Decompositions

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: After a kickoff-in-E, this is a waltz for anyone who can sit with the fertile notion that we all end up as compost. Life is not a cruel joke if we find humor in it. Started as an expression of solidarity with my friend Hal Walker — a creative musical genius laid low by a debilitating disease, the song ended up being a more universal consideration of living in a body, the title of Hal’s Substack. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

Livin’ in a body, not for the faint of heart
With every day as improv, you don’t choose your choir part
There is no expressing what you can barely bare
But the burden becomes art whenever you can share

Livin’ in a body in 15 minute clips
When a routine ‘How ya doin?’ lands just like a hit
Livin’ in a body, an amputee by birth;
Cleavage from the mother comfort, stuck down here on Earth.

Livin’ in a body, when comfort can’t be feigned.
Knowing that you are as young as you’ll never be again.
The cosmic disconnection, feels like I am concussed;
Where is the help I need today? and Why ain’t this discussed?

Livin’ in a body, a multi-decade blip
The kids are grown-ass adults, and how much did we miss?
Livin’ in a body until you know you are alone
Do the one you’re with, especially when you’re the only one at home

Livin’ in a body, no Second Line quite yet.
But the invite says to queue up for a lonely, last duet.
What did I do? and Who dealt this hand?
Where are my people? and Where’s my band?

Livin’ in a body for these last 10,000 years
Autoimmune dysfunction, grains of sand in all your gears
Livin’ in a body, take mine if you will;
Cannot assuage this chronic pain, yet I cannot get my fill.

Time yet for rising to a grace I cannot fathom
And worship the dust of my seven-year-old atoms.
The slow change of dying is like Theseus’s ship,
If you change all at once you would cease to exist

Livin’ in a body while considering Beyond

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: This started as a meditation on the quandary of wanting to leave a mark on this world while eminently aware that all worldly recognition has an expiration date. That great big empty concert hall… beckoning to both step into the light and be at peace with the unknown. For a moment I thought there might be a resolution, but it turned out to be the beginning of a decomposition…. ~ Sven

Lyrics

Nothing at first, nothing at all
the great big empty concert hall

Nowhere from afar, nowhere near
cause somewhere the vision is blurred and the answer disappeared

Nobody answers, nobody there
just a simple melody carried through the air

Find a way
just step away from it
got something to say
but I’m too afraid to repeat

Come around
did I show up late?
gaining ground
heavens I’m gonna break and

Stop right now
cause there’s nothing quite like nothing on your mind
Stop right now
cause there’s nothing quite like nothing left behind

Nothing left, and nothing right
and nothing speaks as clearly as the silence in the night

Nothing missing, nothing understood
something telling me that nothing ever should

Nothing at last, no longer on the run
I’m dying to know if finally, decomposition has begun

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: Another tribute started with a specific person in mind but made more general. We know neither where we have come from nor where we are going, but we have choices along the way. Can we tenderly give berth to human suffering without letting it steer the ship? Stay fully alive while being oh-so-close to toe up?. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

Scraped off the pavement, replanted in bed
Attending collapse, but no lapse in the head
Grimace, the grimness; mystery machine is broken
Summon the will to still be alive and awoken

We marry yes and we live with no
Slow decomposition or end by crushing blow

I am alive. That’s all I’ve got.
And I am here. Until I’m not.

When you feel stuck, just go on living
Inside your head or outside and giving
Is this world still with us? And what will follow?
No time to wait and see, get up and out of your wallow

We marry full and we live in a crescent
Slow decomposition, indefatigably senescent.

I am alive. That’s all I’ve got.
And I am here. Until I’m not.

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: When things shifted from cool, calm and collected to cold, crazy, and inflicted back in ’16, we knew we were in for a ride. We didn’t know it would last for so long, but it soon became clear that the shadow of our collective trauma ran so deep it couldn’t bear to take a knee. No way were we just going to surrender… game on! Originally recorded pre-Covid as part of New Song, the nuances emerging during the mix felt significant enough to decouple the tune to set the scene early on in the decomposition journey. The extended fermentation period also inspired all kinds of fun new vocal tidbits and instrumental layers. ~ Sven

Lyrics

Take it up
Make it up
Shake it up

Wish it up
Fish it up
Dish it up

Buckle up buttercup
Take a knee honey bee
Start the show with or without the dough
Demonstrate your combination plate
Don’t be fake bake a chocolate cake
Stay in the loop just get the scoop
Investigate the candy date
Bring the heat whenever you feel the beet

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: We had the title first, uttered by someone at our annual tamale-making party. As a culinary rebel rock band, we needed this song in our repertoire. The lyrics are a goof imbued with meaning that we can discuss over a tamale dinner. The music is an exploration of polyphony, yet another homage to my favorite music, ever out of reach — Congolese Rhumba. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

Auf Deutsch diaspora; Bio Bologna pile
Terroir right where you are; the taste of crescent rolls to make you smile
La tamalda ding dong; Bugialli’s Sauce
Preparing honey simple syrup requires skimming off the dross

Symbolic tamale. Symbolic tamale. Is it colonial folly? Symbolic tamale.

