The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

cloakful of eagles

harridan of mercindols

i sing for my supper and i sometimes must starve

i am everything i never wanted to be

i merge with the rain

in sunlight all my years on my face

the people i meet with all shaking my hands

in sleep i am in torment

in alertness i am falling asleep

longing for moments in the past to return

null future void on

the songs i sang

all rang on in my ears

why dontcha smile?

i killer of the mundane

the slayer of ennui

the kingly man with a lions heart on his sleeve steve

i who live on nectars and ether

visitor from another planet with strangely powerless

yeah i fucking entertain em for my living

i jumped up in fremantle last night

me n my little band damn we were good

i know jesus looked down and smiled once or twice

playing a bunch of my new songs too

oh gee they all really  sounded good at least i thought so

had a few stiff gins too and some excellent musicians cigarettes

fell into the zone and we stayed there

full marks to guys in my band shaun shaun and adrian

in one  afternoon we chucked it all together

great venue too altho i already forgot the name

was it the blinco club or something?

going on radio today and indigenous singer Gina Williams

is going to come on and sing under the milky  way

in her own language Noongar . there are less than 400 living speakers

i sing second verse because Gina got stuck translating the word “curtains”

because they had no curtains and no word for them

so she has a lovely powerful voice too

imagine my song sung in this ancient and rare tongue

well thats gotta be good…right?

corporate solo show for some lawyers tonite for some good $

wonder if i can snag a free attorney? but the law is an ass…!

then back east to rehearse for smiths tribute gig which is sold out

almost a thousand people

now cramming in my room for show

i am

this charming man

bidding fonda dew

so far so good

sorry for my immodesty but fuck i feel and i look good for 62

in fact i feel healthier and have more energy than when i was 22

my doctor says to me after a whole gamut of tests

whatever youre doing just keep doing it!

my blood pressure my heart my lungs my blood tests all my levels: in good shape

my friends you will be happy to know i turned the diabetes around by avoiding sugar

the hep C is now gone thanks to Harvoni

the heart palpitations have stopped

i swim

i do yoga

i meditate

i walk up n down hills

nothing and nobody stops me

of course i lay most of this at the feet of not eating meat

if you wanna look young and be healthy DONT EAT FUCKING MEAT!

what can be any simpler than that?

dont smoke cigarettes

take it easy with booze. i like a drink but i stop at one rarely 2

take it easy with the drugs

watch out cos theres a lotta new synthetics out there gonna fuck you up quicker than heroin ever would

be nice to people

do charitable acts

its so obvious

imitate jesus

imitate buddha

have  sex (even if its only with yerself you wankers!) i reckon its gotta be good for ya!

have good friends

do what you believe in

blah blah blah

you know what i say its all the same old things i always say

but look at me the proof is in the pudding

then also one day my luck will run out like everyone elses has to

meanwhile  i have hit my sixties with a definite bang! and i’m on the track n i’m running

refrain from all that bullshit you know is bad for you

get in the fucking sea and get in the sun and get in the wind

be courteous and polite to everyone even if they are obviously being a fucknuckle

i dont know

i feel my philosophies and lifestyle and my beliefs have rendered 62 a mere number

nothing has changed

i aint no old shambling wreck

i was a vegetarian and i exercised and now i am really reaping the rewards

i only tell you this not to merely brag although i am stupidly bragging yes

but to exhort you to stop with the meat stop with the bad stuff

do the good stuff

look !

it works

i’m 62 and i dont give a flying fuck!

now btw

am having a remarkable sale for my birthday that will last for one week only and then will revert back to normal price . you can buy all 35 of my solo and collaboration albums for just under 100 dollars

Go to any album and navigate to ‘BUY NOW’.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Get all 35 releases from Steve Kilbey available on Bandcamp and save 80%.

all of this will one day pass

it is of no consequence what he says or she does

all the lies

all the truth

who will care ?

