16 :: I Might Recite a Small Prayer :: A Slow Drag with "Bedlam"

Today’s slow drag is with “Bedlam,” from “The Delivery Man” released in 2004. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

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Written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA

Twitter: @slowdragremedy

Email: [email protected]

Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

References:

“Bedlam” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DipIDbymOj8

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Bedlam

YouTube Visual Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJm-6rDJ2k 

“Bedlam” etymology:  https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1050-1485/from-bethlehem-to-bedlam/

How Bedlam became “a palace for lunatics” http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161213-how-bedlam-became-a-palace-for-lunatics

St. Francis of Assisi: https://www.earthday.org/2016/10/06/patron-saint-animals-ecology/

1977 “Life Goes On” The Kinks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7eg30GvV9E

Elvis Costello 1991 version of The Kink’s 1969 “Days” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmivtDdL-Fo

Britain’s favorite song, “Jerusalem” https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5980126/jerusalem-lyrics-national-anthem-england-hymn-meaning/

“Jerusalem” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJqhoBUT14

“Jerusalem” version w/ William Blake’s lyrics subtitled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKRHWT6xdEU

Thirty pieces of silver: http://www.theology-centre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Thirty_pieces_of_silver.pdf

Jake in Notts twitter: @jake_in_notts

"Bedlam" Lyrics

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burned out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
And I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
And if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
The ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"
Into the pit of sadness
Where the wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents
Now we must bury revenge

They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine

Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause
Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors
When he knew the consequences, but he won't admit the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors