Liner Notes For An Imaginary Playlist

1. "Wind Solo" by the Felonious Monks From the album Silense ©19561945, after everyone got hip to the blues, this is the codeThe hipsters devised. This is what they call a meanHorn. High on something, the sax man wades beyond the shallowEnd of a stormy sea. You can almost see him gathering mist.The album cover's got nothing but the contours of his bodyAnd a dangerous language you comprehend even if you can't read.

2. "The DJ's PJs" by SGP (the Stank Gangsta Prankstas) From the album Loot the Joker © 1992This is for shell-toe sneakers and warm-ups dyed the hottest redI ever saw. So red it was cool. So cool it was a permanent cold.You can almost hear Negroes freed of the ghetto, the mintSpewing greenbacks in this song. Who wouldn't want to shampooIn Benjamins? Even one hit and a dope video makes a mysticOf the pauper. When it's over, you can hear someone tipping a bottle.

3. "Mood Etude #5" by Fred Washington Sr. From the album Blassics © 1985Strange inclusion, I know, but sometimes lyrics wear a blindfold.How many violins, harps, and grand pianos constitute a jazz reed?This is Bach according to a young man born on the Carolina coast.This is Bach according to a man whose favorite word is Amen.This is Bach according to a man whose childhood was a shambles.What if Keats heard jazz? What if Bach heard the blues? It's all music.

4. "Metal Face" by Glad Battle Wounds From the album New Battle © 2004Remember the Mute Trout album Empty (MT)? The mystiqueWon't puzzle you if you do. The way the battleFor hearts and minds sounds like the same old bullshit. A newsreelOf tanks crushing corpses and a brave soldier in a coatOf medals. Remember those old war songs about the Age of Man?Maybe like those cuts this one is about being bold and shackled.

5. "Oh You" by Marvin and the Gay Ghosts From the album Baby, Don't Won't © 1987Everything that needs to be said here is contained in a shadow.Whenever I fell asleep listening to this song, I woke drenched in music.The CD on repeat, my mouth filled with the meat of the bitter-Sweet. I'd dream of my first love, then find none of it was real.Some songs are like that, I suppose. Like being clothedIn sweat and wistfulness. Sigh. It's a tune to make you moan.

6. "Mythic Blues" by Big Bruise Guitar From the album The Devil's Angel © 1924If you're happy, skip this one. It's definitely not meantTo make you dance. Yes, the previous track was also slow. Use the shuffleMode if you don't was to walk the path I've left you. Called "MythicBlues," this track has a way of reminding you how sin does battleWith the good in you. Saltwater is all a listener can reap.You can see nothing but the blues even when your eyes are closed.

Friend, sometimes the wind's scuttle makes the reedsIn the body vibrate. Sometimes the noise gives up its codeAnd the music is better at saying what I mean to say.


from
Lighthead
poems by
Terrance Hayes
2010