Ep. 10: Dominance & Control (3 of 3)

In the third and final installment of this series, Andrew Reed covers the final 3 songs in this concept album, Dominance & Control, discussing "Minstrel Boy", "Sky Pilot", and concluding the journey with "Pulsar (Reprise)". He discusses Mortality, Masks, the Afterlife, and the evolving concept of the Self. We follow Cezar in the final steps of his Earthly, mortal life, along with his ultimate surrender to the “Great Certainty” - Death. Cezar then experiences the Afterworld, riding on a celestial Sky Train, captained by the Sky Pilot, as a passenger. He observes how small all things seem on Earth from this warm, safe and high-level perspective. As great and epic as his life had been, he still loses his identification with his past and contemplates his next iteration on the Earth plane. He is softened and more understanding of others now… and seeks to re-enter Life as a more evolved person…

Chapter Markers

(00:00) Intro

(01:06) Minstrel Boy: Death of the Persona

(03:01) The Masks We Wear & Letting Go

(05:38) SONG: Minstrel Boy

(14:00) Sky Pilot: Leaving Earth, Entering the Celestial

(15:33) Origins & Innovative Drum Recordings

(17:55) SONG: Sky Pilot

(24:30) Pulsar (Reprise): Vibration, Softening & Trust

(26:32) SONG: Pulsar (Reprise)

(33:00) Closing

Song: Twisted World - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: As a Bird of the Air… (Trilogy I Album 1)

Song: Minstrel Boy- andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Song: Sky Pilot - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Song: Pulsar (Reprise) - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Distributed by Universal/Virgin Music Groups

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Youtube Channel: @andrewreedtheliberation

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“We don't want to live what?: The unconsidered life.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
What are you willing to throw your life away on? With
Andrew Reed and The Liberation.It's a serious question, one
worth pondering. Am I living thelife I want, an intelligent
life, or something else? How canI have a better experience of
life?
These are some of the questionsexplored in this series of

(00:34):
messages without the brag andthe advertisement. Getting
beyond even human institutionsand society into the wilderness,
nature, the reality of how lifeactually operates on this
planet. These messages rangefrom intimate recordings from
the awakened forest to concerts,national conferences, and

(00:56):
broadcasts on a wide array ofphilosophical topics.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Welcome back. And in this episode, we're gonna talk
about the last three songs onthis epic prog rock record,
Dominance and Control. MinstrelBoy. This is a song I actually
wrote in high school. And asstated earlier, most of my early
bands were all prog rock becauseagain, I wasn't interested in

(01:28):
doing covers, I was the artist.
And to me it's just pointless totry to do other people's songs.
But Minstrel Boy is kind of alaughable name when you think of
minstrel. We would laugh evenrecording it this time with all
these studio musicians. MinstrelBoy, and this seems so

(01:49):
ridiculous. But when you look atthe modern era of music, the
rock star, the celebrity, it iskinda ridiculous.
And in the middle part, thebreakdown where Mr. Boy lays
down his lute. Of course, we hadto go to an ancient instrument
with strings, of course, youknow, to represent the modern

(02:11):
electric guitar far superiorthan the steam power or the coal
powered guitar of the past. Andwe just thought it was just
groovy and all that. But MincerBlade, let's talk about the
content.
Okay, with glory fading andsatisfaction dissipating, rock
star Caesar, our central figure,He's reconsidering and

(02:33):
contemplating life just like allof us do because we don't want
to live what? The unconsideredlife. So he's doing this but his
fan base is dwindling with age,gravity, all the things that
happen in the natural process oflife. And his power and
influence is subsiding. Let'sjust say this, he's despondent

(02:57):
and weary, really, of life.
He's old and ugly, he's lookingat his mask, loss of his
fertility, his time's runningout, and he's facing what? The
great certainty of death. And ofcourse, the mask has to fall
off. And to me, this is one ofthe more interesting aspects of

(03:23):
masks. And of course masks inthis case really taken on more
prevalence as masks representwhat the roles that we play in
life, our portrayals to theworld, the production and all
that of who we are, to society.
And it's a form of protection orsometimes plays a role in hiding

(03:47):
from society, our true self. Youknow hiding our authentic person
that we are because frankly mostof us find it very hard to
reveal ourselves to others.Through these podcasts I'm
trying to be as real as I canbe. And there's a big risk with
that. It's like oh my God,that's embarrassing.

(04:12):
Or could embarrass due to eitherfailure or sometimes even
success, but both ends you canbe embarrassed about. And so
this idea of the mask and thenat some point it falls off. And
in our hospice work or end oflife work, there's a point when
you can say to the patient orthe person that's dying, you

(04:35):
don't have to put your makeup ontoday or anymore. And there's a
relief with this, a release youmight say, that no, maybe I can
relax into life finally. But Iguess what I'm saying there is
maybe we can drop the maskssooner and start to experience

(04:57):
life, the joy of life, ratherthan postponing it for some
certain date or some event thatwe can enjoy process of
practicing, of preparing, ofgetting our educations, of
striving for the big event, thebig goal, the big attainment.

