Charles Bobuck
I was getting a blow job while watching the Pope roll by. He waved at me... I waved back. He was only on the TV briefly, his "holiness" was in town promoting a book or something. I felt sorry for him. His job was miserable and my job kept me in heaven.
What made my job so special was that I wrote music, and my musical ideas mostly appeared while having an orgasm. There was an explanation for this.
As a child I would always describe my nightmares to my mother by banging on the piano and talking in strange voices.
Once I reached puberty I was able to make the connection that intense emotional states had a strange audio effect on me. That meant orgasms would set me off. I did not originally understand that masturbation for me was different than for other boys. My best friend slept over a lot and we tended to masturbate each other most of those times. He is the one who told me that his orgasms did not have an auditory aspect.
After explaining this unusual response to my parents, I was hospitalized to see if I had a brain tumor. I didn't. I had a mild form of epilepsy resulting in paracusia, auditory hallucinations. I suppose I do not write music so much as just easily have mild seizures.
I didn't actually have an orgasm when the Pope passed. I came a bit later, closing my eyes and leaning against the wall. A beautiful brass quartet filled my mind.
My description is only relevant because I have the role of writing music and arrangements with The Residents. I've always been pretty quiet about what I do. It is not a topic of conversation that regularly comes up.
But things change. Randy's wife persuaded him to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood. That really changed the dynamics. All four of us scattered to explore our passions.
I had decided some time ago that cities were no place to grow old and I could have orgasms anywhere. I did the civil thing. I bought a farm in the great state of Jefferson and became a chicken lord.
Beware of chickens.
Codgers on the Moon is a stylistic musical direction I have wanted to take for more than a decade. I am happy to finally get it out of my system.
- Charles Bobuck 2012