Phillip K. Dick thread about songs...
 

i am currently reading "Ubik" by PKD. i know that there are some songs on Sister based on his writing. then, i came across the phrase in Ubik, "wish fulfillment". it was by itself on the page. just like that. not really all by itself. down on the bottom of page 106. it says: "wish fulfillment," edie dorn said faintly.

so, here's my question and purpose for this thread. what are the songs that are based on his writing/books and so forth.

i heard Schizophrenia is based on PKD and i think that one of Lee's songs off Sister is also.

anybody know of any others?

wanna take a guess?

any theories?
gossip?


s.

Check out William Gibson too, if you're looking for SY's cyber-punk references.

pax,
i just might. i'm really into PKD, though. is william gibson worth it besides the cyber-punk reference?

s.

For Schizophrenia, my guess is that it comes from We Can Build You :

The hero/narrator works in a company building organs; then they decide to create androids that would look, think and talk just like Amercian History Figures; they thus bring to life Lincoln and one of his aides, who get big jobs in the company...
The link to the song : the hero/narrator is fascinated by his partner's daughter (not sister, still...); she spent some time in an institution for her schizophrenia and, if memory serves me, she really enjoys scaring him by some remarks.

I remember reading in a paper - real paper, no internet - that Lee mentioned Radio Free Albemuth as an influence.
On that one, a guy perceives messages coming from he can't tell where. I don't remember that one much. Could be an influence on Stereo Sanctity, but don't take my word for it.

PCH came after the reading of James Ellroy - Silent Terror I presume.

Bertrand, i think that you are wrong about Schizophrenia. i remember reading that it comes from one of Dick's own personal experiences. he had a twin sister that died in child-birth or something like that. in a dream she visited him with this golden chain necklace cross thing.

i read it in "Confusion is Next" by Alan Foege. i'm sure i'm butchering the quote even by paraphrasing standards.


s.

also- i finished Ubik tonight. that's about two days i think. love it. one of the fastest ever reads for me. i'm getting Vallis next.

Oh then I got it in reverse, PKD used life to generate a character of his novels, and SY used PKD's life too, leaving said novel behind or not knowing it.

Thanks for the info.

I don't know about explicit references, just that PKD is like a constant general influence around the Sister-DDN period.

betrand,
right...and then i used the book about sonic youth using PKD's life experience leaving said novel behind in the book i read...

by the way, have you read anything else by him? if so, would you recommend We Can Build You over like say Ubik or Radio Free Albemuth?

and referring to Vallis, the borders i went to didn't have it so i got The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. it looks long enough to tie me over until i can scrounge up some money to find Vallis.

s.

from the song g-force on the ciccone youth album:

g force eight ninety-nine, seventy-nine ninety-five
the ice ballet
sleeping beauty
she's a real jogger
what becomes a mirrorshade most? huh?

i always thought this passage from stereo sanctity was particularly cyberpunk

Hey - gold connections
Analog soul waving in your hair
Hey - hylozoic directions
She's talking blue streaks everywhere

Your spirit is time-reversed to your body
Stereographic mix-up field on field
It started growing up the day your body dies
Only apparently real to irreal


um, yeah? 6!850[\] 15 7|=[-] |20><><0|2



...pattern recognition on sonic nurse is based on gibson's novel of the same name

Like a cool hunter watch the disarray
Keep yr secret footage heart away

I'd recommend We Can Build You once you feel a bit sore by his universe and stories. There's no big issue on Build You and it's almost a comedy.
Albemuth was written in his late period (circa Timothy Archer, so there could be common elements, but I haven't read the Transmigration).
A Scanner Darkly's a really good one too,

I heartily recommend a book call 'I am Alive and You are Dead' on PKD. It's a fascinating insight in to a wonderful but deeply troubled author. Of course if you haven't read it go get Scanner Darkly. Funny, sad, poignant

i still think that this fits with Ubik. anybody else read that one?