(05:17):
And even playing a role thatit's okay to put on the mask.
It's okay to portray someoneelse. There's nothing wrong with
that. But then there's timeswhere you really just want to
relax and be yourselves. I willsay this, when you're performing
with a mask, there's a differentlevel of confidence, you play

(05:42):
different, probably do moreoutrageous things than you
normally would do, why?
Again, this protective feeling.And so with that, let's get into
Minstrel Boy. Sky pilot, ourrock star Caesar, a center of

(14:22):
consciousness. At this point hedies because he dies in Minstrel
Boy. And his identification withhis former self, life start to
disintegrate.
And he starts to travel in thecelestial spaceship with the Sky

(14:43):
Pilot. And the thing about it isif you ride on airplanes and you
look down, what do you notice?Everything looks so small,
especially after takeoff or asyou're coming in for the
landing. You see the roads andwith these little specks on
them, you see all the neatpatchwork of farms and fields

(15:03):
and buildings and all this. Andit all seems so small.
And then you start to thinkabout the universe and
contemplate really our size inrelation to that. And of course
you can get this feeling ofbeing insignificant. But
obviously all things arerelative that to an ant or

(15:25):
subatomic particles or whatever,we look gigantic. So it's all
relative to really our position,our level, whatever, in
consciousness, you know, in lifeand that we all are playing our
respective roles and somehowthis all integrates in this

(15:45):
experience of life that we have.But Sky Pilot I wrote actually
when I was in Bible school.
And of course here I'm this guythat gets kicked out every other
week due to controversial ideasand hair issues. So I was at the
apartment with my mates andstuff and I had my tape machine
and whatever and I had slowed itdown to half speed in order to

(16:08):
get the timing right. And itsounded cool. So when it came
time to actually record SkyPilot, I had to have Wayne play
double time which then we sloweddown again. And then of course
Alex comes in and adds all theseepic treatments to the drums.

(16:31):
And I think that's one of themost brilliant aspects of this
song is really the productionvalue, the slowed down drums.
And then you have this almostElvis like chord progression
like the 50s which is a happykind of music. Yeah, because
that's what you'd want to havein the afterworld. We can sing
Alleluia all day long. After awhile though, someone might say,

(16:54):
Hey, let's jazz this up a littlebit.
Let's rock this out. Or, Hey,let's do a little Elvis
Hallelujah or somethingdifferent. The point is we don't
know quite but we know that theafterworld, the afterlife, and
most of us that have been inhospice and end of life work, we
believe we're more than just aphysical body and that life

(17:17):
continues. We go from one lifeto another. And so this world
just identifies this and I'lljust say in the contemplative
state of writing in thiscelestial spaceship, rock star
Caesar of course is losing thatidentification, probably not
even thinking about himself inthat context now.
And he's thinking about what hewants to do in the next life.

(17:41):
And does he want to be a cabdriver? Does he want to be
another rock star? Does he wantto drive a bus? Does he wanna
cut hair, be a barber, be afarmer?
And that's the way it goesbecause it seems also that life
is a reiteration and it'sregenerative. But one thing we

(18:03):
know is we can't stay where weare now but that it continues
and there tends to be a secularpattern in nature. So with that,
here's Sky Pilot. This brings usto the last song. Pulsar,

(24:56):
Reprise, Tomato, Tomato, justdepending on where you're from.
But here we're back topulsation. Life as vibration,
life as consciousness. We're inthis reconstituted, reconsidered
existence in a new role, in anew mask, but we're a more

(25:16):
reconciled person at this point.In fact, in this song there's a
humility, a great softeningthat's taken place in this soul.
Why?
Because great losses of thingstends to tenderize us, make us
soft, makes us moreunderstanding, gets rid of many

(25:37):
of our prejudices towards lifewhere we can flow, flow with
nature. The video for this isepic in that it lends itself
back to the album of thistrilogy, Demarcation. The song
is called Leaf, that we're allthis consciousness or this leaf

(25:58):
in the stream of consciousness,or it could be even the Rubicon
in this case, where we'refloating along, again with the
process of life, maybe with somewill to go to this bank or that
bank or whatever, but we'regoing along really entrusting
life that is operating as thisharmonious whole. So there it

(26:21):
is, dominance and control. And Iwill say this, I'm proud of all
the music we've been able to putout.
I I don't put out anythingthat's just fluff or whatever.
It's all very considered. But Ido believe this is a very
special album and it says a lotabout humanity, our feelings

(26:43):
towards life, towards societyand I think it explores just a
lot of different aspects of thehuman experience. And so I hope
you've enjoyed it. Left behind,left behind.

(29:13):
I see you're with my mind. All Ihave is done. I see this life

(29:34):
for what is.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Thank you for listening. If you need anything
further, just go to mbi.life.