Bill Callahan’s latest album, Apocalypse, might contain some of the most poetic lyrics of the year so far (e.g., “Baby’s Breath,” “Drover”), but don’t expect the great Austin singer-songwriter to follow up last year’s fictional effort, Letters to Emma Bowlcut, with a poetry collection anytime soon. The Rumpus published an interview with Callahan yesterday, in which he discussed a range of subjects, including the House of Representatives (“It’s like Needle Park”), current music (“bands are trying to play as if they are samplers”), and his definition of the word apocalypse, before offering the following choice quote on poetry:
I’m not a poetry guy… Emily Dickinson I like. She was a rare seed with a rampant flaring core. I’m surprised no one has founded a religion in her honor. Or maybe they have. All these poetry readings attended by poets. But mostly I find that poetry doesn’t suit my speed. Mostly I cannot understand what is being said. I don’t want to be teased with feathers by someone tittering in a harlequin mask hiding behind a pillar—I want to be high-fived or hugged by a blinged out mothereffer. Hug a thug!
Perhaps Callahan, like Tom Waits, would prefer to call his lyrics “an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue.” Check out the full Q&A here.