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Written by Max in 1989 and newly arranged for the album Promised Land.
In the geological processes that form our world, the contact zone is the area where intruding magma or hot water contacts, alters and recrystallizes the pre-existing surrounding rock. In nature, that's where precious minerals, mines, and later, ruins, are found.
"Many years ago, I rented a Jeep Cherokee for a solo exploration of the Mojave Desert mountains which were to become my spiritual home. I pushed that vehicle up roads that seemed to have been abandoned for a hundred years, beyond anything you would see on a TV commercial. At the end of the road I would always find unimaginable beauty alongside the pathos of broken dreams. Then I would jump out of the vehicle, pour a massive shot of mega-mineral sports beverage down my throat, and race up the mountain, singing and flinging sweat off me as I went.
"On that trip I was listening to my favorite recording by Nigerian apala master Akanni Animashaun. Contact Zone is basically a rewrite of one of his songs, using my lyrics."
Lyrics
Follow me into my canyon
but listen before you go
My cherokee be not afraid
I will not leave you alone
I will lead you into shadows under towering stones
where your body will be beaten by the foliage in the road
still you got to see for yourself
Gravel rolls out from under you and you feel yourself slide
My sweet cherokee be not afraid
Sweat of cruel labor stand out upon your brow
How will you make it to the contact zone?
Looking for a light that's buried deep in a stone
Looking for a place where the devil put his feet
Nights with no shelter, days with no shade
Nights with no shelter, days with no shade
smelling sunlight like a shower of blood
Sweat out sister til you sweat out clean,
replace all the minerals in your bloodstream
Sweat out brother til you sweat out clean
replace all the minerals in your bloodstream
And when you get up on the mountain with a sky so blue
you will see all the rusty junk my people left behind
And when you get up on the mountain with a sky so blue
you will see all the rusty junk my people left behind
But the true flowering of my rich red ore
is that cactus you see standing off on a side
It's the pleasure of cactus to break down the stone
make a crown of great beauty with the toughest of thorns
When you climb up my canyon you must work up a sweat
When you climb up my canyon you must work up a sweat
roll off your body like a waterfall
Follow me into my canyon
but listen before you go
My cherokee be not afraid
I will not leave you alone
I will lead you into shadows under towering stones
where your body will be beaten by the foliage in the road
still you got to see for yourself
Four timbers set upright
in a mighty lonesome place
where I dropped it down in a shaft so deep
it might never ricochet
If you want to reach my contact zone
push on til you sweat out clean
you may find treasure you may find bones
you may find treasure you may find bones
Copyright © Max Carmichael 1989, 2010.
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