Greetings once again from Taiwan, where two days ago we were shaken by an earthquake the likes of which this island had not felt for a quarter of a century. As usual in the case of seismic activity on Formosa, the eastern coastal region of Hualien bore the brunt of it. The current death toll at the epicenter is 12, with about 20 missing and almost 1000 injured. I’m told that several hundred quakes of various magnitudes have registered within the past few days, but it was the big one, a 7.4 on the Richter scale, which woke me up around 8:00 AM on Wednesday. There were three or four significant aftershocks throughout the rest of that morning, but I’m pleased to report that your favorite author, songwriter, and publisher in permanent exile remained safe and relatively unaffected in the northern capital city of Taipei.
Readers of my recent “Defense of Poesy” will recall the truism, expressed by W.H. Auden, that life goes on—in fact, must go on—despite the ubiquity of tragedy and sorrow. Having been fortunate enough to survive this week’s earth-shattering event myself, I therefore present, without further ado, “The Hermit,” the eighth authorized leak from my forthcoming solo album, My Name Is Will. Press play above and sing along to my saturnine celebration of the occult:
In days of yore, there lived a man who shunned all sight of the human form A recluse and a misanthrope, he had as lief been born as a lowly worm Many times he tried to shuffle off this mortal coil and escape such a wretched state But a demon intervened and cryptically explained that he was marked for a different fate So with a heavy heart and a troubled mind, guided by the demon which appeared before He began to seek dark mystery's gate and the skeleton key to perception's door Many chance discoveries of magical import he did make while on the crooked path But necromantic sorcery could not fulfill the void and he felt a fool in the aftermath Whereupon he fled, under the sign of Saturn, to the desert wilds so he could fast and pray An anchorite and a mendicant, he practiced mindfulness in the strictest way Many were the insights which he saw with his third eye and he knew the bliss of a tranquil soul But every instance of nirvana vanished like a dream when the ratio resumed control And finally he awoke to accept that from searching he'd never refrain And though absolute truth and perfect wisdom he'd never attain He'd eternally strive to commune with the self which can never be named And thus he must wander forever, impossibly questing, without praise or blame Neither proud nor ashamed His lantern held high in defiance of time An exiled enigma of virtue and sin Bearing witness to gods and men
Lyrically, of course, the song is a kind of biography of the character featured in the Major Arcana of the Tarot. Musically, it might be considered “prog-adjacent”—were it not for the absence of keyboards. One listener claims to hear “tinges of Queen,” which is an observation I suppose I shouldn’t quibble about. C.J. Hsu’s guitar work, as always, is magnificent. Are you feeling the vibes of this track, audiophile?
P.S. These Friday musical posts have been renamed. The erstwhile “Song of the Week” is now called “The Underground Jukebox Presents.” Much better, don’t you agree?