GOOD GOOD VERY GOOD
TEXT
(Baktruppen takes turns dancing and singing from the record Come on everybody: music for alcoholics.)
RIPE GRAPES
There is no connection whatsoever, the purpose of this song
is to attain the freedom of drinking and the joy of life.
You do not have to force yourself if you wanna drink beer.
If you do love love love love love love love love love love love
When the sunrise goes tequila, I drink it as my younger sister.
I also drink as my older sister, and I drink it as my mom.
And do you know, I drink it as my dad, and also drink it as my man.
Oh no no no no no no no, it's not my drink at all.
I can drink anything. Anything. Anything. Anything. Aah ooh aah ooh aah ohh.
PLEASE COME BACK
This song is about FORGETTING. We drink for the future, because when we drink, we can’t
wait to drink the next drink. We don’t really know how much we drink, we just keep on
drinking, to keep it off our minds. We would rather drink now than not drink, so that we
don’t have to think about it. That’s why some nights we get very, very drunk – so drunk that
we don’t need to think about getting drunk anymore. I don’t think alcohol has any memory.
The alcohol is like a huge river flowing through our lives, into our bodies, it wants to be
inside us. And there it separates into thousands of drops, and the drops are expressing
feeling, separated, feeling lost.
I don't remember where the drinks came from.
I don't remember where they gonna go.
I don't remember why I sing this song.
But I know perfect beer will floooow.
I don't remember why I'm saying this.
I don't remember why I want a kiss.
But I now perfect beer will floooow.
Have some wine. I don't mind.
Take a beer. I don't care.
Remember we agreed. When I said I wanna bee.
I don't remember where the drinks come from.
I don't remember where they're gonna go.
I don't remember why I sing this song.
But I know perfect beer will flooow.
YESTERDAY NIGHT
What I like are drinkers. I like people who drink, 'cause they turn, they turn, they turn, they
turn me on. When they lift their glasses, all my sorrow passes away away away away away.
I sit here, I’m waiting for the booze. I came too late, wearing the wrong shoes. I joined the
wrong company, and say all the wrong things, but I know exactly what to do: I just order
another drink, please.
I admire drinkers, drinkers are my friends, 'cause they know, they know, they know how to
get drunk. When they lift their glasses, all my sorrow passes away away away away away.
Very few policemen are drinkers, but there are a few: Kong police drinkers, drinking police
police force problem royal police.
I like drinkers better, better than the police, 'cause they turn, they turn, they turn, they turn
away – when they lift their glasses, it means a disaster: to me, to me, to me, to me, to me.
I sit here, waiting for the booze. I came too late, wearing the wrong shoes. Turn your head
tomorrow. You don’t know the police. But I know exactly what to say: I don’t bæbu to
anyone, please.
What I like are drinkers. I like people who drink. They look, they look, they look, they look
so good. When they lift their glasses, all that’s ugly passes away away away away away.
I MISS YOU
This song is about the grace I felt when the taxameter was turned on, somewhere in China. I
was determined to take the taxi to the railway station. The glow on my cigarette burned, and
the car drove on in the smog. It took hours, and although it was very cheap, I began to get
worried. At last the taxidriver stopped and pointed at something that was supposed to be a
railway station, but I couldn’t see it. Then he stopped at a hippodrome, but I refused to leave
the car. I made a drawing of a train on tracks and showed it to the driver, saying TA-TAM-
TA-TAM. TA-TAM-TA-TAM.
He got angry. Then he turned around and drove me to the railway station I had arrived at the
day before. That was the wrong station, I later found out, but it was a train there which
luckily brought me out of nowhere.That is what I mean with grace.
HEAVENLY LOVE
My boozer is on the other side, he is my antipode. I never see him, and we never care –
anyway, we share the same globe. My other pal is not anymore, he is as drunk as a duck. But
I remember a time when we had a high voltage serious fuck:
:/: The only reality makes me think. The only reality makes me drink. :/:
This song is about how you can’t find anybody in the middle of nowhere.
ANNE
This song is about drinking a cup with the teeth only, and placing it on the table by bending
over backwards.
Do the drunken stretching, do the drunken Tai Chi – if you want to be free.
Old man river, you should stretch out – like the Hoang Ho ho hooo.
Come on old white girl, you sure need a drink
before you do your workout, make sure you're really burned out.
Streching Fetching Cathing colds
Jumping Turning Getting old
Drinking Sweating Getting drunk
And rest ...
You should have a softdrink, before you take the real thing which is always whisky.
Old man river, you should stretch out – like the Hoang Ho ho hooo.
