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Chrysanthemum Storm VINYL

by Bill Direen & the Bilders

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1.
Side A NOBODY’S FAULT It’s nobody’s fault, it’s everyone’s grief When you live in a vault every caller’s a thief When you live in a hole you’re afraid of the flood When you live in swamp you dig the mud It’s nobody’s fault, it’s everyone’s pain We bite without having the teeth to explain The poison is slow, we bicker and we break When you live in a tunnel you think like a snake It’s nobody’s fault, but your own You never felt so dreadfully alone Nobody’s fault, but your own It’s nobody’s fault, we’re stuck in the glue The icecaps will melt but what can we do? We do what we do not to live like a toad But you'd better not trust the one over the road It’s nobody’s fault, it’s the system’s you know It all started millions of years ago It’s the law of the jungle, you don’t have a chance With your feet in the muck it’s so hard to advance It’s nobody’s fault, but your own You never felt so dreadfully alone Nobody’s fault, but your own CRIMINAL MIND She got the grain Criminal mind Inside her brain It’s there to find If you don’t see criminal mind You have to be blind He got the mark Criminal deeds It glows in the dark He got criminal seeds Hope you don’t mind he got criminal needs Criminal mind We got criminal genes We’re the evil unseen We’re criminal bein's We’re eternally mean Got no right to run free, we’re the criminal kind Criminal mind Criminal tongue Criminal lips Another criminal hung Criminal trips Travel en masse in criminal ships Criminal minds Now you been lured Of your criminal type It’s time to be cured Criminal psych Has the degree — you been onlined with your Criminal mind Criminal drugs Criminal songs Criminal hugs Subliminal longings Criminal pain — it’s enough to drive A Criminal insane It's there to find If you don't see Criminal mind You have to be blind ROSKO Rosko used to come down to the hall Rosko had his lucky number called Rosko! We don’t see Rosko no more Rosko earned, Rosko paid Rosko learned, Rosko laid Rosko tell you his struggle’s humane Help you feel the pain! “You have to make your hay when the sun Shines, not lie abed! You have to step upon the one Ahead!” Says Rosko Rosko earned… “You have to cut plants back hard Before the seed scatters You have to play the winning card When it matters! When it matters!” Says Rosko Rosko earned… “Education is a right That children got to earn You got to feel the teacher’s bite to learn!” say Rosko “Some people dance around As if life is their prize You got to cut some people down To size!” Rosko Rosko earned… THE STORY OF LEE ANNE Thieves & cranks & shirkers Her face seemed to say That dismal day It was plain to see she Had already categorised me She was one of the social workers We went to see about Lee Anne The guy liked a bit of ass There were bits of ass on his wall In the garage where he changed my wheel With the help of a powertool (I wished I'd had something that powerful) Then he went outside to pump gas And he never once looked once at Lee Anne SLOWUP!!!!!! The night-nurse, she was a raver, I’d seen her around She followed the sound She skipped the paperwork I could do it later She said we were going to save her And I believed her for Lee Anne Yesterday a guy in a van Gave a neighbour a quote He’s a guy, you know, he’s happy he woke With his Hiace He’ll put a heat pump in your place He’s a guy, you know, he does all he can He can’t do anything about Lee Anne He can’t do anything about Lee Anne. CHRYSANTHEMUM STORM Behind me the past And before me the damp I’d been driving from the Trading Post Where I’d been looking for an amp When from east to west A voice as dry as pain, said Said Refrain, do your best to keep warm. The Chrysanthemum Storm Hit at the corner Of Stuart and York A shower of flowers The colour of chalk They were not to be harvested They fell on the pane And said Refrain, do your best to stay in form The Chrysanthemum Storm Lasted all the way down Queen’s Drive It was cold enough to kill I was glad to be alive Flakes of good gesture Had come to explain Refrain! Beauty is always being born The Chrysanthemum Storm Was ending I had to find a hat for my head By the time I found the camera The batteries were dead Love is unceasing Come sunshine or rain Refrain! Leave behind you what is torn. The Chrysanthemum Storm LOSERS WEEPERS (Vocal Version ) They give us the drug All we think about is losing We're on a high A high as high as government We're on a real cool drug Sets your child wheezing The reason is plain Their gain Your loss Losers weepers They give us the smile The smile that's worth a million Count what remains after settlement It's a settlement smile That sets your child wheezing The reason is plain Their gain Your loss Losers weepers The deal A deal that rolls on real estate Evaluate the value of betterment It's the best deal yet That sets the child wheezing The reason is plain no gain No gain without loss Your loss Losers weepers They give us the drug All we think about is losing We're on a high A high as high as government We're on a real cool drug That sets your child wheezing The reason is plain Their gain Your loss Losers weepers
2.
