ODE TO QUETZACOATL
“A lost gem of private ’60s psychedelia, Dave Bixby’s debut solo effort is a lonely affair to be sure. With only acoustic guitar in hand, the songwriter penned this album in about a month in reaction to a year of drug abuse. Having filled his head with plenty of acid, the songs here serve as an intimate portrait of an unhinged victim of counterculture.”
from Brainwashed
“Bixby renounced taking LSD and all other drugs. His friends, feeling estranged from his newfound sober and piteous identity, abandoned him. Even the local Christian group failed to recognize his personal encounter with god. Overcome with utter isolation, Bixby began to think more personally of god; he wrote Ode To Quetzalcoatl (recently re-released on Guerssen) as a result. Unsurprisingly, the album is dripping with references to god and heaven, though given Bixby’s desolate situation during the late 60s, the whole of Quetzalcoatl is profoundly morose.”
from TinyMixTapes
Excerpts from an interview, on the album:
[Interviewer Name n/a]: I will write down all songs from [Ode to Quetzacoatl]. Do you mind telling a few words for each of them? I see the album as a concept.
DB: This album is a concept. Each song is a chapter in a book. The theme throughout is one of stepping out in faith and walking through the darkness into the light.
A1 Drug Song
Is a tragedy, a place of no hope despair and a death of a soul.
A2 Free Indeed
A new life to live with value. A new spirit.
A3 I Have Seen Him
The image of Jesus and clarity of the mission holding a vision of the Kingdom coming. Unseen world.
A4 Mother
Regret, self disappointment, remorse and falling short confessional.
A5 Morning Sun
In phase with the turning of the earth. Living is an art to be good at Experience a state of grace and all things seem to work out.
A6 Prayer
Slumber transformations. Answers to prayers manifest in the creation. Look to reality for the way.
B1 Lonely Faces
Lost souls stuck in hell. I walk the edge. I am helpless to help. Give it up.
B2 Open Doors
Consider the possibilities.
B3 666 Revelations
Apocalypse. Turbulent times for man kind who is turning to the dark side Negative influence on man is bound for a thousand years of noncoruption.
B4 Waiting for the Rains
Baptism, forgiveness and redemption.
B5 Secret Forest
Heaven above starts within.
B6 Peace
Sleep Mantra.
x
Bixby has a very interesting way of phrasing things, so i’ll include his track by track description of the other album he was involved w Harbinger Second Coming and another section that I found rather poetic:
I will write down songs from [Harbinger] and I would again appreciate if you could comment each one.
A1 Cosmic Energy
Direct contact to the source and a filling up .
A2 Time to Clear Your Mind
Meditation considerations. Baptism metaphor.
A3 Control
Christian cult propaganda. They verses us.
A4 Circus World
Christian bible students who never had an encounter with Christ. They rely on what they have been taught and want to argue the point with out a testimony.
A5 Harmony
Discovery of another world in dream sleep.
B1 The More You Know
Once you get it you can’t share it you can only live it.
B2 Rainbow
The promise of God. A change in values.
B3 All of the Truth
Redemption break through.
B4 Open Doors
Like it says open your mind and hart to the light. We are afraid of change even good change.
B5 Ode to Elias
An epic song to patronize Sir who clamed the mantel of Elias, in the Old Testament who returned as John the Baptist of the New Testament. Archetype to appear in the last days as SIR.
[SIR is the album’s producer Don Degraff who took on that name after the recording of OTQ]
DB: No credits were on the front or back cover [of Harbinger]. The studio was mentioned. SIR wanted to be invisible to the world and a star at the same time.
DB: 1967 while living at the beach I tried belladonna and spent the night in jail. Apparently I jumped out in front of a cop car trying to catch the heads lights. While in jail I had interesting conversations with lots of people who were not there, and the next morning and I couldn’t recall how I got there. There is no enlightenment with belladonna and not very fun. I don’t recommend it. The chief of police called my mom and I was taken home. Mom took me to the psychologist for a professional evaluation of my mental stability. The doctor asked some questions I told him the story. I remember his comment, “damn that must have been hairy“. He told mom was ok and I was released on good behavior, life went on.
