The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

i know nothing
i follow nothing
beyond the hint of a melody that
i was chasing in my dreams
i am nothing
i have achieved nothing
i moved imaginary strings
in an imaginary world
i sang some songs
all of them to be forgotten eventually
circling the atmosphere a thousand lives behind
i sweep and i glide and i swoop on myself
everywhere then nowhere
happy sad young old rich poor
man woman child star worm
god devil sinner saint
right/wrong
left/right
war/peace
truth/lies
i bounce through these lives
breathing it in like plankton
i collide with the obstacles planted in my way
people places events
all that chatter
the mountains dont care
the waves dont care
the sun and the rain dont care
i owe no allegiance to nothing
only music and art and trying to enjoy myself
i like playing my bass guitar…how simple minded is that
it hasnt made an appearance on my blog yet
coz its been quarantined in customs
they suspect it of having the rockin’ new monia
and the boogie woogie flu…
i really have no good opinions on anything
other than maybe writing lyrics
do whatever you like…leave me out of it
vote for president meat and shave off your pingis
see if i give a damn
socialism heroin rocknroll
poking in a puddle with a stick
the waist of time
i am an australian artist and i wish i had no guilt
suddenly stevies got the feeling
hes surrounded by panthers panthers
closing in in all directions
panthers panthers
ha ha ha
i can do anything on here
say…did you know genghis khan was a vegan
and he did a lot of charity work?
did you know addy hitler had a pet rock?
did you know napoleon bonaparte once played castanets in mink deville?
did you know that eve wore gilga-mesh stockings to the eden ballroom do?
did you know the church were first formed in macedonia when my dad fixed
washing machines for alex the great?
did you know my mother was once a committed sexagenarian?
and the british tobacco company notified me that i had won
ONE MILLION POUNDS!
all they needed was my sex n d.o.b. and address ..AND IT WAS MINE
but how could i have won all that money
and them not even know i’m a bloke?
hey i realized the other day
THERE IS NO REAL MONEY
it is literally different digits showing up on screens
theres no dough to back it all up
its no longer tied to gold or anything
its fucking imaginary
i go wow
a big figure flits across my screen
i go fuck!
a minus figure flits across my screen
some imaginary bank says
you have this much imaginary money in your imaginary accnt
heres your credit card …more imaginary stuff
mr tax man gets on my screen
he says we want some o your digits on our screen
i move a digit on my screen into his screen
just a tiny little digit tho
he at the other end smiles a teeny bit says thank you
my little digit now joins his little pond full of digits
i never saw that dough
i never felt it come in
i never felt it go out
someone say
oh we gotta deficit
oh we gotta surplus
i never felt either
i never noticed my dad noticing it either
i never noticed anyone noticing any of this stuff
i dont know who owes australia what…
i dont know who won the football….ANYWHERE
i dont know and i dont care who wins prizes or who sings my songs
i dont care if youre bored with me or dont love me anymore
(WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?)
i am a freaking renaissance man before your eyes
knocking out my inimitable scam
half genius half fool
c’mon you either love me n understand why i am the king
or you go gently into that good night
i am beyond caring as i enter the final stretch of my life
i lay down my 2 minute songs on you
*
thats what i do
isnt it enough
i feel like white hippy moses
having come down from the mountain
where i have plucked my ten commandments from the snarling void
and i come down here
to see you worshipping gossip and dissent and opinion and statistics
90 % of statistics are baloney pal
and here are my fucking commandments for thee
1 thou shalt not eat meat
2 thou shalt rock
3 thou shalt not bicker in the comments
4 thou shalt subscribe
5 thou shalt honour marc , david b, johnny o boogie bobby d
6 thou shalt be nice
7 thou shalt expand thy consciousness
8 thou shalt forgive the time being his weaknesses
9 location location location
10 did i say subscribe already?
yes yes
remember its an imaginary figure
put it in my pond
i’ll put it in someone elses pond
eventually it will come back round to your pond
you wont feel it go
you wont feel it come back
i dont understand why people say i’m mad
i know nothing
i am nothing
i came from nothing and back to nothing i am going
nothing
one day i will be nothing
in light of that
i will write music
i will paint and paint
i will fiddle with a new camera
that MR MARC W of PA sent me
(marc w arise…you are now lord marc
for services rendered to the cause)
hope or despair….?
history will laugh at us all
then it will laugh at them doing the laughing
its all a blink in vishnus eternity
so do whatever you like
merrily merrily merrily
life is but a dream

