q : why are we on this earth ?
a : love is what we came here for

i sit in my room practicing on my bass guitar
the first night i got it home
i just sat there looking at it
my kind n lovely olde dad has bought it for me
oh i had to nag nag nagged em for a bass guitar
bass guitar was driving me out of my mind
i listened to records i could hear this thing underneath it all
when it suddenly ran up into the high registers
i got really excited
i sit down cross legged on the floor
its raining outside
i’m trying to play something
look
i’m getting nowhere….
i pick it up and play with it
but it might as well be a novel in chinese for all the good it does
plonk plonk plonk
i bore myself as i pluck the strings
i dont know nothing at all
i’m sitting there
when a spirit appears in my room
jesus i’m scared
the spirit materialises somewhat
like an olde man
he takes the bass from me
play it like this he says
his fingers glide over my cheap aria violin bass
he slurs slides taps fondles tickles pulls beats slaps it
the low end throbs
the middle pulsates
the high sings
he hands it back to me
plunk plonk…no …nothing
again the spirit plays a cool run
and then
i try again
no nothing
let me in says the apparition
let me guide your hands
this is all true
all i need is your complicity
he said
well yes
i wanted to play like that
i wanted to be on those intimate terms with my bass
i wanted my fingers to glide o’er the strings like a cool breeze
i wanted to get to the bottom of all music
i wanted to make all the good bits shake
i wanted to dive deeper
i wanted to be able to …….
i didnt know what it exactly was i wanted
but i didnt want to wait that long to find out..
the spirit played a few more phrases
his fingers were a blur of movement
oh it was so much better than a lead guitar
my bass was talking to me
crooning me spells under the spirits vague fingering
singing a song of distant india where i once lived
or a rainy night in a little beach shack
where me n aurora are sitting in the candle light talking
who is aurora?
aurora your gentlest childe
now grown up
she comes to visit you in your shack
by the sea
where you paint paint paint
the rest of your life away
trying to paint the mystery of death while youre still alive
so this is my aurora
she was the…
she was the roamin’ goddess of the dawn
sings the strings in my heart
aurora what you doing here? i ask
the bass takes my phrase
takes it and plays it back to me as music
au-ror-a…whatchoo dooing here…
the spirit ceased to pluck on my bass
and as the final notes faded
i became aware of the insistent rain falling on canberra
i thought of my girlfriend lying in her room full of sisters
i thought about the kids at school all sleeping in their beds
or doing homework in the light of a lamp
or watching the black n white shadows of tv
the spirit asked
do you want this?
yes i want it i said and we merged
the spirit inside me felt quite comfortable
we seemed to overlap in some respects
this was all true
did you ever believe me until…
the only real problem was me just turned sweet sixteen
and the spirit was an old olde man in his fifties or sixties
and you know
he had his appetites…
he marched me out of the house
we collected 14 dollars and 85 cents that dad had left
on the telephone table
and we walked down the road to the rex
inside the rex
the spirit marched me up to the bar
give me a shot of vermouth! i said
though i had no idea what that might actually be
aint you a little young to be drinking , son?
i grabbed the bartender
and i pulled him to me
i said
i said a shot of vermouth , sunshine…!
he returned with my drink
i paid him n told him to piss off
some cabaret band were playing
the bass player was a hopeless clumsy sausage fingered fool
against my will
i walked to the little stage
i grabbed the bass off the clown
i thrust him aside
and brandished a fist
when he tried to squabble with me
i punched him in the nose and he backed off moaning
lets play i told the band
they struck up some old stupid song
it was 1970 remember
this is all true somewhere
they played close to you by the carpenters
then played ride captain ride by the blues image
ride captain ride upon your mystery trip
i blazed on the bass
wowee with a relatively big amplifier
(a strauss 100 watts)
and a nicer bass
(a fender telecaster copy)
i let loose a storm of bass notes
i pumped down low
i sang up high
both at the same time
the pumping nature of the low end
was so seditious and lowdown dirty
the women in the room swivelled on their barstools
and focussed their attention elsewhere
suddenly distracted
whilst the high end was singing to them
of distant india
where we all have once lived
and of lovely islands set down in tranquil azure
and of long warm nights in trueloves embrace
suddenly the spirit became bored
he set the bass down
we strolled out
into the lonely canberran night
my fingers itched
the liquor was burning my delicate guts
the tobacco was scorching my throat
it was still raining though
so theres continuity for you