Spider Sense
In Review
Artist: William Arthur Clark, A.K.A. Lucky Criminal
Song: Vessel
Album: Strung Out
“We humans fear the beast within the wolf because we do not understand the beast within ourselves.”
I open with a quote my legendary storyteller Gerald Hausman.
Lucky Criminal’s new album, Strung Out, is shiveringly polished and fucking delightful to experience.
Some thoughts on the song Vessel.
Here are the lyrics.
This vessel of mine and it's needs fears desires/How silly am I to think I had control/ When you came to my side out of worry and of wonder/ My mind was too wary thought you too scary
So suddenly my chimpanzee lizard brain reaction/ brought a crushing hand down and I'm so sorry that it happened/ but there's nothing I can do now but feel the pain you can't so I will/ I'm sorry little Spiderbro still
This vessel of mine such anxious disposition/ So quickly to judge and lay out decisions/ It's enemies within but it's lashing out consistent/ You should have known the danger/ Couldn't keep yourself a stranger
This vessel of mine a jumbled bag of feelings/ A dopamine junkie from the receptors I am wielding/ And nothing must get in its way/ And I'm sorry that you did that day
This vessel of mine/ This vessel of mine/ a jumbled bag of feelings/ A dopamine junkie/ from the receptors I am wielding/ And nothing must get in its way
For me, the spider symbolizes the fragility of the ecosystem of whom we are guests; the hand symbolizes time and our collision course with the extinction of most of the earth's native animal species and plant life, as well as the disappearance of natural clean air and fresh water, and the death of the spider represents the fear that there is nothing we can truly do to alter our course; we have already killed 'the spider.'
"How silly am I to think I had control, when you came to my side out of worry and wonder."
We humans, he sings, by our unexplainable existence, are fated to hasten the crumbling of life. The evidence of this is all around. Entire populations, both human and animal, are either enslaved and worked until they perish and or disposed of as a casualty of our being. They are meglected or abused, then forgotten. They are left to die or decay in prison or in refugee camps or inescapable warzones, decrepit urban hives, and rural wastelands.
"You should have known the danger."
Yet, we refuse to take responsibility for our actions. You should have known the danger of being born.
I believe our spider still, barely, lives.
Why do I believe this is so; that the singer lies?
Because I believe Lucky Criminal has given a secret in the form of a song. He calls it Vessel, which is the password; the hint. It is to remind us that we are blinded by our needs, fears, and desires and have forgotten our real power.
When I heard Vessel, the words and music caused time to temporarily stand still. The song stopped the hand and the spider and the death in time, and I understood that we are given the chance to stop our hand and save our solitary earth, our lonesome planet, but we are losing to ourselves.
We may be banished to the depths of deep space, but our power is not an illusion.
By Jonathan Harper Sibley
Hear the music it at http://luckycriminal.bandcamp.com/
