“Spitting Into the Fire” is another Diane Arbus inspired tune. Quickly, Arbus’ images have turned on me a bit. They are feeling mean. I’ve known most of these pictures, and the overarching mood of her work, for a long time so it’s me that’s changing not the photos. But while writing this tune, this image felt especially exploitative and aggressive. So here we have a couple who is probably fairly used to getting more than their fair share of shit, looking defiantly at the camera in a take-as-many-goddam-photos-as-you-want kind of way. Atleast that’s how I was seeing it. Enjoy!

Young man and his pregnant wife in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965

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This park bench is an island on an island / Take that camera / I can hear my soul dripping on the pavement / Take that camera back uptown / Your face is far too shiny in this light / Take those sad eyes / Can you move that hand a bit to the right / Take those sad eyes back uptown / Why do all these gawkers always show up when we’re dreaming / My hand on your hand / You keep your head up / And keep me from stumbling over the edge / I feel a change in the weather / Take your cool breeze / If I only had a nickel / Take that free lunch back uptown / This park bench is an island on an island / Take that camera / I can hear my soul dripping to pavement / Take that camera back uptown / Why do all these gawkers always show up when we’re dreaming / I don’t believe in spoiling our luck fighting for something bigger than us / My hand on your hand / You keep your head up / And keep me from wandering over the edge / My hand on your hand / You just won’t give up / You keep me from spitting into the fire