A Model Psychosis
Track 10. Kid Charlemagne
1970-ish, the United States of America...and then, the world.
I unintentionally messed with the lyric a bit on this one -- it was an in-the-moment thing, and the first track I overdubbed the vocals on. In full disclosure, I'd had several beers in celebration of completing the rhythm tracks. But boy, it's a pretty song, isn't it? I shared an early mix of this with Ron Garmon, a music critic for the Los Angeles CityBeat and other subversive publications, and one of his first comments was that he also thought Kid Charlemagne was a sad song, rightly done as a ballad.
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (Steely Dan) have gone on record saying that this song is only loosely based on Owsley Stanley and, for me, it perfectly expresses the melancholy end of an era that changed global culture forever -- art, music, film, fashion, civil rights, sexual equality, and on and on. In fact, I told my wife just the other day that this is the one song on the album I really wish I wrote.
I can only imagine what Albert Hofmann went through, 20-something years after he discovered the psychic effects of what became his "problem child", when he saw its promise dissolve into politics and propaganda. "It was obvious that a substance with such fantastic effects on mental perception and on the experience of the outer and inner world would also arouse interest outside medical science, but I had not expected that LSD, with its unfathomably uncanny, profound effects, so unlike the character of a recreational drug, would ever find worldwide use as an inebriant," he writes in LSD: My Problem Child.
It's interesting to note the next sentence in the book: "I had expected curiosity and interest on the part of artists outside of medicine - performers, painters, and writers - but not among people in general."
IT'S A FACT: Donald Fagen considers the "is there gas in the car" line to be the single most corny lyric he's ever written.
lyric
While the music played you worked by candlelight Those San Francisco nights They were the best in town Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl You turned it on the world That's when you turned the world around Did you feel like Jesus Did you realize That you were a champion in their eyes On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene But yours was crystal clean Everybody stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home Every A-Frame had your number on the wall You must have had it all You'd go to L.A. on a dare And you'd go it alone Could you live forever Could you see the day Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away Get along Kid Charlemagne Now your patrons have all left you in the red Your low rent friends are dead This life can be very strange All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face They've joined the human race Some things will never change Son you were mistaken You are obsolete Look at all the white men on the street Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail Those test tubes and the scale Just get them all out of here Is there gas in the car Yes, there's gas in the car I think the people down the hall Know who you are Careful what you carry 'Cause the man is wise You are still an outlaw in their eyes
links
- Owsley Stanley LIVES
