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The Thing

by Sister Black Lagoon

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about

Back around 1985 while I was in college at New Mexico State University, my pal Chris M. and I made a last minute road trip before the semester began to the ocean at San Diego. We visited The Thing on the way and I was so disturbed by the thought that The Thing may have been an illegally dug up Native body of the Southwest and debased into a roadside attraction that I wrote a song about it. Later it was performed by the local seminal art-punk band Anxiety of Silence (available on Pen & Mallet site), but never properly recorded. I have since discovered that The thing is actually a fabricated mummy or two, but the idea had haunted me for years and needed revisiting with Sister Black Lagoon. Research describes The Thing is an Arizona roadside attraction hyped by signs along Interstate 10 between El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. A large number of billboards entice travelers along this sparse stretch of desert highway to stop, just to find out what the mysterious "Thing" might be. The "mummy" object, supposedly is believed to have been made by exhibit creator Homer Tate for sideshows and is behind a large trinket shop. Paying visitors are led to three prefabricated corrugated steel sheds. Inside are a variety of exhibits, including odd wood carvings of tortured souls by one Ralph Gallagher, the "wooden fantasy" of painted driftwood purchased from an Alamogordo collector, framed lithographs, saddles, rifles, a covered wagon and several vintage automobiles. Most of the exhibits are dusty and poorly maintained. A sign by a 1937 Rolls-Royce makes the claim that it was once used by Adolf Hitler. Winding corridors and exhibit halls with painted monster footprints on the floors eventually lead to the titular Thing, a mummified mother-and-child tableau encased in a glass-covered coffin. All this is likely much more than you wanted, but that's an odd facet of my social personality.

lyrics

The Thing

I wanna save my green
and buy that ancient mummy Thing
ah just think of all the good times he would bring
he’d liven up my parties like an ancient Elvis king
I’m gonna save my green
and buy me that Mummy Thing!

This body’s bridled
this body’s broken
this body’s flooded
this body’s spoken, spoken...

Sacred blood, sacred blood
spirits, corn, water & sand
(my people they did plant me, and again I will grow
no longer flesh, I am expressed)
Don’t be outmuscled, for a story to take home
for a star to sleep in the point of your head
for something to glitter in the palm of your hand!
(Yellowing paper, yellowing nightgowns, yellowing moon)
My people said they would plant me
and again I would grow
(no longer flesh I am expressed)
Waiting on my princess, fruit blooming below
(my people they did plant me)
The dark thought, the dark shame, the dark malice…
(no longer flesh, this being human is a guest house)
with your fair share all gone…
(sweep your house, sweep your house)

Light from right hemisphere
signals from other stations
there’s signs of water in the desert now
Earth Mother configurations

My people, they did plant me…
(be grateful for whoever comes)

Raul Dorn
Original lyrics circa 1986 (AOS), revised 10/2017

credits

released December 7, 2017
Music/Mixing/Magic: Alex Kassim
Voice/Lyrics: Raul Dorn
Original Art: Australian artist Marlies Oakley
See website or Instagram account @marliesoakley
https:// www.marlies.com.au

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Sister Black Lagoon New Mexico

Alex and Raul have known one another since art school in the late 80's, and made noise togetherr in the alternative folk- rock band Utopia Go-Cart and the noisy darkness Muzzled back in the 90's. They put their heads together again in 2017 after a collaboration with the band Curios. Connect with us at sisterblacklagoon@gmail.com ... more

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