Zombie Savant Issa Ibrahim 2010 music CD- Limited Edition, limited quantities collector’s item UPC 888174226767
“TELL ‘EM LIKE IT WAS” is a homecoming. Diagnosed with schizophrenia I am never alone. I have my florid imagination and various colorful creations to populate my world. Fragile and friendly folks like myself, casualties of the late 80s drug war that ravaged my neighborhood and my mind. Kindred spirits and lost souls from the graveyard of dashed suburban dreams that is my hometown Jamaica, Queens, the ashen remains of a once glorious now tarnished legacy of legends and luminaries living among the common people. Former home of African American greats including but not limited to Fats Waller, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and James Brown.
After getting discharged I imagined going back to the old neighborhood with guitar in hand, sitting on an anonymous stoop of a once familiar but now forgotten street corner forever changed by urban decay. There I am re-acquainted with the spirits of schoolyard chums and hangout buddies I never had. We share a laugh, harmonize, and in the halcyon hallucinatory haze I can see my sidemen, sometime psychotic street corner serenaders searching for a song, rocking romantics right out of rehab, like-minded individuals of similarly sparse ability but blessed with plenty of raw talent and drive that will not die.
“INSTITUTIONALIZED” is a true slice of a-day-in-the-life of a mental patient. I like the different uses of institutional “lies” and “eyes” and then title in the chorus of the song, it almost made me feel like a real lyricist.
“BLACK AND BLUE” has a genuine sadness to it as it was a heartfelt plea to my angry and estranged family to come visit me in the asylum. The song’s rollicking country feel, and laconic vocal delivery almost made me think of Johnny Cash…on Thorazine.
“THE DUMPING GROUND” was one of the first songs I'd written proper, back in1995, after a few years in the asylum and finally understanding where I was, especially after my brother-in-law let me know during an early visit, thus giving me the title.
“LITTLE PURPLE PILL” is an audio snapshot of life on the wards in a NY State psychiatric center and a bittersweet ode to Stelazine, my first oral anti-psychotic. In writing and performance, I think of this song as McCartney in a mental hospital.
“ACCIDENTAL LIFE” has me channeling Antonio Carlos Jobim with this confessional bossa nova. Certainly an “I-lost-a-decade-to-rehab” song with even more demons to deal with. I’m pleased that the out of tune guitar solo seemed to work.
“TIES THAT BIND” is knowingly stuffed with clichés and platitudes in every line, almost like I was challenging myself to do so, yet, like many “commercial pop” tunes of a certain vintage it can be taken at face value and become quite an unironic uplifting song. It certainly buoyed my spirits while writing it
14 songs written, performed and produced by Issa Ibrahim. Limited quantities.
“TELL ‘EM LIKE IT WAS” is a homecoming. Diagnosed with schizophrenia I am never alone. I have my florid imagination and various colorful creations to populate my world. Fragile and friendly folks like myself, casualties of the late 80s drug war that ravaged my neighborhood and my mind. Kindred spirits and lost souls from the graveyard of dashed suburban dreams that is my hometown Jamaica, Queens, the ashen remains of a once glorious now tarnished legacy of legends and luminaries living among the common people. Former home of African American greats including but not limited to Fats Waller, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and James Brown.
After getting discharged I imagined going back to the old neighborhood with guitar in hand, sitting on an anonymous stoop of a once familiar but now forgotten street corner forever changed by urban decay. There I am re-acquainted with the spirits of schoolyard chums and hangout buddies I never had. We share a laugh, harmonize, and in the halcyon hallucinatory haze I can see my sidemen, sometime psychotic street corner serenaders searching for a song, rocking romantics right out of rehab, like-minded individuals of similarly sparse ability but blessed with plenty of raw talent and drive that will not die.
“INSTITUTIONALIZED” is a true slice of a-day-in-the-life of a mental patient. I like the different uses of institutional “lies” and “eyes” and then title in the chorus of the song, it almost made me feel like a real lyricist.
