Sunday, December 28



Saffron

Spirit rise to greet the sun
takes my hand and beats the drum.
Tries to make me understand
we are as one in a sea of sand.

I'm praying for rain
to see desert flowers again.

The eagle flies up to the sun,
high above the plains of Babylon.
In one claw he holds an olive branch for peace,
in the other twelve arrows for his enemies.

For his enemies!

I'm praying for rain,
to see desert flowers again.

Spirit rise to help us see
the loving face of humanity;
Devoid of fear and free from greed,
devoted to the greater need.

I'm praying for rain,
to see desert flowers again.

Sons and daughters of America
you lay down your lives
for the Warlords of America
not for your sake, not for mine.

Sons and daughters of Great Albion
you send your children to die
for the Glory of Great Albion
but death is till the end of time...

Hold onto life!

The locust is born upon the wing,
its hunger seems as boundless as the great river plain.
Where the Tigris weaves its way toward the sea,
through a great desert in the heart of man.

I'm praying for rain,
to see desert flowers in bloom again.

Or the djinns of intolerance fade.

-Brendan Perry for Dead Can Dance ©2004

6 comments:

Metamatician said...

Ok Raelha, I agree this in unfair. I will be sending you a musical care package soon, and by soon, I mean within a day or so. I'll strip any songs I still want to use for my mix (the best ones ;)), but that's like saying I'm going to deprive you of half a dozen of the Beatles' best songs for a little while longer. Whoopee, there's only like 100 more songs that are nearly as good.

It's become a cliche, but DCD are one of those very rare bands who, in my opinion of course, have never put out a bad song. Some are better than others, but I've never heard anything by them that wasn't at least very good. And most of it's wonderful. But I realise tastes differ so approach with an open mind and use your own judgment and all that good stuff.

I think I will send you a selection of songs from their limited, reunification tour a few years ago, which has them doing lots of their own new material naturally (they always dislike just playing old "fan favourites" and tend to save those for an encore whilst challenging the audience to listen to music each of them as come up with in the years since they were a proper band. In fact, I read an altered version of "Saffron" will appear on Brendan Perry's LOOOONG awaiting 2nd solo album.

Then I think I will send you one of my personal favorite albums of theirs, though it will be very hard to choose. Probably Aion or Into the Labyrinth, since I feel those are two of the more accessible albums to those just easing into their sound. I'll hit you with more challenging stuff later, don't worry; the kind of stuff which needs to grow on you a little because it's so rich, but once it does it quickly becomes your favourite, or at least right up there. I'm talking mostly about Within the Realm of a Dying Sun and The Serpent's Egg, as well as their very first, eponymous album. All brilliant, but those are a bit more intimidating (don't worry, they were for me as well).

Well, I hope to get this off to you soon. In the meantime, glad you've enjoyed the lyrics and my attempts to present them somewhat pleasingly when I could.

It's not too hard to figure out what Saffron is about, even without the extra crescendo-ing (word? it is now!) bridge about America and Great Britain that Brendan began to included at some point during the tour. Apparenly it was a song written beginning in 2003 (...) but toyed around with and added to and stripped down as they played it live. I think the version I have live includes only part of the lyrical changes.

It's neat to be able to witness musicians (especially perfectionists) hone their own work as you watch, so to speak (and literally in one case, when I went to see them at the old, baroque Paramount theatre in Oakland, which has amazing accoustics. I've also been fortunately to see Brendan perform solo and accoustically in a small club in San Francisco to promote his first album back in the late 90s, and we were almost within touching distance, having of course wormed our way to the front. Man, what a heady experience. The guy is short and slight, yet with his booming voice, the words of a poet, and (in the case of the DCD show), Lisa's spine tingling vocals, occasional lyrics just as intelligent as his if fewer and further between, as well as her almost surreal, angelic presence is the ultimate head trip. After both shows I walked away feling like I'd seen something from another time or another world, or at least parts of this world I'd never been to before...

And I don't just say that about everyone. They're both "artists" in the best sense of the word, completely dedicated to finding their own ways musically and spiritually, and have proven over and over they have no interest in becoming more commercial to win more fans or make more money (apart from Lisa doing some movie soundtrack work, which disappointed me a bit, though I'm sure she had her reasons). I'm sure they're both quite comfortable, and are that rare breed of people for whom that is quite enough.

He reminds me lyrically of Dylan Thomas and Leonard Cohen, and vocally of Tim Buckley, Frank Sinatra, and Scott Walker. She reminds me of... well, no one really. Throw some Turkish folk music together with some Australian aboriginal chants, Celtic traditional lays with medieval baroque, toss in a little avant garde and Billie Holiday-esque catty (but sultry) blues, and you're getting there.

...Best just to watch and listen :)

Unknown said...

Well thank you Mr Matician :) I shall look forward to your whetting of my appetite.

I always apprach new music with an open mind, though I'm slightly biased already in the case of DCD having read their lyrics here, and having listened to a little of Brendan Perry's solo work. I shall try not to expect anything from them, though even with raised expectations - from what you say, I don't think I would be disappointed.

Your account of their live performances makes me sorry I've missed out for so many years. I have some catching up to do.

Oh, and I like this presentation of the lyrics very much, especially the second picture.

Hans said...

So, Heath used Brendan's CD to fiddle with the speaker system here. I wanted to choose based on the bass and voice clarity in a CD/movies, and that's what he chose. I think he's great via your immersing me with his voice, and his lyrics are wonderful too.

I knew it took a lot of poppies to get a little saffron, but it's nice to see a photo of the real thing. Good post.

Metamatician said...

Thanks and you're welcome, Raehla, and yeah, I wish you'd have been there with be at those concerts.

And empath, funny you should mention the difficulty of obtaining decent amounts of saffron - I'd just looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently they can only use the stigma (I believe), and then must lay them out to dry before grinding them for the spice.

Also the cultivating of it, almost all of which is done in Iran and to a lesser extent Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and the Kashmir region, is something of a ritual for many old cultures/religions like the Zoroasters who preceded Islam in Iran (Persia), as well as the ancient Mesopotamians. Being so hard to get (like purple dye from snails, which traditionally was always reserved for royalty), it was - and still nearly is - worth its weight in gold.

The word "saffron" comes from the Persian (now Farsi) word zaʻfarān, a word which was used even in the time of Darius and Xerxes.

Lastly, modern medicine has found saffron to have anti-cancer, anti-mutagen, and anti-oxident properties. It also makes great tasting rice and yello dyes for Tibetan monks' robes!

Unknown said...

Yep, it's what give Paella it's yellow colour and distinctive taste.

Metamatician said...

Paella :-)

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