Fantastische, funky live jam van Eric Burdon en het Amerikaanse gezelschap War. Burdon is – samen met Van Morrison – de beste witte soulzanger, zijn stem is geknipt voor dit werk. De titel hebben we te danken aan toetsenist Lonnie Jordan, die per ongeluk een fles wijn omkieperde over een mengpaneel. In 1970 vierde het hedonisme hoogtij, de destijds zo ongeveer verplichte verwijzingen naar drugs en sex ontbreken dan ook niet. I’d lay myself down to rest/In a big field of tall grass doelt niet op het groene spul dat koeien eten, maar op een bewustzijnsverruimend kruid. De regel take that pearl verwijst naar orale sex, pearl is slang voor ‘clitoris’.
I was once out strolling
One very hot summer’s day
When I thought I’d lay myself down to rest
In a big field of tall grass
I lay there in the sun
And felt it caressing my face
As I fell asleep and dreamed
I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie, yes I did
And that I was the star of the movie
This really blew my mind
The fact that me, an overfed long-haired, leaping gnome
Should be the star of a Hollywood movie
But there I was
I was taken to a place:
The Hall of the Mountain King
I stood high up on a mountaintop
Naked to the world
In front of
Every kind of girl
There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones
Black ones, round ones, big ones
Crazy ones
Out of the middle
Came a lady
She whispered in my ear
Something crazy
She said:
Spill the wine, dig that girl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
I thought to myself
What could that mean?
Am I going crazy
Or is this just a dream?
Now wait a minute – I know I’m lying in a field of grass somewhere
So it’s all in my head
And then
I heard her say
…one more time:
Spill the wine take that pearl
I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back
As she disappeared
But soon she returned
In her hand was a bottle of wine
In the other, a glass
She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass
And raised it to her lips
And just before she drunk it
She said:
Take the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Heinrich Klaffs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/heiner1947/4409747652/in/photostream/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12515021