Can you smell the baag, and all of Madhur’s Seasonings of Splendour?
Medicinal masala chai and making nut milk in the blender
Tempering a tarka; arresting hegemonic creep
The goal: to build a kitchen midden & know the cultures several strata deep

What we eat, it has a past
from basic needs to smorgablast
and by dominion, our menu is vast.
So, where’d it come from? has gotta be asked.
Pause to think as you break your fast
and cast about for some new ballast

Symbolic tamale. Symbolic tamale. Is it colonial folly? Symbolic tamale.

Consequential appropriations, cultural impermanence
Ever-fermenting, method mutable, or unplanned obsolescence
Now I lay me down to rest, the damage with a spritz of lemon zest
Je crache sur le tombeau de destin manifeste

Symbolic tamale. Symbolic tamale. Is it colonial folly? Like Yoga in Bali?
Symbolic tamale. Symbolic tamale.

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: Things were getting dark fast in the summer of ’20. Ignited by rhetorical arson from a furnace of malice, the talking heads on the faux news were lobbing burning embers into the body politic while the world was on fire. But… we never lost track of our North Star — defiantly hopeful to keep the arc bending. Yes, we were right before the fall, but we refused to step into the void. ~ Sven

Lyrics

Woke up woke this morning, I felt a subtle stall
Another hue, another light, I noticed it was fall
Hit the snooze, turned on the news that I don’t recognize at all
It’s been so long with so much wrong, and coverage wall to wall

Wake the screen, hope for green, waiting for the call
Cynics in it, just to win it, bring healing to a crawl
And I keep pushing, mostly wishing, our backs against the wall
But the clock keeps ticking, nothing sticking, getting closer to the Fall

Autumn light, getting darker, leaves about to fall
Thieves revealed for stealing what they’re dealing, they have no shame at all
Yet still the arc keeps bending, we’re defending, the writing’s on the wall
Hope defies the seasons and depletions, we’re right before the Fall

We’re right before the Fall, right before the Fall

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: This is the rare song that I wrote on guitar. It’s a love song to storytelling and word-smithing for community well-being. It’s also another note in my homage triad on this album, inspired by my fellow myth smith and cultural jammer, Sven. It fades out on the happy ending, where the mystery grows. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

From a minor manger, oriented as ranger
The stranger the stranger– that’s my kind of danger
A series of queries about behavioral grammar
Charting a course as a Cultural Jammer

Seeking succor in stories of the Trickster Redeemer
In the Zone of Proximal Faith, co-regulate with a dreamer
Solution midwifery, in from the periphery
What does the myth smithy proffer?

I say, “Word!” to the wordier
Particular words placed purtier
Foundationally sturdier
Damnation to the dirtier
Word! to the wordier

What to do with a life so much hairier?
How to carry on when who knows who’s a carrier?
Say hello to The Discontinuity
The wordier makes meaning from the dreaming and the ambiguity

We can get through this mire
Go progressively higher
The end isn’t nigher
Still, circuitry flows
Until breaker blows
This, History knows
Even as the mystery grows
Even as the mystery grows

Wonder worder, like a wordier birder.
With the stars! With the tunes! This boy is no disaster flirter
Wonder worder, even as the mystery grows

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: The original impetus behind this song was a reflection on how digital technology has been morphed from a tool to better navigate our external world to infiltrating every last corner of our mental landscape. Dividing every aspect of our humanity into a choice of 0 versus 1 has since sparked conversation on whether anything about our existence is truly binary. Perhaps, and this is where the journey veers toward re-entry into the light, we are all just different shades of One?. ~ Sven

Lyrics

In the seas of the human script
where light and belonging lay writ
we now choose from a menu split into oblivion

Zoom in in a blink of an eye
specialize in your piece of the pie
we all get to be a micro spy of our own conceit

While the sun and the moon and mars
never cease to be super stars
we keep fighting our internal wars right or wrong

And now all there ever was and will be
analyzed till there’s nothing to see
Let your brain go dark for a moment

It’s easy — if you care to let it fly
It’s easy — if you dare to say good-bye
It’s easy — you can learn to let it grow
It’s easy — but you gotta let it go

Bye bye binary, you’ve been full of spin
you know you’re on the ropes, and the truth keeps seeping in

Bye bye binary, we’re breaking through your frame
if you split the difference, it all will be the same

Bye bye binary, you know what’s on the line
zero to one extinction, now we’re running out of time

Bye bye binary, singularity creeps in
Intelligence artificial, but the truth remains the same

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: This song is the odd one of the bunch, standing as a respite from the civilization-dwelling themes and ruminations. The kora here refers to a Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage around a sacred site or object. The song was written on the beater uke I bring backpacking in the Sierra every season, and incudes field recordings in situ. YKJ is the theme song for a particular route — a reverential circumambulation of a sacred site in California, Yosemite Valley. Out there in the abiding wilderness, with no system to beet, we share the richness and equanimity of life. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

