The Poetry of Rock n' Roll: "Ghosts" by Yungblud

To observe National Poetry Month, once a week I am featuring lyrics of rock n' roll or pop songs that also double as exquisite poetry.

"Ghosts" by Yungblud is an ode to tenacity, about finding beauty in the face of ugliness, tenderness in the face of barbarism, hope in the face of despair, and good in the face of evil...something we could use now. It is an organically arising resistance based on a simple, undying desire to be present in this world...really present.

I always post songs in this series without any link to the video or music since the lyrics are the point. But this is one of those instances where being able to hear the music--and see the performance--only enhances the strong message, so click here for a soaring, energetic experience!

Ghosts
by Yungblud (Dominic Harrison)

I see the distant smoke
Across the water way
I’d swim a thousand miles
Just to hear you say
The words that never come
When you need them most
To dry your eyes out

Is it your mother's tongue
Or your fathers ghost
Remember sticks and stones
And how they broke your bones
Pain is how you learn
And boy you learned a lot
When they hit you in the face
And you begged them all to stop
Until you rose up again
And you tried your best to surrender
Bowed down your head
Then you looked up to the sky and said

My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
God, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven

From underneath the dust
You see the curtain call
Can’t bear to watch another generation stall
To the hands of greed
That will take it all
And cut your heart out

See the face in the shadow
Just a thread in the seams
We’ll be ghosts by tomorrow
Just a day in a dream

But you’ll rise up again
And you’ll fight against the surrender
My friends don’t wait
Just look up to the sky and say

My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
God, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven
God, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
God, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven

https://www.yungbludofficial.com/

"Ghosts" by YUNGBLUD

I am moved to post this song, "Ghosts" by YUNGBLUD... considering this is Pride Month, some of the lyrics echo issues many of us recall from our lives.

And I am so knocked out by this energetic, soaring live version (filmed at Hansa Studios, the sacred ground where Bowie created his "Heroes" album) that builds to, dare I say, a classic Maslowian peak experience.

 

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,
I see the distant smoke
Across the water way
I’d swim a thousand miles
Just to hear you say
The words that never come
When you need them most
To dry your eyes out
Is it your mothers tongue
Or your fathers ghosts
Remember sticks and stones
And how they broke your bones
Pain is how you learn
And boy you learned a lot
When they hit you in the face
And you begged them all to stop
Until you rose up again
And you tried your best to surrender
Bowed down your head
Then you looked up to the sky and said
My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven
From underneath the dust
You see the curtain call
Can’t bear to watch another generation stall
To the hands of greed
That will take it all
And cut your heart out
See the face in the shadow
Just a thread in the seams
We’ll be ghosts by tomorrow
Just a day in a dream
But you’ll rise up again
And you’ll fight against the surrender
My friends don’t wait
Just look up to the sky and say
My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven
My god, what a beautiful scene

Now I know what you mean
Wanna stay here forever
My god, what a beautiful scene
Now I know what you mean
You’re my gateway to heaven
Alright

https://www.yungbludofficial.com/

The York Ghost Merchants

For Halloween, I would love one of these delightful, little handmade ghosts from York, England. Alas, The York Ghost Merchants make them in small batches, released only a few times a year. I need to keep an eye out and catch one the next time they are released.

Their website offers a delightful summary:

Welcome to the Ghost Merchants
The ancient city of York has a reputation for being the most haunted city in Europe, perhaps even the world. There is rich tradition here of ghost story-telling which stretches back for many centuries. Ghosts are an integral although undeniably obscure part of our city’s story. York Ghosts are firmly embedded in this history.

Each York Ghost is handmade in our own workshops, combining the best of British materials with the sagacity and resource of generations of Guild craftsmen and women.

Our business follows the traditions imposed by The Sorrowful Guild of Master Ghost Makers. We adhere to traditional values and methods, our ghosts are always made by hand and the techniques that we use ensure that each York Ghost is a true original, complete with an embossed maker’s mark.

York Ghosts are individually packaged in exquisite travelling boxes featuring a hand drawn Ghost Merchants shop, to make the ghost feel at home on its journey from the Shambles to far away places. The Original York Ghost is wrapped in an 1852 map of York, and our Little York Ghost comes in the “Boo” box with oval gilt edged viewing aperture.

Our ghosts are made by hand in small batches and we do not operate a mass production business model. Our shop at No.6 Shambles is open 6 days a week and has over 600 Ghosts to choose from. Our second location ‘The Dispensary’ in St Anthony’s Garden opened in 2023 and stocks Original Ghosts, Little Ghosts and Phantoms.

Every ghost is unique, “with a spirit all its own”

Our one concern is your delight.

Black and White Sweep Ghosts

Black Friday Barnardo's Ghosts

Black Kraken Ghost

Solid hand-cast Bronze Ghost

The Comtesse

Crazed Grey Ghost

Drapery Misses

Firebrick Sweep Ghost

Grey Lady Ghosts

Jubbergate Huckster

Lost Woodland Ghosts

Ghosts created for release in March 2021

Mythe Ghost

Ghost in Oxidized Iron

Poison Garden Ghosts

Hand-cast Polished Aluminum Ghosts

Winter Green Ghosts

Website:
https://www.yorkghostmerchants.com/

And if you don't live in or near enough to York to get a ghost of your very own, keep an eye on their Instagram account for information regarding releases of new ghost batches!
https://www.instagram.com/yorkghostmerchants/

BEAUTY: Art For Halloween--Angela Deane

These sweet images of ghosts going about their everyday lives are by painter Angela Deane. She writes about this series on her website:

THESE ARE THE GHOSTS OF OUR MOMENTS.

"We are the ever-living ghost
of what once was."
- Ben Bridwell
(Band of Horses)

Through this body of work, I engage with found photographs. Already, these objects have a history unknown to me and speak of another’s memory, removed in both time and space. In these photographs, I cover the people with paint, subtracting the specific identity of each person and transforming them into anonymous ghosts for the viewer to project upon. In this way, a private and specific experience becomes an open and shared one through the material addition of paint on photograph. Through this haunting of the material, the ghosts become us and we become the ghosts.

We become the ghosts of our everyday.

Top to bottom: Dessert; Float; For You To Remember; Frank At The Picnic; On My Way; Outside Of The Plane In Switzerland; Peek-a-boo; San Fran; Snowy Wave; Teacups; Tree With Strange Decorations; Trick Or Treat (Ghost On Ghost)

https://angeladeane.com/home.html

Ghosts

Victorian Ghost Photography

In the mid-1800s, Spirit Photography became the rage. Mediums and Spiritists employed a method of double exposing negatives (a process unknown to the public since photography was still a rather new medium) in order to convince people that they were being contacted and visited by the spirits of loved ones. It is easy to see that many people believed in this (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a huge believer) but it's also easy to see that some indulged in this practice with their tongue in their cheek. And some photos, as you can see, were absolutely staged, no doubt as a kind of "business card" for the medium and photographer.

Do you believe in ghosts?