I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Lost and Gone Forever Live (2014).

In 2014, Guster released three CDs of them playing their early CDs live in their entirety (excluding for some reason their second disc Goldfly).  This is their third CD ‘Lost and Gone Forever’ recorded live in concert, ten years after its release.

I’m not sure why they don’t say what show it is from, unless they picked the best recordings from a tour?  He does mention Boston at one point, but not sure if the whole show was recorded there.

As with the other two releases, the sound is great.  On “Barrel of a Gun” you can really hear the bongos.

There are a few more guests, which again, makes me think it’s different shows.  Ryan says “We’re inviting a bunch of people to help with instrumentation. Donnie and Amy are going to play strings” [on “Either Way”].  And later, “Fa Fa” has an amazing horn section.

For “All the Way Up to Heaven,” Ryan introduces, “Alright snow kitty bring up the children. It’s 10 o’clock.  It’s late.  Did you teach them the big rock move at the end?  That’s the most important part of the song.”

Like the other discs, they thank everyone for coming out and supporting this album.  He talks about how when they first started playing in 1991 they were all skinnier and had more hair.  They had no idea that so many years later they would still be together and be selling out shows.  “It’s a humbling experience.”

Incidentally when they announced this tenth anniversary tour, they made a video announcement.

[READ: May 31, 2018] “Silver Tiger”

This story involves realism and magical realism.

The narrator Ah Yang, is an adult looking back on his childhood when he lived with Deaf Granny.  He was sent to her early and only rarely saw his parents.

He first saw the titular Silver Tiger near a well pond by Deaf Granny’s house.   Well ponds are an ancient water storage system in China.  They are shaped like pools but are the depth of wells.  It was always off-limits to him  Deaf Granny feared that if he fell in there’d be no saving him (not unreasonable).  But that’s all he wanted to do after he first saw it.

It became even more enticing when a local boy found a turtle in a neighbor’s well pond.  Oh how the narrator wanted his own turtle.

He kept asking about the well pond, but Deaf Granny always told him no.  Finally one day Fifth Uncle was going to work by the pond, trimming tree branches.  Ah Yang was told to sit with him and help if he could.  And Fifth Uncle would be able to save him if he got near the pond.

Fifth Uncle was busy and of course Ah Yang fell in.  He was rescued by Aunt Ma, a neighbor.  Aunt Ma never let anyone forget that she recused him. Granny called her coarse and rightly so.

But that was when he saw the silver tiger.  He didn’t actually fall into the pond, he fell on top of the pond–he seemed to be rejected by the water.  He saw the silver tiger and he felt like it consumed him (which relaxed him) and he felt himself being transformed into the silver tiger.

This may be why at times he speaks of himself in the third person “as though he had never existed.”

The blind fortune-teller had told Deaf Granny that Ah Yang was a sickly and unlucky child–there is death by water, by metal by earth and by wood.  This was why she kept him from the well pond. The only upside was that by the time he was nine, his roots would be firm.  Once he was rooted there will be nothing to fear.

The next episode was not long after the pond.  He became unable to pee properly, something was blocking him. There was a joke that the well pond spirits had cursed him.

Ah Yang’s father took him to the hospital where they inserted  a wire into the tip of Ah Yang’s penis.  They didn’t use anesthesia because it “could damage his brain.”  His father said “stupid may kill you, but pain never has.”  They held down his arms while he yelled and howled in pain  And then piss and blood flowed freely.

While he was crying he saw the silver tiger again.  It cam to take him away but he fought it off for three days and three nights.

When he turned nine, Deaf Granny grew ill.  She soiled her clothes and seemed to forget everything.  Was it time for another appearance from the silver tiger?

Because this is a story from China, I’m not sure how much of it is metaphorical or symbolic.