Friday, June 8, 2012

THE COMPACT DISC RECORDING: yeai (lyrics & synopsis)


I don't squirt juice, swallow juice or shoot the juice, but I got it like that. In May of 2007 I started recording songs for the album yeai. The theme of this recording is an interpretative & critical analysis of the world's major religions. Lyrics ©2008 Michael Cardenas, Inverted Heart ASCAP. Lyrics to cover songs are not included here.

She's Nineteen Years Old by Muddy Waters is the first song I worked on. It goes without saying that I enjoy the blues, but when I started tooling with this song the rhythm of the original version wore thin so I tried the tempo in a country-blues with a shuffle or triplet feel since it's a 16 bar blues. That led me to try a different tuning EAAECE with a tinpan alley approach. Feeling frustrated with the progress of the song I arranged it to fit a neoclassical folk setting o.k. so fine & dandy, however the mix and affect of this song still didn't sit well. I returned to the drawing board with my original iDeer and a dedication to the tuning I'm using for this album open G variant DGBGBD. Open G is the predominant tuning Muddy Waters used so I knew it had to work somehow just not in the Chicago blues style he became famous for. I finally figured out a delta blues pattern that worked. When I decided to cover this song I knew it had to stick out, so one way to do that was to make it sound like an old 45 record. There's some throwbacks to my youth in the solo which is played with my pocketknife and mimics a tune by the Monkees called Auntie Griselda which was the first 45 record I ever owned. So why the blues song for a recording that deals with religion? Well if you look at a major religion that has had 2000 years to saturate into cultures and equate it to the lyrics in this song you might find that even religion isn't immune to the truths of youth.

Revesis started with 3 part harmony vocals & complicated guitar part in a weird 6/8 rhythm, however the final version is in 3/4 (140 BPM). This song took 5 drafts to achieve 2 different final versions. I prefer the fingerstyle take because it tells the story better. The guitar to vocal relationship is comfortable and I have confidence in this song. It doesn't have a typical verse/chorus structure because it's designed to neither end nor begin, the affect is constant rejuvination. I minimized about 25% of the lyrics from the first draft which makes it more pleasant to sing. There's a water motif in it and that's always a plus in art. There are a couple of strange references to Jimi Hendrix and dogs. The last half of the tune is supposed to mimic the feeling of a desert climate. The big drama with this tune was if the intro would be included, good news - the intro made it, it's an homage to Led Zeppelin so hurray. As the title of the song might suggest this is the track that objectifies christianity, the foundational concept is to take the end and present it as the beginning. I feel the water reference regards the impossibility of fire within water meaning you cannot use a candle, yet volcanoes can cut through the sea. There's an interesting line about letters in my coat which could be viewed as pages, those pages if buried beneath a tree might have a regenerative quality after decomposing, but I feel the tree would be scared knowing remnants of itself were buried at it's feet so it would indeed be a petrified tree. My favorite lyric is "We are killers the idols of love" it's a reference to idolotry as the root of warfare. In an alternate version there are 2 ghosts that appear on the recording. One is in the third verse whistling a cat call at me and the other is in the last verses heard yelling in the background after "2 seeds/2 roots". I like this song alot because it makes me dance and it's simple, as a person I wish I was more like this song.

Part of me is fine
as I'm beginning this ode
beckon to the earth
I'm living weird and scared
without a nemesis gone
so warm in the abyss

The waters gain pace to you in chases
no wonder you're kind, I would be too
for the balance due
you do not know of lights
you can be rude that can't be good

You must be bold when they come, I'm leaving
with a bounty on my head
from this land of fools without regret, I'm leaving
So you pretend to begin
and where you end I have sent
the letters in my coat hide beneath a petrified tree
my key will open the gate
to free my brother

Who has told you of your roots?
Don't you know who you are?
Come here dear bride
come to me you've gone too far

