Poi Dog Pondering

Poi Dog Pondering is a band based in Chicago, Illinois. It was formed in the mid-1980s and revolves around the music of lead singer-songwriter Frank Orrall.

Lyrics & Philosophy

Lyrically, some songs paint slice-of-life portraits of people and situations, without telling a story ("Living with the Dreaming Body", "Wood Guitar"). The song topics vary widely, from the joys of eating breakfast ("Toast and jelly", the coda to "Postcard from a Dream") to:

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• Environmentalism ("Ancient Egyptians")
• Globalism ("Big Walk")
• Death ("Fact of Life", "Circle Round the Sun", "Bury me Deep", "The me that was your son"), and
• Spirituality ("Praise the Lord").

In "Praise the Lord", Orrall contrasts Christianity with his naturalistic philosophy. "Praise the Lord he said to me.. And I said, 'Yeah!'. I was just down at the sea and it occurred to me that I like to feel it knock me down, twist and throw and churn me around. 'Cause it's Mother Ocean and I'm just one of her sons." Continuing in the vein of naturalism, Orrall paraphrases Nietzsche, "...where the lion will lay down with the lamb, 'cause you know damn well he'll eat him if he can. The lion doesn't want to be pacified with promises of an endless life...". In "Fact of Life", traces of stoicism, Taoism and Buddhism exist, "Relentlessly climbing and conquering and swallowing fresh pain". Stoicism and Taoism are again echoed in "Fruitless" and "Circle round the sun", "Pushing up, I hope for the sun, but I'll take the rain with what all it comes... Who am I to try to guide my life?".

Related Topics:
Christianity - Naturalistic philosophy - Nietzsche - Stoicism - Taoism - Buddhism

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In Orrall's lyrics, water imagery is prominant, with water as life-giving and cleansing, "Melting, reemerging and rising up clean in the pouring rain" (this theme is also found in "Sound of Water").

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Orrall describes his view of the afterlife in the song, "And I know about heaven's gate...and I know that I'll be nothing there just food for fish and twisting worms". In "Bury me deep", he sings, "Only in death can one truly return. Return the carrots, the apples and potatoes, the chickens, the cows, the fish and tomatoes".

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Two songs, "Fall upon me" ("Fall upon me like a hundred flowers") and "Pulling Touch" ("Are you the cup that I hold by the cheekbones, I pull you close and I drink you up") are about love, and in particular, sex. Jealousy (particularly of past loves) is addressed in "Thanksgiving" (written by guitarist Adam Sultan) and "Everybody's trying to figure it out", and the band comes out firmly against it. Perhaps resulting from the post-Griswold phenomenon of serial monogamy derided by Alann Bloom, their philosophy is further described in "U Li La Lu", "You should wear with pride the scars on your skin, they're a map of the adventures and the places you've been".

Related Topics:
Griswold - Alann Bloom

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In spite of the number of songs about death and spirituality, a few songs venture into comedy, "The watermellon song" and "U Li La Lu" ("If I should die in a carwreck, may I have Van Morrison on my tapedeck").

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