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way to go mr. microphone
show us all what you don't know
centuries secret societies
he's out commander still
space dog
so sure we were on something
your feet are finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
your feet are just on the ground girl
rain and snow
our engines have been receiving your eager call
there's colonel dirtyfishydishcloth
he'll distract her good
don't worry so
and to the one you thought was on your side
she can't understand
she truly believes the lies
lemon pie
he's coming through
our commander still space dog
lines secure space dog
deck the halls
i'm young again
i'm you again
racing turtles
the grapefruit is winning
seems i keep getting this story twisted
so where's neil when you need him
deck the halls
it's you again
it's you again
somewhere someone must know the ending
is she still pissing in the river now
heard she'd gone
moved into a trailer park
so sure we were on something
your feet finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
you feet just on the ground girl
so sure we were on something
your feet finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
your feet are just on the ground
(so sure those girls now are in the navy
those bombs our friends can't even hurt you now
and hold those tears cause they're still on your side
don't hear the dogs barking
don't say you know we've gone andromeda
stood with those girls before
the hair in pairs it just got nasty
and now those girls are gone)
Space Dogin sanoitus on aina kiehtonut minua, vaikka - tai ehkä juuri siksi - että se on minusta todella kryptinen (space dog, lemon pie, turtles, colonel dirtyfishydishcloth...). Se kerta kaikkiaan vaatii etsimään Torin antamia tulkintavihjeitä. Toinen samantyylinen kappale on Pretty Good Year, ja Tori onkin tainnut sanoa, että Space Dog ja Pretty Good Year ovat tavallaan "sisaria". Space Dog ei ole ollut minulle henkilökohtaisesti niin tärkeä kuin ehkä jotkin muut Torin kappaleista, mutta minusta se on muuten ihan todella upea. Ja tunnelmallinen. Ja kaunis. Ja nerokas, vaikka en taida siitä paljon ymmärtää...
Tässä on hereinmyheadiin koottuja Torin kommentteja. Kuten näkyy, Tori on aika paljon selvittänyt kappaleen syntyä ja rakentumista.
"As far as Space Dog goes, it was a drawing on a mud wall in New Mexico. It was a shape, and it really was, if I could take a picture and show it to you sometime, the whole record was recorded in mud, mud walls, adobe and wood ceilings, wood floors, because Eric really loved the sound, which is why it sounds like it has that warm womb thing. Well, in one of the rooms, there was this -- it's Space Dog. A feather on his head, and it's this sharp nose. It just really is. That's how so many of these songs came, in this Under the Pink world. If you rip all your skin off, we're all pink, and it's about what's underneath that. That's how I see it, anyway. Space Dog would come and visit me, just as my alternative deity, so to speak. The idea that everybody puts their faith in, I don't know, this yogi or this channel or this god or this saint or this whatever, well, Space Dog was like, hey, it's my deity. I was flying over Chicago. Before I got into the city, I was flying over, and I just felt this scene happening by this 7-11 I could see way in the distance. It was a very cold night. It was in March, and I was going in for a signing at Rose Records. I was flying in, and I felt this young boy, 13, 14 years old, with his family. He's eating peas. His family is like, some of those people that show up on Oprah Winfrey sometimes, that you just go, My God, if I had to go home with them, I would contemplate, like, eating Pledge. And I just felt his presence. I felt him just opening himself up to another possibility, because his world was just so closed. The best thing he had near him was the 7-11 goddess. I was just watching from the -- I was in the window seat, and I was just watching, like, way down. I felt Space Dog. I've been talking to him, and I felt Space Dog going, 'Lemon pie. Coming through, lemon pie.' It was very Agent 99. I kind of felt like Agent 99 going, "Oh, Max." And this young man responded. There is something out there. The idea, again, with Pretty Good Year, there's a lot of triads in this whole record, and Pretty Good Year and Space Dog kind of kiss each other, where -- let me focus my thought. In the bridge, Deck the halls, going back again, to, again, not having resolve. I'm young again. Somewhere, someone must know the ending. Where's Neil when you need him? You know, that's all in that. Is she still pissing in the river now? Patti Smith. Heard she'd gone, moved into a trailer park. Concept being, somebody that had all of these beliefs, and then just numbed themselves. And Space Dog's philosophy is, well, together, when I'm hanging out with him, it's, So sure we were on something. Your feet are finally on the ground, he said. That's Space Dog's philosophy. And in the counter vocal in the end goes, again, the betrayal stuff, mostly girls, and yet, if I'm in the present, and I'm on something, which is on the earth, on the ground, then I have total opportunity to decide what my reaction will be. I can't decide anything else, but I can decide if I'm going to let something totally take over my life, which it did in The Waitress. But by Space Dog, I'm going, I do have a choice. It's part of the growth."
-- Tori; The Baltimore Sun, 1994
"Flying over Chicago from New Mexico I heard him -- him who lives near the 7 eleven fork in hand at a dead dinner table staring at the peas on his plate going 'come in lemon pie do you read me do you read me beam me up get me out of this place i can't have their genes in me come in lemon pie' -- i read you buddy read you buddy"
-- Tori; Under The Pink Songbook
"I wrote this record in Mexico and there was this drawing on the mud wall where we were staying. and it was of this.. I thought it was a dog anyway. And I would look at this dog all the time and I thought it was saying stuff to me. I got on a plane to go to Chicago..and you know, most people think that I'm nuts. But the truth is, these things just like happen to me, I don't like dream them up. I was busy reading a romance novel, I was way more interested in what was going on in my book. And all of a sudden I hear this voice. It's this dog talking to me. And it goes, "Tori, check out the guy in Chicago." I said, "What guy in Chicago?" "Listen to that kid down there." I'm like, huh? And I'm like listening, right. And I hear this guy thinking, I hear him going, "I am not sitting here with these people. They are not my parents. I'm not like totally grossed out by these people." And was like talking into his peas. And he's going, you know, "get me outta here. get me outta here. these people belong on Oprah Winfrey" and um, he's like "lemon pie, do you read me, do you read me" And I'm like, I read you, buddy."