WISH FULFILMENT
I SEE YR WISHES ON THE WALL,
AND THAT'S ALRIGHT WITH ME
I SEE YOU RUN TO MAKE A CALL,
HOPING THAT THERE'S SOMEONE FREE
YOUR LIFE AND MY LIFE THEY DON'T TOUCH AT ALL,
AND THAT'S NO WAY TO BE
YOU'VE NEVER SEEMED SO FAR...
WHAT'S REAL? WHAT'S TRUE?
I AIN'T TURNIN MY BACK ON YOU
WHERE YOU GOIN? WHERE YOU BEEN?
MAKING WISHES, WATCHING DREAMS?
IT MIGHT BE SIMPLE, IT MIGHT BE TRUE
I MIGHT BE OVERWHELMED BY YOU
YOU MIGHT BE EMPTY -
THE WAY YR EYES JUST LOOK RIGHT THROUGH
IT'S SUCH A MESS NOW ANYWAY
WISH FULFILMENT EVERY DAY
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU -
NOW I CAN'T HEAR A WORD YOU SAY
I SEE YOU SHAKIN IN THE LIGHT,
READIN THE HEADLINE NEWS
THE OTHERS AREN'T QUITE SO BRIGHT,
YOU WANT THEM TO CHOOSE YOU
I COULD ALMOST SEE YR FACE TONIGHT,
SINGIN SIMPLE RHYTHM AND BLUES
YOU'LL ALWAYS BE A STAR...
SHAKE IT, BABY, C'MON SCREAM
DID I SEE YR FACE IN A MAGAZINE?
YOUR DOUBT, IT LEAVES ME SORE
I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE
IT'S MY FAVORITE SHOT OF YOU
YOU LOOKED SO PRETTY, YR EYES WERE TRUE
I'M STILL ON YR SIDE -
IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING YOU DO
WE'RE ONLY BLOOD ON LIGHT ON LIFE
NEW PRETTY PICTURES EVERY NIGHT
COME WISH BESIDE ME -
DON'T YOU KNOW YOU KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT?
---------------
lyrics: lee ranaldo
sonic youth - dirty (1992)

Um, Sigmund Freud originated the term "wish fulfillment," grasshoppa. Although, yes, Sonic Youth have stated many times that some Sister lyrics derive from PKD.

The term is introduced in Freud's "Interpretations of Dreams." And Carl Jung, among many others, have vastly improved on Freud's theories since then.

Dick must have read (or scanned) Freud's book, liked the term, and appropiated it, as artists often do, in his own work.

In turn, Sonic Youth must have read (or scanned) Dick's book, liked the term, and appropiated it, as artists often do, in their own work.

i see atari. that makes sense. i also read the term in Transmigration... today. i'm zipping through it. a problem i've discovered with my income and reading ability. they don't sync up. at least not with PKD.

however, the similarities between the "writing on the wall" and some of the other stuff...it just sounds like Ubik. it might be coincidence. which, i think, might be even cooler. cooler.

s.

maybe, they scanned it darkly. that might be why i can't quite put my finger on how the two are related...

s.

I'm just done reading Now Wait for Last Year - the first i've read of Phillip K Dick. I felt it really picked up in the second half and it's left me wanting to read more of his work.

auto-aim. they are all like that...at least a lot of what i've read. the first part of Transmigration went slow. then...all of the sudden i'm almost 3/4 done. i've noticed a lot that he sets the scene, and then just starts to screw with you. or at least that's a reaction i've had to it.

i was actually thinking about what it must have been like when SY was touring for Confusion or something. nothing to do but listen to music, drive, smoke and read PKD. i can see how one would be able to write songs about it. i feel like i could have driven from hear to NYC and back just with the amount of time i've lost being completely entombed in PKD's writing.

just a thought...it sounds negative. i actually really enjoy it. kind of in a pissy mood.

s.

Indeed. I recall an interview on Canadian radio that I listened to in '87 where Lee said that he often couldn't immediately tell if he thought of something or remembered it himself, dreamt it, or read it in a book. Given that sort of philosophy applied to writing lyrics, it becomes impossible to say what is "based on" a particular source.

I'm in agreement with Mirror Dash that "Stereo Sanctity" is definitely one of the more overtly PKD influenced tracks on Sister, though I don't think it's necessarily based directly on a particular story. Of course Mirror Dash said it was Cyberpunk, but Cyberpunk as a sub-genre is very heavily influenced by PKD as well.

discordance axis have several songs based and inspired by phillip k dick too.

the title 'sister' came from PKD, didn't it? he had a twin sister who died at birth or something which i think he became pretty obsessed with.

you have to be kind of a weirdo to be a sci-fi writer i suppose

Yeah, according to this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick he had some serious issues. Strange visions, paranoia, etc... Kinda sad really.

kind of sad really i guess. from what i understand, though, he kind of started to get over it after a while. like post Scanner... I thought that book was kind of a purging of a lot of his madness- mostly that madness which was caused by drug use. i'm sure that he suffered from it for a long time.

