at the phallic symbol
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die
Meet me in the waving summer
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Making out by the rhodedendron
Pull me down, and pump me dry
Lie back now and think of sorrow
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die

Comments

[tianamolko.livejournal.com]

i've adored you for forever and a half,
and i just found out you have a livejournal.
i hope you do not mind
that i have added you.