01-07-19I want to begin by saying… yes, I know, this visual piece isn’t great, I don’t think it even is in the same technical or creative realm as the other 80+ pieces that I’ve created for this series so far, but they can’t all be winners, and we don’t have to like all of them. In fact, the act of letting this one be as it is submitting to the will of the creative gods.
I struggled with today’s song. This week was always going to have a Bright Eyes day, but which to choose was the main struggle. Connor Oberst hits an emotional chord in almost every one of his songs, (at least pre-Cassadaga.) The entirety of Digital Ash Burning was a serious contender for today, but at the end of the day there was no visualization or creative execution that was coming to my mind, and the ones that did come to my mind were weaker conceptual pieces than today’s…. so here we are. Once again, I submit to the will of the fates. The timing is off, the image is off.
Listening to At the Bottom of Everything, the first half leads to an immense moment of submission. As what appears to be an innocuous story, quickly turns into the retelling of these people’s last moments. This leads to a near protest anthem in the latter half, as Connor sings about all the things we must do in our lives, whether they are required by our societal contracts or our moral consciousness.
Ultimately, I hear the feigned cries of a person frustrated with the standard series of expectations that have been placed not only on him but on all of us. These expectations lead us all down a templated path where we are obligated to move through the rhythms of it all to live the “good life” we’re all regularly being sold. There’re notes of submission hidden within this protest cry, but ultimately it seems to act as the spirit that carries us through in those moments of submission.
Submission differs from acceptance in that we have no control or choice in the matter, we can’t even deny it, we have to move forward, whether it’s reluctantly, or willingly, we still move forward—when faced against a superior force we must yield, not just for self-preservation, but because there is no other option. Acceptance gives us a choice, it may not be the best choice, and it may not be the one we want to follow through with, but we still maintain some semblance of agency.
When I listen to the end of At the Bottom of Everything, I hear quite a bit of this. We are bound by the contracts we have been born into, and due to that nature, we are subjected to the rules and laws they occupy. We as individuals have no say in these matters, so at some point, we must line-up and submit to this reality, because it will continue whether we want it to or not.
Lyrics:
[Intro]
So there was this woman and
She was, uh, on an airplane and
She’s flying to meet her fiancé
Sailing high above the largest ocean
On planet earth and she was seated
Next to this man who
She had tried to start conversations
And really the only thing
She’d heard him say was to order his bloody mary
And she’s sitting there and she’s reading
This really arduous magazine article about a
Third world country that she couldn’t
Even pronounce the name of and
She’s feeling very bored and very despondent
And then, suddenly there’s this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave out
And they started just falling, thirty thousand feet
And the pilot’s on the microphone and he’s saying
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Oh My God, I’m Sorry”
And apologizing and she looks at the man and she says
“Where are we going?” and he looks at her and he says
“We’re going to a party, it, it’s a birthday party
It’s your birthday party, happy birthday darling
We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much.”
And then, uh, he starts humming this little tune and, uh, it kind of goes like this
[Verse 1]
We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read
Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly to a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare
We must take all the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
Into the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn’t dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing
(And it’ll go like this)
[Hook]
While my mother waters plants my father loads his gun
He says
“Death will give us back to God
Just like the setting sun
Is returned to the lonesome ocean”
And then they splashed into the deep blue sea!
And it was a wonderful splash!
[Verse 2]
We must blend into the choir, sing as static with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run
We must hang up in the belfry where the bats and moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge
(and the we’ll get down there, way down to the bottom of everything
And then we’ll see it, we’ll see it, we’ll see it)
[Hook 2]
Oh my morning’s coming back
The whole world’s waking up
All the city buses swimming past
I’m happy just because
I found out I am really no one