Grant Lee Phillips' Comments On Ladies' Love Oracle
"Recorded over the course of three days in October of ninety nine, Ladies'
Love Oracle is just me in the raw, me in the dark, me in the basement. Sometimes
a sketch says more than a mural..."
"I
had become a man with a mission and for three days in October the world beyond
that basement just plain didn't exist. What did come to exist however is a spirit
caught in a bottle. Nine whispering tales, representing a side of me and my
music that give or take a few hits might have been killed off. This work which
I've christened "Ladies Love Oracle" took its title from a 19th century parlor
game of divination. Like the mystic answers of an oracle, songs seem to provide
for me the same right answers at the right time. It was through the generosity
of my good friend Jon Brion, who allowed me to work in his private studio with
the aid of engineer Tom Biller that this work came into being. Tom and I moved
at the speed of light, which was possible as this material seemed to actually
benefit from the sheer lack of fretting that typically goes into recording.
I happen to find such barbs and thorns as fascinating as the petals myself and
given Tom's Zen-like nature, everything retained that early sense of awe that
so often fades as songs grow to become polished works . I'm very delighted with
the outcome of this innocent endeavor which simply revealed its purpose one
little step at a time. Its an acoustic collection, the instrumentation hinging
on a few sparse elements, being the guitar, tack piano and pump organ. Most
of these compositions have been featured at one time or another live at Largo,
if only once or twice. Nic Harcourt at KCRW in Los Angeles has recently welcomed
various unreleased tracks off Ladies Love Oracle to his consistently innovative
play list. I consider this very flattering company. As I said to Nic, my aim
with this collection is to see it reach those folks who will naturally gather
what it has to offer and to avoid it being "marketed" like some major-monster
release. My intention is to give it a push like a paper boat, see where goes,
without any real masterminding. This is, I have come to believe, the beauty
of the internet. At the urging of so many who frequent my web site, I've discovered
the contemporary equivalent to that classic fantasy of writing a song on a Monday
only to hear it aired on a Tuesday. It's a very pure line of expression that
has never been more tangible than it is today. I'm presently engaged in coordinating
the most appropriate online avenue for this album. It will be dealt with as
a special limited addition as opposed to a major release. Rather than serving
as a so called "Solo-debut", it is my hope that Ladies Love Oracle will serve
to initiate the dawning of a new approach to distributing various aspects of
my music. This will not necessarily be to the exclusion of future Label releases
but a means to supplement those all too infrequent projects with fresh and interesting
material that might otherwise not have have a proper avenue within the label
system as it currently stands. For the up to the minute story regarding Ladies
Love Oracle and all current projects I welcome you to visit my official web
site. You'll find lots of information , as well as "Messages From Beyond", the
official message board. Hope to see you there!" Source: GrantLeePhillips.com, November
1999 and January 2002
1. YOU'RE A PONY
"I wrote these words in about five minutes, as
you probably tell, a long while back. It starts in G, then goes E minor, there's
a B flat bass in there for a second, I know there's a D involved but in general
it's all made up chords. Hope this helps." Source: Messages From
Beyond