Come on old white girl, you sure need a drink
before you do your workout make sure you're really burned out.
Start drinking on one, stop drinking on two: one, two, one, two, one, two, one.
Turn your glass to the right. Turn your glass to the left. Take a deep breath.
Stretch out your arm. Breathe in. Lift your glass and begin.
WHY DO I CRY FOR YOU
The drunken ducks are crossing the river. The very first duck stumbles on the shore. The
others follow, and one of the ducks starts to cry. It’s lifting its voice towards the sky, making a
sound, and this is what it says: There will always be an old sober fox, hunting us all in the real
world of pain, fame, wealth, duck positions, posessions and so forth. It’s lifting its voice towards the
sky, making a sound, and this is what it says: Ducks are always living in the future. Ducks never
see the world beyond. They fish and howl in company: Be stupid stupid very stupid. Be drunk drunk
very drunk.
THE DRUNKEN HORSE
The drunken horse is unique in that it lowers its center of gravity three feet below the very
earth itself. That is why even though the drunken horse appears quite unstable it is actually
quite strong. A well educated drunken horse should be able to support three times its own
weight. This is similar to the dynamics of standing on an egg which will not brake as long as
it is upright, but cracks quite easily if on one of its sides. I stand on your side.
(Explaining how we burn the alcohol, to be served with coffee in the break etc.)
(Bullet in the head.)
When we started to work on China, it was as a state of complete happiness. But when we
went to work in China, the happiness got evil and full of joy at the same time:
You know – the joy of today is doubled by tomorrow’s pain, and what is inside the picture
means little compared to what is outside. To focus on this we have connected the Sami
People and the Chinese, who are always able to be at two different places at the same time.
Sweet China man – don’t civilize – the Lapps are drawn between
the good of us and the bad of us.
See the blind man, sitting in his tent.
The words are flying, they’re killing everyone.
If you’ve been through that – man, I bet you have
you have seen nothing yet, and nothing’s but a flying wolf
You’d better close your eyes. You’d better use your ears.
Wait for no rocking chair. I wanna be inside you.
The Sami people and the Chinese are not divided with something like a clear line – the
division or borderline is more like a great moving structure. This pattern runs through
everybody in real time and fake time.
I am genetically insane – naturally this makes me very skilled in religion. I very easily get
revelations, and in the summer you can often meet me hallucinating and raving through the
country. You may laugh at me, and find me silly, but I can hallucinate other reactions which
will make you lose your minds.
In China we bought a lamp, which was formed as a Chinese character . We didn’t know what
the sign meant, so we asked a China man, and he said: GOOD GOOD VERY GOOD.
This is our Lappish fantasy!
FREE NATURE NOW. FRIENDS ARE PASSING BY. COME TOGETHER. BRIDGE THE GAP.
SHOULDER AGAINST SHOULDER. LAND AND WATER. FREE THREE GORGES NOW.
THIS IS FOR YOU:
(Video of the demonstration WE AGREE.)
On May 25, 1997 we sent this letter to Ole Henrik Magga, President of the Sami Parliament:
Dear President of the Sami Parliament,
We hereby have a proposition to make: Up to now, the Sami people have joined forces with
all the other indigenous peoples on the Earth. That may be the wrong strategy in the long
run – if you see what has happened to their cultures, and think about what will happen to
them in the future.
It could be wise to join forces with cultures that have survived for a long time. Although the
Aboriginals, for instance, have kept their cultures going for maybe 40.000 years, most of their
work on this Earth is forgotten by now. But if you turn your heads around, to have a look at
the Chinese, you will see that their culture has been developing, with lots of ups and downs,
for aproximately 5.000 years, which is a long time span, in our view. Therefore we think, and
you should consider this, that you should join forces with the Chinese.
Yours sincerly,
Baktruppen, L&OAmsterdam
(Hat choreography.)
Great Norwegian artists are usually Sami people in disguise. When Edward Munch painted
the scream that runs through nature, it was his own Sami roots he painted.
And when Knut Hamsun wrote his Markens grøde, it was an attempt to jump out of his Sami
genes.
And when Nora went out of Henrik Ibsen's doll house it was to reunite with her South Sami
family in Lom.
These were only three examples, and if you really want to study Norwegian cultural history,
you will discover that so to say all poetry and all painting has a Sami origin.
So let this be a lesson, because the Sami people are tricky. When one word cathes the other in
old Sami tales, you get an undertone of creepiness and fear which always shivers along with
great art. The distinction between Sami art, urban art, reindeer art, fish art and peasant art is
no longer appropriate. The art is like the tundra, dazzlingly urban.
