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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 29, 2011 13:18:17 GMT
I wanna tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat Comes out of the Virginia swamps Cool and slow with plenty of precision With a back beat narrow and hard to master
Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance Others, mean and rueful of the Western dream I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping This is the land where the Pharaoh died
The Negroes in the forest brightly feathered They are saying, "Forget the night. Live with us in forests of azure. Out here on the perimeter there are no stars Out here we is stoned - immaculate."
Listen to this, and I'll tell you 'bout the heartache I'll tell you 'bout the heartache and the loss of God I'll tell you 'bout the hopeless night The meager food for souls forgot I'll tell you 'bout the maiden with raw iron soul
I'll tell you this No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
I'll tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat Soft drivin', slow and mad, like some new language
Now, listen to this, and I'll tell you 'bout the Texas I'll tell you 'bout the Texas Radio I'll tell you 'bout the hopeless night Wandering the Western dream Tell you 'bout the maiden with raw iron soul
Another song/poem that Morrison used what he saw and heard to inspire his words. Telling the tale of when he lived in Alexandria Virginia and would pick up the rock stations that were springing up all over America playing what was then the new music. Rock and Roll.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 29, 2011 13:22:06 GMT
This primal beat to an old Jim Morrison poem works really well on LAW. It's surprising it took so long to make a Doors album as it features pretty much from the word go in The Doors story. Segments of it are part of his poetry from the bands earliest days and he would slip snippets of it into other songs. It was often used to introduce Love Me Two Times most famously in 1968 when the band perform the song on a TV show.
The reference to Texas Radio comes from the Mexican radio stations that blasted Texas in the 1950s. Not restricted by American regulations they could have up to 150 kilowatts. Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek both heard Wolfman Jack on one of these Mexican stations.
In the recently released studio chatter Jim Morrison sets the mood for Crawling King Snake as the first lizards emerging from the primordial swamps. It would seem reasonable to suppose he had a similar theme in mind during Texas Radio.
John Densmore evokes just such a primordial mood with the heavy bass merging with his drumming to seem like the same instrument. It was among the very early uses of synthesised drumming from Densmore. Morrison's phrasing is very precise and acts as an extra instrument. Ray and Robby add some great instrumentation but it's primarily Morrison and Densmore that set the bleak but upbeat tone for this number. A great melding of poetry and the jazz/bues/rock fusion that was The Doors.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 29, 2011 13:42:16 GMT
This poem from the Notebook Poems #125 of The American Night volume of Jim Morrison poetry shows how the finished LAW work evolved from Jim's notebooks. He always had the media as a reccuring theme through his work. Television skies and the big beat along with his observations on cinema from the Notes On Vision work in his earliest Doors days. The WASP reference is obviously White Anglo Saxon Protestant which is a state of mind that still infects the US today.
I Want To Tell You
I want to tell you about Texas Radio & the Big Beat
it comes out of the Virgin Swamps cool & slow w/plenty of precision & a back beat narrow & hard to master some call it heavenly in its brilliance others mean & rueful of the Western dream
I love the friends I have gathered together On this thin raft we have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping This is the land where The pharaoh died- Children The river contains specimens The voices of singing women call us on the far shore
& they are saying “Forget the Night live w/us in Forests of azure” (meager food for souls forgot)
I tell you this; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
One morning you awoke & the strange sun & opening your door…
## the line it comes out of the Virgin Swamps is as written in the American Night book. Possibly a typo or possibly Morrison turned Virgin into Virginia at a later date.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 29, 2011 14:15:28 GMT
The first glimpse Doors fans got of this was when the 'I Want To Tell You' poem was included in the TSP Tour booklet in 1968. The Doors Concert Programme
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 29, 2011 14:41:01 GMT
Jim also read the poem during the March 1969 poetry session he recorded. This booklet is from the Rock Is Dead bootleg which contained about 20 minutes of the hour long session that would become the bootleg The Lost paris Tapes. Rock Is Dead Bootleg LP Booklet
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 2, 2011 11:03:34 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 9, 2011 15:27:41 GMT
Another example from the Notebook Poems #127 of The American Night volume of Jim Morrison poetry adds to the evolution of Texas Radio.
NOW LISTEN TO THIS
“Now listen to this: I’ll tell you about Texas Radio & the Big Beat Soft driven slow & mad like some new language
Reaching your head w/the cold & sudden fury of a divine messenger Let me tell you about heartache & the loss of God Wandering, wandering in hopeless night
The negroes in the forest brightly feathered let me show you the maiden w/wrought-iron soul Out here on the perimeter there are no stars Out here we is stoned immaculate”
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 13, 2012 12:20:15 GMT
The new out takes on Texas Radio show Morrison being very fluid with the lyric reaching back into his old poems of which several feature The WASP. It was probably just a throw of the dice that the 'definitive' version was how it was. The version on the out take disc of the LAW 40 year disc is as good as or even better than the finished take.
Children The river contains specimens The voices of singing women call us on the far shore
Now listen to this I'll tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat Soft driven, slow and mad, like some new language
Reaching your head w/the cold & sudden fury of a divine messenger
It was also nice to hear the instrumental version as without the distraction of Jim's vocal we can appreciate the John and Ray show that was the music behind The WASP. A fantastic glimpse into the Doors at work.
Robby Krieger: I heard a song that was basically only on the radio for one day, but it gave me the feel for "Texas Radio." I came up with the whole song musically, and [Morrison] had this poem that he had previously written about Texas radio and the Big Beat. I don't think he ever lived in Texas, but I bet he heard Wolfman Jack, broadcasting on XERB in Tijuana.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 20, 2012 11:20:12 GMT
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