The Afterlife: Issa's Sunday Service #137

Artwork from Vermin on the Mount

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If you still haven't heard Paul Simon's last album, So Beautiful Or So What, treat yourself. "The Afterlife," from that album and featured this week on the Sunday Service, is Simon for the ages, quite literally this time: witty, ironic, sardonic, lyrical, and, well, Simonesque. Buddha and Moses (and both their noses) take a lyrical, literary bow, hence the songs inclusion.

The Afterlife

After I died and the makeup had dried
I went back to my place
No moon that night, but a heavenly light
Shown on my face
Still I thought it was odd there was no sign of God
Just to usher me in
Then a voice from above sugarcoated with love
Said, "Let us begin"

You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line
You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line

Okay, new kid in school
Got to follow the rule
You got to learn the routine
Whoa! There's a girl over there
With the sunshiny hair like a homecoming queen
I said "Hey, what'cha say, it's a glorious day
By the way, how long you been dead?"
Maybe you, maybe me, maybe baby makes three
But she just shook her head

You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line
You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line

Buddha and Moses and all the noses
From narrow to flat
Had to stand in the line
Just to glimpse the divine
What'cha think about that?
Well, it seems like our fate
To suffer and wait for the knowledge we seek
It's all His design
No one cuts in the line
No one here likes a sneak

You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line
You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line

After you climb up the ladder of time
The Lord God is near
Face-to-face in the vastness of space
Your words disappear
And you feel like you're swimming in an ocean of love
And the current is strong
But all that remains when you try to explain
Is a fragment of song
Lord, is it Be Bop a Lula? Or ooh Papa Doo?
Lord, Be Bop a Lula? Or ooh Papa Doo?
Be Bop a Lula

And, in case you were wondering, this is how us old farts rolled back when we were able (now we just waft, if in time, sort of ...)

           

my dead mother--
every time I see the ocean
every time...

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don 

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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 137 songs