Purple Black Gold
This marks the beginning of a page category called, "Songs I Can Never Touch," and under subcategory, "Because It'd Result In My Getting My Ass Kicked Very Very Hard." I wrote this song when I was sixteen. Here are the lyrics. My commentary will follow.
Purple black gold, high on a mountain
Searching for some to be my fountain
of youth and sex and love and money
Need something sweet and smooth like honey
Bending my knees, I'm on my way
Get a little closer every day
to my heart's desire of spiritual rebirth
Understanding and love as I walk the earth
Put a pretty picture in the frame
If it ain't worthwhile, don't play the game
He's got his TV set. He's got his rocking chair
But he's twenty-five and he's got no hair
When my floor gets dirty I clean it up
The glass is half empty, so I use my cup
I make a lot of art, I make a lot of farts
Sorry 'bout that part, been this way from the start
From the tone of my voice, you prolly think I'm benign
But if you mess with me, I'll break your spine
So why not just help me? I'm looking for gold
It's at the top of a mountain or so I'm told
They say it's purple and it's black, and it's sweet and it's smooth
And just one look at it would heal all your wounds
Should I find it, I promise to share with you
Please sing along if you'd share it too
Purple Black Gold
The plan was to end the song by using a number of voices singing "Purple Black Gold" in repetition while looping back in other lines from the song. It was meant to sound something like a song The Beta Band might play.
Now the problems with the song, in case my astute reader has not yet figured it out. When I was sixteen, I had never heard what "the purple" referred to in social circles. A few years later, I read back over this song and asked myself, "What the fuck? It sounds like I'm talking about some kind of mythical quest to get some hot black pussy somewhere on a mountain and then share it with a bunch of my honky friends?" Which I wasn't, but I can't imagine how that could possibly matter. If I tried to sing a song like this anywhere outside of the South or Southwest, my Jewish heinie would probably be attacked so fast, I'd end up running up a mountain only to be tackled and/or gunned down in racially motivated retaliation while they sang something to the effect of "throw the Jew down the well."
The intention of the song was to describe a vague search for enlightenment by mixing familiar imagery with unfamiliar imagery. Purple Black Gold was supposed to describe a feeling that corresponds not only to what you are seeking, but to the feeling you have if and when you are seeking it. And the fact that Purple Black Gold is ambiguously describing either a set of colors or a a strange magical substance (not black pussy) was supposed to describe how when we search for enlightenment, we have little or no idea what we are even searching for. "To seek is to find," if you will.
But, alas, I did not take into account that third and now more obvious interpretation. So there's one song retired, forever, before it was ever even played. But just in case somebody who reads this feels differently, I have placed it under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License, allowing you to use or modify it in any way you want so long as you acknowledge its author (link) and do not profit from it. Meh? I'd love to see somebody prove me wrong, use it, and not get lynched.
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