The world is full of vampires who will suck you dry. They are fond of lies and conceit, and making you feel special — it is all cool calculation and manipulation, because they are drawn to the warmth of your blood. These beings have no conscience or sense of ethics as you and I who walk in daylight might recognize them. They do not need such scruples held dear by mortals because they live by another code, the code of the undead. Wake up now lest you believe in farflung romantic mythos of gothic glamour — They are the ultimate narcissists, only concerned with themselves, and rationalizing their behavior through complex, arcane dissimulation whereby they are never culpable for their actions or the effects they have on others. The other day we had some righteous roots riddims with which to chant down Babylon and yell “Get behind me, Satan!” but I discovered the exorcism was not complete. The vampires still walk the streets of this town, or dwell in walk-up apartments, hovering like vultures. They dress like students, they dress like housewives, or in a suit and tie. I tried to warn a lovely charming lass, but what I did not know is that she WAS one of the vampires. The thing about vampires, is once you have identified them as such, they turn on you. They will not harbor any who have penetrated the secret of their shallow superficiality. They thrive off the warmth of your blood because, in fact, they have no heart.
They will turn the hope within you into hate and bitterness, if you are not careful. It is better to realize that vampires are sustained by our imaginations, by the power we give to them to influence our lives. At the root, they are nothing. Once you realize this truth in your heart, they cease to exist for you and return to the shadows to be summoned by another who is not vigilant. They prey on the lonely and the vulnerable. Warn your friends, if you care for them at all.
Note: If you sleep with a vampire, male or female, you should really go get a blood test. They are known to be profligate and, usually, dishonest in their liaisons. Do not beat yourself up too badly, we all slip up sometime.
The Undead
by Richard Wilbur
Even as children they were late sleepers,
Preferring their dreams, even when quick with monsters,
To the world with all its breakable toys,
Its compacts with the dying;
From the stretched arms of withered trees
They turned, fearing contagion of the mortal,
And even under the plums of summer
Drifted like winter moons.
Secret, unfriendly, pale, possessed
Of the one wish, the thirst for mere survival,
They came, as all extremists do
In time, to a sort of grandeur:
Now, to their Balkan battlements
Above the vulgar town of their first lives,
They rise at the moon’s rising. Strange
That their utter self-concern
Should, in the end, have left them selfless:
Mirrors fail to perceive them as they float
Through the great hall and up the staircase;
Nor are the cobwebs broken.
Into the pallid night emerging,
Wrapped in their flapping capes, routinely maddened
By a wolf’s cry, they stand for a moment
Stoking the mind’s eye
With lewd thoughts of the pressed flowers
And bric-a-brac of rooms with something to lose,—
Of love-dismembered dolls, and children
Buried in quilted sleep.
Then they are off in a negative frenzy,
Their black shapes cropped into sudden bats
That swarm, burst, and are gone. Thinking
Of a thrush cold in the leaves
Who has sung his few summers truly,
Or an old scholar resting his eyes at last,
We cannot be much impressed with vampires,
Colorful though they are;
Nevertheless, their pain is real,
And requires our pity. Think how sad it must be
To thirst always for a scorned elixir,
The salt quotidian blood
Which, if mistrusted, has no savor;
To prey on life forever and not possess it,
As rock-hollows, tide after tide,
Glassily strand the sea.
Is this available for download, or no? I heard a Scientist track on Jonny Greenwood is The Controller, I am interested in hearing more =) (If you are not making it available for download, that is okay of course, just wondering.)
–JDT
holy crap, thanks JDT.. Apparently the burst of inspiration that led to my, um, commentary managed to blind me to the fact that I left out the download link. Doh!
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynjmmi8fqnv
It’s now in the description as well
Ah, thank you, very much =)
–JDT
thank you for this amazing piece of music, i love it
Thank you for this great album and commentary. I've read it TWICE during download.
I wish to add that we all should be extra careful when meeting new friends/spouses/colleges who are being too nice..trying to get too close,too fast. that has been a serious caution sign for me – because a REAL type of person won't try so hard to access hiddens of your heart.. you merely choose to let him in. *STAY SAFE*