war and oil and rock'n roll

[Kumpe]

Since you  use this list to debate  current politics, I  see no need to
explain  the many referencepoints in the pynchonbooks to current
developments.  Beside some reasonable reifying (TRP's awesome knowledge), I
sense an ongoing fascination in  the popular and vernacular  with both, the
topoi of GR and the rocket, as well as  the  Middle East Terror and/or
Warfare .
My favorite example is "Sweet Bird Of Truth" by The The .  I guess the
record dates from '86.  Yet there are many others. I tried some
transcription from my old cassette. Here it goes:

"SWEET BIRD OF TRUTH

Heaven sent an hellbend
over the mountaintops we go
just like all the other  GI Joes
Eeay eeay, adiosŠ

Arabia Arabia Arabia

It's six o'clock in the morning
and i'm the only person on this
plane still awake.
I can feel the blood ocean
run against the shores
of this lad, who can't forget
his past.

Heaven sent and hellbend
Over the mountaintops we go
just like all the other GI Joes
Eeay eeay, adiosŠ

Hussein Hussein Hussein
Across the beaches and cranes
rivers and trains
All the money I'hv made
bodies I'hv maimed
Time  warps when I seem to know
Just like all the other GI Joes
Should I cry  like a baby
or die like a man
While all the planers of  war
start joining hands

What a heaven
Whta a hell
You know, there's nothing could  be done
In this whole wide world

I don't know
what's wrong or right
I'm just an ordinary guy
bottled up inside
I have never been to church
or believed in  Jesus Christ
But praying that God's with ou
when you die

This is your captain calling
with an urgent warning
We're above the Gulf of Arabia
Our altitude is falling
And I can't hold her up
There's no time for thinking
All hands on deck
This bird is sinking"



In his book "In A Da Da Da Vida" German  rock journalist Hollow Skai,
reports that USAF  used The Clash's "Rockin' The Casbah"  on the radio
communication  with the first wave of  the air raid in Gulf War II.

Kumpe

P.S.
Otto is absolutely right about the Dutch peanutbutter.