The musings on a musician in Covid-19 isolation.

Author:  Mark Seymour.

Date: 8 April 2020.

Original URL: https://www.facebook.com/MarkSeymourOfficial/posts/2557258124380511?__tn__=K-R

Article Text

In a glorious isolation, I stumbled on a Paul Simon interview. Great. Get educated. YOUTUBE will do it.

“Each song means whatever I was like when I wrote it..” he said.

What?

When rockstars talk about their shit.. it’s often silly. ‘Whatever I was like’.. What does that even mean? What he was feeling, what colour his shirt was, or whether he’d washed that day?

I’d punt on feelings myself. Given my mileage.

You can have your structure, your notes, your cultural baggage, your chesterfields, your paisley guitar, wear hot gear, get drunk, stoned, have multiple partners, then start yodeling, but I’m telling you straight my friend, if you’re numb it won’t fly.

To wherever inspiration is. Tahiti. Berlin. Port Lincoln.

Hmm…Travel’s not on the cards right now.

Another Rockstar once said.. ‘I had to leave Australia otherwise I would’ve died.’ Oh my God. You poor bastard. But it’s ok. We’re all here now together…

basking in your genius.

The lengths we go to, to justify the need to be loved and admired. Because you know what?

That’s pretty much it.

I could say something here about sharing the dream or whatever, if I was Bruce. But no. The bins need emptying and the very law itself is telling me, stay away from other people man, or you’re gone.

Which begs the question, if the cops are out there pulling people off highways, how does a BAND stream their shit from a St.Kilda bar and get away with it? Together. With crew. Bumping in doorways, emitting the odd cough?

But hey, there are stranger things in heaven and earth. George Pell is a free man. You wanna unravel that pretzel? Go right ahead. If you’re like me, you’ve got plenty of time on your hands.

So how do you kick the can down the road? Get the juices flowing, build a yarn to galvanize the masses..

from a garage?

Well, let me tell ya, there’s always loneliness.

Mark my words. Loneliness will do it. ‘Cos you know what? You can get lonely anywhere. And it’s definitely a feeling. So it’s bound to be useful.

“You can get it walkin’. You can get it talkin’. You can get workin’ a plough. Matter of fact…”

My first ditty arrived listening to ‘The first cut is the Deepest’ by the Cat. I’m thinkin’ big right? The grandness of the Cat. How unique was his condition? You know the sort of thing. When young men cry over small shit? Not that I’m dissing the ballad. It worked. Check Billboard.

Right now I’m trying to work out the chords to ‘Wichita Lineman’. Good luck with that.

I was in an empty Carlton share house. Alone. So no one was looking. I started raiding the kitty jar so I could play the space invader machine in the pub up on the corner, running up and back between chords by the Cat. But really, I was just desperate to meet somebody. Preferably a girl. Never did though. Well not then anyway. But I got a song out of it right?

It was all about the machine.

From how high have the mighty fallen? Artists, singers, bands, whatever. You’re hearing it a lot.

“Ooh.. we just have to play man!”

Right now the garage will have to do..

Comments

N/A.