Stella's Lyric Log Edition 5: Neutral Zone

Neutrality Loathsome
"Because thou art luke warm
and neither hot nor cold
I will spew thee out of my mouth."
(Revelations)

That's the latest from Occupant. Conditions in the recording studio were dry and Q was moodless to the project but I had a hootchy-kootchy riff that would not let up so I whipped open the Norton Anthology Book of Poetry and read out the first line that I saw. And that birthed the not so enigmatic Neutrality Loathsome - adapted from Robert Herrick's poem of that title. Q was reticent at first but I convinced him that his blase drawl was just the right accent for this song. Written, rehearsed, and Captured on tape in under 5 minutes.

Q did a spoken word tribute to a village elder called "And another thing!" which is mostly improvised, but we made a cue sheet listing a number of trigger-lines such as "I know your dirty little secret" and "It's a co-op not a coop!" and other such indignant outcries backed by the downbeat of Casio's battery-powered rhythm section.

Our standard rocker "Axe to Grind" bespeaks of the Def Leppard cum Loverboy idiom. My favorite line: "spanked by the hand of fate, and it's totally obscene!" The rest of the lyrical content is just expressions of discontentment due to the requisite theme of impasse in communication and sexual frustration.

Tonight we assembled a piece for rich disaffected youth whose rooms are heated by old fireplaces that might have once been cleaned by little street urchins called "Urchin Polished Shaft." And we did a short Beck homage called "Shiny Cocoa" inspired by the sexed-up M&M cartoon on Q's bag of pastel-coloured M&Ms. It's a big green M&M with long eyelashes, no pants, boots, gloves, green lipstick and come-hither smile.

Agent Q has been covering the vocals all night. And he made biblical references in our second installment of "And Another Thing" called "And One more thing" partly due to Easter and Passover but mostly becuase our village elder is a bible thumper and these spoken word installments quote her liberally.