12.01.06

Desolation Angels

Posted in evolution at 5:00 pm by bmccosar

Track #4 on evolution is “Desolation Angels.” Jack Kerouac’s novel of the same name, and the desolate beauty of Florida after the 2004 storms, formed this song. It was recorded August 12, 2006.

Florida was struck by four major hurricanes in a row. Two of them struck within a month of each other. Both times, the local world was turned upside down–we were without power for weeks, schools were closed, roads were flooded, trees were down across all major roads.

And yet–after the danger, it was actually kind of nice here. People were more helpful and friendly; neighbors got together and talked; people teamed up and chainsawed through the fallen trees. There was an odd beauty to the place; it was stricken, but stronger.

We were lucky. A year later, Katrina hit New Orleans. I’ve heard it called “The American Pompeii.” No amount of goodwill can overcome an impact on that scale.

Back to the song: the first note you hear is that first drop of rain from Hurricane Frances. The storm builds, then the winds and lightning come.

I also thought of the Kerouac novel when I was writing this. See, I’m a vegetarian. In 1992, when I moved to Florida, on the very day my parents went home, I came down with severe food poisoning from eating some bad meat. I’ve never been able to stand it since.

I was reading “Desolation Angels” at the time, and kept trying to focus on the novel instead of on being sick; eventually, the life threatening dehydration had me in a sort of delirious state, and I can recall reading and rereading a section of the book and the meaning of the passage changing each time. Then, when I got to the hospital and passed out, I dreamed I was still reading the novel. Looking back, I can’t really tell where reality and dream were divided at the time. It was a storm of the mind.

Lastly, the chord progression for this song involves one of my favorite chords, the Phrygian. This is made by taking, for instance, the chord G7 over E bass. Effectively, this becomes Esus7b9. In this song, oddly, I have used Esus7b9 as the tonic, that is, the chord everything resolves to:

E phryg | E phryg | A ionian | E phryg
G7 | Fmaj7#11 | E phryg | E phryg

The middle jam / storm session is a constant E phrygian modal piece.

If you notice, jazz theorists, the “tense” chord that resolves to the “tonic” chord E phrygian is none other than Fmaj7#11, normally thought to be a stable chord. Indeed, the world has been turned upside down.

Leave a Comment