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Viggo Nelson Bossi was born on 1/4/14. Even if you’ve done it before, somehow you think that because they basically sleep all of the time in the beginning, you’ll be back at it (whatever your it may be) in no time. Um… no. We’ll spare you the googly-eyed myopic, bleary, incredulous and intensely mundane details, but suffice it to say, when we wrote this song, we were just beginning to step out of the fog.

Our good friend and fellow-composer-songwriter-musician Jeremy Flower came to visit with his family in mid-January. While the kids wreaked havoc in the living room, the adults wreaked havoc in the studio, recording a guitar track for a song that didn’t exist.

My friend Melissa Allison had just sent me the amazing poem by Michael Ondaatje called “The Story” which begins like this:

For his first forty days a child
is given dreams of previous lives.
Journeys, winding paths,
a hundred small lessons
and then the past is erased.

I knew that, because I’d spent the last couple of weeks watching the fleeting emotions (memories?) drift across Viggo’s sleeping face, I wanted to write about this crazy business of becoming. But when it came to actually manifesting a song, a lyric, or even a single note, I was as empty. Nothing there. Nada.

That’s uterly terrifying. I’ve always been able to count on the fact that once you dive in there’s always something to mine, something to discover that leads to an idea that leads to a song. Not this time. I’ve done away with all evidence of the fruitless, derivative, embarrassing things I started so that no one can ever blackmail me with them.

Matthias came to the rescue in the nick of time. He wrote a lyric on a piece of paper, handed it to me, I wrote the next, handed it to him, and so forth, til a song emerged. After a bit of tugging, pushing, nipping, pulling, simplifying and elaborating, “Whiff of Heaven” was born.


A word from Jeremy Flower, our guest guitarist:
When we started to record this song, Matthias and Carla said they wanted something that sounded a bit like the Pixies. That was the starting point, and with children placated, we started our adventure.

In this regard it was a bit like the childhood game of telephone. One person tells their neighbor something and that idea is passed down the line until it is entirely unrecognizable after each child has or their stamp on it. In this case the idea started as this chugging relentless assault of hand cramps and eighth notes.

It never ceases to amaze me. The simpler a part is, the more difficult it becomes to execute. In this case it was all about making the chordal shifts without any interrupting of the rock, and trying desperately to stay in time.
I know what was whispered in my ear and what I whispered in my neighbor's ear. I can't wait to hear what the other kids in the class have done to it. --Jeremy Flower

lyrics

WHIFF OF HEAVEN

You’re the golden mean.
You’re balanced in between.
Don’t bury the map too soon.

I caught a whiff of heaven.
(Here we are again)
In the night,
the untraceable night,
I caught a whiff of heaven.

This story’s not mine to know.
You be the preacher and I I’ll be the choir.
I’ll be the devil and you be the fire.
Alive alive alive alive alive alive again.

This story’s not mine to read.
I’ll read the map and you take the wheel.
You set the trap and see how they feel.
Alive alive alive alive alive alive again.

It’s not mine to know,
mine to tell, mine to read.
It’s not mine to guess,
mine to judge, mine to see
It’s not mine.
Not mine.

It’s not mine.

credits

from Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 3 - Year of the Wooden Horse, released July 1, 2015
Carla Kihlstedt - voice
Matthias Bossi - voice, drums, keyboards, Celtic harp
Jeremy Flower - electric guitar
Jon Evans - bass

Lyrics by Matthias Bossi & Carla Kihlstedt
Music by Matthias Bossi, Carla Kihlstedt & Jeremy Flower
Recorded by Matthias Bossi & Carla Kihlstedt at KihlBossi Studios, Falmouth, MA
Additional recording by Jon Evans at Brick Hill, Orleans, MA
Mixed by Jon Evans at Brick Hill, Orleans, MA
Produced by Rabbit Rabbit

Published by:
Skinnah Music, BMI
Broca’s Fold, ASCAP

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Rabbit Rabbit Radio Falmouth, Massachusetts

Rabbit Rabbit Radio is the song-spinning duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. Collectively, they are founding members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, The Book of Knots, and Fred Frith’s Cosa Brava.

Drawing on their love of both art & folk song, industrial & improvised music and heart-wrenching balladry, their songs are raw, beautiful, sparse and rich. ... more

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