drama of exile

can you follow me _she utters in song

set in rock and oblique with innuendos

she addresses the sunrise on the deep self

it arises from under a deluge of keyboard

dissonance disparate and unyielding

_a summons to one who made her his own_

to the lawns of dawns then anon in marble

where a child had a spree in the wild thus

the grain of backwoods outlands deserts

in songs declaring the absence and naming

the absent well known legends as her own

who would not follow your call certainly

we had our fill of distress and caresses

with good times and warnings roped high

in the wind blowing through hearsay road

blocks milestones beyond hill and ravine

we trickled to the pool the record shops

the passes where did all begin and end

a journey with roses from koln to the sun of

ibiza _mirth birth reverie in her own words

it was an unfortunate play to begin to know

the shadows on your smile as if bitter shrouds

and yet ready to become a debutante in rock

with a script mirrored in your own memoir

how was it devised among kilikini nadett and

you to sell the drama as a chore paid for

in advance and have it ended a royal foul up

with a double score _a strange device of sorts

i read about the cover shot being on the stairs

ascending somewhere in the paris subway 
loaded

her eyes witness the unremitting exile _
the stage awaits heroes and the end is most certain

The "remake" released on Invisible Records_   
https://mega.co.nz/#!MtIRVDzS!LrA9bMODFIpSnTGxyabp2ElhOqlSz_spuV6lU3V7F8s

Re:  The Classic Years  (1998)

                                                                                                                

When did I begin to be moved by your songs, and with no reason apparent.  I was living in Buffalo when someone turned me on to that album with the banana cover and all those songs marked  ‘forever’. Suddenly you were fixed within my walls -a loadstone- with only three songs you made us believe you.  That was all, there was no more about you.  And it was albums galore in the milk crates, with the most imaginative covers and there were comings and goings plenty, but no one knew about you.  We didn't even know Chelsea Girls existed.  The Marble Index was not available, so we had to send for it to some place in San Luis Obispo, California.  Yeah, we were down.  And  I still didn't know your name, well, you were just Nico.  The action kept growing hot.  I used to hang out in the West Side and all around.  I was happily surprised when the Kevin Ayers live album came out and you appeared, and then thrilled with The End release.  We were so down.  And finally when I found out about Desertshore, it was nowhere to be had.  I got it at long last at Record Theatre as an import around 75, and that was my take of the Classic Years.

Recently I tried to get the link for the music on the CD of the same title.  I was successful. I’m aware of the many Live recordings that have surfaced after her death.  I imagine they call for mandatory listening.  In the meantime I rest in the shade of YouTube and muse on an occasional memory. Like when I walked on Elmwood Avenue just short of the Buff State campus and went into ``Play it again, Sam`` where they had them Roir casettes and discovered Nico live in Europe 82-83 ( and Johnny Thunders Live and Television with the Little Johnny Jewel cut ), all of which I brought to south america and lost, with everything else, in the flood.  It's kind o'late, maybe tomorrow I'll dig out Drama of Exile and give it a reading (I know it needs some dusting off).  Like I said, she's been an inspiration since the banana...