The sister thing-
i thought that it was a dream...also something really similar to this happens in the book Confessions of a Crap Artist. a visiting girl randomly with a golden chain necklace. i don't know...

kind of interestingly-weird, but also an incredible author. one of my favorites and i think one of the best of our time.

s.

there's also a part in valis about a girl with a golden chain neckalce on with a fish symbol on it (the one from early Xtianity). it tips the main character into contacting somebody that is living inside of him named "thomas".

s.

http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo.htm

finding nobody,
that's awesome. thanks for it. and for the link, too. have you read anything from exegesis that wasn't in the books? i've heard that the whole thing is on the 'net somewhere, but i can't seem to find it.

s.

schizophrenia is based on divine invasion ....

"I can't get laid cause everyone is dead" is lifted straight from Valis

Anyone else ever think Tom Violence was PKD inspired?

yeah, i think that TomV might have been pkd inspired. maybe. i also think that it might be a autobiographical song about thurston.

so, what is the song, Reena about? i remember an interview that Kim did where she said it was based on a book. anybody remember that? i'm googling the interview right now...

from here:
http://www.mp3.com/features/stories/4879.html

Kim Gordon: I was sort of inspired by this book, Reena Spauling, who is kind of a fictional character. It's a collaborative piece of writing by a bunch of people. It's a fictional character about this fantastic kind of girl creature who makes her way in the art world, art fashion world, in New York. And she kind of reminds me of people that you meet who seem fascinating, but they're crazy. And you don't know why they're fascinating, and it just could be in simple things they do or some mystery. It's kind of like one of those gross friendship crush songs, because I just thought I had never written a song about that. And it's also--the name of this became the name of this gallery where I've shown. So, I kind of wanted to continue the myth of Reena Spauling.

also,
how do you guys think they do this? take notes? i have read a bunch of these books and i don't think i could write a song about it. maybe i'm just not of that type of personality or maybe i can't translate my literary life to my music life. or vice versa apparently.

s.

I started reading PKD because of Sonic Youth. Now I own and have read many of his books.My favorite is Follow my Tears the Policeman Said.

GreenStageCoach,
awesome! i haven't read that one. i'm gonna pick it up next.

s.

Which ones have you read? I think PKD is a great author, I have also read many of his short stories, A Scanner Darkly, Time out of Mind, Ubik, Martin Time Slip, and Puttering about in a small land. Next for me is Now wait for last year.

I mean Time out of Joint. Time out of mind is a Dylan album. Sorry

Don't know if this has been said already but, I recently saw the movie Minority Report again, and in it the place where Tom Cruise goes and buys drugs and hides from the police is called "The Sprawl". The movie was based off the short story with the same name that Phillip K. Dick wrote. Maybe SY named the song after that.

I mean to check out some of his stuff.

The Sprawl is a Gibson reference, as far as I can remember, there was never any mention of such a place in any of Dick's works.
I don't know why there was a Gibson reference in Minority Report, though I've wondered about it before.

they are making a movie of radio free albemuth (starring alanis morrisette) and a pkd biography (starring paul giamatti)

now wait for last year is awesome

I don't know if i have time to say all that i have read and i don't want to go to my book shelf and list them all. but i have read Ubik and Time out of Joint like you did. (lol, though i haven't heard Time out of Mind, so i might check that out). I really liked Ubik and especially Time out of Joint. Which copy do you have (or have you read)? I have the second printing of the Carroll and Graf Edition. the afterword was written by Lou Stathis and is really interesting.

went to look at what i have:
Second Variety and other classic stories by PKD.
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
We Can Build You
Martian Time-slip
Ubik
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer [one of my favorites]
The Man in the High Castle
The Divine Invasion
VALIS
A scanner Darkly
Paycheck and other classic stories by PKD

I have also read Radio Free Albemuth, but I don't own it. A Scanner Darkly was probably my least favorite, but after seeing the movie a few times and reading a bit about PKD's life, i like it a lot more.
also on the suggestion of others, i have recently read The Difference Machine and Pattern Recognition by Gibson. love those. The Difference Machine was co-authored with a guy named Bruce Sterling. does anybody know his stuff? the cover says that he wrote, "Holy Fire".

s.

Just finished A Scanner Darkly & in the note at the end reminded me of Expressway to yr Skull. "We're gonna find the meaning of feeling good & we're gonna stay there as long as we think we should."

Also in one of the last chapters when Bob Arctor's doing all the tests, the term Pattern Recognition gets mentioned.