Originally written in 1962, John Beecher's poem was a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis
and a reflection on the Cold War in general. But like most of his work,
it's just as appropriate today as it was 45 years ago. I can't think of
a better way to describe how Dick "Darth" Cheney viewed the rest of the
world than the last few phrases in this poem.... I'll shut up now and
let The Man do the talking:
Bestride the Narrow World
We dangled them upon the edge a week,
letting them savor death and then reprieved
them from their jeopardy a space. The style
is new. Th' abominations of his war
moved Lincoln to unmanly tears. Perhaps
he pondered Scripture overmuch. We too
bring God into our speeches. Fustian
we spout as well to cloak our naked sword
in words of righteous tone. Small matter if
the skeptical are unconvinced. We have
the countervailing force to make them cringe.
No power makes us stoop to parley. Proud
as pterodactyls in their prime are we,
mighty as mammoths whose unrivaled thews
the tundra binds in ice perpetual.
The Music
This song is a good example of how things work around here when something doesn't immediately click: Initially named Jungle Dub,
we started fiddling with the basics for this song sometime in 2005-ish.
It got to a certain point and didn't seem like it was going anywhere,
so we let it sit. Then earlier this year, we brushed it off, re-tracked
some of the guitars and had Lou replace the programmed beats with the
genuine article. The final piece of the puzzle was adding John's poem
(recorded in the mid-1960s, BTW). The funny thing is that when I
dropped his piece into the project file, I barely had to do any editing
- John's phrasing fit the song so well, it was almost as if he had
originally read the poem to a metronome set at the same tempo as this
song! Freaky, I tell ya....
Citizens
cover art: "cover #28" by Tone Deaf
Conrad St. Clair: bass, keys, programming
Mike Stehr: keys
Lou Caldarola: drum kit
Chris Huntington: guitar
Beaker: guitar
John Beecher: spoken word
Edi Gbordzi: percussion
Tim Gruber: percussion
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