“BLACK AND BLUE” has a genuine sadness to it as it was a heartfelt plea to my angry and estranged family to come visit me in the asylum. The song’s rollicking country feel, and laconic vocal delivery almost made me think of Johnny Cash…on Thorazine.
“THE DUMPING GROUND” was one of the first songs I'd written proper, back in1995, after a few years in the asylum and finally understanding where I was, especially after my brother-in-law let me know during an early visit, thus giving me the title.
“LITTLE PURPLE PILL” is an audio snapshot of life on the wards in a NY State psychiatric center and a bittersweet ode to Stelazine, my first oral anti-psychotic. In writing and performance, I think of this song as McCartney in a mental hospital.
“ACCIDENTAL LIFE” has me channeling Antonio Carlos Jobim with this confessional bossa nova. Certainly an “I-lost-a-decade-to-rehab” song with even more demons to deal with. I’m pleased that the out of tune guitar solo seemed to work.
“TIES THAT BIND” is knowingly stuffed with clichés and platitudes in every line, almost like I was challenging myself to do so, yet, like many “commercial pop” tunes of a certain vintage it can be taken at face value and become quite an unironic uplifting song. It certainly buoyed my spirits while writing it
14 songs written, performed and produced by Issa Ibrahim. Limited quantities.
“TELL ‘EM LIKE IT WAS” is a homecoming. Diagnosed with schizophrenia I am never alone. I have my florid imagination and various colorful creations to populate my world. Fragile and friendly folks like myself, casualties of the late 80s drug war that ravaged my neighborhood and my mind. Kindred spirits and lost souls from the graveyard of dashed suburban dreams that is my hometown Jamaica, Queens, the ashen remains of a once glorious now tarnished legacy of legends and luminaries living among the common people. Former home of African American greats including but not limited to Fats Waller, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and James Brown.
After getting discharged I imagined going back to the old neighborhood with guitar in hand, sitting on an anonymous stoop of a once familiar but now forgotten street corner forever changed by urban decay. There I am re-acquainted with the spirits of schoolyard chums and hangout buddies I never had. We share a laugh, harmonize, and in the halcyon hallucinatory haze I can see my sidemen, sometime psychotic street corner serenaders searching for a song, rocking romantics right out of rehab, like-minded individuals of similarly sparse ability but blessed with plenty of raw talent and drive that will not die.
“INSTITUTIONALIZED” is a true slice of a-day-in-the-life of a mental patient. I like the different uses of institutional “lies” and “eyes” and then title in the chorus of the song, it almost made me feel like a real lyricist.
“BLACK AND BLUE” has a genuine sadness to it as it was a heartfelt plea to my angry and estranged family to come visit me in the asylum. The song’s rollicking country feel, and laconic vocal delivery almost made me think of Johnny Cash…on Thorazine.
“THE DUMPING GROUND” was one of the first songs I'd written proper, back in1995, after a few years in the asylum and finally understanding where I was, especially after my brother-in-law let me know during an early visit, thus giving me the title.
“LITTLE PURPLE PILL” is an audio snapshot of life on the wards in a NY State psychiatric center and a bittersweet ode to Stelazine, my first oral anti-psychotic. In writing and performance, I think of this song as McCartney in a mental hospital.
“ACCIDENTAL LIFE” has me channeling Antonio Carlos Jobim with this confessional bossa nova. Certainly an “I-lost-a-decade-to-rehab” song with even more demons to deal with. I’m pleased that the out of tune guitar solo seemed to work.
“TIES THAT BIND” is knowingly stuffed with clichés and platitudes in every line, almost like I was challenging myself to do so, yet, like many “commercial pop” tunes of a certain vintage it can be taken at face value and become quite an unironic uplifting song. It certainly buoyed my spirits while writing it
14 songs written, performed and produced by Issa Ibrahim. Limited quantities.