Full interview here:
http://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/11/dave-bixby-interview-about-ode-to.html
Highly recommend a read thru. interesting story, interesting voice.
would also recommend the site/mag it’s on/in, called It’s Psychedelic Baby. they cover a lot of interesting music.
x
A short documentary about Dave Bixby:
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it’s a sad album but feels warm in this cold weather.
my select fav tracks + a Harbinger track:
Drug Song
Mother
666
+
LIVE in concert
the whole OTQ
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p.s. Hey. And today the wonderful writer and distinguished local Cal Graves has generously taken over the posting portion of the blog to introduce you/us to the unique musical stylings of Dave Bixby. I hadn’t known of his work before my assembling duties gave me a sneak peek, and this is quite a fascinating find, so I urge you to use your local part of today to become familiar with Bixby’s songs if you aren’t already. And, yes, please say something to Cal in any case to show him that his gift and devoted work is appreciated. Thanks, all, and major thanks to you, Cal! ** Armando, I’m busy and fine, thanks. There aren’t further showings of ‘PGL’ that I am allowed announce publicly at the moment. ** James Nulick, Hi. I only have 5 K’nex and I would never part with them. If the lost novel had a title, I don’t remember it. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t come up with ‘Closer’ yet. Hm, I think I probably wiped my mind of the loss during the reading, but I’m guessing. It’s all blurred. I hope you’ve arrived fit and sound in Seattle. Rain condolences. It’s so rainy in these parts that the Seine is flooding towns up and down the river and even leaking into Paris streets here and there. At the time, realising the novel-in-progress about George was a complete disaster did not sit well with me at all, that’s for sure. Well, a ‘traditional’ novel has always been and will always be beyond me, but I have a part-finished written novel that’s been back-burnered for about four years now. I feel pretty confident that I’ll go back and finish it. No idea when though. The passion to do that would need to return. I’m only passionate right now about making films and gif fiction, and I guess also writing stuff for Gisele on the side. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Oh, great, I’ll go order that Firbank. New Firbank: that’s exciting, obviously. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. I have a fondness for Rollin’s films. He was an author of POL, my French publisher, and I met him a couple of times. He was a real grumpy sweetheart. Huh, I’d like to watch ‘White Noise’ again. No, I don’t get that feeling about too much music being released, but my interests are relatively focused, I guess. I almost never check out new rock or hiphop or pop or so on unless someone recommends something or I read an intriguing opinion. But, yeah, I see what you mean, for sure. I’ll be seeing that Garrel at the Rotterdam festival. ** Cal Graves, There you are! Really, thanks a lot, Cal. I’m honored to host the post, and I’m excited and grateful to you to have made the discovery of Bixby’s work. I love paranormal investigation shows. They’re really the only reality TV I can stand. Well, I did love ‘Hoarders’. I didn’t know of that Canadian series. Ooh, that looks extremely tasty. Thank you! There go my extent plans for the day. My mom claimed to speak to and with spirits. She had this ghost/spirit named Philip whom she communicated with, and who dictated poetry through her and stuff the entire time I knew her. She was very heavily and wackily into that stuff. Freaked me the fuck out when I was really little and then became disconcertingly entertaining once I got old enough not to believe her. I’m not a Whitman fan, but I’m pretty alone in that, I think. His whole ‘celebrating the self’ thing and his exuberant exclamatory style just aren’t interesting to me at all. It’s very American, that’s for sure. Older, past poets? They’re mostly French: Baudelaire, Reverdy, Mallarme, and others. I don’t really care about American poetry before, like, the 1960s or 70s. All my favorite American poets who are dead pretty much died within the last couple of decades: James Tate, Ashbery, John Wieners, Brainard, Schuyler, … How are you taking to Whitman’s work? Thank you again! Gratitudinally, Dennis. ** Jamie, Hey, hey, bud! ‘A Voice Through a Cloud’ is incredible. 3/4 of it are kind of amazing genius. And it is disturbing and yet fascinating to watch the novel start to fall apart and lose its way and kind of fade out then stop abruptly at his death at the end. For now, and I think for good, there’s a ghost in our film. A very unusual and unusually depicted ghost, but a ghost nonetheless. Great about Hannah’s birthday in Paris! And if Parc Asterix makes the cut, awesome, and yet awesome whatever meeting up involves. Cool! Tuesday for me was a big meeting with Gisele and Zac to go over the script-in-progress of the mysterious project with her. She had a number of things she wants implemented, all of which made sense and are doable, so back to work. Then we went to the Jewish history museum to see a talk by Chantal Akerman’s longtime editor and watch Akerman’s film ‘Self Portrait’, which