with love
sk

a lotta people asked me over the years
hey sk
give me some good veg cooking tips
and i say
give em a veggie burger
that’ll keep em happy
and i myself have searched this world
with its seven corners and four seas
searching for that perfect veggie burger
i hate em dry
i hate em crumbly
i hate em full of eggplant n capsicum
i hate em mushy
goddamn it
only boca burgers in america have ever come close
then
at a vegan fest this year
a lady called loren turned me on to this
yes
its the holy grail of all veggie burgers
i been veg for many many years
i aint ever ever found a burger like this
eat this and smile fiendss
i dont care even if youre a turkey who still eats meat
you will like this
this is the one shot across the board answer to all burgers
bountyburgers, my friends
www.bountyburgers.com.au
these babies got more protein
than you can shake an index at
no gmo
no animal products
natural ingredients
but oh
oh the taste and the consistency are…..scrumptious
delicioso my friends
look i could have one for dinner EVERY night
they are crunchy on the outside
they are juicy on the inside
and you can even pop em in the fucking toaster!
i get no kickback from this advertisement whatsoever
i am making the unprecedented move of
endorsing this amazing veggie burger
on my otherwise pure blogge
for the selfish reason
of wanting these burgers to go on being available
because i am one of the worlds foremost veggie burger experts
and i say
THIS IS IT
LOOK NO FURTHER!
the bountyburger has arrived
and lo, my veggie fiendss
it is GOOD!
find em
and
devour em!

