In early February 2009, Rick and Andy got together on a Saturday night to improvise some new Zru Vogue music. After they had laid down some rhythm tracks, Andy picked up a copy of Dada Manifestos that was hanging around the studio and started reading. Rick said, “let's make that the words to the song.” So Andy started reading into the mic: “how I became charming, likeable, delightful...” and after a few overdubs of e-bow guitars and such, they had created the song “Charming.”
lyrics
Lyrics:
How i became charming, likeable and delightful. I sleep very late. I commit suicide at 65%. My life is very cheap, it's only 30% of life for me. My life has 30% of life. It lacks arms, strings and a few buttons. 5% is devoted to a state of semi-lucid stupor accompanied by anaemic crackling. This 5% is called DADA. So life is cheap. Death is a bit more expensive. But life is charming and death is equally charming.
A few days ago I was at a meeting of imbeciles. There were a lot of people there. Everyone was charming. Tristan Tzara, a small, absurd and insignificant individual was giving a lecture on the art of becoming charming. He was charming, at that. Everyone is charming. And witty. It's delightful, isn't it? Everyone is delightful, at that. 9 degrees below zero. It's charming, isn't it? No, it isn't charming. God isn't up to it. He isn't even in the directory. But even so he's charming.
Ambassadors, poets, counts, princes, musicians, journalists, actors, writers, diplomats, directors, dressmakers, socialists, princesses and baronesses are charming. You're all of you charming, very subtle, witty and delightful. Tristan Tzara says to you: he's quite willing to do something else, but he prefers to remain an idiot, a practical joker and a hoaxer. Be sincere for a moment: what I've just said to you - is it charming or idiotic?
--
Words by Tristan Tzara, 19 December, 1920
credits
from Eleven Eyes,
released April 1, 2009
Rick: Bass, e-bow guitar, loops, percussion
Andy: Vocals, rhythm guitar, e-bow, keyboard, percussion
Official website of ZRU VOGUE. // Avant-Pop, Art-Funk, Surrealist Indie Rock from the San Francisco Bay Area. Zru Vogue's
first single "Nakweda Dream" (1981) is an early post-punk classic. Band members Andrew Lawrence Jackson, Rick Cuevas, and Patrick Coyne continue to create inspired new music for postmoderns....more