Get all 7 Shit Whitman releases available on Bandcamp and save 90%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Live at Beaubien, Bog Show '17, Demos 2016-2017, Karaoke (2017), Early Bootleg (2017), Irrfan Khan Christmas, and Children are going to die at the Boston Public Library (demo).
1. |
Delhi Fashion
02:54
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Time to go shopping for garments that fit the raj
“I know an outlet by the bay
where they let you try on
dhoti’s that don’t need to be dry-cleaned
to seem preened" you screamed
"You would look handsome if only you’d don a silk sarong!"
In song, we right wrongs
bring warmth to the coldest of nights
When the hearth of love
bleats like a hot kettle's hum
shrill infantile howl of a child
who desires just to prompt a fight
Let’s go tour Jodhpur avoiding airport hassle
Swing through the sky on an air line, tied on one side to a castle
oh what a shame! train delayed by demonstrating Jains
the rails they were laying finally killed the camel trade
so they lay, arranged, backs on the tracks, all aghast at last:
“outclass the caste with
steadfast lambastes
aimed to be broadcast!”
Anathemas of Agra
sell packages of bacc-o
but black and beedied lungs may decay
his patience for his station’s subjugation by the state
I can see fireworks above the bay of bengal
brilliantly scintillant, into the filth, they fall
but everyone is just so amazed by it all
they don’t notice the festering smoke
spewing out the chimney of the world by sea
on a single eve, Kringle must be nimble to encompass these quarter trillion domiciles
drag the bags of milk,
and then still find the time to alight on the Blighty Isles
"My child defiles the gift-giving season
rendered with greed and
who the hell’s to blame?!”
Please, in holy heaven’s name,
the father is the son, together they are one,
but now separated, not the same
Christ wasn't born on this day,
we’ll celebrate anyway
observing pagan fêtes
exchanging paltry presents
makes as little sense
as lifting all the tenets
of the great buddha
to spread your agenda
prance through the town, in a paper crown
bawling gaudily that you believe our god was born today
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2. |
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Right now, I could be caroling
with my pan flute on the streets at night
there’s a crowd of children gathering
in hopes that Im monied or at least replete
Instead I fight the heat in our hotel room
fever running high with christmas near
and although I spent the day perched and purging
I wasn’t purged of all my season's cheer
O little potted plant
by the radiator duct
you have importance now to us
just on this day
O paper star on top
in the warm and winter months
when the monsoons move up north
you lead the way
But is there any difference
between a hotel bathroom sink
and a palace painted pink
when the water everywhere is tainted brown?
Maybe Ill be baptized
dirty water cleans my soul
Like a manger in a Jaipur toilet bowl
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3. |
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Well I know that on Earth it is Christmas now
And I hope there'll be days in the snow
When I return many light years on
Though my friends will have died long ago
And the rain makes a sound like the asteroids
There are worlds made of ice in the clouds
I'm receiving transmissions they broadcast long ago
They remind me of things I have seen
All the people and cities and crowds
Ring the bells, ring the bells, ring them
Ring the bells, I can still hear them
Here on the way to the stars
About now back on earth it is Christmas time
There'll be logs in the grate, they will burn
I'm alone tape recording memories
For it all will have changed when I return
And the rain is so strange in the Milky Way
I see cloudscapes of purple and green
Candleabras are shooting off firework displays
And I'm writing the things I have seen
People shopping and sparks from a train
Ring the bells, ring the bells, ring them
Ring the bells, I can still hear them
Here on the way to the stars
Well I know that on Earth it is Christmas now
But in space time goes by so slow
At the speed of light one single night
Is a year to the people back home
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