sk

and dont forget to read the blog below
2 blogs for the price o’ one
thank you

you know what
just like the pink fluid
i realise there are very few if any artists
whose work i like from beginning to end
eg trex i dont mind the 3 albums before beard of stars
i hate anything after the slider….anything…what a waste
bowie….nothing after heroes..bar the odd good song
beatles ..i dont really love the stuff before say revolver so much
i mean i respect it n all that but rarely listen to it
the church…didnt really jump on till heyday
and i love priest but hate fucking some of the others
bruce springsteen…nothing after about 1978
dylan…same as beatles with ultra early stuff
i guess i’m a mid period kinda guy
my friend johnny h suggests i “do” exile on mainstreet
wow….thats a hard one..to do
because i love tumbling dice more than anything
because i reckon its the ultimate slowish sloppy grinding old rocker
honkin’ tonkin’ boogie woogie southern fried sexy fuckin rock
sometimes thats whats its about
rock gotta be about sex as much as space
because sex is part of the holy trinity of sex n drugs n rocknroll
n really
have you found any better triple pastime than this?
so i like my rock to be sexy
and i dunno i guess i thought this was
you gotta roll me and call me the tumbling dice
i can remember blasting this song with delight
when it came on the car radio
my dad would let me borrow his mazda rotary
and i’d cruise canberras highways n boulevardes
dressed in my tshirt levis n thongs (flip flops, you yanquis)
i had a girlfriend lived on the other side of the lake
in truth i enjoyed the drive there in my dads car
more than i enjoyed actually seeing her
anyway i remember turning up one day
i was 17 at the time
and she’d bought sticky fingers
and i just couldnt believe how GOOD it sounded
pumping outta her rich daddys soundsystem
(usually reserved for a bit of sunday classical)
wow!
and the cover with the zip….oh …well i dunno, do i..?
anyway i was lying there with my head in her lap enjoying moonlight mile
when her mother comes in n says
if steven is so tired he has to lay down then i suggest he goes home !
oh ha ha ha isnt funny how memories are blasted onto yer brain forever..?
but for a while
we were 2 teenagers listening to the rolling stones on our own
and feeling like anything was possible
it had this urgency
this immediacy
it was wasnt some old music hall thing
it wasnt some showbiz sham
it wasnt the fuckin’ establishment n their secondrate “pop”
it wasnt futuristic neither
it was fleshy it was earthy it was “authentic”
(ha ha ha)
(as authentic as english guys singing in a southern accent can be, anyhow)
(course i didnt realize that at the time)
so god i love tumbling dice and i love happy
i fell in love with keith richards sometime in about 1972
and i adored him intensely
i wanted to be him n jagger at the same time
i wanted to lead both their lives
exile on mainstreet
the honky chateau in southern france
the warm wevver
the drugs delivered each day
the filmstars n musicians
the gangsters n the girls
you dont even start recording till like 4 in the morning
coz it takes a while for keith to loosen up
mick taylors starting to loosen up too i guess
loosen up for the long haul
charlie n bill…inscrutable really…along for the ride
charlie always sittin’ up the back
doing his trademark smile at jaggers antics
director ” ok now we’ll shoot charlies smile n wink !”
keith sitting in some room cooking up smack in a spoon
oh you never gonna forget that smell once you smelt it
anitas nodded out somewhere..
keiths sitting at the piano
the rush has hit his head
and his fingers stretch out over the keys
and hes playing some old twelve bar thing
and his cigarette is smouldering
and his cold beer is nice n cold
and gram parsons has just ducked off out for a while
and fuck man
its 1971 and yer keith richards …who else would ya wanna be
well maybe one other guy
and that guys sitting in some fancy restaurant
with his south american wife who looks just like him
and hes swishing down the vino expensivo
and he daintily nibbles at his noo-vo quiz-een
and hes dining with prince blah blah n truman whoever
and hes thinking
fuck ive done well for myself
and sometimes
he wonders what its like for brian jones…being dead, i mean
and he isnt surprised to feel he feels nothing at all
and hes impatient to leave
impatient to get back in the limo
n drive back to the studio
he thinks maybe that the boys are having more fun than him
and hes right in a way
keith n gram snorting the top shelf stuff
and blasting the china white
they strum away on their guitars in the warm semi darkness of the studio
in the future a million music journalists will analyze this moment endlessly
but its gone in a nod and a snooze
and mick comes in
and keith wakes up
and hes singing happy
i need a love to make me happy
his thin n ragged voice the very voice of “authenticity”
and meanwhile steven john kilbey is still going to high school
and arguing with his father about getting his hair cut
and it will still be a few years yet
before he becomes totally infatuated with the stones
and devours their mid period records
and tries to ape them for a while
and he loves stones like bands like aerosmith n the new york dolls
and in england silverhead (remember them?)
yeah what a time
gawd its nearly 40 bloody years ago
ancient history
will anyone be writing about the kings of bloody leon in 40 years?
not on your nelly!

e

when youre on youre on
aint it the truth in spades
ah ya like my little music month…?
i strew songs before me like flowers
i write em
i throw em forth
i never think of em again
songs burst out of me like universes burst out of sleeping vishnu
the compensation for growing old is experience
experience is a good thing to have
everytime you do something you get experience
more n more n more
oh then you start to get a feel
oh delightful day
you grok you suss you understand
you can do it just right
i dont care where or on what
yeah gee whizz
anyway
i cant just leave ya high n dry
without all those new songs you accustomed to getting
so because i am all heart and
seeing how much you need this music
and seeing how some generous subscribers will cough up some more dough
to make this all possible (natch!)
because it takes a bit of time to knock this stuff off
and i know you’ll appreciate i just want my artisans standard rate
ie whatever you care to chuck in my hat
and thanks very much to those who did so during september
i feel sufficiently motivated to continue
i have more brand new stuff on the way
my garageband is out there practicing in the garage
i walk in
adjust a few levels
lennon n bolan in my head whisper hints
i let them have their way
one 2 3 four
the hi hat counts in
the guitars crunch down
the acoustic 12 strums with gusto
the drum wallop
the bass all rubber boom boom boom
wowee
rocknroll children oh sweet mother of fuckin’ mercy
oh this devils music got me shaking my id
i cant believe im such an old foolish master
released from youths constrictions
focussed by yoga and swimming
amplified by mother natures lovely plants
moving into more parts of my brain
i work feverishly day n night
painting writing dreaming shuddering
i heat up and i freeze
i think of nothing else but music
until i hear the song i always wanted to hear
i tune n strum n pick n croon n loon n soon more
more more more
well well well
i’ll lay it on ya
your wanting it makes it so
your servant
sk