Four we are above thee
we are dogs of disloyalty
we are magic in art that is free
we are sex and more than meek
we are killers the idols of love
we are selfless, selfless homeless

I will be daring while they are writing
I will be adding and translating
ripping words any words
from the books that fail us
to the seeds to the trees to our roots
that made us
grace is dead and I'm afraid
all the shores will take us

He Turned Rags Into Rocks has subject matter which addresses Paganism. I really enjoy this song because it has distinct European influence, it's what I hope to perfect in respect to neoclassical/folk guitar. It's a delicate song that almost borders on a haunting fairy tale; truly melodramatic. This was the first tune that I learned vocal spacing with. There is a bad habit among many vocalists to oversing and ruin the affect of a good melody. I suffered this mistake until I started to space out vocals and heard pizzicato verse guitars coming through the mix, the affect facilitates clarity. The first draft was quiet and baroque, but after I truncated lyrics and found a healthy modern-folk guitar part the song became more endearing. About the title of the song, it's an allegory for turning water into wine. The rocks represent pagan beliefs in pre-christian times. When christianity overshadowed paganism or wiped it out as it were paganism became like a worn out overcoat, out of fashion or frankly a rag. The rock ideal also represents the stone of which pagan idols were carved that remain to this day, so as the outcome would have it christianity seems to have only clothed a rock in rags or versa-vice, the vice-versa refers to a conceptual continuity in the album i.e, omega/alpha. A reference to Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun is embedded in the chorus.

when everything is loud it's only in your ear
we can trip away make it disappear
a leaf quivering just like you
we want to be alone like creatures roaming free
calling to the breeze please capture me
the wind will have a friend just like you

blow me away evil man come and kill me
blow me away evil wind you can see me

you sent your flowers here to hang them near my head
they will dry content above my vacant bed
lost a child just like you
dawn is quiet now blue is all I hear
dew is in my eyes color woe is clear
my heart is upside down just like you

hero take your foot off the path
hero you're too late now turn back

Freestandin' is a long one clocking in at over 5 minutes, the tempo used to be a brisk presto (176-200 BPM) until I abandoned the original guitar parts alltogether in favor of a fingerstyle approach at a moderate tempo of 110 BPM. The tune is the Islamic counterpart of the album. It's alot of fun to play, but the lyrical content is pretty heavy so it demands sincere focus. I really enjoy the last half of this song because I feel like I am channeling Bob Dylan. The skipping stones lyric is where he first started to appear until eventually he usurped the entire song. There will be lots of gratuitous attention thrown at this song for the Dylan schtick, but I feel the delivery is the best way to punctuate the parts it involves. This is one of the few songs that encrypts some autobiographical references. This song is my favorite fingerstyle tune right now. The predominant lyric is "the greatest struggle" or struggle in general which is a reference to jihad and the lesser/greater struggle found in the Koran. Freestandin' took 3 weeks to get together and has helped me realize that no matter how much I try to overcompensate with fancy guitar playing if the song doesn't have "it" then you will have to start over again & again. It's a very humbling feeling to know this is the way the song should be played, the way people deserve to hear it and not some selfish version that is fun for me to play.

We don't hear the words of mercy
no the prophet can't explain slavery
all this will in submission is twisting
I just don't get this scene
we all gonna return to where it's serene
cause our lives just don't mean a thing
Oh, but I'm sure that if you're pure
you still gonna beg to be free

You know when you're starving
just about anything will do
even a little inspiration well that'll be your food
Why are you so good just like a victim
In a prison it's just too easy to feel wrong
baby don't feel bad, don't look back

We all wanna hit some pay dirt,
but we don't want to face our worth
the clock is hittin' at high noon
Oh no hope has come too soon
round midday you can play you're allowed till dusk
then after dark you do the same
this is why they blame you

Don't forget about that money you spend
in the name of your merciful end
I can see you put a price on what you destroy
and I can see you're filling caskets with joy
you do what you will and that's the law of the land
there's killin' in the prophet's eyes
there's killin' in the prophet's hand
my brother was too young
and I got his harp in my hand

