Electricity

Three comments is a disgrace. This song is insane on every level. Listening to it you are propelled across the same dark roads and black seas...

"I sing the body electric"

Thanks futatorius. That makes perfect sense, considering it was 1967, and he's referencing Midnight Cowboy. Too bad the song didn't make it on the 1969 soundtrack for the movie ..

I read some Beefheart interview where the interviewer was asking him if Electricity had to do with working with electric guitars, the sounds that came out of the amps, etc. .. I kid you not. Vliet played it off beautifully and said "yeah man, you got it". I'll bet he did that quite a bit with people.

Anyway, connnecting the dots with Whitman's poem, the midnight cowboy reference and Vliet's own compassionate mindset of total freedom for everyone .. it all comes together now.

awesome

Right on, caitsith01! This song is majestic, the way he conducts the raw power and energy of the music is mind-blowing, particularly through the use of the theremin, the vocals and the guitar. It's incredibly unique, but it doesn't feel like an experiment whose only purpose is to try to innovate, he uses his inventive and visionary methods to make the song itself work, and not the other way around.

I've heard it explained somewhere (the John French book I think) that it's a "self discovery as first step on path to personal freedom". In which case it's similar to "Trust Us" [even if John French couldn't see it that way 'cause he reads religion into everything]. In fact Herb Bermann wrote the words to this