she made for TV and is very difficult to see, and that was great. And thus was my day in a nutshell. That would be good, yes! May anything that displeases you today be instantly transformed into a hologram at the very moment you decide it displeases you. By Harry Potter who also signs over to you all the residuals he has earned from the use of his brand in those movies. Meatless love, Dennis. ** Wolf, W! Thank you ever so much for making Madeleine happy! Thank you about my thinking re: filmmaking. It’s only really made possible by making films with quite low money, and I think Zac and I are pretty dead set on continuing to do it that way. Like ‘PGL’ has no debt at all. None of the funding we got needs to be reimbursed, so there was no pressure to make something conventionally commercially viable at all. That really, really makes a huge difference. Plus, we were so lucky that everyone we worked with on the film in every capacity has been fantastic. Understood and very interesting about your relationship to color. Yeah, Zac and I basically want the films to look like the world we shot them in, and we both have an instinctive horror of evident color saturation effects and stuff. The tricky thing is making, like, the sky or shadows or whatever in a scene look like they ‘happened’ in the 30 seconds to few minutes during which the scene occurs rather than the totally shifting way they looked over the hours and hours it took to shoot the scene. Oh, okay, project = plan, determination, etc. Yeah, I understand. I use that word too easily. Weird how easy it is to use words too loosely. Love to you! ** Amphibiouspeter, Hi, Abp. Thanks for the good words to Madeleine. Yeah, sigh, about Randy Newman. He’s playing here this month! I haven’t seen him in concerts in years. I’m excited. Thanks about the p.s. Yeah, it’s a weird, lunatic thing to do it every day, or so people keep telling me, but, yeah, it’s obviously very valuable for me too in so many ways. Wow, I will so totally spend quality time with that Dylan blog if you end up completing it. Wow. Blogging is, like, you know, driving a car or something. It becomes complicated second nature at some point. Which is weird. ** Misanthrope, Hi. May the path for your teeth remain forever smooth as silk, and may you stay forever young. Ha ha. You’re officially essential! Or unofficially but spiritually? Nice one. Yes, RIP Ursula LeGuin. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read her, but she said a lot of great things. ** Keetin, Yes! I remember thinking I was hallucinating. God, I miss that. I wonder what happened. Maybe ageing brains get too reality-affixed or something? Thank you, bud, and love back with extensions. ** Right. Do investigate what Cal has put before you today, and pipe up to him, and you will be happy blog campers, I swear to God. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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“There aren’t further showings of ‘PGL’ that I am allowed announce publicly at the moment.”
^ well, as soon as youre allowed could u please inform me?
why are u so cold and distant towards me now? im lucky if i get a 3-sentence reply nowadays. i wouldnt be complaining bout it, seeing how doing te ps is such long hard exhausting work but i see how differently u talk with/to everybody else. the contrast is huge. for example, i *ALWAYS* write to u with all the friendliness/friendship in the world and *ALWAYS* wish u the best and all that shit and u never even reply to that. never. at all. i dont know what i ever did 2 u. u, ur work and being able to talk to/with u mean so so so extremely much 2 me. ive always been good, decent and friendly towards u. do u dislike me because u hate so many of my opinions? what is it?
if u, just like Michael, really dislike me now and wish u wouldnt have to deal with me anymore at all, please just say so and ill just leave you alone forever. just please be honest.
Merci, Cal!
“Quetzacoatl” of course means Q — my favorite Larry Cohen movie.
The new Garrel “Lover For a Day” opens here in L.A. on Friday. For some reason I missed the press screening. It stars his daughter Esther — who has significant role in “Call Me By Your Name” All Garrel is worth seeing, though I still say he has yet to top his Nico period.
Thanks David! I havent of that Larry Cohen flick, will def check that out
Hi!!
I’m finally back! God, I won’t even start detailing the whole moving experience – I guess it’s enough to say that it was the kind of thing where everything that possibly could go wrong, did. Or almost. But. The new apartment now starts to look like an actual home and I find myself liking it quite a lot. Traveling to Budapest is also a lot easier because we’re close to the train station and I don’t have to take the bus to get there. One thing that still sucks though is (oh, yes) the internet connection. We hardly have any connection at all most of the time and we constantly have to call the company and complain. (Our previous company doesn’t provide here so we had to replace them and the possibilities are pretty… poor around here. I don’t even understand, it’s as if we moved to a fucking farm or something.) (So if I disappear again suddenly, it’s certainly because of this.)
How are you? What’s happening on your end? I’m all excited to hear about everything I missed!
