Tekst piosenki
In 1984
As part of the press for the tour I was doing in Japan
I was asked to go to Bali
And speak about the future with the prince of Ouboud
Now the idea was that I would represent the Western world
The prince the Southern world
And the Japanese press representative would represent whatever was left
The conversations would be published in a large book
Scheduled for release one year after the concert tour
Now as press this didn’t really seem like a great way to advertise concerts
But it sounded like fun anyway
And I stayed at the palace in one of the former king’s harem houses
Each of the king’s wives had had her own house
Guarded by a pair of animals
A bear and a fox for example
By the time I got there, years later
The menagerie had dwindled a bit
My house was guarded by two tropical fish
Bali was extremely hot in the afternoons
And the conversations with the prince
Drifted along randomly from topic to topic
The prince was a bon vivant
Trained in Paris and he spoke excellent English
And when he wasn’t in the palace
He was out on the bumpy back roads racing cars
So we talked about cars
A subject I know absolutely nothing about
And I felt that as far as representing the Western world was going
I was failing pretty dismally
Then, on the second night
The prince served an elaborate feast of Balinese dishes
At the end of the meal
The conversation slowed to a halt
And after a few minutes of silence he asked:
„Would you like to see the cremation tapes of my father?”
The tapes were several hours long
And were a record of the elaborate three-month ceremony
Shot by the BBC
When the king died the whole country went to work
Building an enormous funeral pyre for him
After months of preparation
During which time the corpse continues to reside in the living room
They hoisted the body to the top of this rickety
Extremely flammable structure, and lit a match
The delicate tower crumbled almost immediately
And the king’s body fell to the ground with a sickening thud
Suddenly, everyone began to cheer
Later, I learned that the Balinese
Believe that the soul is a bird
And that when the body falls
It shakes the bird loose
And gives it a head start
On its way
To heaven
Komentarze (0)