Monday, more muse, less music:

You do not need an external instrument to make music. Your voice, your hands can do the job quite nicely. There are thousand's of acapella groups in the US and around the world. We also have a lessening abundance of barber shop quartet's. There was a time in the 50's and 60's when muses, called beatnick's rapped on bongo's and read their poetry, and then the emergence of Rap, first as spoken word, without instrumentation.

The Devil by Hoyt Axton has his simple chord's, but is a great acapella song to use today for the purposes of our music 100 series which continues every Saturday. When we intend to create music, the inspiration's are many-fold. Sometime's it's a commission, like Cat Steven's and Oh very young. Sometime's it's an entire movie, as in Pink Floyd and More, or Donavan and Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Sometime's it is the composer who align's with an existing work, to craft music that is interactive with the production. Phantom of the Opera is a great example of this composition occurrence, with the first being produced during the silent era of Hollywood, and called Svengali and staring the immortal, John Barrymore with eyes that make Jack Nicholson in The Shining seem deficient.

In this film, Svengali is a Maestro of music in a small town, and notices the beauty and voice of Trilby, Marian Marsh, and he hypnotizes, though in 1931, the common term was mesmerize, named after the originator Mesmer. Svengali not only elevated Trilby to international fame, but he held her hostage to his wishes. Classic saga of good versus evil and more will be shared on this in person, when the IAP is re-invigorated, as these teaching belong outside of the many ear's of the masses.

One of my very good friends, and teacher's who spent a lot of time with the psychic Edgar Cayce, often said the jaws of the occult are a terrible thing. In both Egypt and Greece, these principles were called veil's, and only the most proven were allowed to see the teacher's with full clarity and admission. They were called initiate's and the teacher's were limited to what are referred to as adept's. The initiate's and wanna' be initiate's of Pythagoras would have an hour of silence, and then an hour or walks with other's and philosophical discourse, only then would they meet in the circle' with usually two circles of veil's or curtains, and the master would begin, with no interruption's.

Most often, the word's of the muse come from individual inspiration. I feel inspired to write a love song solely for my fiancee Sarah. We shall see how this unfold's over the next week. If art does not come easy, within reasonable time, my answer is to leave it in the either, and see if progress doesn't come easily and naturally, as we engage in a more thoughtful walk.

I don't think the need to share more about the devil was the inspiration for Hoyt Axton in this piece, he is a story teller and song writer, not, to my knowledge (and his life history would suggest accuracy in my impression), a devout and religious man. Enjoy the podcast, and share, immediately following this posting.

One morning, at my farm project about 4 year's ago, this was a one day harvest. Let's go for the low hanging fruit, and grow some music.

Em D Em It's been rainin' in the mountains and the river's on the rise. D Em And we cannot hardly reach the other side. D Em And the devil, he's in trouble; I can see it in his eyes. D G If you don't give him shelter, he won't have no place to hide. [Verse 1] Em D Em The devil deals in dyin' and he travels in a hearse. D Em He treats you like a dog, now; he'd like to treat you worse. D Em But he don't have the answers, an' if he did, he'd lie. D G The devil is a joker an' he don't want you alive. [Bridge] C G An' some you win, an' some you lose, C An' the winner's all grin and the losers say: F C G "Deal the cards again. D F C E7 "Won't you deal the cards again." [Verse 2] Em D Em L.A.'s in California, Lord, I been there many times. D Em It is an education, to be sure. D Em I loved a lovely lady there, she opened up my eyes. D G She ran a dancin' school; it was a front, she loved the Lord. [Chorus] Em D Em It's been rainin' in the mountains and the river's on the rise. D Em And we cannot hardly reach the other side. D Em And the devil, he's in trouble; I can see it in his eyes. D G If you don't give him shelter, he won't have no place to hide. [Chorus] Em D Em It's been rainin' in the mountains and the river's on the rise. D Em And we cannot hardly reach the other side. D Em And the devil, he's in trouble; I can see it in his eyes. D G If you don't give him shelter, he won't have no place to hide. [Chorus] Em D Em It's been rainin' in the mountains and the river's on the rise. D Em And we cannot hardly reach the other side. D Em And the devil, he's in trouble; I can see it in his eyes. D G If you don't give him shelter, he won't have no place to hide. [Verse 1] Em D Em The devil deals in dyin' and he travels in a hearse. D Em He treats you like a dog, now; he'd like to treat you worse. D Em But he don't have the answers, an' if he did, he'd lie. D G The devil is a joker an' he don't want you alive. [Bridge] C G An' some you win, an' some you lose, C An' the winner's all grin and the losers say: F C G "Deal the cards again. D F C E7 "Won't you deal the cards again." [Verse 2] Em D Em L.A.'s in California, Lord, I been there many times. D Em It is an education, to be sure. D Em I loved a lovely lady there, she opened up my eyes. D G She ran a dancin' school; it was a front, she loved the Lord. [Chorus] Em D Em It's been rainin' in the mountains and the river's on the rise. D Em And we cannot hardly reach the other side. D Em And the devil, he's in trouble; I can see it in his eyes. D G If you don't give him shelter, he won't have no place to hide.