I saw the trailer of ‘Permanent Green Light’ and oh god!! Congratulations!! I thought, even if I didn’t know it’s your and Zac’s film, I’d still want to watch it after this teaser. The World Premiere is very-very close now!!
I hope you’re well and all your projects (especially, especially your new script!) are progressing nicely!
@ Cal Graves: thank you so much for the post! I wasn’t familiar with Dave Bixby’s name/work at all!
Thanks for love Dora, glad you’re back!!
@ Cal Graves,
Thank you for this day, I’d never heard of Bixby before this.. I’ll listen to these songs while I do some writing.. hopefully that metallic acid taste of cerebral-spinal effluvia won’t affect my writing. I did read 2012 Quetzacoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck about 11 years ago and was quite ready for the mothership or sea change to arrive, but alas Bitcoin is a complete failure and I still walk the Earth, so… and oh Cal, I thanked you the other day regarding your fine words w/r/t your signed copy of Distemper, not sure you saw it. If you want a signed copy of Valencia drop me an email, jnulick at gmail dot com. I’d just need $10 for the Postal Service (I’m underpaid because work for the government).
Dennis,
Please forgive me.. by ‘traditional novel’ I didn’t mean traditional novel in that sense, I meant 200 buff-colored pages between paperboard, sewn together with thread.. with front matter and back matter, you know, a physical book as opposed to a gif novel, that’s all i meant by traditional. I know you could never write a “traditional novel” (my fingers in air rn)
Dennis have you seen the movie Super Dark Times? If not, I think you’d like it. I saw it last night… the person who wrote it really gets the dialogue right, because of course authentic teenage dialogue is very difficult to capture with all its stops, starts, hesitations and coded fermatas. I think you would dig it, as sitcom stars used to say in the 70s.
Xoxo,
James
Ah you made me blush James. I would love to have a copy of Valencia. I’ll shoot you an email and we’ll work that out. Thanks!
Cal graves,
Great day, Ode to Quetzalcoatl will be the soundtrack to my day for sure. Looking forward to delving into it properly.
Dennis,
Hey man i’ve realised that one of the things i’ve kind of missed since moving to peru is having a group of writers to share and comment on works in progress with. I think for me it really helps to share stuff i’m working on…partly i guess due to a slight lack of faith, i guess…and so i was thinking of putting it out there if anyone from here wanted to form a kind of ‘workshop’ online somewhere? I don’t know exactly how it would work but it could be weekly or monthly…a set page limit or something…all of those are details i guess to be hashed out if the interest is there. Just a thought.
Anyway, hope everything is going well. Been watching the pgl trailer a fair bit…it gets better every time.
Thanks tomk! it’s a great waking around outside album esp if it’s gloomy grey
Cal Graves, thanks for the post. Definitely an interesting character. Totally not my kind of music, but those songs above have a really striking quality, I don’t know if it’s his voice or the way they’ve been recorded. Kind of chilly, but good chilly.
Denny Boy Cee! How are you?
I just purchased A Voice Through a Cloud after reading your description. Very much looking forward to reading it. I’m nearing the end of A Far Cry From Kensington, which has taken some surprising turns, but is very much one of the most delightful books I’ve ever read.
There’s a ghost in your movie! I’m all for that. An ‘unusual and unusually depicted ghost’……?! My mind boggles beautifully.
Did you have another day on the mystery project? When will you be able to talk about it, if ever?
After my parents last night, we have Hannah’s parents tonight. They’re cool.
May your Thursday be the opposite of a horror movie.
Normal, but only barely so, love,
Jamie
Thanks Jamie! I’ve picky about folk/country/wgwag stuff and it has to be spooky or haunting or else it’s just plain boring. What about this genre you dislike? What other types of music are more your vibe?
Hey Cal, thanks for the post and the new knowledge of Dave Bixby.
Hey DC,
Ah sweet how many times have you seen him? Has he put anything (non soundtrack) out since harps and angels?
The ps (or blog in general) is not something I reckon I’d have the discipline to do every day. Never could sustain a diary/Twitter/whatever.
Ah sweet will send you a link when it’s done, although as I said before – at this rate you may not be spending much time at all with it aha. It’s getting a bit of a drag going through what is a massive back catalogue looking for something which it turns out may not be there.
