Friday, March 14, 2014

Alt-J - "Taro" - Song of the Day - (3/14/14)

An Awesome Wave Album Art
English indie rock band, Alt-J, dropped their debut, An Awesome Wave, album in 2012, which included this masterpiece of a track on it. Specifially this song refers to Gerda Taro, "a war photojournalist in the late 40's/early 50's. She died in her line of work when a tank collided into the side of a car she was riding on. The other important name in this song was Gerda's romantic interest, and colleague, Robert Capa. During the First Indochina War, Capa retreated from his Jeep in a hostile war zone to take pictures. He stepped on a landmine however, which blew apart his left leg. He was taken to a medical station where he died with his camera in his hand." Having easily become one of my favorite tracks, I hope this hits you in the same place it did myself. The lyrics are down below the video - which features footage from the magnificent 1988 film, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation -  for those interested.

Lyrics:

Indochina, Capa jumps Jeep, two feet creep up the road
To photo, to record meat lumps and war
They advance as does his chance, very yellow white flash
A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags

Burst so high finally Capa lands
Mine is a watery pit Painless with immense distance
From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe
Him five yards from his leg, from you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
3:10 pm, Capa pends death, quivers, last rattles, last chokes
All colors and cares glaze to gray, shriveled and stricken to dots
Left hand grasps what the body grasps not, le photographe est mort

Three, point, one, four, one, five, alive no longer my amour, faded for home May of '54
Doors open like arms my love, painless with a great closeness
To Capa, to Capa, Capa dark after nothing, re-united with his leg
And with you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
Hey Taro

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