Crafted From Wood Collage

Writers

Original song by Falcone; rewrite by Allen, Chadwick, Wileman, & Wishart

Performers

Bridget Remembers

This song was on the tape that Don sent me along with Two Friends and Child Growing. I remember being very struck and inspired by the title and first line of Don's lyrics. I rewrote the lyrics keeping to what I felt was the important theme and expanding upon it. When recording it I was very new to n-Track and couldn't work out how to have a click track going and record at the same time and I couldn't get the click track to come out of anywhere but the pc speakers!!! I held the mic to the speakers and recorded 7 minutes of tinny tick pot tick pot and then sang along to that!

When I uploaded it to Don I think he was a little taken aback at all the changes but when he sent it back to me with Daevid Allen singing duet I was completely blown away.

Apache drum

I did have to re-sing the end as Don said he couldn't get rid of the 'tick pot, tick pot' that had come through from the headphones. Rich played his Apache drum to this. It was his suggestion. When I went to visit to discuss the project he said the drum didn't have a very good sound but was the genuine article and he thought it would work. When he came round a few months later he was a bit late for the session and almost before he took his coat off he had the drum out and headphones on. Martin did a quick sound check and then recorded his drumming in one take. The stick had some beads on it that shook and rattled and made a really good accompaniment. At the time we didn't know that the piece would remain as stark as it has but when Martin heard a rough mix with music added throughout he knew that it wouldn't need much, Richard Wileman's minimal bouzouki playing in the right places was all it needed.

Don Remembers

This song has quite a history.

First 80’s version was slow, like current version, but featured full Spirits Burning band. The subsequent Spirits Burning band did a recording of it at San Francisco State University in 1989, as part of one of their recording classes, where local bands can come in and record for free. In fact, the mixdown session was October 17th, 1989. We were interrupted by a 7.1 earthquake. The class and the band were gathered rather tightly in the mixdown room, and then the shaking began -- rack gear lurched forward towards us, then back into place. We looked at each other and then the lights went out. In the darkness, we left the basement level studios and emerged aboveground; only later did we learn about the amount of damage that had occurred in the bay area.

Next up for the song was a version by a Spirits Burning spin-off called Red Rain. This version was medium tempo, more in the mode of the Stranglers’ Golden Brown (as I played a harpsichord patch). That looked like the end for this piece as I started doing ambient. However, I next resurrected it for the first Spaceship Eyes CD, doing a purely instrumental, almost slow electronica sounding edition.

All along, none of these versions sounded alike. So, that brings us to Earth Born. And, we once again have a very different sounding version, this time a vocal duet with primitive rhythms. I can almost see where this one has a little bit of that flavor that Johnny Cash’s last album had. At least in terms of sounding stark and truthful.

Bridget’s additional lyrics have taken a basic song of mine and helped make it more of a folk tale, or should I say more of a children’s bedtime story for space rockers? And Daevid took to this one so smoothly, like it was fated to be.

It’s all quite special.

Crafted From Wood (Original Lyrics by Falcone)

      Maybe we're crafted from wood
      Put in a circle, put on a spot we turn
      Maybe we're crafted from wood
      Left to sit and left to wonder we burn
      
      Anger can drift in a stream of air
      Distance where we say that no one cares

      When we are young we look the wind in the eye
      And love is good we never stop to analyze
      Each day we add a line of age to read between
      Perhaps the marriage of our love can lose its sheen
      
      Anger can drift in a stream of air
      Distance where we say that no one cares
      
      Maybe we're crafted from wood
      Put in a circle, put on a spot we turn      
      Maybe we're crafted from wood
      Left to sit and left to wonder we burn
      
      Anger can drift in a stream of air
      Distance where we say that no one cares

Crafted From Wood (New Lyrics by Falcone & Wishart)

     Maybe we're crafted from wood.
     I thought into flesh and to bone.
     Or could I have misunderstood?
     And everyone's sculpted from stone.

     Maybe we're moulded from tin
     Or possibly spun out of hay
     N' Big Bad Wolf can blow us to heaven
     And Angels rebuild us from clay.

     So how do you know we are real?
     Just cause we think and we feel.
     You can smell, you can touch and give me so much,
     But isn't that part of the deal?

     Maybe we're grafted on trees,
     It could be we're grown in a vat.
     Might we be sprouted from seeds?
     I'm sure it can happen like that.

     Are the things that you hold the ones that I see?
     Does the stuff that you dream mean something to me?
     And what is the difference with inside and out?
     What is the truth and what should I doubt?
     How do you know we are real?
     Just cause we think and we feel.
     You can smell, you can touch and give me so much.
     But isn't that part of the deal?

     Maybe we're crafted from wood.
     I thought into flesh and to bone.
     Or could I have misunderstood?
     And maybe we're sculpted from stone.

You can view more Spirits Burning lyrics here, including the lyrics to all the songs on Earth Born.

Crafted From Wood Drawings

Don's Timeline