unscrupulous bastards

paragons of virtue

ordinary old scrubbers

the waiter with the bill

the noise the hoo ha

the jockeying

the dirty flirting thats always hurting

the black eye

the eviction notice

the mezcal still going down n making me sleepy

oh to sleep and sleep and sleep

oh to wake up in a sunny past when everything was just so splendid

the wheels crank around

the orbs move through the sky

nothing changes

everything changes

its all still going on out here

theyre all still closing in on us

the cops the lawyers the soldiers the ghosts

a hundred thousand born

a hundred thousand die

but sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep

how i envy those deep dreaming in some lovely sleep

outside tho

its cold and im getting old and my skin is tight and hurting

strangers love me but lovers are estranged how very strange

no i aint got the power anymore

i impotently hurl words at pages

old and fragile faker

just another contender just another lender just another bender

fill me up with more drugs and more drink and more women and more music

send me to bed without my fucking supper

look at me sadly as i sit up in bed waiting for something that never arrives

walk around the room putting things away thank you for all the hooks

remembering blue days and photographs of apples

remembering velvety rivers and gentle evenings

remembering all those heads that lay on my shoulder

remembering screaming down a million phones at a million different people

everyone of them was me

the preposterous jostling against the pleasant mundanity of life

i hate sunday and i always will

i already feel it coming down the line

i hate loneliness i hate crowds

i hate silence i hate noise

i hate hating stuff and i wonder where all the love evaporates when its gone

i wonder how long im s’posed to play my latest part and i fear not much longer

the words fall out of the sky

the messages come in like stupid little pigeons

oh i love you

oh now i hate you

oh now i am at the shop do you want anything?

oh why dont you come down to charlies bar where we’re all having a drink?

oh why dont you lighten up

oh why dont you take it more seriously

oh why dont you pay the interest on your credit card and avoid a late fee

oh why dont you write a song about all of this

my legs are hurting

my eyes are sore

i like looking at my face still and admiring my angles

i could do anything i like but i do nothing

i shouldnt do anything but theres nothing i like anyway

now i am already asleep

the bills have paid themselves

the problems have been solved as i dreampt

i feel warmth in my limbs

as i sleep i hold my cock in my hand

my hair looks stupid when i wake up

its still only very early but the aeroplanes are rattling all my statues of buddha

the phantom groupies are all getting dressed and having showers and leaving

the long dead boys of all the old bands are smoking cigarettes as the van splutters to life

we’re in germany

we’re in iowa

we’re in strathfield

i lied to you all i never wrote any songs

or played any gigs

i was never a junky

i never was in bed with yer sister

i never left school

my name isnt even steve fucking kilbey

how gullible you were to believe all that nonsense

how lovely it is to sleep in my little bed all snugly in my boots and jacket

how unobtainable the past suddenly is

oh its lovely down here

tell me

why would ya ever wanna wake up?

mezcalia

your old friend the time being sitting here drinking this so called illegal mezcal

that my friend the booze importer gave me

i must admit i fuckin’ enjoying meself here

tho kids i dont advocate you do this at home

of course i have had one hour of yoga

one hour of swimming

one hour of walking

and one hour of blah blah blah blah so there you go

getting old but im still younger than most of em will ever be again

life surprises me life excites me

i have 5 unbelievable beautiful daughters for christs sake

the words fall outta the air for me

i have the regal bearing of an exiled king now pauper

i’m having a laugh

i’m meeting people all over the place

wild and crazy offers come in

i try my best i try to do my best

it dont always work out how you think it would or should or could

what ya gonna do?

ya gonna get up and fucking get on with it

or ya gonna lay around moaning and writhing about

as a matter of fact both those things happen to me

in reality i am already complete but i feel incomplete

it is merely to actualise it i suppose

with what i know it should be easy

september music month whoopee

listen to some rare track i did

and then consider the huge injustice of my relative obscurity

or understand the correlation between life and death

or tap your foot and hum the fucking chorus

i dunno

do what ever you want to

you will anyway

me?

im just writing my blog and sipping some illegal mezcal

and i feel..pleasantly detached…