Friday, October 1, 2010

MURMUR: MORAL KIOSK

Moral Kiosk is a song of mixed idioms and metaphors, idle hands are the devil's plaything, bull in a china shop.  And also about myths, the horae, Kahedin's magic pillow.  Not sure about the landslide bit, but there is a novel which revolves around moral themes in which one of the characters is named "Bull."  Coincidence?  Probably.  In any case, this song in chopping up its idioms creates a kind of cool pastiche.  This might be the closest look at the writing mind of Michael Stipe than any other song on Murmur.  If we branch out to the other tunes, they all contain some sort of legend or myth, and they all have their mixed idioms.  Sort of a deconstructed album.  In scattering jumbled idioms about, the mind makes a connection and in their incomplete state helps to make other connections that might not have been obvious or consciously intended.   There is definitely a concerted effort by the band to make their songs re-listenable ... you want to play them again and again and try to make as many connections as possible.  In all likelihood, this song is a response to "Turning Japanese" which has a huge amount of racist implications--an instance of cultural appropriation. That song is perhaps in the Moral Kiosk of a fun tune that is misguided (at the very least) or at the most offensively belittling to an entire culture. So are there racial implications in this song? Of course ... I'm still not convinced Stipe is not saying 'oriental head (or hair)' in the verse and he is DEFINITELY saying something about being oriental in the last break, but it is derived from a spoken word thing he used to do live ... it's indecipherable, but I have approximated for now.


MORAL KIOSK
Scratch those candles in the twilight
China shop, but instead
Idle hands are orient to her
Pass a magic pillow under head

So much more attractive inside the moral kiosk

Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)
Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)

Scratch those candles in the twilight
She was laughing like a horae
Without me in sour landslide
Take the steps to dash a roving eye

So much more attractive inside the moral kiosk

Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)
Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)

Oh!

Scratch those candles in the twilight
China shop, but instead
Idle hands are orient to her
Pass a magic pillow under head

So much more attractive inside the moral kiosk

Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)
Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)

I'm group oriental
Is I'm group oriental?

Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)
Inside
(It's so cold)
Moral Kiosk
(It's so ... )
Fire, twilight
(dark)


It is likely that there are 2 guitars at work here playing fairly similar lines.  The way I've laid it out here requires matching up the tab to the rhythm of the song as there are a lot of open and power chords.  The last bit is particularly tricky, so a listen is helpful.

MORAL KIOSK

Intro and Chorus:
e|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------------------|
B|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-----------------------------|
G|-4-2-2-4-2-2-4-2-2-4-----------------------------|
D|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------------------|
A|-------------------------------------------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------|

Verse:
e|-10-10---0-------0--------------------------------|
B|--x--x---0--0----0--0-----------------------------|
G|--7--6---1-3-3-1-1-3-3-1--------------------------|
D|--7--7---2-------2--------------------------------|
A|---------2-------2--------------------------------|
E|---------0-------0--------------------------------|

Bridge 1:
“So much more … “
e|-0-0-0-0-----------------------------------------|
B|-0-0-0-0-----------------------------------------|
G|-2-4-9-4-----------------------------------------|
D|-4-6-9-4-----------------------------------------|
A|-4-6-7-2-----------------------------------------|
E|-0-0-0-0-----------------------------------------|

Bridge 2: Pick last B chord formation
e|-0-0-0-0-0-2-------------------------------------|
B|-0-0-0-0-0-4-------------------------------------|
G|-7-6-4-7-6-4-------------------------------------|
D|-7-6-4-7-6---------------------------------------|
A|-5-4-2-5-4---------------------------------------|
E|-0-0-0-0-0---------------------------------------|

Bridge 3: x4 During final chorus
Only go to the 15/12 part 1st and 3rd times through
e|-0-0-0-0-0-0-15-12-15-12--------------------------|
B|-12-10-12-12-0-0-0-0-0-0--------------------------|
G|-0-0-0-0-0-0--------------------------------------|

1 comment:

  1. I left my most essential (to me!) comment on the 'Pilgrimage' entry, but I just want to say one thing about 'Moral Kiosk' (and that's all, I promise!) From my 'Pilgrimage' comment, if things add up as I hinted, Side 1 of 'Murmur' must be my favourite Side of REM (I am from that time that thinks of albums as having 'sides', whether they first appeared on record or on CD) (And having claimed, in that aforementioned comment, that my top 3 REM songs are on Side 1 of Murmur, I just now realized that my next 3 or 4 REM songs are on [both Sides] of 'Monster'.) But enough about me – I can't quite express how exciting I am finding your carefully-considered findings RE the famously vague lyrics of early REM. Just want to add one thought about this song, which is so cleverly constructed in that it makes sure that the only words that can be discerned ('It's so much more attractive inside the moral kiosk') can be absolutely PERFECTLY understood, offsetting the murkiness of the verses and their possible meanings. I have to admit that over many decades, I never even imagined that this song commented on 'The Orient' or that it might have problematic racist lyrical elements. (And 23-year old me –– my age when this album was released –– was super-, possibly over-sensitive to the politics of the pop music I listened to. Reading your transcription leaves intact my vague feelings that the song described the difficulties of 'orienting' oneself, of orientation in general, of being able to see one's surroundings, at twilight, with the aid of a candle, and, by metaphoric extension, the difficulty of orienting oneself to the ideologies or belief systems that are inescapable in human existence –– and that things really WOULD be so much more 'attractive' inside a 'moral kiosk', if only such an Archimedean viewing station actually was available to us. The 'china shop' reference is, I believe, a red herring (NOT using red in THAT sense!) --- these were two of the few understandable words in the song to me, outside of the 'moral kiosk' chorus statement. And 'china shop' to my mind immediately evokes the phrase 'a bull in a china shop', which fits entirely with the DISorienting feelings that I think this song is concerned with. But, as I said in my 'Pilgrimage' comment, I defer to your readings of the songs as they are obviously based on serious research and thinking (and the possible racism of the song, the idea of it being a critique of The Vapor's hit 'Turning Japanese', etc are super-interesting to consider, and I assume are based on conversations that have taken place within REM / pop music fan communities over the years. Thanks again for your efforts and for keeping the blog running all this time!

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