Chaos vs Cupid
Ordnung müß sein!
Some time ago, I made the mistake of telling my kids about a dream I had when I was nine years old.
There was a knock on my bedroom door.
The door opened, and Farrah Fawcett walked in, lifted the blankets and got in bed with me.
Nothing happened.
That was the dream.1
Now, when my kids wanna give me some flack, they tease me about Farah.
Cupid brought Farah into my dream, if you believe the Romans.
Not long ago, I previewed the 30 Thousand Feet song that I put on the “Mixed Up Files” for my son and I pointed out how the song has kind of a sci-fi intro.
I suggested the idea that somehow we were created—humanity was created—as a vessel to carry blood.
The way humans create ships to carry oil.
My son said “Wow, that’s some History Channel kind of stuff, Dad.”
That is to say, I’ve brought people into the world who can give me crap.
Keeps me on my toes.
Thankfully, they don’t always just give me crap.
My daughter said the other day, “Dad, I made a playlist of K-pop songs to study to. It’s already an hour long!”
Sometime later she said, “Now it’s over two hours long!”
And then she noted, “I feel powerful.”
There is a notion of agency that comes in bringing order to chaos, perhaps?2
Or controlling vibrations that will give meaning to time, maybe?
It reminded me of a time in 7th grade when a friend suggested that his ultimate dream would be if a case of Maxell cassette tapes fell off a passing semi trailer and he could fill all the tapes with music of his choosing.3
That desire to bring order to chaos is what tells my brain to make the beds when I get home from dropping the kids at school.
Ordnung müß sein!4
And yet . . .
Today’s song addtion to the “Mixed Up Files” is one of the stranger things I’ve shared on this songwriting newsletter.
I took two different songs, both unfinished and involving Greco-Roman mythology, and fused them together spontaneously.
The song is called Chaos vs Cupid, and I recorded it as a mono demo voice memo on November 28, 2023 at 6:06 p.m.
Here is the song with my plodding, spoken introduction and no processing, if you like the raw deal:
Without a firm plan for what the lyrics were going to be, the song finishes with the line: “But even Chaos has hope.”
This was a sort of automatic writing, making words up as I went along.
And then the other day, I read about this new album called “Chaos Angel,” by Mya Hawke of Stranger Things fame, which kind of speaks to this theme.
And sensing a bit of synchronicity, I decided to set this unpolished gem out into the world today, as part of this wild endeavor that is the creative life.
So-la-la!
I remain your humble servant,
OX&C,
Faux Jean
Here are the Lyrics:
Just when it seemed like there was a plan
Chaos raised her hand
She said that you better run as fast as you can
Cause I've got my own plan
She said humanity you had a good run
Spreading your own confusion
But now I've got a plan
And you better run
To higher ground
Chaos to Cupid said
Can you do me a favor, Son?
Can you take that arrow there
And shoot the sun?
Cupid shot an arrow
Right into the sun
The sun burned down that arrow
And there was no love on earth
No love and no mirth
There was only hopelessness
And pain and war
And they'll hear of him no more
(???)
So Chaos said to Cupid, Son
You turned off the sun
Chaos came and said
That's all that I've got
That's all that I have
That's all that I want
That's all that I demand.
But Cupid said Oh Chaos
That was not my want
I was just shooting
To have a little fun
And Cupid charged the Sun and said
Give me back my arrow
We'll take these kids to Eden
and we'll start over the whole show
And they will not know
Chaos is in charge
with a list of demands
But even Chaos has hope
Nothing happened, but it was heavenly.
I remember feeling a level of agency when I was finally allowed to put albums on the family record player without supervision. Life got better then.
This same fellow eventually did fill a bunch of Maxells with songs that he’d recorded on “random” from his 50 CD player, and he lamented that slowly they didn’t seem random anymore.
This is German for “There must be order!”