Some people think they make just where they are going
‘In God we Trust, but we make the Miracle’
But we prefer to look back and down and in and on and through,
Find salvation in the salvage, we think that’s lyrical

Yosemite Kora June, she knows for certain change has no curtain
And the only way forward is around
By cycle, by meter, by foot you go to greet her
And the only ‘for sure’ is that we walk into the ground

Walking around in circles, anywhat, anywhere, anywhen, anyhow with you
Walking around in circles– our love, our life, our Yosemite Kora June

Can the current country keep her, Yosemite Kora June?
In the tree rings you can hear the sound of birds.
Call to her across the canyon Call across the years
In a language older than any words

With all our Relations out in The Creation, we bow in joy and in duty
Taking our cues from beyond the dust
Gaining merit and seeking bliss, at the edge of the precipice
Life is like a glacier, in Grind we Trust

Nothing so precious as days like these;
Upright standing, down on our knees
Step by step a Good Ancestor gets released;
Slowly dawning that enough is as good as a feast
Smell the fire rising on the breeze;
We can’t go on living if she leaves

Walking around in circles– our love, our life, our Yosemite Kora June

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: Part II of the New Song duology (Part I: Buckle Up), this is a cheer- and playful goodbye to the forces within and around us seeking to divide, distract, and delude. The whimsy of it all is an invitation to get out of our heads and make up some silly rhymes, to see what appears when you’re not trying to make a point. If you’re wondering about the coda, “Amstock” is an annual community party near Yosemite we’ve played at for 30 years, rejuvenating our souls to inspire new music and wordplay. ~ Sven

Lyrics

See you later alligator
Gotta go buffalo
Hit the road happy toad
toodle loo kangaroo
Out the door dinosaur
Bye bye butterfly
Take good care polar bear
Peace out rainbow trout

write a new song, a new song, you gotta write a brand new song
write a new song, the old one’s gone, so go out and write your song
write a new song, nothing can go wrong, if we all go write our new song

Livestock
laughing stock
chicken stock
woodstock
Greg Stock
Amstock
Timstock
Dianestock

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: This song keeps evolving across the ages and band names. Originally Think on Chemystry Set’s 2003 album The Last Real Experience, then reappearing as Think Again on Dancing on the Brink of the World in 2009, this is the first time Beet the System has taken a crack at it. This version is kind of a “Best of” from its precursors, sprinkled with some tasty surprises but centered around its timeless chorus line of “I want to learn what I learned and unlearn it again.” And that, still and again, makes this tune a perfect decomposition. ~ Sven

Lyrics

woke up this morning with an empty head
had nothing to say that hasn’t been said
shook up my inbox, slid down my keys,
a world of words came streaming back at me

call me thick or call me thin
rethinking the theme, reshuffling the bin
theatrically thoughtful, thoroughly thunk
we keep digging our metaphoric spelunk

I want to learn what I learned and unlearn it again
find what I found and then lose it again
listen to those that I don’t understand
find us all an open end

I want to wake up the past and let it sleep again
fight for a cause and surrender it then
be all the change that I possibly can
turn it all around again

I want to sit in your seat and then rise up again
capture your heart and set it free again
vote for the thought that in this land
we all came to think my friend

Letters of mine, letters of mine, used to be tender but aged with time
poured all my hope and spilled so much ink, but words cannot express what I think
we came so far yet stayed so close, tickled the sky and touched our toes
lost our train of thought but regrouped, we’re still making sense of the alphabet soup

Words & Music by Sven Eberlein

About the song: People often laugh when they hear Compost Away for the first time. Firmly rooted in the genre of culinary rebel rock, it shows the power of allusion in gaining playful entry into subjects of gravity. We’re not that different from vegetables — imagine that! Looking at our impermanence through a horticultural prism offers a life-affirming take on the existential questions humans have grappled with throughout history. If all living matter turns to nutrient essential for regeneration, perhaps our hopes and dreams do, too. That possibility made Compost Away a natural choice to close the decomposition suite. ~ Sven

Lyrics

welcome to your pile of dirt
state of the yard
spreading like an overshoot
missing the mark
squeezing out the precious dirt
thinking you’re smart
living like it’s all dessert
but we’re falling all apart

from the moment you first saw the light
you wanted to stay
to sow and grow and expedite
never wasting a day
working up an appetite
your fruits on display
so spare your final terabyte
cause in the end we’ll all be composting away

(compost …. decompose)
compost away, compost away with me

Words & Music by Baba John White

About the song: I couldn’t stop writing verses and choruses to Living in a Body, even when we were done with the song. What if it *were* time for a second line, to shake our bones for our final decomposition, and there was a krewe who wanted to play along? It might sound something like this field recording — slowed down and changed to straight 4/4 time. All shuffle, no swing. May we all rest in peace, together, most especially while we are still here. ~ Baba John

Lyrics

Living in a body, when the warranties are lapsed.
Once it was, “Oh, yes I can,” now it’s just, “Perhaps.”
Got a leaky undercarriage, but the engine is still good.
We’ll drive this thing into the ground, parading our manhood.