Little Blue Vacuum Cleaner

This song from 1973 used to drive one of my frequent music playing buddies absolutely nuts. It was written while I was in the grips of a fascination with what we might call "cosmic whimsy." The simplest objects and ideas had deep metaphysical resonance for me, imbued with a sublime and reassuring humor. (Well... you know, it seemed sublime at the time.) Maybe it was the grimness of the war or the absurdity of mainstream society... maybe it was that do-it-yourself primal scream therapy program I came up with for myself.

Of course, one man's whimsy is another's terminal cuteness, and my pal Caz Camberline, who has over the years suffered through scores of my songs in various performance circumstances, could never swallow the cute formalism of the metaphysical central metaphor.And then there was the vacuum cleaner/highway shoes jump... I really didn't have an answer for that one. Still don't.

Now, that's what A Year of Songs is all about.


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Little Blue Vacuum Cleaner

Got yer little blue vaccuum cleaner
got his paregoric got his own Dust Preener
got that San Antone
Got that Dorothy Malone

Got the finity blues
Walking round the city in his highway shoes

Everything he see he suck it right up
nothing left to do he turn on himself
everything that's outside must be in
everything is known, you just begin again

Got that Einstein Circular Space
got that black hole -- he want a little taste
Got the world up inside his head
Where will it go when he finds out he's he's

Welcome to samsara now go home
welcome to my universe--here, God is on the phone
You're welcome to wonder what it's all about
But please don't try to tell me when you find out

Got the finity blues
Walking round the city in his highway shoes

(C) 1973,1996 TK Major
(Transcribed from memory with minor revisions Jan 2 1996)