Cut The Deck

Give your ears a taste:

Lyrics By: Robert Hunter

And I built your house, I laid your floor
Carried your flag, I fought your war
I swear by the toes of the Jones above
All I ever wanted was some of your love

I was born one American spring
Where love didn't matter and birds didn't sing
Rolled from my cradle and picked up my drum
Crawled to the highway, stuck out my thumb

Slept in the forest of shut my mouth
Awoke with the sun and cut due south
Didn't know nothin', I was starting from scratch
I needed hot water, I invented the match

The match wouldn't strike, I invented the glass
And drank cold water thinking "all things pass"
Rode on a black horse, rode upon a white
Whistled up the wind and taught it how to bite

And I built your house, I laid your floor
Carried your flag, I fought your war
I swear by the toes of the Jones above
All I ever wanted was some of your love

Just some of your love
Some of your love

Gambled with the boneman one black night
49 cards, we were three jacks light
I couldn't tell an ace from a deuce by feel
Boneman said, "shut up and deal"

I'll cash my chips one American night
One thing I learned, I learned it right
Say what you say, say what you like
Snakes always rattle before they strike

The match wouldn't strike I Invented the glass
And drank cold water thinking "all things pass"
Rode on a black horse, rode upon a white
Whistled up the wind and taught it how to bite

Then I built your house, I laid your floor
Carried your flag, I fought your war
Swear by the toes of the Jones above
All I ever wanted was some of your love

Then I built your house, laid your floor
Carried your flag, I fought your war
I swear by the toes of the Jones above
All I ever wanted was some of your love

Just some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love
Some of your love

Sounds of the Universe

The pulse of Cut the Deck includes sonifications of the Crab Nebula Pulsar (B0531+21). Pulsars are spinning neutron stars, which we observe as regular pulses of electromagnetic energy. They are among the most rhythmically stable objects we know of. Some are as stable as atomic clocks. The dataset gives changes in intensity level for eight frequency ranges. These are transposed to audible frequency ranges, and the pulsing interval of about 0.03 seconds is stretched to 9 seconds. Eight sine wave oscillators are set to transpositions of the eight pitches, and their loudness changes with the same patterns as the pulsar. Thus, this sonification is a literal transposition of the pulsar’s electromagnetic frequencies.

hubblesite.org

DATA SOURCE: European Pulsar Network Database Browser http://www.jb.man.ac.uk

This track also recalls the sounds of cosmic microwave background radiation (described in Slow Joe Rain).