Music of Kenneth Anger's "Puce Moment"

The two song soundtracking this Kenneth Anger short film have always been on my mind and today I woke up with nothing to do and suddenly had an urge to sit and and figure them out. This post on WFMU's Beware of the Blog has the titles "Leaving My Old Life Behind" and "I'm a Hermit" but little else other than what the credits say, that the music was made by Jonathan Halper. Apparently there is no information on Mr. Halper and the only opinions are that he either died young, renunciated in the early 70s to become a Tibetan monk, or was actually a ghost name for John Lennon and George Harrison. On WFMU's blog someone says "HE AT ONE POINT HAD A BAND CALLED DEVOLUTION,CIRCA 1969-1970.AND PLAYED IN MENTAL HOSPITALS ETC IN THE EDINBURGH AREA OF SCOTLAND." So who knows? The fact is that these songs kick total ass and he's how to play them:

Leaving My Old Life Behind

VERSE (Db B E F# (x3) then Db B F#)

I learned quite a lot
shooting through my mind
things i never guessed at before

and so i decided
to leave my old life behind
i don't need it anymore

Chorus (Eb F# Eb F# Db B F# (x2))
I'm gonna learn to climb the clouds
I'm gonna learn to climb the wind
I wont stop til Ive understood the dark

I'm gonna learn to fly the clouds
I'm gonna understand the air
My mind will listen to the stars

BACKWARDS GUITAR SOLO (same as 1 chorus)

VERSE (Db B E F# (x3) then Db B F#)

To everyone else i appear quite the same
And i help them as much as I can

But they'll never know that my mind is in the air
O how could they ever understand

CHORUS (Eb F# Eb F# Db B F# (x2))

I'm gonna learn to climb the clouds
I'm gonna pull upon the rain
I'll learn what lies beneath the earth

I'm gonna learn to climb the clouds
I'm gonna understand the space
I'll even go back beyond birth

BACKWARDS GUITAR SOLO (same as 1 chorus)


I Am A Hermit

INTRO
C D
I am a hermit
C D
I am a hermit

CHORUS
C D
Yes I am a hermit
C D
My mind is not the same
C D Cm G
Yes I am a hermit and ecstasy's my game

VERSE (A G x3 F G)

'Round by broken streams
Here i make my home
There is no need for food
I can live off air alone

The birds bring me flowers
And put them by my side
I live in another world
And that is why I hide

C D
Yes I am a hermit
C D
My mind is not the same
C D Cm G
Yes I am a hermit and ecstasy's my game

BACKWARDS GUITAR SOLO (A G x3 F G) X3

VERSE (A G x3 F G)

From the bottom of my heart
I pity all of you
Chained to the world
And who don't know what I do

C D
Yes I am a hermit
C D
My mind is not the same
C D Cm G
Yes I am a hermit and ecstasy's my game

Adam Bruneau - Puce Moment Songs. I made this awesome lo-fi computer psychedelic cover yesterday after figuring out all the chords. There's nothing but guitar and omnichord and my voice but it sounds really full and wild. The omnichord was run through my delay pedal and ended up sounding at times like a tamboura which I really liked. Must use that on more tracks. I compressed the hell out of the vocals and I think it ended up sounding really nice and old-school, like something from the mid 60s. My setup was using my Tascam 4-track as a mixer/pre-amp and recording straight to wav in Internet Audio Mix. I used FL Studio to compress and EQ the final mix but aside from that everything was done in IAM. I used a Marshall Guv'nor and some rare and ancient 70s DDS-1 digital delay pedal. I originally wanted to do it all on the 4-track (the reverse guitar would have been easier) but tracks 1 and 4 are busted. To reverse the guitar track I used CoolEdit. All in all one of my favorite personal recordings...