-- Tori, in-concert; Maastricht, Holland 05/07/94
Muistan joskus lueskelleeni tosi hyviä ajatuksia/analyyseja Space Dogista joiltakin ulkomaisilta foorumeilta. Ajattelin kuitenkin, etten nyt kaikkea viitsi tähän ensimmäiseen viestiin tunkea. Tässä on nyt lähinnä joitakin havaintoja sanoituksen ja Torin kommenttien pohjalta:
-Space Dog on siis alun perin ollut hahmo jossakin (muta)seinässä New Mexicossa, paikassa jossa Tori äänitti Under the Pinkiä. Sivuseikka, mutta jäi askarruttamaan, oliko se ihan oikeasti jonkun tekemä (piirros tms.) vaiko sellainen hahmo, jonka vaan näkee... niin kuin esimerkiksi pilvistä voi miettiä, mitä ne muistuttavat.
Noissa haastatteluissahan puhutaan kylläkin ihan piirroksesta. "Space dog" -hahmo antoi ilmeisesti ilmiasun "vaihtoehtoiselle jumaluudelle", jonkinlaiselle henkilökohtaiselle voiman lähteelle: "Space Dog would come and visit me, just as my alternative deity, so to speak. The idea that everybody puts their faith in, I don't know, this yogi or this channel or this god or this saint or this whatever, well, Space Dog was like, hey, it's my deity." Sulkakin tällä space dogilla on päässään, viittaisiko taas Amerikan alkuperäiskulttuuriin?
- Space dog -nimitys assosioituu väkisinkin Laikaan. Tuossa alussa varsinkin on minusta jotain avaruusmatkailutunnelmaa... ja se sitten toimii hyvin vastapoolina tuolle kohdalle, jossa puhutaan siitä miten "jalat on maan pinnalla":
so sure we were on something
your feet are finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
your feet are just on the ground girl
Tuossa ensimmäisessä haastattelussahan Tori sanoo (tosi hämärästi edelleen), että tämä tila, "maan pinnalla oleminen" on jotain positiivista, että on jonkinlainen ymmärrys tai varmuus tietyistä asioista. Ehkä omista ratkaisuista tai valinnoista? (Muuten, mitenhän tuon "we were on something" voisi kääntää?)
-Tarina teini-ikäisestä pojasta, johon Tori oli "saanut yhteyden" space dog -hengen kautta lentokoneessa, on jotenkin hellyttävä. Sanoituksesta tätä tarinaa on mahdotonta keriä esille, jollei siitä olisi muualta lukenut - siitä ei ole oikeastaan jäänyt muita merkkejä kuin "lemon pie/he's coming through". Ilmeisesti kuva pojasta, joka on juuri havahtumassa jonkinlaiseen tietoisuuteen itsestään ja ympäristöstään, vie kertojan omiin muistoihinsa ("I'm young again/I'm you again").
-Toisaalta kerrotaan naisesta, joka on kuulemma muuttanut trailer parkiin, amerikkalaiselle köyhälistöalueelle... Tori mainitsee Patti Smithin, ja puhuu ihmisistä, joilla on ollut vahva usko tiettyihin asioihin, mutta ovat sitten jotenkin lamaantuneet ja menettäneet tuon uskon tai varmuuden tai minkä ikinä. Mikä on tietysti päinvastaista, mitä lemon pie -pojalle tapahtuu. En tunne Patti Smithin uraa tai tuotantoa, muuten kuin että Horses-levy on vaikuttanut Toriin (kuuntelin kyseisen levyn kyllä joskus kauan sitten juuri sen takia!
), joten en osaa tarkemmin analysoida, kuinka Smith sitten tähän kohtaan liittyy.
-Under the Pinkillä yksi iso teema on naisten väliset suhteet tai "petos", kuten Tori asian ilmaisee. Space Dogissakin tämä tulee esille, erityisesti tuossa paljonpuhuvassa improssa, mutta tuolla aiemminkin mainitaan joku, jonka olisi luullut olevan kertojan puolella mutta joka kuitenkin mieluummin uskoo valheita. Siten Space Dogilla on yhteys Cornflake Girliin, ehkä myös Bells For Heriin... ja kuten Tori tuossa sanoo, Waitressiin. Torin mukaan Space Dogissa asenne on kypsempi kuin Waitressissä: Waitressissä viha tai pettymys valtaa henkilön, kun taas Space Dogissa korostetaan tätä jalat maassa -juttua... että on sen verran vahva, että voi luottaa omaan ymmärrykseensä. Että on varma omista mielipiteistään, kaiketi. Ei provosoidu.
Tämmöistä tuli nyt mieleen. Paljon on tuossa kuitenkin sellaisia kohtia, joista en oikein osaa sanoa mitään... erityisesti tuo alku ja sitten esimerkiksi se "racing turtles/the grapefruit is winning". - Hä??
Tässähän olisi nyt aineksia vaikka minkälaiseen keskusteluun! Olisi kiva kuulla lisää tulkintoja, korjauksia/täsmennyksiä edellä esitettyyn, kunkin omia fiiliksiä ja ajatuksia...
Perla.
P.S. Tämä on aika hillitön esitys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc5SjqYCpRw
En ymmärrä tanssista mitään, mutta tämä näytti kauniilta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoGf_SOGfBE
.
