THE WORM [single version]

by Jean Ramsay

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about

[Death.]

All my grandparents are dead.

My parents are dead.

I am alive.

[Life.]

*

[TW / CW: death & flesh & worms & decay

This song has its origins in a real live event.

I was sixteen, living away from home. My mother brought me a piece of meat, which I stuck in the fridge, intending to finally eat it once I ran out of money or to celebrate some reached goal. When I finally go to it a week later and opened the package, I found it crawling with maggots and worms.

The image remains burned into my brain: the swarming of living maggots on the surface of dead flesh.

The understanding that we carry within our own flesh the seeds of our own undoing has been a sobering thought when faced with more spiritual notions of death. To me death is a living thing - a process of undoing, of being undone.

There is a finality to it which I find soothing. The end of trying. The beginning of something new.

"In my end is my beginning", like Beckett writes]

The last kiss we'll get is from the worm.

Dedicated with undying love and friendship to "my best unbeaten brother" Juho Kustaa Eemeli Haapa-aho (1972-2012)

lyrics

”when your time on Earth is through
the worm's gonna come for you
he'll feed on your putrid mind
leave only bones behind

in the hollows of your mind
there'll be nothing left behind
instead of who you were
only darkened air

o the darkness grows within
as your life sheds its skin
o the worm grows within
feeds on all that you've been

when your blood has flown its course
he'll come riding on a pale white horse
drink your fountain dry
leave only bones behind

last calls and bitter ends
foes you thought were friends
no light, no heart, no care
only darkened air

o the darkness grows within
as your life sheds its skin
o the worm grows within
feasts on everything you've been”

[27.7.2020]

credits

released August 15, 2023
Written and performed by Jean Magnus William Ramsay

Recorded, engineered and produced by Mikael Ramsay at Milkhouse Studios, Helsinki, June 2023

Cover art: Karstein Volle

About:

"Listened to these tracks. They are very very good. " - Nick Triani

"Feels like I'm in front of royalty." - Hemp Smoking Reviews

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about

Jean Ramsay Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki-area based singer-songwriter

Left guitar and 1/2 lead vocal in The Spoonshiners.

Former member of: Tolka, Lockman, Röökipaikka, LiimaDYLANarina and The Love Death Club.

Digs labradors, fuzz pedals, 12-string guitars, disaster movies and Barolo wine.

"I may be a lonely schizophrenic, but at least we've got each other" - Townes van Zandt

[Drawing: Kaarlo Stauffer] ... more

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