I'll take the long road
I know I'm not headin' for my home
fitting in look at my skin I'm covered in the dirt
of every step you take of every stone you skip,
but I turned out on you anytime time you try
depending on your guide Oh I'll go without
there's a molehill I found it on the mount

Struggle, more than your mother
she did not send you to a fight to return drooling might
Struggle, less than your father
he would destroy you in a blink to save his daughter
don't you think? Struggle
I'm not your brother I do not annihilate your kind
I see you far behind the detours in the distance
the best time can be beat
Faster, I know the greatest struggle
I know, I know the greatest struggle
I know, struggle
I know the greatest struggle
I know, struggle
I know I'm standin' free

Fitness Guru is a very straightforward jam about Buddhism. It reminds me of Brown Dwarf from The Springs Demo. The first verse is a commentary on people who use others when seeking the truth about themselves. The middle of it has a message to take the worst things in your life and allow them to define you not as shortcomings, but as greatness in your character. In the tail end of the third stanza there's a nod to Leonard Cohen. The end of the song deals with artificial kindness and the logical flaws of compassion.

Attack everything, you don't know who you are
you don't know who I am now do you? no you don't
yes I know what I'm doing
I'm not helping living beings
does this mean I do not care?
Oh how dare you tell me what to do
take a journey for your self
appear as what you want, take off

Do you wish you could stop?
when you're braiding eternal knots
when the one near you fell, tell them all around the world
of the hard times and what they remind you of
don't erase these see the future let it be

I don't want to be happy, you do it better
you need to be laughing so that you can feel better
I'm the fittest in the world like a bird in the fire
in this dead world I'm a deadly survivor

I am blinded by the kindness, I just can't see it
if I could sell all your help, who would buy it?
when I can't take your affection will you try to cherish
what you cannot give up and what you do not have
with the sand in your eyes, why are you still kicking?
when the winds blow you from this world
you should never listen
never ever listen to anyone wearing their clothes so right
like so many have and they don't know how to live
I can't say I'm sorry when you whisper thank you

You Evil and I oh brother the ominous title track. The structure and tone of this album was written in December of 2006. This is the song that started it all. As the central figure of the album there's a healthy amount of self-empowerment included and wind - wind - wind in fact if Peter Pan were friends with this song (and he is) he would call it windy. Therefore the redundant metaphor is "wind" either as change or destruction, it could be seen as a warning to change or be destroyed. There's also a subtle challenge to renounce desires in life. The basic context weaving in it is prison or bondage if you will. At one point there was a Led Zeppelin reference... that has evaporated and been replaced with sketches of Sinatra, Mozart & Kerouac. I screwed this song up for about 3 weeks trying to get it right then it went dormant to mature while the rest of the album took shape, eventually it wound up rearranged while retaining most of the lyrical format. This ditty is blatantly baroque. Back when I first thought about putting this album together I drew an inverted heart on this lyric sheet, it's my way of saying I love you.

I ask my brother what do you see
he said the wind on the sidewalk again
it's hard as hell with this broken cane
we're home now from where we came
shine your weapons in heaven
can't you match your lock & key
tales forged in lucent satori
Evil you and me

She is anywhere defending the darkened days
I live on the floor have you been here before
our rights are written in stars
shining from very far

The air will win
await the end don't you love breathing
sun rise

He is dancing there he's pretending the music plays
she knocks-knocks at the door he's gone to fight the war
our love is buried very stationary

I ask my mother what do you hear
she said the wind as the day begins
it chimes and sprinkles the air with charm
all the answers are in her arms
embrace mistakes we try we try
and guess who lies in lullabies
a fear we know that we'll never end
Evil you and I my friend

By Your Side is a wonderful song by Sade. It's not very easy covering her material because of the exacting nature in her sound. One of the big difficulties was compensating for the keyboard, the other huge challenge was trying to sing it correctly, her voice is too incredible and it wasn't easy to figure out how a male voice should be singing like her. This is a perfect ballad, the way it's written is very precise which was helpful in transposing to the tuning I play in. Basically this song killed my hands and throat. Now a question begs to be answered, why this song for an album about religion? Simply put no matter how different our belief systems are we're all going to keep what's important By Our Sides.

