September 11ths

9/11/1968          

John’s song for those despised people who dissected his lyrics for hidden - but almost always unintended - revelations and conundrums. One of two songs on The Beatles to give mention in its lyric to another Beatles song title (“Savoy Truffle” mentioned “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”), “Glass Onion” is peppered with references to the Beatles” recent output: “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Am The Walrus”, “Lady Madonna”, “The Fool On The Hill” and “Fixing A Hole”. John also tossed in what may seem a cryptic line, about the “Cast Iron Shore”. This is a real place in Liverpool.

[9/11/2025: Many of the lyrics that I’ve written for the Songday series are very much in the John Lennon vein. He was very much into cryptic lyrics and word play–much more than Paul McCartney. This was probably a Yoko Ono influence and Fluxus and Dada indirectly. The technique of the constructed or abstracted lyric is either a form of cut-up or bibliomancy, a form of divination where a person randomly selects a passage from a book—often a sacred text like the Bible, but also secular literature—to interpret as a prophecy or message. The process involves focusing on a question or concern, opening the book to a random page, and then interpreting the passage that catches your eye or that your finger lands on. The meaning of the passage is then considered to provide guidance, inspiration, or insight into a situation or question. It’s interesting that this particular Beatles studio diary entry is on 9/11, and could be a source for lyrics].        

9/11/2001

Took some pix with camera, but settings wrong, pix overexposed, but I will try to use them in some way.

[I had just gotten my first digital camera a few months earlier and frequently overexposed. But it looks interesting inverted. Taken on Michigan and Grand in Chicago, now a potential "war zone"]

9/11/2004

One of the things I liked about Reagan was his notion of a “quiet faith”—a spirituality that rests below the surface but is never expressed outwardly. In politics, one’s religious persuasion is a kind of secret to yourself, in only a language you understand.

Neil Peart from Roadshow, June 2004:            

“In 30 years of traveling around the United States, I have seen how entrenched Evangelical Christianity was in American life. Just before setting off for Nashville, I had read that 83% of Americans called themselves Christians, and half of Americans believe that God created humans pretty much in our present born at one time within the past ten thousand years. It seemed pointless to try to fight that tide of faith, even with the weapon of the laws of logic, and I thought, “I give up.” my blustering was not going to change anybody’s mind, and there was no sense alienating people and making enemies. You can reason with people’s minds, but you can’t argue with their faith.”    

9/11/2024

A Songday (Curio) based on "Tide of Faith" which I changed to "Quiet Faith" with quiet music. 

A Quiet Faith (September 11) by meta4s