Music unites, decency divides. Union means that the two are extremely close. Division
means that the two respect each other. If the music gets too strong, the result is loose living:
People behave like wild animals. If decency gets too strong, you get too big gaps between
people, and they will end up behaving like wild animals anyhow. Let’s listen to a piece of
music.
COPY LOVE
I will take you on your copyright, reproduce you day and night
my love for you has no limits, you will see
I’ll make you into a million, a billion a trillion a zillion hits
Still you’ll be the only one for me my love, together we’ll get rich
then we’ll receive all the things we need, things like these:
happi-happi-happiness, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la- joy,
long, long, long, long lives, and lots of fun
and no children, because
my one and only love are already a zillion.
INTERLUDE
(Umbrella turning. Reindeer moves out, fire is moved into focus.)
The dead ones live, according to my belief, not IN the Heaven, but ON the Heaven, and
during their dancing nights, you can wave at them, and they will wave back. This actually
happens all the time; young children waving at their grandparents, grandparents waving at
their dead grandchildren, and everybody waves back. And this is the Heaven ON earth,
because we communicate with all our ancestors who steps ON our heaven which is our
nature, stuffed with dead peole who makes the living ones wave and rave on this birth-
ridden earth.
(Bullet in the head II.)
It’s strange - when we travel around and come to new places, we often get drunk. I am a
reindeer. In the dark season up north it’s important to stick together so that nobody is left in
the middle of the road and freeze to death.
Ideology to the Chinese is not just a game, it’s a habit forming social event, a virtual way of
life, which can be as addictive as cigarettes, alcohol or opium.
Not to mention: this morning, when I was walking to the theatre, all the birds talked to me –
bird ideology, which is to sing along until someone joins in your song.
THE CRYING DUCK
With arse in front and head at last, an old duck is waddling ashore
and this duck has a message.
The flat duck beak opens, and through the summer heaven
the cry of the duck echoes, and this is how it goes:
There is an old fisherman inside everybody.
The fisherman cures his Weltschmertz by singing:
Fame, wealth, possessions, power is in vain.
All that makes just greater pain,
but fishermen are beyond all that –
they fish and drink
and raise their voices:
be good good very good
be stupid stupid very stupid
(Refr.:)
a a very a, good good very good, stupid stupid very stupid, drunk drunk very drunk,
handsome handsome very handsome, man man very man, sang sang very sang, a a very a,
fine fine very fine, song song very song, he he very he, sang sang very sang, so so very so,
nice nice very nice, that that very that, everybody everybody everybody, joined joined very
joined, in in very in.
This piece is influenced by WINE MADNESS, a compostion made out of seven sequences,
plus a final segment entitled IMMORTAL VOMITING SOUND. Seven words are spread out
and repeted over and over:........................
The international language esperanto was invented in 1899 by Nils-Nils Esperanto, a Sami
globomaniac who died during the cold war under strange circumstances, you probably knoe
the story: he came out from a Chinese restaurant here in ....... when his trousers suddenly
fell to his knees and he stumbled, fell, hit his head, and died. I wear my trousers down to pay
respect to Nils-Nils Esperanto, and at the same time prove that it is possible to stand up with
your trousers down.
Let’s drink to the memory of Nils- Nils Esperanto!
(Shaman dance.)
Jeng zing tsai tjeng. Fang za siu cheng. Ji-i hang jang chu doi.
Ju je bing tsång. Zung tsi yeng mon monga lang tseng.
Zi zo langå zau lang heng. Ai peng mai heng.
Zeng ju mui jeng. Jing jang jang jong. Sam sam tseng.
Do han tsoi jeng. Gao jat tiu dy. Så sa ma jo fo moi.
På han gløk sam hao tsing.
Si mjak siu hou ham go-o o jeng.
This is my favourite Sami free-bag dream:
I woke up at five in the morning in a white painted garage. The garage was filled with grey
filthy water. In the middle of the room I saw a white scooter. I realized I had to start the dirty
Vespa to get out of the garage. I found the keys in my pocket and turned on the ignition. It
took a while but then it started, and grey smoke began to burst out of the water. I started to
drive towards the door, but the key in the ignition was also the key to the door – you see
what I mean? This is my favourite Sami free-bag dream. The door was the type that opens
upwards. I did it, and the water and I was flushed out. Outside the light was extremely
white. I didn’t know if it was winter or summer, but I felt kind of warm. I knew I could just
drive around a little to dry up and then my hair would flutter. A beautiful woman of my age
was standng there looking at me. I drove a little back and forth to show myself. Then I
realized the front wheel was missing.
(Reindeer choreography.)