SKY OVERCAST
-10 C
NW WIND 47 KM/H
Yes, there will be busking – but not today.
Preface:
In my previous post I discussed the case of Kenyon, who was diagnosed first with Schizoaffective Disorder, then Schizophrenia when he was 18 years old. Following his diagnosis, Kenyon was institutionalized for three years, a year and a half in a group home, the next year and a half in a monitored apartment. Kenyon is now 32 years old and living on his own.
Today I’m looking at the second letter sent by my clients (Kenyon's parents) to
their son’s psychiatrist, the contents of which confirm some notions I have
with adolescents and emerging adults assigned with Schizophrenia. This particular letter was written 14 years ago.
Dear Dr. M.
Can you believe my wife
and I were almost relieved when Kenyon’s urine sample showed that cannabis was
present in his system the day he was admitted to hospital? It is, indeed, a strange logic that gives our
family the hope that all of Kenyon’s behaviors could still be the direct result
of substance abuse.
I see Kenyon’s appeal
process has been posted. Whatever is
decided on that date, we do want Kenyon continue his classes at his high school. He loves lifting weights and we know he’ll
continue that. But we also know he will
likely continue his inappropriate behaviors as well—so please keep him somewhat
accountable to your clinic.
We ask this because
just this morning, on his second day pass, Kenyon started out fine, but was
again out of sorts for an hour or so, immediately following a short visit with
a couple of his former drug buddies. His
eyes were droopy, his speech was very fast, and his conversation rambled. We strongly suspect he had been using some
illegal substance. And I found in our
basement a letter to Satan that Kenyon had just written recently (probably
close to the last time I brought him to Emergency). I know the letter to be recent because I do
monitor “things” of Kenyon’s pretty close.
This letter (in Kenyon’s own handwriting) is enclosed.
The opening line says it all.
Most people would prefer to have substance abuse be the cause of bizarre
behavior rather than a mental illness.
If the cause is directly related to substance abuse, then the quick
remedy is, of course, abstinence.
However, if the irrational behavior is related to a mental illness, the
remedy is considerably more long-range and complicated.
Being an adolescent druggie can almost be regarded as a
normative behavior. To some degree, most
adolescents are drug users, and for some to scholastically fail, and fall out
of favor on the home front, is not uncommon.
However, being an adolescent assigned with a mental illness is very
rare, not only for political reasons, but for behavioral reasons, too.
Considering that adolescence and emerging adulthood is
generally a time of rebellion, it is difficult to discern whether patterns of bizarre
behavior can be attributed to the recklessness of misspent youth, or be the
result of a mental illness. And this is
why parents (or anyone for that matter) would wish these inappropriate
behaviors to be the result of Sturm und Drang (wildness), rather
than Schizophrenia
(illness).
The letter also states that when Kenyon was on a temporary
day pass from the Psychiatric Unit, he met up with some friends, and then back
at the ranch (so to speak) seemed stoned (surprise, surprise). Rule #1 when dealing with drug addicted
individuals ...
Druggies hang out with druggies.
And because Kenyon’s friends (likely all of his friends) are
druggies, then what else would he do while on a day pass. Friendship among drug
users has been coined Drugship for
good reason. Take away the drugs and the
friendship is over. Drugship members spend disproportionate amounts of time
together to get drugs and to get high on drugs.
And that is about it for the friendship.
It is commonplace for drugship members to drop out of school and get
kicked out of home. Any members kicking
the drug habit are no longer welcome in the drugship. This is because …
Druggies hang out with
druggies.
It is uncommon for druggies to be writing letters to
Satan. This is certainly an
idiosyncratic behavior almost exclusive to cult members of Satan worshippers
(faddish, no doubt) or youth assigned with Schizophrenia (the reality of one in
a hundred). My clients said that on the
night Kenyon was admitted to the Psychiatric ward, while in the Emergency Room,
he had been growling and … at the gates
of Hell, according to Kenyon.
Actually, I ran into Kenyon since my last post (and last post
I mentioned that he was now 32 years old).
Anticipating the soon-to-be busking season, he insisted that we jam
together sometime soon and so a meeting time was arranged. Come the jam time, Kenyon was a no-show – he
got drunk instead.
Kenyon is not yet positively addicted to drumming, for if he
were he would stay away from his habits that have proved detrimental to a more
socially acceptable persona. In other
words, Kenyon is still regarded as a drunk, rather than a drummer.
And this shall be enough of Kenyon (for today).
These couple weeks of late, late spring, I am second guessing
who I really am as a busker. Am I that self-purported
cowboy, or am I a folk singer-songwriter.
My performing character is complicated.
My autobiography proves that I have the street credentials to wear a
cowboy hat, but on windy days it just doesn’t work – my hat keeps blowing off!
Employing some Projective
Psychology, the songs that I write and perform are likely representations
of who I really am as a busker.
For example:
JUST SHOOT MY TROUBLES
AWAY
Am D Am
Some days I wanna do like Dangerman
Am D Am
So cool and cruel on the Riviera, man
Am D Am D
Suave and debonair, undercover ladies man
Mute Am Em Am
And just shoot my troubles away.
