Ben's Songs

In the memorable Babylon 5 episode "War Without End" (for which spoiler alert but I will, like the character who sings this song, try to keep them vague), the alien Zathras is assigned by Cmdr. Sinclair to a time travel mission in which he is taken prisoner by Sinclair at an earlier point in the timeline. To avoid, well, spoilers, at first all Zathras will say to the earlier Sinclair is "Not the One!"

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Still the One" by Johanna Hall and John Hall

 

 

Skroderiders are one of several iconic alien races in Vernor Vinge's classic A Fire Upon the Deep— cyborgs consisting of a sessile, frond-like intertidal animal and a wheeled cart with computing faculties. Behind this marriage of organic and machine components lies a long-forgotten legend and ultimately a deep tragedy (but spoilers!). "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter also tells a tragic story of a person whose soul becomes entangled with a machine.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter

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Zoe's original song tells the story of a set of heirloom crystal glasses that become fewer in number but dearer to memory as time passes. In software development, classes (modules of code) can also break if they are not carefully looked after over time — although, especially in a large enterprise, their number is more likely to increase than to decrease. The term "tech debt" refers to the ongoing cost of keeping code up-to-date even when it isn't actively being worked on or even used.

The guitar work here is my best attempt to capture the feel of what Zoe is doing in some alternate tuning, some of the chords are mostly conjecture.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Elegy (Crystal Glass)" by Zoe Mulford

 

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In Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, "Rappaport Digby" is the (translated) name of the host of the radio show "The Children's Hour of Science" on the home planet of a race of spider-like aliens. And of course that sounds just like "Eleanor Rigby", but there is also one particular episode of the show, memorable both to the Spiders themselves and to the humans surreptitiously watching them from space, which touches on some similar themes — who are we and why are we here? Do our timeless traditions still hold true in the face of the passage of time? Is anyone watching, and will anyone remember?

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Eleanor Rigby" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

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A tale of a fruit-infused tea I will tell

And the one who imbibes it will not age a day

But their friends will all faint from the... curious... smell...

Of the pitcher of Durian Grey

 

One of the wonderful things about Persephone is that She is a many-faced goddess who means different things to different people.  Vixy's original song uses the myth of Persephone to tell a story that's deeply personal to her.  For myself, I felt moved to borrow the tune to capture what Persephone means to me as a devotee — but that's something that has changed over time.  When I first began working on this song during the intensely initiatory Year of Madness, it came out quite different, not just lyrically but theologically.  I had to set the half-written song aside for a long time and come back and finish it when I knew Her — and myself — a great deal better.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Persephone" by Michelle Dockrey

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Haskell is one of my imaginary friends, a small silicon dragon who accompanies me on inner journeys. I've said a bit more about him in the intro to another song, but I left off telling the story of how we met, because I wasn't ready. Then this poem came pouring out.

Haskell is not just an imaginary friend, he represents a part of me, specifically my manic cleverness. We met near the beginning of the Year of Madness, and he wasn't small then, or tame. When I realized how dangerous he might be, it was almost too late. Making him small and tame took a lot of hard work.

The alarming thing about the story is this: the first half of this poem narrates, in detail, the content my own subconscious contributed to a (dangerously poorly) guided meditation journey that took place before the Year of Madness — in fact, that may have triggered the Year of Madness — certainly long before I knew I was bipolar. Looking back, it has an uncomfortable whiff of prophecy about it.

by Benjamin Newman
 

An American Jewish urban legend tells of an immigrant whose name was changed to "Sean Ferguson" because he or his mother answered a clerk's query with "Shoyn fargesen!", which is Yiddish for "I have forgotten!" — which isn't likely to have really happened, because immigration clerks are not quite that easily fooled. But an angel, especially one of a Chelmish persuasion (meaning: critically lacking in practical wisdom), just might be — which would be a problem, especially if the angel is supposed to be looking after an Irish immigrant whose name really is Sean Ferguson.

The protagonist, Reuven aka Robert (not Sean Ferguson!) is named for my mother's father of blessed memory, who often told his children and grandchildren silly stories of this sort.

by Benjamin Newman

after "Disobedience" by A.A. Milne

listen to this poem