Will the Woman presents a picture of male domination in modern society and it's correlation to the medieval crusades. The term "will" is used to describe man's will to power and King William I of England. The sonnet form of the song reinforces the historical context of the story. The lyrical mention of rape might seem off-putting or inappropriate for a genteel song like this, but it's very important to the nature of this message and the barbarous actions of men which seem to increase with every century. I see this habit in men too well and it's best to refer to it by it's truthful name; rape. Even as an ignorant male I know not to be shocked when I encounter indignance or vindictive tendencies. So while every man occupies his time trying to fathom the math it takes to add up dollars and cents I will keep my ears open to the perpetual white-noise of womankind's suffering, the most arcane of disasters which should not have to continue for another 100 years. Musically the odd thing I'm trying to do is replace the typical idea of a chorus with verses in sonnet form. The advantage is to punctuate a refrain. I made an attempt at a coda and post-chorus interludes in which I see myself becoming slightly brave with the theory in these songs. There seem to be only two songs on this album in the traditional mid 20th century folk vein, this one & Freestandin' being the other. I came to the conclusion that it's logical to have a companion song of a traditional approach to round out the album & give it a "simple" air or root dynamic.

Woman Will you need a hug
I see the queen has shed her crown
I don't want your marmalade
you better keep it off my bread
I wonder will you strike a truce
or strike me down
I wonder will you build a castle for one, huh?

I'm a sore little pilgrim
like a zombie in a way
women will abhor this
in all the characters I play
she will seek barbarians to conquer my mistake
to avenge my disease, to eradicate my breed, my queen?

In her vision I will watch her
slaughter promise
In her tower she will wander
to find a hateful power, power?

Astrology will not save you
Arithmetic has no faith
the skies are warring
in this womanly crusade
where O' where is my take? Did you trade it for rape?
O' dear I can hear her making noise
I'm here

counting on my coin
pacing in her reign
will she need a hug?
Will I need her? O' yeah

Harmada my favorite song contains no curse words, but it's loads of fun and excitement, playing this is a romp. So far this is the tune that has gone through the most changes, it kept getting more & more simple, but the beat got weirder and curiouser until it finally rests at 140 BPM in 8/4 time, go figure? The lyrics are crazy, the story is outrageous & bombastic. I like songs like this. An early version had a samba rhythm, but eventually the beat became more African or afro-cuban with a percussive overdub played on the back of the guitar, doing so injured my knuckle and drew blood. After the rhythm was stripped down a supportive melodic guitar was added and sparse vocal harmonies crept their way into the mix; it almost sounds like a boatride now which is appropriate for the title. At one point there were harmonics, bells and clapping, but when it got down to it I needed this song to be simple and clear. We have to enjoy this song for a long time so that's how it is. The lyrical content is based on the French Wars of Religion that were waged between catholics and protestants in the 16th century. There were many powerful players involved and the frequency of these wars within a short time is staggering 8 wars in total with 4 battles at the outset, the main course was followed by 2 assassinations for dessert. If you are into this kind of stuff I also recommend looking into the monarchomachs and the theory of tyrannicide.

