Every year, sometime in May, I think that I will record John Elwood Cook’s “Memorial Day” and publish it on Memorial Day. This year I made a sincere effort at the last minute. I failed to meet the deadline, but wound up with a different Cook song, plus a redo of my own “Ayahuasca” from a couple of years ago. I’d been wanting to redo that one, since there had previously been a dangling, unfinished verse, poking fun at the class-specific aspect of the psychedelic-healing renaissance.

Here’s the words to both:

Ayahuasca
by Boor

Well there’s a girl I know from work
And I suppose you know her too.
And there’s the guy who’s into crypto
In the A-frame next to you.
And there’s your lesbian ex-girlfriend
Whom you haven’t seen since college.
They’ve all become the bearers
Of some esoteric knowledge.

Cause they’re all takin Ayahuasca.

These days seems like everybody
Feels like something’s missing,
Like their chakras need aligning
And their boo-boos all need kissing.
And so they go online and find themselves
A shaman or a wizard.
And they drink some shit that makes ’em puke
And then they see a lizard.

Cause they’re all takin Ayahuasca.

They’re not your standard stoners
And they ain’t your basic ballers.
You can tell these frequent friars
By the colors of their collars.
Honey, this ain’t no white lightnin
Like they cook down in the hollers.
You can get a hit of this shit
For about a thousand dollars.

If you want to take ayahuasca,
Just like they’re all takin ayahuasca.

Oh, but when they get done hurling,
Well, their senses get to reeling.
And it’s nothing like a notion,
And it surely ain’t a feeling.
And it takes eleven hours
Just to peel them off the ceiling.
We used to call this getting high,
But now we call it healing.

Cause we’re all takin Ayahuasca.

Waterloo Bridge
by J.E. Cook

From the Waterloo Bridge,
Spit down in the dirty water.
This is not what it seems.
It’s not your normal daydream.
The Waterloo Bridge
Goes higher and higher
And I seem to be hanging off the edge
Of the Waterloo Bridge.
Spit down in the dirty water.

Everybody loves jumpers
In their own pathetic way.
And I feel like I’ve let the crowd
Down today.
Crucified in checkered slacks.
I’m a man with no impact
Unless it’s smack
Off the Waterloo Bridge.
Spit down in the in the dirty water.
This is not what it seems,
Not your normal daydream.
The Waterloo Bridge
Goes higher and higher
And I seem to be hanging off the edge,
Of the Waterloo Bridge.

Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble.
C’mon, if you’re gonna go.
We’ve been taking time out of our day
To see the show.
Teetering won’t do,
for you.
Now totter.
Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble.
Spit down in the dirty water.
This is not what it seems.
Not your normal daydream.
Teetering won’t do,
for you.
Now totter.
Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble.
Spit down in the dirty water.

From the Waterloo Bridge,
Spit down in the dirty water.
This is not what it seems.
It’s not your normal daydream.
The Waterloo Bridge
Goes higher and higher
And I seem to be hanging off the edge
Of the Waterloo Bridge
Spit down in the dirty water.