Side Two THE STORY OF MARIE This is the story of Marie LIttle winsome Marie She knows how to hang Her friends eat croissants And harangue She escaped to Paris for fun She discovered the caress of one Faceless She never shows her mood Her cat is sexless But her dog is extraordinarily rude She met him jogging in the Boulogne rain They went out clubbing & Drank Champagne He’d known the dark wood To be a soulless place He’d left the priesthood In disgrace He gave confessions in a “chambre de bonne” And went out at nights Dressed like a nun Now when she sees him Because all cities are small They make like They never met at all They both know it was for more than kicks But it wasn’t anything Solitude won’t fix A trifle winsome She knows how to hang Some of her friends make threesomes And go bang She escaped to Paris for fun She discovered the caress of one THE PHOTOGRAPHER & THE OCEANOGRAPHER The photographer and the oceanographer Were sleeping the evening I knocked He found his Lees The sound of keys As door after door unlocked He was unfocussed, she was into hocus pocus My reason would sadden them or not Before I could say I’d be going away, he said Don’t tell me, the president’s been shot She : “In 1963!” Me : “The president of what?” They could see from my eyes My spirits were not high -- So they brewed up the pot. The storm was hardly warm But the brew with bergamot Did no harm It brought some calm Thankful I drank the lot But my star was declining and theirs was arriving And we’d exhausted the subjects of Walts Disney and Scott We hugged with some tears For I’d be gone for some years And into the night I did trot. A LOT OF REASONS TO SMILE It snowed last night this morning the sky was blue I got eleven dollars even odds it’s gonna see me through I've got a recurring image of the tide of the rising sea Self-immolation will never be the end of me A letter in my heart gives hope to my soul I've got the craziest idea there can be food in every bowl I got a horror of newscasts on satellite t.v. Self-persecution will never be the end of me I got two good hands, make a stand against the Claw I got two good eyes, see the good in what they saw I've got fifty one reasons not to fly to Djibouti Self-annihilation never be the end of me I got the ghost of my mother lays the blankets on me so I’m warm I got the love of a woman, gave me haven from the storm I got the trace of a demon in the body of a Chimpanzee Self-congratulation never be the death of me I've got a musical mate knows a Rickenbacker and what’s not, and what's hot I've got thoughtful friends giving me a tactful prod I've got a healthy fear of doctors and the pharmacy Self-administration never be the end of me I've got a mountain of firewood see me through the cold cold nights I’m a victim of a toughness warmer than the brightest lights I've got a romantic notion, be useful to society Self-alienation never be the end of me I've got a lot of good reasons, you see, to walk another mile I've got eleven hundred reasons, and eighty five to make me smile I got a lot good reasons — to be! Self-impersonation never be the end of me. ROSE IN THE RAIN It all started with the girl She had one rose left She smiled like the sun All over the spent rain I went down past the FM station called Fleet Shops were closing on Symonds Street World leaders were talking About flood relief That was the news that day, in the main They were going to give the stricken something to eat That was the news, isn’t that sweet? Over the tower a rainbow Plenty of water underneath Rolling to the ocean— isn’t that insane!? Plenty of rose petals, too, in the Auckland heat Rafting the rivers Rafting the rivers down Symonds Street TRY AGAIN IN TEN MINUTES My partner was expecting a baby One morning at half past four It was time to call for the taxi To get her to the hospital door A voice addressed me sternly As if I had no balls. It said “Try again in ten minutes" — "Unusual calls!” Some time after I was born They told me I would die So I phoned the cemetery To see where I might lie A voice without joy or hunger, Of one in whom all passion palls, said "Try again in ten minutes We're experiencing an influx of unusual calls" Try again! Try again! "We're experiencing …" Try again in ten minutes. THE STORY OF BADEN Now Baden knew time is a thief Never was he late Immigration was his brief That’s a Department of the State Now Baden worked with all his power Industrious as any mouse Every Friday he would drive for hours To his secondary house To Immigration he was not confined Gardening was his private folly Gardening was often on his mind Gardening and Monopoly He believed that in life if you miss a turn It’s not easy for a player to catch up Baden was a man whose chief concern Is seeing that his socks match up Now Baden wasn’t paid to air Opinions as you’d guess As far as policy on welfare Was concerned, his opinion was ever Yes So when the ministry changed its course He acceded tamely He plodded on like a horse And expelled the entire family Planeloads of families he was soon sending out [Can we have another draw please] No sooner came in than they went out Baden got a hike in salary But one night as he zoomed by mooing mammalians To his lakeside retreat A spaceship of particularly hungry aliens Made of him mincemeat Baden was never seen again He was less than a burger of beef But another Baden inherited his pen Immigration would be his brief. Thanks for coming everybody. Another lucky, lucky draw. Here we go! And the lucky number is— Number four.

