K Recommends: “These Are the Ghosts” by A Band of Bees
I will forever cherish all those albums we played when I worked in a Cincinnati record store that NEVER failed to enliven the entire staff. Inevitably, when it came to such releases, someone browsing the store would come up to the front and ask what was playing. “Free the Bees” by A Band of Bees (aka The Bees ) was one such piece of musical mastery.
This particular collection has a 60s garage sound with a psychedelic bent. The moment that opening chord is strung at the beginning of “Free the Bees,” I get both a cold and warm sensation that stuns my system and puts me on notice for the first track, “These Are the Ghosts.” The airy lyrics and echo, the knock of drums, the gnash of guitars and the low warbling of the organ culminate into a few minutes of mindful distraction. As my goosebumps and whole self travel the expanse laid out by the overall song, I brace myself for the journey to come as I start to experience this entire album… and I float on words that are here to guide me:
Think of a lesson as a weapon in love…
If only I could use my experiences, trial and error moments and all those times I lived and learned to move forward!
Stay positive and show stiff lipNothing you can doBut let time tick away
Enjoy the ride, K, and don’t take so much so seriously!
I need twice as much spaceAnd half as many things
Ahhh… a reminder of the notion of impermanence and how I long to achieve peace in the now, not just fast-forwarding assuming everything will be better later!
There a lot of ghosts hanging around in my head. This song turns A Band of Bees into the shaggy, music-savvy paranormal investigators this girl needs to be at ease; always learning, always healing.
We can bury the memoryIf we don’t want to go backWe’re forward wantingPast the haunting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdKYeJ-b6hk&feature=emb_title(Song recommendation by K Weber)