Driving around Vancouver, 2019

A pretty girl behind the bar stabs toothpicks into olives
miniature pincushions stuck with arrows
straight from cupid through my heart
sliding down a slippery slope that’s painfully familiar
booze kicks in, I let it, as a start to wax poetic
chipping bits of rubble into art
pretend I’m leonard cohen, finest wordsmith ever known
though I’ve never been a buddhist, lived in ashrams as a nudist
or slept with rebecca de mornay
as a bassman plays …

Flashback to the 60s, people living in the cities
you got beatniks crossed with hippies
sporting horizontal stripes and small goatees
play a jazzy, minor chord, learn to smoke, renounce the lord
go acoustic, lose the amp and ooze
just like a lava lamp
and all around while people stare, none of us will even care
we’re too busy smoking, and fondling, our lengthy ponytails
and the beatniks go snap
while a bassman plays …

It was a different time, a different place
sideburns creeping down the face
a time of turtlenecks and black berets
when old fashioned was in fact a drink
served with cherries what I think
fruit with olives on the bar-top, lemon rinds and pretzels
as the pretty girl who serves them up with toothpick cupid arrows
pierces every heart that comes along
and the bassman plays …

***

“This was a hybrid of adlib and writing,” recalls Bill. “It’s what I call our ‘peanut butter-and-chocolate’ moment – when Michael shared his bassline in a frigid, uninsulated garage studio one winter morning in 2018, to which I said, “Well I got these words that need a home,” … and the bassman plays was born. My first read-through sounded like William Shatner auditioning for a one man play, then we found our groove, the process wonderfully organic.”

… and the bassman plays is on Bill’s album Studio 6

Stereo Story #532

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Bill Arnott is a songwriter, poet, and bestselling author of the Gone Viking travelogues. His column Bill Arnott’s Beat runs in several magazines, and for his travels he’s received a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making music and friends.