I have been on a musical excursion into the past. The murky past of The Flaming Lips. They must be the wildest, weirdest r&r outfit to emerge out of the desolate plains of Oklahoma. It seems like an easy call.
I first discovered the Lips' 1999 release "The Soft Bulletin." A classic record, no doubt. If I was squeezed hard, and commanded to choose, I guess, I'd say it was their finest album.
But man, oh man, there is something about their early records. Especially as documented by "The Day They Shot A Hole In the Jesus Egg," a compilation album of work they recorded 10 years earlier than "Bulletin." I own a copy of this extraordinary cd, which includes the complete album "The Priest Driven Ambulance," as well as Demos and Outtakes.
There is something so amatuer, ramshackle, experimental, creative, crappy but great sounding, a band learning how to be a band, and to make a record. It's just so great. Loose, so loose, it seems like it's all just a lark, or gonna fall apart. Crappy equipment, cheap guitars, an engineer learning on the job. Humor, creativity, a bit of weird, off-kilter genius in those songs.
Plus you get Jonathan Donuhue, the secret musical weapon who went on to form Mercury Rev, as well, as the great, charimatic, show-man, and hard-scrabble, always questioning, always questing, philosopher-king Wayne Coyne. Not only is the music great. I recommend you read the liner notes. There is wisdom to be found in the notes. Wayne was/is a searcher. This is a document of his search. Yes, brilliant, crazy, gloriously obsessed. Fine stuff. Indeed.
"God Walks Among Us Now!!"
"You see we were struggling to believe in ourselves and maybe you have to believe in other things besides yourself before you can believe in yourself… Maybe like playing someone else’s songs – before you can see any merit in your own songs. So you see when we sang “Waitin’ for my ride – Jesus is floating outside – shine on Sweet Jesus on me” we weren’t expressing a belief in Jesus or God, or any Higher Power – we were expressing a belief in… believing… To try to come to terms with what believing means and use it to create ourselves. And as we attempted this, we discovered that truly all meaning is subjective and, in a sense, a fabrication – that we weren’t right and they weren’t wrong – it was the same thing. And this was frightening and perplexing – science should’ve easily proved to be a more worthy master… but no… You see as we were re-exploring the idea of allowing oneself to be “guided by the light” we found it unexpectedly rejuvenating and again saw the power of religion equal to the power of the cosmos…!!!… What could this mean… ??? Not believing something has designed you, forces you to design yourself??? Fuck that, I do not say it as a matter of pride “I invented myself”… so what – everybody invents themselves – only we had to do it in a moment of despair before we disappeared inside ourselves… And in a blazing time-encapsuled instant, we chose, out of panic, to accept that we are descended from stars not build from the molecules of Christ. And if religious folks could submit to “GOD” because he’s great and powerful that perhaps we could submit to “the Universe” because it’s great and powerful – We made an exchange… (which is the only way – insanity surely awaits those desperate souls who are suspended for too long in between_ - we had lost the lord but gained the world… So instead of looking up and seeing Heaven and its endless possibilities and saying “that must be God” – we looked up and saw… the Universe and its endless possibilities and thought… the Universe has made us… Yep… But the rest is up to us…"
Wayne
June 2002