rocknroll mystic in mixdown mixup
i unplugged with a huge crash
i slashed at the chords like i was trying to get free
waiting only for my boots to be healed and wondering
i appeared on tv shows in the ninety sixties
rocking in black n white behind the scenes at airports
like a red carpet leopard messiah
a flash of solid chrome and there i go
i conjure up the spirit of rocknroll from some stygian pit
it slumps at the controls knocked out by pink radiation
because rock is freedom and freedom is so sweet
and i wanna be free
free at last
free to be me
free like the distant mountains
i turn to my guitar
i strap it on with my phantom limbs
i cruise onstage with my gang o’ ghosts
we knock out some heavenly racket under hellish conditions
we filter the thumbnails
we decode the mysterious vedas
we vogue vaguely
we rock to the eastern edge
we sway too close to the sun
we get so drunk and we burn up upon readmission
i sing up a storm and i veto the vacuum
i straddle my cut up drums and i beat outta time
i bash at the kit
the cymbals scream in my ears
the hats sizzle unbearably
the bass drum explodes in my guts
the snare shoots my head with yellow light
i stumble round the toms like an intoxicanto
man i mumble me words like a jumbled crumble
crotchets n quavers come flying past
on the tour bus in some murky reverie
a proto -me rides into dallas
laughing like a lunatic
because ive flattened some 7ths
the golden age of rocknroll will never die
my blisters are working on their solo album
my sore throat sounds good after a good shriek
my silver tonsils lie still beating in the doctor/priest/critics hand
ive gone mad
ive been rediscovered
ive been insulted and unsalted and uninsulated too
i chuck some words into the empty bars
strap on my headphones
which blasts pasts i never lived
your good with words says some mute thing
i pound in my pond with my fond wand fondling the fifths
i’m a frogman underwater with my rubbery bass
my surf guitar is all fractions and free
dont tell me how to rock
i was rocking on the steppes during the ice age
i played electric guitar before the big banger banged his gong
i was born to die and my rock turn to dust
in my brief candle flare
i seize my trusty axe
i turn up my amp to 13
i bestride the stage like a behemoth
the sound starts up and we advance
across poland across russia
we crush audiences underfoot
we swing into santa fe
and i get shot in the side
we blow up the marshall and we hit the horizon
in helsinki i harpoon the moon
in march i walk under the arch
in summertime
i sit by the ocean sifting sand
and the mermaids go ooh ooh in the warm evening air
i sit alone in a fibro shack drinking black tea
unrecognizable even to himself
the radio comes on
judy in disguise with diamonds
oh man its its its….the name eludes me
jehovah plays guitar and jams with krishnas flute
jesus plays his sunburst jazz n he smokes his sundried jazz
his panther growls
and judas picks up the sax
the vikings arrive roaring a slade song
the romans are singing boom boom boom lets go up to my room
the greeks are singing dont cry for me alexander
alexander says great…just great
the vandals n the huns…well you know about them, dont ya
in nineveh theyre singing …nineveh, natch
in babylon theyre singing some velvet morning when i wake
in judea theyre singing are you ready for the country
in jericho theyre singing but no horns please
music must be powerful says joshua
i’m comfortably numb says rog a’waters
on a trip to cirrus minor
pompeii rocks too
rocks too hard for its own good
some new act called Volcano blew the roof off that town
the new single “i need a lava ” is hot
atlantis has sunk down the charts
here we go
the ancient world
man how they rocked
you know they did
cos i was there
and i tell you
verily baby people have always rocked
the moor on his camel
the hussar on his whore
the barbarian on his rampage
the ju ju on his pilgrimage
the hoodoo voodoo mu mu deep in the jingling jungle
what the fuck!
god gave rock n roll to adam n eve in the garden of gilgamesh
he said rock shall be thy flesh
he trembled for a moment n unleashed a distorted am 7 chord
the band started up
the credits begin to roll
the producers sigh with relief
the japanese investors are unsure still
the limo departs and joe rockstar snorts some coke
n fondles his porn star chica
the cops load their guns
the crims swarm outta the underworld
the ladies of the night swoon
the earth erupts in rhythmic blues
we chop down the last quarter acre of rainforest
we look up at the calendar its dec 21 2012
well well
five minutes more to go
might as well rock then
might as well rock