DCD

I don't know how many if any of you besides Del realize how brilliant Brendan Perry (formerly of the group Dead Can Dance) is, but if you could sit down and read 5, 10, or 25 of his song lyrics (any of them at random) AND you had a soul, you very quickly would.

I only wish I could write like him AND do everything else he does - sing perfectly, produce everything in an abandoned abbey in Ireland by himself, play just about every instrument there is, teach samba and polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean percussion to ordinary people who want to take his seminars, provide rare gems of songs for indie movies that will never earn him a schilling, program keyboards as well as play them masterfully and sequence the whole lot on computers like a trained sound engineer, even play antique instruments whose voices have not been heard in centuries (hence the band's name). Actually I wish I could do ONE of those things as well as he is able to. Maybe I'm closest in lyrics, but I've got miles to go in so many other forms of expression it's very daunting.

So this holiday season I'm featuring the ethereally majestic work of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, from the 25+ year collaborative band Dead Can Dance, which is beyond conventional genre-oriented categorization, to their solo works of the past decade or so, and presenting some of the most beautiful, heartfelt, perfect words put to paper, recorded to tape, or made into avant-garde movie "shorts" or providing the backing sound for such breakthrough and breathtaking movies like Baraka, Koyaaniqatsi, and many more, as well as more conventional ones like Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, and Whale Rider. There is simply no one like them in the world, but since this blog is more focused on words than sound, you will get more Brendan than Lisa I'm afraid. He's the words guy for the most part.

All that and he's an absolute Guinness fiend from what I hear. You're missing a large portion of the boat if you ignore outside-the-mainstream artists like DCD, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, and so forth. I can't MAKE you listen or read any of them, but if you are intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually a seeker, you will find enough there (and HERE) to at least set you on your way.

I wish they were my poems. It would be tempting to leave his name off and bathe in the adulation that came my way. But of course that would be wrong and missing the whole point, and Del would call bullshit faster than a Texas mosquito anyway.

So there, my upcoming tribute to Dead Can Dance, in my mind a group with a body of work possibly tied for the most beautiful thing I've run across in life, and right up in there in the conversation for best band ever (to me) with Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Smiths, Nick Drake, Bowie, Bob Marley, Nick Cave, and The Clash, and maybe a few others I'm not remembering.

Thanks for reading! Get ready for some great found art and symbology, some of my own stuff (visual and literal) inspired by them, lyrics, pictures, video clips, and more, all while of course keeping the quizzes, funnies, and non-related entries rolling right along at the same time, and my Facebook ninja ranked #1 in all of Sonoma and Napa county. Don't be afraid to comment on lyrics. They're only poems whose tiny bodies of clay have been breathed to life by the voice and music of a band, after all. That is something even greater than poetry.

If I can possibly provide MP3s of any of this work, (hint, especially if you email and ask), I will.