Faith Triumphant

Embodied Faith, which originated in 1965 as Danny Candle and the Wick dippers, triumphs with its newest release, Om—at Boston Garden, recorded live two months ago (Mayor Kevin White quieted the restive throng when the group arrived nine hours late) and now released in the Satori label’s Swami series. The transformation of the Wickdippers—Archie Hadley, formerly a political prisoner (cannabis commerce) at Attica; Raj Washington III, a product of the black ghetto in Bismarck, North Dakota; Montgomery Trow Jr., of the Trows (who renounced his inheritance to pursue an independent course of emotional maturation): and Candle himself, out of Appalachia— figured prominently in the nine-part feature I did last year on spiritual rock for ModRockMag. Yet nothing in the Embodied Faith output (the new name was bestowed by Divine Master Herbert Baka Destiné in 1972) prepares us for this mind blowing record.

Consider first the lead song, “Pouring Out My Sorrow,” written by Candle and Washington in free-verse style. The instruments, reduced to mandolin (Trow) and glass progression (Washington’s forte: 47 glasses filled to varying degrees with Ganges water), provide a clean and fluid sound. But the lyrics! An excerpt, this from the ninth stanza: “I pare my toenails for you, baby/ I cast off my shackles for you, love/ I wouldn’t say I’m happy, no/ Yet who is to say nay?” Note the absolutely unpredictable, hence brilliant, use of mixed meter. Note also the threecomma/one-no-comma parsing. And don’t fail to ponder how the I-I-I-yet progression exactly reproduces the initial wording in the 14th verse of the Tibetan Lama Dai-Oong’s letter to his secretary (April 12, 1947). Thus the very internal puzzle comes shiningly clear within a simple structural analysis of form. Who is to say that Shakespeare’s sonnets did it better?

DB

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David Brudnoy

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Embodied Faith, which originated in 1965 as Danny Candle and the Wick dippers, triumphs with its newest release, Om—at Boston Garden, recorded live two months ago (Mayor Kevin White quieted the restive throng when the group arrived nine hours late) and now released in the Satori label’s Swami series. The transformation of the Wickdippers—Archie Hadley, formerly a political prisoner (cannabis commerce) at Attica; Raj Washington III, a product of the black ghetto in Bismarck, North Dakota; Montgomery Trow Jr., of the Trows (who renounced his inheritance to pursue an independent course of emotional maturation): and Candle himself, out of Appalachia— figured prominently in the nine-part feature I did last year on spiritual rock for ModRockMag. Yet nothing in the Embodied Faith output (the new name was bestowed by Divine Master Herbert Baka Destiné in 1972) prepares us for this mind blowing record.

Consider first the lead song, “Pouring Out My Sorrow,” written by Candle and Washington in free-verse style. The instruments, reduced to mandolin (Trow) and glass progression (Washington’s forte: 47 glasses filled to varying degrees with Ganges water), provide a clean and fluid sound. But the lyrics! An excerpt, this from the ninth stanza: “I pare my toenails for you, baby/ I cast off my shackles for you, love/ I wouldn’t say I’m happy, no/ Yet who is to say nay?” Note the absolutely unpredictable, hence brilliant, use of mixed meter. Note also the threecomma/one-no-comma parsing. And don’t fail to ponder how the I-I-I-yet progression exactly reproduces the initial wording in the 14th verse of the Tibetan Lama Dai-Oong’s letter to his secretary (April 12, 1947). Thus the very internal puzzle comes shiningly clear within a simple structural analysis of form. Who is to say that Shakespeare’s sonnets did it better?