Conflict enemies and centuries
monarchs spinning their cocoons
Water knife to meet you stone
Father suffer mass appeal

Did you come here for a fight?
Do you fall in love to feel right?
let's all spend a winter in France
this could be our last chance
overlooking the madness in you
devotion

Will you protest where you worship
at the rally for your cause?
On this occasion I am standing in the way
alone

Cruelty built the armies
glory jewelry paid for blood
Philip the king took his harm to sea
sailing lore the ship of war
one Duke in danger sent a query,
"Why is the Heretic here?"
then Beth would test his patience

Conflict far more than I can see
sewing evil seeds of faith
Calvin mercury is in your hands
rising reflecting in the sand

Witches Chorus by Giuseppe Verdi from the opera Macbeth has a very brooding sound. Spooky and comforting at the same time. The world is a strange and evil place, I can't help thinking of Luciano Pavarotti now who passed away today. I have taken to reading some of Dante's poetry as he has the knack for death's cruelty born in the loss of his Beatrice. It's difficult to pinpoint what made me want to arrange an operatic work for guitar and voice, but I am fond of this libretto and the cycle of the melodies in this short chorus. To my ear it is a more instinctive or tasteful approach than that of Carl Orff's applications in Carmina Burana. Scary and playful, but not overbearing. The lyrical translation from the Italian has been distilled twice then I truncated what had already been done to suit the voice/guitar instrumentation. The one lyric that is out of place is Un tamburo, I'm singing O' tamburo preceding a stanza instead of after it. In the opera tamburo is the drum that introduces Macbeth, but in my version I'm using the drum as a metaphor for heartbeat, the question of a tempest being lost is asked of the drum, "Is her heart still beating?" (wicked witch reference to Snow White) This is my essential reasoning for switching the order. Che faceste!

O' where have you been?
I've been killing swine and what of you
A sailor's wife with harvest in her lap
trying to drive Satan back,
but I will drain her

Give me the wind now
billowing smoke rise now
take this to his sails
let her chase him as they drown

O' tamburo
Can you still hear his voice, he is lost
the tempest too has crossed, she is lost

A beating, O' a beating
my brother is here now
he told me yes he told me
of sisters hand in hand
stealing in the air
loving in the waves
Witches in the circle
you can smell it in the air

Illness turns out to be a short song with an interesting dynamic, very kinetic and full of ups and downs. Sometimes I like to approach songs as vignettes or short form. Some would say it's a pop structure, but I get it from punk rock. Illness is an analysis of Hinduism. The metaphor of sickness refers to the long struggle India has had with disease and the age of the religion itself, the song treats it as it would the elderly. This is one of the songs that includes autobiographical sketches. Hinduism can be quite a romantic belief system so eventually I realized parallels to romance and relationships, I wound up comparing the transcendental aspects of the religion to the effort people apply in transcending adversity in the world within their relationships. It could be said that India has achieved modern gains and made many technological leaps and bounds, but I contend there are evident failures or direct results of the past associated with the Hindu belief system. I didn't try to write the song as if I was Hindu, I'm actually taking a third person look at it from India's vantage point. There is an ongoing debate within the song regarding reincarnation. Many influences cropped up during the writing process, the first one being David Bowie. When I'm assembling lyrics I often pass out and wake up with the night's last thoughts lingering in a dream. When I awoke from writing these lyrics the dream involved David Bowie playing the drums in a smart suit singing a chorus "I don't want to lose... my mind." accompanied by what sounded like Mott the Hoople, so that was all really weird. I tried to figure out how to work this chorus into a Beatles type of song ala White Album, but that effort didn't satisfy me. Early on there was also an intro that borrowed from the main riff in Pharoah Sanders' song "Love is Everywhere" so you can see how early on I was really trying to get into the whole Hindu mindset. Eventually I figured out that the song needed a perpetual dynamic, I was listening to José González and Paco De Lucia at the time and that helped me with some rhythmic ideas and how I might strum the melody. Since there is a metaphor for relationships happening a Bob Dylan song came to mind; Just Like a Woman. I include a lyrical homage to his lyric "nobody feels any pain" within Illness and finally there is a weird Connor Oberst delivery occuring in the last verse, it freaked me out a bit, but I think I am cool with it now.