Tc x
Thanks for the warmth Amphibiouspeter!
hi dennis, i was gonna rant about my problems but then mark esmith dies so fuck that
2 days for me to finish (start) the works, ooh i hope your film with zach kills em
and if you have some pixie dust throw it now, okay ?
love you, alex,x
Here’s some information on a Spirit box set:https://www.cherryred.co.uk/92861-2/. I know they’re one of your favorite bands of the California psych scene. I only have one album, THE TWELVE DREAMS OF MR. SARDONICUS, and would like to get this, although a 5-CD import box sounds pretty expensive.
My two favorite Garrel films are THE INNER SCAR and LES HAUTES SOLITUDES, both made with Nico (although Jean Seberg dominates the latter). I think he was a better non-narrative director, although J’ENTENDS PLUS LA GUITARRE, THE BIRTH OF LOVE & REGULAR LOVERS are certainly major films. I would say that LOVER FOR A DAY is one of his weaker recent films, stronger on one of its two plot lines (friendship between two women in their 20s) than the other (a May/December relationship.) But the B&W cinematography is absolutely gorgeous.
R.I.P. Mark E. Smith. Consumerism isn’t the greatest way to respond to the deaths of great musicians, but while I have had no luck getting a copy of the Fall singles box set so far, I just placed an order via Rough Trade’s mail order website. I feel inclined to play the first disc of their complete Peel sessions box, which I do own.
Fascinating stuff, Cal – a totally new one for me. Thanks!
Dennis – RIP Mark E Smith. Totally gutted.
Thanks Thomas, glad you dig it!
@ Cal, thank you for this introduction. I very much enjoyed the plaintive Drug Song.
RIP Mark E Smith, we shall not hear his like again. This is the great man reading the English football results.
Thanks _Black_Acrylic, it’s crazy how hurt he was by his habit and how well he can convey that, it’s like you’re coming off the trip w him.
Hey Dennis,
Thanks for putting up my post again!
Ghostly reality shows are the best not only in content but also daydreaming about the production and what the cry must have been doing/going thru while they were making it. That’s almost better than the show itself in my book.
That’s really interesting re: your mom. Spiritual-Sighted persons can be really freaky esp when young people are involved. Kinda cool that Phillip wrote poems with/thru your mom tho, imo and funny you should mention that too, I was looking up a book recently supposedly written using Automatic Writing (were a ghost/spirit controls your hand or dictates to you), it’s called Swan on a Black Sea by Geraldine Cummins. Havent read it yet, but I will report back if I do.
I havent heard of Mallarme, will check them out.
I enjoy Whitman I guess. More how he strings his lines together, and Im a fan of longer lines in general. Im more into like phrases he creates–sound is more important to me than content in most poetry context. His stuff did kinda inspire me tho: think im going to make the narrator of the third Poz book/section be super into Whitman when he’s younger and an active blogger person writing about w/e. We’re doing Dickinson and Frost next which blows because I dislike her and fucking hate him. Ah well. We arent far from the funner stuff.
Thanking-ly
cal
Cal, I like his voice. I like the deliberateness of what he does too. Great stuff. (And of course, totally new to me.)
Dennis, I spoke too soon on the silky smooth dentist. The pain came roaring back this evening. I’ve got an appointment at noon on Saturday if I can make it till then. I never had a fucking problem with these teeth until I got those fucking fillings. I’m gonna tell her just to extract it, pay up my debts there (somehow, I have an outstanding balance of $42.10, though I paid everything they charged me), and then cancel the cleaning/de-scaling appointment on February 12. I’ve decided I’m not letting anyone touch my teeth ever again.
Yes, officially essential. Another government shutdown and I’ll be working and getting paid (eventually).
Join the club. I haven’t read LeGuin either. Sad, I know.
And fuck, Mark E Smith too? The world really sucks sometimes.
Hey Dennis ~ Been meaning to write cuz i’m editing a big selection of Bruce Boone’s writing and will be including his long critical essay on O’Hara (the one called “Gay Language as political Praxis”, from 1979) and it includes a full page facsimile of yr piece “The Population of Heaven on Earth,” from Little Caesar, no. 3, 1977, about which Bruce writes toward the end of the article. Just want to be sure yr cool with it reappearing. Also gonna include his review of yr Tenderness of the Wolves that originally ran in Fuse back in 82. Oh, yeah, and I’ve also been meaning to ask you if you ever received a copy of my last book Common Place from Ugly Duckling Presse. They said they were sending you a copy, but if not, I’ll send you one myself. Great seeing you in Oct. Hope all’s well on yr end. ~ xo, Rob.
I like the helpful information you provide in your article.
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