"It gets late so early now"

Come saprete già tutti, da una decina di giorni è comparsa sulla Terra una nuova canzone degli Avalanches, assenti "ufficialmente" dalle scene da oltre un decennio. Cowboy Overflow Of The Heart, per ora annunciata solo come "demo", è una collaborazione tra la band australiana e l'altrettanto leggendario David Berman (Silver Jews). Si tratta di uno spoken word, con la tremante, sardonica e al tempo stesso struggente voce di Berman che legge una poesia sopra una musica lontana. La base è costruita intorno a un sample di Strawberry Letter #23 dei Brothers Johnson, pezzo scritto da Shuggie Otis e già campionato da OutKast e Beyoncé. Ma ovviamente era il testo a incuriosirmi di più. Ne ho trovata una trascrizione in rete, non è ufficiale, ma già così mi pare funzioni benissimo. Ed è una cosa davvero commovente:

We inaugurate the evening

Just drumming up a little weariness

It gets late so early now

The waves come in mountain phases

Linked in possibilities

Branching possibilities

I’d see fireworks not supposed to be

In the empty library at summertime

By the respirating basement door

The dog eats out of an old tambourine on the floor

I’ve been told you can live a long, long time on the love of a dog

And that things get bitter and bad

When the people are wrong

And sleep can be had for the price of a song

Late in the day

When the options are gone

When the seatbelt’s the only hug you’ve felt in weeks

When wrong numbers are the totality of your social life

The obscure strategies of wildlife

Only flummox the hell out of you, kid

I first saw her in a megastore

The Day-Glo raven

Born into a free fall

Like plastic Easter basket grass

Falling from an overpass

The fulfillment of a tenth grade prophecy

A motel masterpiece

Blind to the branching possibilities

Blind to linked in possibilities

Teardrops were standing in my eyes

Like deer before they bolt

It was like I was stretching my arm through the cat door to heaven

I was thinking I could lick the frosting off these summer days if nights were half as sweet

Me like a banged up dog walking half sideways

I adored the way she modified my mornings

When I’d wake up in the calm shores of her bed

Somersaults and smoke and a universe of sleet

Before she slipped into her heritage

And disappeared

Now every second thought is out of control

I guess in a way I long to be rad

When I was with her it felt wrong to be sad

Did I tell you an angel finally came and shut my mouth?

There was a smile and a tear in her voice too

And she taught me

To relight

Relight and relight and relight again

They tell me you can live a long, long time on the love of a dog

Things get bitter and bad

And sleep can be had

Late in the day when the options seem gone

Please let your eyes be a friend to me again

It’s just malfunctioning teardrops

Cowboy overflow of the heart