DOWNLOAD HERE

LISTEN HERE

 

>>The title is a reference to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II):

"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world \ Like a Colossus; and we petty men \ Walk under his huge legs, and peep about \ To find ourselves dishonourable graves."

>>John Beecher was blacklisted in 1950 and didn't get his teaching job back until 1977

>>Beecher wasn't just a poet: he practiced what he preached. He worked in the Birmingham steel mills, fought the union busters, aggressively promoted civil rights, and worked as a fieldhand alongside sharecroppers and migrant workers. And he didn't stop there....

>>Commissioner St. Clair is Beecher's grandson

 

Welcome to The Singles - Season 2 finale! Bestride the Narrow World, episode #11 from The Singles - Season 2, is available today! Download it for FREE HERE!

 

We'd really like to thank all of you for playing along and making The Singles - Season 2 such a success. When we started giving away the tracks, we didn't think many people would actually take the option of donating to the cause. We couldn't have been more wrong! We're amazed and incredibly grateful that so many of you have ponied up the shekels, even though you didn't have to.... So, thank you, merci, danke, grazie, xie-xie, spasiba, jerejef, meda se, dank je fel, usema, takk, dalu, moshakir, obrigados, kabkoon krup, dankwa, ineche, gracias..........

 

And remember, this isn't goodbye - we'll be releasing the hard-copy Season 2 Collector's Edition on August 17 (complete with artwork, liner notes, and at least one bonus track), and in a few months The Singles - Season 3 will pick up right where we left off. So, thank you all again, and we hope you've enjoyed the ride!

 

Read on for this week's liner notes....

Originally written in 1962, John Beecher's poem was a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis and a reflection on the Cold War in general. But like most of his work, it's just as appropriate today as it was 45 years ago. I can't think of a better way to describe how Dick "Darth" Cheney viewed the rest of the world than the last few phrases in this poem.... I'll shut up now and let The Man do the talking:

 

Bestride the Narrow World
We dangled them upon the edge a week,

letting them savor death and then reprieved

them from their jeopardy a space. The style

is new. Th' abominations of his war

moved Lincoln to unmanly tears. Perhaps

he pondered Scripture overmuch. We too

bring God into our speeches. Fustian
we spout as well to cloak our naked sword

in words of righteous tone. Small matter if

the skeptical are unconvinced. We have
the countervailing force to make them cringe.

No power makes us stoop to parley. Proud
as pterodactyls in their prime are we,
mighty as mammoths whose unrivaled thews
the tundra binds in ice perpetual.

The Music

This song is a good example of how things work around here when something doesn't immediately click: Initially named Jungle Dub, we started fiddling with the basics for this song sometime in 2005-ish. It got to a certain point and didn't seem like it was going anywhere, so we let it sit. Then earlier this year, we brushed it off, re-tracked some of the guitars and had Lou replace the programmed beats with the genuine article. The final piece of the puzzle was adding John's poem (recorded in the mid-1960s, BTW). The funny thing is that when I dropped his piece into the project file, I barely had to do any editing - John's phrasing fit the song so well, it was almost as if he had originally read the poem to a metronome set at the same tempo as this song! Freaky, I tell ya....

Citizens
cover art: "cover #28" by Tone Deaf
Conrad St. Clair: bass, keys, programming
Mike Stehr: keys
Lou Caldarola: drum kit
Chris Huntington: guitar
Beaker: guitar
John Beecher: spoken word
Edi Gbordzi: percussion
Tim Gruber: percussion

On August 17, we will release the The Singles - Season 2 Collector's Edition, a CD and booklet containing all the songs, artwork and liner notes along with (at least) one bonus track. The CDs will be for sale exclusively through our web store HERE - MP3s are cool and all that, but to get the full hot aural action of Season 2, you really need to hear the CD versions! The artwork is right purty, too....