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plover and the linnet among others. It’s also a love song
of sorts. Who knows: influence tends to be unconscious.
He’s already acknowledged the tune’s similarity with
Gram Parson’s ‘Hickory Wind’.)
‘One with the birds’ is a song that wouldn’t offend
an easy listening audience. Again, however, there’s
the real oddness of the refrain: “When we are inhuman,
we’re one with the birds”. One can sing along
merrily without wondering what it all might mean.
Though singing along merrily is, in a way, flying
away. In other words, the listener cannot demand an
BUY Will Oldham music online from and
exclusion of a cerebral response without compromising
his or her humanity. So, without force, the listener
is presented with a paradox that never quite lets you
forget where you are and what you’re doing, even if
it at the same time seduces in every musical sense. As
our culture ignores what is left over from such failed
transcendence, we are prompted to feel individual
consciousness is a problem to be solved. I don’t think
it needs to be. In fact, it is likely that this failure to fly
away is precisely what gives us the richness of life.
Along with Will Oldham’s music. �
388
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