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THIS IS A DIGITAL DOWNLOAD OF THE 2017 VINYL RELEASE OF THE "CHRYSANTHEMUM STORM" ALBUM. THE ACTUAL LP (ZR010) IS SOLD OUT. TO OBTAIN A PHYSICAL COPY, TRY SOUTH INDIES/BILL DIREEN (DUNEDIN, NZ), POWERTOOL RECORDS/ANDREW MAITAI (AUCKLAND, NZ), THE GRAPEFRUIT RECORD CLUB (OMAHA, NE) OR DISCY (LANDSBERG, BAVARIA, GERMANY) OR CONSULT THE INTERNET.

youtu.be/9tS_1FMNnwA

Media Pack: southindies.neocities.org/html/C-Storm-media-pack.html

ZR010 – LP – RELEASE DATE 5 AUGUST 2017
BILL DIREEN & THE BILDERS: CHRYSANTHEMUM STORM

Bill Direen has worked with musicians, writers and actors since the late ‘70s. To the list of his songs, theatre-music collaborations and records, one might add a bibliography of printed stories and poetry. But it is for his music that Bill is best known.

It was winter in Dunedin. A snow storm hit as Bill Direen was driving home, spreading huge flakes like white Chrysanthemums across his windscreen. Song after song followed about local people, stories and events – a photographer, an oceanographer, a night nurse who follows local bands, a guy who installs heat pumps …. The album has humour, EG about the waiting time on telephones (Try Again in Ten Minutes), and addresses more serious issues like anti-immigration sentiment, and the mistaken belief that criminality is genetic (Criminal Minds).

The band practised for a week in Auckland and hit the studio. The high resolution master was never released on vinyl as intended, and seven years later it is now a reality thanks to Zelle Records, Powertool Records and South Indies. Each album has a poster-sized insert of lyrics and photos.

The Chrysanthemum Storm band of 2008 has now moved on to become parents, teachers, record company honchoes and live venue managers. Andrew McCully (piano/organs) teaches music at Cockle Bay School. Andrew Maitai (drums) runs a record shop and the venue UFO in New Lynn. Brett Cross (bass) is bringing up a child and making books. Bill is still on the road, playing with various lineups in 2017 from Dunedin to Auckland.

Side A
• Nobody’s Fault
• Criminal Minds
• Rosko
• The Story of Lee Anne
• Chrysanthemum Storm
• Losers Weepers

Side B
• The Story of Marie
• The Photographer & the Oceanographer
• Reasons
• Rose in Rain
• Try Again
• The Story of Baden

credits

released May 8, 2017

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Zelle Records Vienna, Austria

Zelle Records is a Kiwi music label operating from a flat in Vienna, Austria. We aim to make available flabbergasting alternative rock and pop music from Dunedin and elsewhere in New Zealand on vinyl.
If you are looking for any other Zelle product than the ones represented here, just drop us a line.
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