Well hello, my friends. I hope you’re well. I’ll keep this intro short and cut to the chase. If you are not someone who appreciates seeing reality for what it is, this blog may not be for you. This is blog number thirteen, and it is not for the faint of heart, but for lovers of truth. Not your truth. The Truth truth.
The truth is that life is beautiful. You can define that however you like. But we are also part of the food chain, just like every other animal on this planet. The society we have built is profoundly sheltered. I say that as someone who grew up sheltered myself. And even now, as grounded and reality-based as I consider myself to be, there are still subjects that turn my stomach. My goal is not to be emotionless. My goal is to be educated about the things our culture avoids, especially death. One phrase I keep close in my personal practice is this:
I am learning that death is merely a beginning.
Mosquito Song is a dark, strange, and playful take on that reality.
Let me tell you a story.
A Gust of Reality
I jam with my friends often. In padded studios, parking lots, and living room carpets, with whatever instruments happen to be around. We share songs we know, make up new ones, and play all the wrong notes. Jamming is a gold coin in the treasure chest of being alive. It unites us in ways words cannot touch. Hours without screens. Improvising. A piece of human existence rooted in presence. My favorite. We are not thinking about tomorrow or yesterday. We are only thinking about what we are doing and who we are doing it with. But of course, it cannot all be jams. For there are plants to burn in a small, rolled fashion, and earthly treasures to digest while breathing in the blended evening air just outside The Soundvibe Music Studio, where my good friend and owner, John, has graciously given us the gift of, “Make as much noise as you want. No one can hear you.”
If you are ever in need of a recording studio for voice work, music demos, audiobooks, podcasts, Tiny Desk submissions, or anything else related to recording, John is your guy. He is a fantastic engineer and a trusted co-pilot for creative projects. Click here: The Soundvibe Inquiry Form
It was late in the evening on a Tuesday in February. The wind was gusting, and the energy was pulsing. In between jams my friend Tiago, a local drummer, songwriter, and fellow music confidant, picked up his guitar and began plucking. I've heard him play this song before, but often times if I don't save a song for later or write down the artist and title, I won't remember it. But, I always remember hearing it. This time I listened much more closely.
The guitar riff, unmistakable, and dare I say, iconic. It's sounds like a a musical ode to Scarborough Fair (Simon and Garfunkel). The structure of the song is like that of a lullaby or nursery rhyme: hypnotizing melodies — guitar and voice alike, observational comedic delivery and lyrics, and the juxtaposed nature of being melodious, and being just plain creepy, in the best reality-check kind of way.
He sang, "...eat you alive, All of us food that hasn't died...we all will feed the worms and the trees, so don't be shy...". I was dazed, perplexed, and curious as a wave of surprising laughter spilled from me. "That was intense," I replied. Amongst all the feelings I was having, I wasn't sure how to receive them; a bodily reaction is often a learned behavior, and for me, I know the difference between feeling and opinion. I hadn't yet formed an opinion, but I was feeling it all; the blunt yet poetic string of truths, lined up in a such a way to provoke. Sometimes I ponder the sheltered nature of our society; how death is something to cover. We embalm bodies and cover their faces with makeup that's meant to stick to skin no longer carrying the warmth of a human spirit and blood, so that they may last just long enough to see them in a casket, before we bury them in boxes in the earth. I questioned myself as to why my body reacted the way it did. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to listen to it again and again.
I was whisked away by the depth the way I was at 17 when I heard The Wall by Pink Floyd from beginning to end for the first time. Being a highly empathetic person for me means I feel what I hear. I feel what I see, and I could feel the painful, cynical, yet honest reality in the voice. Like everything else in life, perspective is key. If I choose to see the song as morbid, then it will received as such. Personally, I'm in a place where I can hear something of this nature and appreciate it. Honesty is a lonely word, and the honest truth is that we will all die someday, and return to the earth. I love this song. It's a celebration of reality, that we are flesh, tender and supple, and without the help of housing, weaponry, clothing and other resources, we are vulnerable creatures. Not a negative take, just the truth: "...Fat and soft, pink and weak, foot and thigh, tongue and cheek. You know I'm told they'll swallow you whole, skin and bones." Okay, you've had enough of that. It's time for history!
Queens of the Stone Age are a rock band that came out of the desert. Formed in Palm Desert, California in 1996 by guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme, QOTSA grew out of the sun-bleached, riff-heavy rock scene that first birthed Homme’s earlier band, Kyuss. After Kyuss broke up, Homme took the desert DNA and refined it into something with grit, personifying the earth into something you can hear and feel. Over the years the lineup shifted and expanded, but Homme has remained the constant center of the project. The band’s sound is centered on heavy, hypnotic guitar riffs and deep grooves. They've never limited themselves to one mode, as they've folded in elements of alt rock, acoustic textures, lyrical surrealism, psychedelia and experimental arrangements. Their catalog is a shifting landscape; always familiar, but never entirely predictable.
Their third studio album, Songs for the Deaf, was released on August 27, 2002 through Interscope Records, and it marked a turning point not just for the band, but for their place in rock music. On that record, they brought in Dave Grohl. Yes, thee Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana on drums, giving the album a pulse that was both massive and sharp. Songs for the Deaf mixes heavy, riff-driven rock anthems like “No One Knows” and “Go with the Flow”, which I had unknowingly heard before I ever started writing this. At the very end of that hot highway, the road turns to "Mosquito Song”. It sits apart from its heavier companions. The background strings buzzing high and lightly, resembling mosquitos, accompanied by accordion, piano, and that quiet, unsettling lyricism. It’s not just the closing track but an exhale.
How Much Can You Stomach?
Read this as a piece of poetic justice; a reclamation of understanding.
“Swallow and chew, eat you alive, all of us food that hasn’t died,” isn’t just a dark hook, but an unflinching reminder of what we are. Animals. Temporary flesh, surviving, moving through a living world that will one day take us back into it. We are not above the food chain. We are simply waiting our turn in nature’s long, patient hall.
This song carries the simple and uncomfortable truth of how temporary we really are. It asks us, gently, relentlessly, and epically, to sit with the fact that everything alive is moving toward the same ending, and the same transformation: to go back to the earth.
When you think about it, it’s really no different than “The Circle of Life,” except one has the depth of Edgar Allan Poe, and the other, Elton John. Choose your character.
I know, I know the sun is hot
Mosquitoes come suck your blood
And leave you there all alone
Just skin and bone
When you walk among the trees
Listening to the leaves
The further I go, the less I know
The less I know
Where will you run?
Where will you hide?
Lullabies to paralyze
Fat and soft, pink and weak
Foot and thigh, tongue and cheek
You know I'm told they swallow you whole, skin and bone
Cutting boards and hanging hooks
Bloody knives, cooking books
Promising you won't feel a thing at all
Swallow and chew
Eat you alive
All of us food that hasn't died
And the knife says
Simmering, pick and pluck
Tenderize bone to dust
The sweetest grease, finest meat you'll ever taste
So you scream, whine, and yell
Supple sounds of dinner bells
We all will feed the worms and trees
So don't be shy
Swallow and chew
Eat you alive
All of us food that hasn't died
Thanks for reading. If you dug this post, feel free to tip the scribbler and leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/berlyd
Listen to "Mosquito Song": https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=H0dy-FoV4U4#ddg-play
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