[chorus]
Em D C Em
I sometimes think my
imagination
Em D C Em
I sometimes think my
imagination
Em D C Em
I sometimes think my
imagination
G Am C Em
Is the model, the model for
the nation
G Am C Em
(Is the model for complete
annihilation)
Am D Am
Some days I wanna do like Steve McQueen
Am D Am
So cool and cruel on that silver screen
Am D Am
D
Ride shotgun with Yul, blaze to Boot Hill
Mute Am Em Am
And just shoot my troubles away.
************CHORUS]*******************
Am
D Am
Some days I wanna do like the President
Am D Am
So cool and cruel on Air Force One
Am D Am D
Protect the planet, police everyone
Mute Am Em Am
And just shoot my troubles away.
[chorus]
A quick analysis:
Danger Man was British secret agent, John Drake (played by
Patrick McGoohan).
In The Magnificent Seven, cowboy
gunslinger, Steve McQueen, rides shotgun up to Boot Hill with Yul Brynner. And last, American presidents always fly in
Air Force One. This is an American foreign policy protest song, with a dash of
duster (McQueen).
I believe this song to be more folk than cowboy.
This next song that I perform is all-cowboy:
TV COWBOY
[CHORUS]
G Em
He dreams of horses
G Em
He dreams of Texas
G Em D
He watches Lone Star all night long
C Em
Only those six-shooter ghosts
C Em
On that black and white
C Em D7
Hear him sing these cowboy
songs.
VERSE 1 GALLOPING PERCUSSION & a cappello
Back when the West was
very young
There lived a man
named Masterson
He wore a cane and
derby hat
They called him Bat,
Bat Masterson …
[CHORUS]
VERSE 2 GALLOPING PERCUSSION & a cappello
Who was the tall dark
stranger there?
Maverick is the name
Ridin’ the trail to
who knows where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin’ is his game …
[CHORUS]
VERSE 3 GALLOPING PERCUSSION & a cappello
Cheyenne, Cheyenne
Where will you be
traveling tonight?
Lonely man, Cheyenne …
[CHORUS]
VERSE 4 GALLOPING PERCUSION & a cappello
Have gun will travel
reads the card of a man
A knight without armor
in a savage land
His fast gun for hire
in the calling wind
A soldier of fortune
is the man called
Paladin …
VERSE 5 GALLOPING PERCUSSION & a cappello
Sugarfoot, Sugarfoot
Easy lopin’ cattle
ropin’
Sugarfoot …
Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp
Brave, courageous, and
bold
Long live his fame and
long live his story
And long may his story
be told
VERSE 6 GALLOPING PERCUSSION & a cappello
Dumdedadumdedadumdedadum
Bonanza!
Dmmdedadmmdedadmmdedadmmmdmmmdmmm
…
Happy trails to you
Until we meet again
[CHORUS]
There is no protest
in this song. It is just romantic
bullets-and-dust nostalgia from 50’s and 60’s television (Bat Masterson, Maverick,
Cheyenne, Have Gun Will Travel, Sugarfoot, Wyatt Earp, Bonanza,
and the most famous king of the cowboys, Roy
Rogers). I’ve enhanced the
Galloping Percussion for a reason.
Galloping Percussion is my phrase for striking the underside of
the guitar body in horse hoof fashion with my strumming fingertips (i.e., da
dee da’--da dee da’--da dee da’).
I should mention
that the lyrics may not be accurate – I’ve just written them and I sing them as
personally remembered.
Whenever I practice
I pull songs from two binders, one labeled COWBOYOGRAPHY,
the other ORIGINAL FOLK. Most of the songs contained in the
COWBOYOGRAPHY binder, are Western cover tunes from the 50’s and 60’s. All of the songs contained in the ORIGINAL
FOLK binder have been penned and sung, only by me. Both binders have about the same number of
songs within.
When busking, the
songs that I select are simply arbitrary.
It’s a 50/50 performance, a busker’s boustrophedon, so to speak (sing). As a cowboy I can perform incognito as a folk
artist – As a folk artist I can perform incognito as a cowboy.
As a cowboy I can
kowtow (pun intended) to my rustic consumers.
As a folk singer I can flock (pun intended) with my urban left-wingers.
Cap-a-pie, the appareled accoutrements of being a folk singer vs singing cowboy are similar (white cowboy shirt, blue jeans, black boots), save for the cowboy hat -- a folk singer is more likely to wear sunglasses rather than stetsons. The instruments of both folk singer and singing cowboy, too, are similar (guitar, banjitar, harmonica), save for the didgeridoo -- a cowboy is more likely to drawl rather than drone.
Transforming then, from singing cowboy to folk singer is a simple matter of donning or doffing my cowboy hat and/or my didge –
a sea-change it is not!
Hey, man, if … methinks the folk bard doth protest too much, I
don the cowboy hat.
Hey, Pilgrim, if … methinks the buskeroo doth yodel too much, I doff
it.
