The Half-Remarkable Question

I was introduced to the music of the Incredible String Band in the fall of my Freshman year at Ohio U. The playfulness of their unusual instrumentation, Scottish accents and metaphysical themes all combined to resonate with some part of my own interior quest for meaning. To this day I still smile when the climax of "Ducks On A Pond" is playing on my inner soundtrack.

"Following my fortune now the Holy Grail is found
and the Holy Bread of Heaven is given all around;
Farewell sorrow, praise God the open door
I ain't got no home in this world any more."

In literature, the word Onomatopoeia refers to words in which the sound of the word echos the thing itself. Examples might include words like sizzle, splat, eek, boing, gurgle.

The other night I was thinking about the Incredible String Band's song "The Letter", how the song itself was delivered in a style that reflected the song's message, much the same as those words that sound like what they are. "The Letter" is about how light-hearted the recipient became when he received it and that even the plane that brought it "must have been a little bit lighter."  

The lyrics sparkle and the song sprinkles some of that sparkling into one's very heart if you let it. 

* * * 

"The Half-Remarkable Question" is the last track on Wee Tam, which was sold as a double album, the second disc being called The Big Huge. The questions make me think of Paul Gaugin's famous painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 

These really are the big questions, and I sometimes wonder if anyone is asking them any more? And if not, why not? 

The Half-Remarkable Question  

Who moved the black castle
Who moved the white queen
When Gimme and Daleth were standing between?

Out of the evening growing a veil
Pining for the pine woods that ached for the sail
There's something forgotten I want you to know
The freckles of rain they are telling me so

Oh, it's the old forgotten question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

And an elephant madness has covered the sun
The judge and the juries they play for the fun
They've torn up the roses and washed all the soap
And the martyr who marries them dares not elope

Oh, it's the never realized question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

Oh long, oh long ever yet my eyes
Braved the gates enormous fire
And the body folded 'round me
And the person in me grew

The flower and its petal
The root and its grasp
The earth and its bigness
The breath and its gasp

The mind and its motion
The foot and its move
The life and its pattern
The heart and its love

Oh, it's the old forgotten question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

* * * 
You can listen to the song here.

I still enjoy their music and listen from time to time. Here's a favorite, simple and profound: Air. Keep in mind that, like Dylan for some, the Incredible String Band is an acquired taste. I won't hold it against you if they aren't your cup of tea.