tanka top 10

in the latest arthur mag, those clever rockrcrits thurston moore and byron coley review the yoko ono catalog in the form of tanka, a 31-syllable japanese poetic form (5-7-5-7-7) that apparently predates haiiku. for shits and giggles, i've taken the liberty of stealing their idea and applying it to my all-time top 10 albs. injoy...

funhouse
trailer park hoodlums
acid-addled delinquents
and spoiled mama's boys
destroying the world with their
frenzy of fuzz and feedback

the who sell out
pop art masterpiece
or a failed experiment
with fake commercials
and songs that evoke childhood
and fictive english summers

a love supreme
a prayer from the heart
a cry from a bereft soul
humbling itself in
most devout supplication
and hoping for transcendence

astral weeks
who's this irishman
with the voice of a poet
and a black man's soul
singing songs about all of
life and death's great mysteries?

pet sounds
boy genius holes up
in his lonely room again
and tunes his ears to
the music of the spheres to
try and make people feel love

in a silent way
in between his last
great quintet and his descent
to electronic
chaos, the dark prince made this
quiet, lyrical statement

the black saint and the sinner lady
this has the rhythm
of a bustling city street
themes ebb and flow like
forces of nature fighting
for one man's titanic soul

civilization phaze III
near the end of life
the present-day composer
uses machines to
make the beautiful music
that he always had in him

odessey and oracle
look, before we quit
let's make another album.
we've got all these songs
so we might as well use them,
even if no one will care.

there's a riot goin' on
when sly stone unleashed
this enervated funk stew,
people scratched their heads.
now it seems to signify
the end of the hipi dream.