Cherry Tree Carol: Redux

To preface this, Sharon is a big Mixdorf fan.

That said, upon reading his comments on this song, Mixdorf, Sharon's reaction was one of, "who says it's just some narrative that has no connection to anything? It's a traditional song. What if it has a long history behind it and come connection to something bigger that we just don't know about?" On Sunday night, she got around to looking it up in Wikipedia. The history went a lot farther back than even she realized. It's actually directly from one of the gospels, albeit not one of the gospels that made it into our modern day Bibles-the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. The very interesting history of the song is here. My favorite part of the article is at the end, when it details the song retelling's differences from the actual "events:"

...Joseph's truculence is unrelated to any dismay over Mary's pregnancy, but has to do with an inability to reach the fruits of the palm and a concern over the family's lack of water.

A Spoonful Weighs a Ton

My first, and only, real exposure to The Flaming Lips came with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Until two weeks ago. My YourMusic.com selection of the month brought the Lips' The Soft Bulletin to my mailbox, and I have been mildly obsessed with it for these past two weeks.

Listening has me wondering if Mighty Tom had any exposure prior to Yoshimi. If someone had handed me some of the lyrics, and asked who I thought had written them, I would have guessed Mighty Tom.

"Race For The Prize"

Two scientists are racing
For the good of all mankind
Both of them side by side
So Determined
Locked in heated battle
For the cure that is their prize
But it's so dangerous
But they're determined

Theirs is to win
If it kills them
They're just humans
With wives and children


"The Spiderbite Song"

When you got that spiderbite on your hand
I thought we would have to break up the band
To lose your arm would surely upset your brain
The poison then could reach your heart from a vein

Wonderfully absurd. I have a feeling there will be more of The Flaming Lips in my future.

More Minnesota Connections

Welcome to The Annex. My first post here is a tie-in to Volume 3. Check out a couple of live (in studio at The Current) performances from The Hopefuls and The Owls. They both are at the bottom of the page.