CW71

It has been my experience in recent years that Carl Jung is out of fashion, often in favor of Freud. Just last night someone brought him up on a podcast I was listening to, and I correctly anticipated the qualifier that immediately followed, that seemed to say, I know he’s not the cool one anymore.

I don’t follow closely enough to remember why—and I admit to assuming it’s temporary, fairly featherlight, that it’ll probably swing back in Jung’s favor (has probably already begun to)—but I guess I’m doing it too, exactly what the podcast guest was!

At any rate, “Chaos Isn’t Single,” today’s song, comes from a line I pulled from the Reader’s Edition of Jung’s Red Book, probably in 2013. And then I wrote the song to that title, and named the album after the song, in 2014. (I referred to this in the “Red Book” post, CW47.) It may not be Carl Jung’s moment of peak influence, but chaos—chaos is huge right now…

“Chaos Isn’t Single”

Chaos isn’t single
Chaos has a date
And not just every night
Brunch too
I believe he just ordered the Lumberjack Plate

Chaos isn’t single
Chaos mix with wool
Winter’s finally coming
Global
His deck is a shuffle of Hangmen and Fools

There he is 
Poking around
He hardly ever even cares
He couldn’t get enough animals to drown 
So he just killed them in the air

Memphis isn’t funny
Marbletree is miserable
Campus has a chain in its mouth
The belly dancer’s finger cymbals jingle
Chaos isn’t single 

There he is 
Poking around
He hardly ever even cares
He couldn’t get enough animals to drown
So he just killed them in the air

Memphis isn’t funny
Marbletree is miserable
Campus has that chain in its mouth
The belly dancer’s finger cymbals jingle
Chaos isn’t single

“I believe he just ordered the Lumberjack Plate”:

Like almost every song I’ve ever written, this one just tumbled out. It’s basically gambling. Chaos, in this song, is like a biblically accurate angel with a thousand eyes. That’s the subject, and it’s also the technique—seeing through those views. I’ll have the Lumberjack, an orange juice, a coffee, a coffee, and another coffee. Lot of work to do today!

(At a moment when political chaos is wreaking so much terror and suffering (though order from these people would be even scarier!) I think I chose this song to remember chaos isn’t simply good or bad. It… isn’t single.)

“Chaos mix with wool”:

One of my favorite of my own lines. Why is it like that? What does it mean? The next line, “Winter’s finally coming,” takes a little of its edge off, making a concession to sense, but the stunted mix is still blunt, and the middle letters of wool still glare me down like owl eyes at night.

“Memphis isn’t funny”:

A fictional incident or situation in Memphis, Tennessee. Not to be taken lightly, though (apparently) it may be tempting to.

“Marbletree is miserable”:

A fictional place with a meaningful name. Marbleized. An unholy, calcified deadlock between opposites, all up in each other’s shit.