Long Gone Away

Long Gone Away


The Marble Index is one of my favorite albums.

Still I had to laugh when I read (some damn place) how the professionals mixing the record did as much as they could as fast as they could. The songs, written and sung by Nico and arranged by John Cale, were simply making these guys suicidal.

One might cite Plato and Aristotle and argue than music and the broader swath of arts & culture may either invoke bad feelings or deliver us from them through catharsis. I'd guess it works either way, to the point that positive thinking and primal screams can by turns harm or help.

In any case, if a song or whatever really wants to be written and played and recorded--well, good luck doing otherwise. Tho' you may have to mix it yourself.

Tho' not the iced over river crossing that is The Marble Index, such was the story of the song above. At times couched in broad social terms, an elegy for & goodbye to what's behind.