Pastoral Angst

(album: Last Day On Earth - 1994)

Welcome to the goldrush, ladies and gentlemen, where California begins and maybe ends

California is the last stop on the great hitchhike west and now it's getting a little full. Too many thumbs. Well, when you get too many people in one place, you get intolerance and contempt and rigidity and tension and sarcasm, distrust, anxiety, envy, hate, cynicism, discontent, self-pity, malice, suspicion, jealousy and snobbishness. And this leads right into poetry, painting, sculpture, dance, music and literature, photography. These are known as the arts. And art will break your heart. So what? So will a good meal. Art is not the spiritual side of business-as-usual

And art is not for everyone. Never has been and it never will be. Now me, I don't know much about art, but I do like what I know. You know in these days when everybody is mistaking celebrity for talent, ambition for genius, self-pity for humility, style for content and loathing for love, they spend a lot of time getting in touch with themselves. And then they find self-justification, self-righteousness, self-obsession, self-pity, self-loathing, self-concern, self-centredness, self-reliance, and self-serving gratification