When we were old a thousand years ago
I saw you fall down I never let go
I see where you stand in your discontent
you're so silent and distant

We could fall back and kiss remember bliss
We could die from all of this illness
you're the violence on my lips my deathwish
I'm too proud to put up a fight,
but I can die wrong knowing you were right

Tie me up call me a fighter
bind my throat you can make it tighter
my love is ignorant I'll be dumb forever
I don't know pain

Nobody feels any reign not tonight it's been pouring pain

I will finish stitching these cuts when my mouth is shut
the air is not worth breathing now I'm the one bleeding
a portrait is hanging I feel like that painting
no you don't have to listen you know what I live in

Illness

I'm Deaf in all my sickness the shock from infinity
is gaining momentum this trip is killing me
life is full of failure growing worse with every year
I don't want to come back to this illness
I don't want to lose my mind
I don't want you to lose

One Last Guess has to be the most serious number out of this bunch. Judaism is a serious circumstance so I thought it appropriate to apply careful treatment. I feel there might be a fair amount of close-mindedness in this religion almost to the point of rejecting other systems, in a less tame instance there are still reactionary tones. The music supports two elements, slow walking (crawling) and passive/aggressive action. The chord progression in the verses is based on a Balkan Klezmer folk song, the intro and outro melodic parts are based on the song Dark Eyes (Ochi Chyornye) which is commonly known as a Russian Gypsy folk song, but for the record the words were written by the Ukrainian writer Yevgeniy Pavlovich Grebyonka his words were subsequently set to Florian Hermann's "Valse Hommage" (in an arrangement by S. Gerdel) my intent is to include Jewish culture within the melodic structure. I wanted to concentrate as best I could on the religion itself, but it would be an insult not to include any references to Jewish culture or race, the two parallel one another and to avoid that would seem ignorant. The semantics can get confusing and there are even references to that chaos. One striking point is in the lyric "Your creator, your criminal". On the surface this might seem as an attack on creationism and superior beings, but the root of it is in the historic demonification of the Jewish race, many cultures from Egypt on have gone far past the servitude of Jewish peoples, historical evidence will point to an obvious plight for Jews. The creator lyric is in essence saying if you decide to demonify the Jewish race and you do so while recognizing a creator or superior power then you are in truth demonifying your creator which in turn makes your superior power the criminal and creation an accomplice. The guessing game that appears in this song is maybe like a second opinion, the type you would seek from a physician and in this case the metaphor of a religious doctor would be orthodox practitioners or the few who follow Kabbalah.

Don't you believe in anything.
Don't you believe in the air,
your culture, your face?
You look so comfortable here
there's no way to separate
our history is right

You were never second best
now give me one last guess

Goodbye little dreamer
I will honor your beauty
everything in your name

I don't believe in everything
I can't believe you're gone
your creator your criminal

I'm filling up with shame
stirring in guilt warm

Stop your watching, Stop your pacing
crawling just erase me forget me
I'm fading braiding quaintly
ending safely sitting pretty pity

We don't believe in everything
we believe in stories

Reconquista (por José) I learned so much about music putting this song together. The Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the seven-and-a-half century long process by which christians conquered the Iberian peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus. Reconquista is also a term popularized by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes to describe the demographic and cultural reemergence of Mexicans in the Southwestern United States, both myself and my father shared a fondness in Fuentes. The song could be described as a 3 minute ancestral shout-out con castanets. The content is littered from top to bottom with Spanish influence, incorporating Spanish lyrics; "la Convivencia" means the Coexistence it's a term used to describe the situation in Spanish history from about 711 to 1492. Early versions of this tune had a Flamenco feel, but the patterns didn't support the vocal. When I was attempting to employ those Spanish sensibilities I got the idea to include some Spanish lyrics.

