Skip to main content

Cedell Davis

 

Cedell Davis

(After seeing Handel’s Messiah in English)


“Some people you can’t explain nothin to em.

They see it with their own eyes

But they still don’t get it”

 

Maybe the words aren’t an exact quote

Anymore than his guitar plays a tuned note

But I love his music & philosophy. 

 

Arkansas born & bred.

1933 Typhoid malaria got his legs.

1936 Polio got his arms.

When a gunman hit a bar he was playing he was trampled by a crowd

His movement is extremely limited.

 

But he still plays kick ass blues.

My favourite a lot of the time.

 

To the Western Ear raised on Western tuning & electronic tuners, it sounds ‘out of tune.’

When I was younger, my classically trained brother explained relative pitch.

It stuck.

 

In a universe of relativity of sound waves the odder the better. The more resonant the stronger.

 

Cedell plays clear.

 

Art is about communication.

 

“If you like fat women” & you’re anywhere near Arkansas, USA, he can tell you where to go.

 

He talks of the atom bomb. Whose cloud still hangs over us.

 

He says important things. You don’t need to be educated to be a philosopher.

 

He is clear.

 

But above all his sound is undeniable. Inimitable. Eternal.

 

A paralyzed guitar player singer.  Man he sings & plays like a beast.

“Become the song” my Irish dad implored.

 

Makes you wanna think. Makes you wanna imagine. Makes you wanna fuck.

 

The black soil of the Mississippi Delta sounds clear as a fog horn for refugees.

 

I realize Jesus’s story is the story of the oppressed. It’s not pure & frigid & rigid. It’s about getting hot, sweaty, dirty & bloody. But the European came with his measurement devices

Turned the message around

Said that God was him.

 

I say God is Cedell Davis & the poor & the incarcerated

Who somehow find a message of hope & love

 

When the Devil reigns from above.

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2023.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Australian funeral 2024

  An Australian funeral 2024 Urn scattering Irish ashes Australian Irish son Australian Jamaican chief mourner Pelicans present The visiting witnesses: Love Random assortment of fishermen Seagulls both native & non Boaties hosing off their hulls Nice waving guy Frenchman who told strange story Retiring to Funk & Reggae Herb (Sinsemilla) white rum & okra steamed with salt Getting deep Riffing on Tripping Still despite the fact that I’m tripping you’re tripping they’re tripping Tripping Tripping He’s tripping She’s tripping They’re tripping You’re tripping  Tripping  It’s wild We’re tripping man etc Tripping I’m tripping I tell ya Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1742) “Man is born free Yet everywhere in chains” This IS a WELL established fact Yet still the ignorant are in power & not solely Still people pull the chains to their conditionally adjusted above maximul pull You’re tripping  They’re tripping  I’m tripping… Chief Mourner unable to tell story Son c...
1 comment
Read more

In a very unorthodox way

  In a very unorthodox way # (For Max Sometimes) In a very unorthodox way, I’m an Irish Catholic. Of course, in terms of Belfast politics that MEANS something. & while that maybe true – in Australia, for different reasons, as Fr Bob Maguire put it – when Mary first saw Jesus walking out of the tomb on day 3 of his death, she exclaimed “JESUS!!!” – the first time his name was used as a swear word. In that way of an irreverent joke, REVERENTIAL & ORTHODOX are not my way to the Sacred/Love*. For me – I’m not really into Theology – as Max Sometimes quoting me, quoting my mate Richard, quoting Bob Marley, quoting Rasta elders, said today “who feels it knows it.” & I believe that if I am to write my Mass/Symphony of Hope/Love, I must include at least one blasphemous hymn, else the vision depicted be simplistic, like George Handel’s Messiah. The Hope/Love represented or perhaps alluded to (if you prefer) must include genuine despair, dejection, transgression else it...
Post a Comment
Read more

“I didn’t know!”

  “I didn’t know!”   Don’t get me wrong In a Two Party preferred system  I have no choice but to give preferences to Labor The Coalition are scum But Jacinta Allen, Victorian Premier Claimed in a Truth Telling Commission that she never knew about massacres Of Indigenous people in the state She’d never looked up The history of her country The history of the state she leads She’s Premier! She leads a department that ‘manages Indigenous affairs’ We are currently in the process of negotiating a Treaty What did she think happened to all the Aboriginal people?! They went up to live up the Magic Faraway Tree? “No one told me!” No one ever told me either I fuckin researched It was really easy Took 10 minutes There’s this new thing called the Internet & you search stuff up Like History A subject no longer taught in many schools past year 7 I deduced a lot from observing the place & how allergic we are of looking at ourselves ...
1 comment
Read more