Ground Squirrels: Day 5
Ground Squirrels is perhaps the only "humorous" track on the new DOGON CD. It was created as we sought refuge from a year-long attack of burrowing rodents at Talking Tree Ranch where we were recording the album. The land was occupied for 1000 years by the native Maidu people who made their food from the fourteen varieties of oak trees that still grow there. We knew that the Maidu made peace with all their relations including the rodents that shared the land with them. We did not want to make war against them but their sound became oppressive. Soon I began to impersonate the squirrels while singing on the microphone, a surly piano/bass line developed and the scratching of the critters in their tunnels was registered as a kind of gamelan ostinato. We didn't want to purely destroy the squirrels, but we considered that they were out of balance with the land and their own population - they were acorn crazy without any of the People around to make food from the huge acorn harvest that lay rotting on the ground. Perhaps we could have considered them a blessing, but we didn't.
"and here comes the smoke, the fire and the jokes . . . there goes the smoke, excuse me, we gotta run."
