You Have to Be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil’s Brain)

The Flaming Lips

Thinking back to that great decade. The 1990’s. I spent it (mostly) in Santa Barbara. So underrated when it comes to music and film. Back then, music and film was pretty much all I thought about and SO MUCH was released in those 10 years before Y2K.

Things feel so much more complicated now. And this melancholy tune feels right this evening. I feel disillusioned tonight and I’m not sure why. It’s nothing specific, just a general sense of disillusionment.

Oh my vision is blurred again

This song speaks to it for some reason — the very first song I loved by the Flaming Lips. I knew then they were working entirely on another level. It was before they had a hit with She Don’t Use Jelly. Those absurd, glorious strings at 2:27 are pretty incredible. I remember wanting to use this one in a film, but it never happened.

You have to be joking
They wouldn't do what you said
Oh, my vision is blurred again

You have to be kiddin' me
They wouldn't do those unspeakable things
Oh, my Jesus
It's worse than you think

Stood here in the morning
Got no science to explain
Seems to me that God and the devil
Are both the same

You have to be lyin'
They wouldn't do what you told me about
Oh, my vision is blurred again