Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1 - #163
Guest Post by Leryl Joseph + "Sister Ray - Mono Version" by The Velvet Underground - 06/14/21
Today we have a sweet little guest post from friend and writer Leryl Joseph. Leryl’s work was featured previously in post 58. We met via our day jobs a few years ago. And got along swimmingly. She later contributed a poignant section to my longest sentence book.
Here’s a bit of her bio:
Leryl is a writer of creative fiction and nonfiction. She writes and creates with one purpose in mind: to help others feel less alone, and she hopes to inspire others to do the same. Read Leryl’s latest published work on Adelaide Literary Magazine, and learn more about her by visiting leryl.com.
Take it away, L!
"Sweeter (feat. Terrace Martin)" by Leon Bridges
Sweeter was one of my favorite songs in 2020.
Spotify told me as much.
This was one of those songs that did everything I needed it to do without knowing that I needed it. The piano, the sax, the old school drum kit, the lyrics, the pain in Leon’s voice, the harmony at the end. All of it. There isn’t a single element of this song that is wasted or egregious.
I remember listening to it over, and over, and over, wanting every word to stick to my soul.
One of my “writer quirks” is that I pay close attention to the first line in a book, a story, a song, a blog post, a lengthy caption—whatever. So, when the music cued up, “Hoping for a life more sweeter,” I was hooked.
That first line was all I needed.
The song paints the picture of the horrific realities of the state that U.S. is in re: race, but it delivers the message like a lullaby.
When I first found this song I was having one of those days… weeks… months, and although the lyrics didn’t relate to my specific situation, the sentiment did.
This song in that moment reminded me of the marriage of feeling and song that makes loving music so special. Sometimes I feel like I don’t experience that special-marriage-moment as often as I used to, but then songs like this find me.
Songs that are favorites for a year, oftentimes turn into favorites for life. These are the songs that after hours of listening to it on repeat, a chance shuffle months or years later will find me lost in the music, relieving the moments all over again.
2020 is a year no one will soon forget, and Sweeter is an important part of the soundtrack of this year for me.
This song and post are so beautiful, Leryl!
Thanks so much for sharing!
It’s amazing what Bridges packs in lyrically into the ‘lullaby’ as you said.
Lines like:
Why do I fear with skin dark as night?
Can't feel peace with those judging eyes
and
I thought we moved on from the darker days
Did the words of the King disappear in the air
and of course that one line chorus Leryl mentioned:
Hoping for a life more sweeter
I can’t really speak to the African-American/black experience, but I can speak to some of the privileges of the Caucasian-American/white experience.
And it feels like the song that I had today is calling me to.
It’s:
"Sister Ray - Mono Version" by The Velvet Underground
I love The Velvet Underground, but sometimes they can be a little too hedonistic and unknowingly reveal their own lack of awareness of their privilege.
Lou Reed said of it: "'Sister Ray' was done as a joke—no, not as a joke, but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay.”
And they are seemingly white characters:
Doc and Sally inside
They're cooking for the down five
Who's staring at Miss Rayon
Who's busy licking up her pig pen
I'm searching for my mainline
I said I couldn't hit it sideways
Of course, later in the song, the police get involved:
Now, who is that knocking?
Who's knocking at my chamber door?
Now could it be the police?
They come and take me for a ride-ride
Oh, but I haven't got the time-time
And while I am sensitive to the idea that drug use shouldn’t be prosecuted or policed, there is something more keenly sensitive in me today to the idea that these kind of loose white characters in the song’s story are ‘debauched and decayed,’ while the characters in Bridges’ song are just living their life without harming self or others.
As Bridges sings:
The tears of my Mother rain, rain over me
My sisters and my brothers sing, sing over me
And I wish I had another day
But it's just another day
The ‘I wish I had another day’ seems hopeful in a way that the seemingly nihilistic characters of the VU song seem to be squandering their days.
That said, I do really like the crunchy, wild energy of the VU song.
Wikipedia reports that “‘Sister Ray’ was recorded in one take. The band agreed to accept whatever faults occurred during recording, resulting in over 17 minutes of improvised material.”
Which is a style of writing that I like to do too: the long sentence book that Leryl contributed to was an unedited stream-of-consciousness scroll of 111,111 words.
That section of Wikipedia also notes: “After the opening sequence, which is a modally flavored I-♭VII-IV G-F-C chord progression, much of the song is led by Cale and Reed exchanging percussive chords and noise for over ten minutes, similar to avant-jazz. Reed recalled that recording engineer Gary Kellgren walked out while recording the song: "The engineer said, 'I don't have to listen to this. I'll put it in Record, and then I'm leaving. When you're done, come get me.'"
Which I found pretty humorous.
It’s funny though too, I had no idea what to make of getting this song when I shuffled to it this morning the day I knew Leryl was guesting but before she delivered it.
The only thing I thought of at the time was that Leryl does feel a bit like a sister :)
The other thing to note is that I did some more research into the song and Genius.com reports that the depicted heroin orgy does involve queerness:
“There was a real Sister Ray: ‘This black queen,’ Reed says. ‘John (Cale) and I were uptown, out on the street, and up comes this person – very nice, but flaming.’”
It made me think of a synchronicity I had with my mom today, after shuffling to the song on the commute to the day job, I called her.
We talked for a while, at the end, she said she was talking with my Aunt about reading my newsletter/blog and how I am into experimenting in all sorts of ways recently.
She asked if she could tell me two things she thinks she’d have trouble accepting.
I joked, “Be careful, I might just do whatever they are because you said this."
She laughed and then said she might not be able to handle it if I became a QAnon supporter.
Which I laughed off as seemingly obviously a never.
But then she said she wasn’t sure yet how well she could handle a trans child. It wasn’t transphobia or anti-transness, it would just be the reframing after knowing me as her son for 30-something years.
I playfully replied: “I’m not considering it…at this time.”
She laughed back: “…at this time.”
Okay, that’s the one hundred and sixty-third Shuffle Synchronicities.