I see a Muslim in the past
you know how they laugh
I know this will pass

I see a Spaniard in the wings
you know what he brings
I know what he means

Come back to Granada, convivencia
we're all together now

What did you have in mind
when you went trading your tribe
Moor babies making babies

Mira reconquista nature facing faith
Moor many mores have come undone

In the night they were royal
In the night they were noble
In the night they were common
In their day they were harmless

Many lovers Moor and more
onward marching as to war
Convivencia mi amo

Beams might be the most powerful song in the batch. So much could be explained regarding Beams, but I don't want to ruin any potential enigma so I'll try and keep the overview basic. Firstly, it is one of two songs on this album that exists as a melodic dialogue with another artist's music; the other song being Reconquista with José González in mind and Beams having Sam Beam as focal-point. Beam's song Flightless Bird, American Mouth made me do it. I got to thinking about thematic variations in the spirit of Paganini borrowing from Locatelli or jazz artists like Eric Dolphy variating on Charlie Parker's themes. Beams started as a slow doo-wop with the guitar doing an Otis Redding style pattern. This was nice at first, but it was just too simple to contain my attention. So I worked on a specific guitar tuning to give the song some endearment: FGCGCE. The song is about magic and earth. It could be considered a form of adversary to Sam Beam's song. In reflecting on the muted dogma of his lyrics I wanted to portray the same ambiguity while using the flipside of religioso. This song comes across well live. I really wanted to record it live, but that wouldn't give it the legitimacy I'm seeking with this album. When I sing this live I'm leaning into a blues territory on vocals, so I used this approach until the tail-end where I switch to a more natural voice. This occurs after the stanza referring to "actors dissappearing". The core of Beams' message asks if you would die for your mother, would you go to war for earth.

O' earth do confide in me
your secrets are safe beneath
my pillow is everything
your shallows are mine to keep
Our lament is a house in the trees
a Morning Star climbing
while weepers drown in the weeds
avarice the child is asleep

One lonely human
flesh and pollution
thriving on malcontent
Stunned sovereign patience
one less human
suicide in disguise

Magic bury redemption
Omen whisper a warning

O' carousel turning demure
incompletely secure
mention ov madcaps' allure
quaintly queer and foul, yet pure
adieu now the actors disappear
rumors unravel faithful cheer
starless and pitch the ravens pass
invoking their spleen from horror's hand

"Don't Wed" poem by Taras Shevchenko music from "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" by Drudkh The idea behind this song-poem is to include a secular representation or a mirror to lay people. The reflection points to life without religion. Taras Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. Drudkh, meaning "wood" in Sanskrit is an atmospheric black metal band from Ukraine. Many of the band's lyrics are derived from the works of nineteenth and twentieth-century Ukrainian poets, especially Taras Shevchenko. This song-poem also acts as a bridge of continuity towards the next release, the theme, content and subject matter of this song will be carried over into the next recording. The continuity between The Springs Demo and You Evil and I can be found within the inclusion of the blues songs.

Don't wed a wealthy woman, friend,
She'll drive you from the house.
Don't wed a poor one either, friend,
Dull care will be your spouse.
Get hitched to carefree Cossack life
And share a Cossack fate:
If it be rags, let it be rags --
What comes, that's what you take.
Then you'll have nobody to nag
Or try to cheer you up,
To fuss and fret and question you
What ails you and what's up.
When two misfortune share, they say,
It's easier to weep.
Not so: it's easier to cry
When no-one's there to see.

Taras Shevchenko
Mirhorod, October 4th, 1845.
Translated by John Weir, Toronto

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Track listing:

1. You Evil and I
2. She's Nineteen Years Old by Muddy Waters
3. He Turned Rags into Rocks
4. Fitness Guru
5. Freestandin'
6. One Last Guess
7. Revesis
8. Illness
9. Harmada
10. Will the Woman
11. Reconquista (por José)
12. Beams
13. "Don't Wed" poem by Taras Shevchenko
music from "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" by Drudkh
14. The Witches Chorus from Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi
15. By Your Side by Sade