“Welcome to the edited version of Angels: Tour of the Vultures, a 1977 silent film.  During the screening of it, I will perform songs related to it, specifically:

Briarwood

Dealing with My Friends

Reflections of the Sky

And the short song:  A Horse at Sea

We were students then, graduating from high school, at career crossroads. We came upon the unopened film canister of our forefathers, which we opened, finding within it, the days of our futures past.

I shortened the film last night to diminish, eliminate and remove the shock material, valid though I contend it may be in context.  We will see 15 minutes or approximately half of Angels: Tour of the Vultures, portions from its beginning, middle and end.

If you find the content of this film is shocking, rest assured, I have spared you from the full voltage of the shock. 

By the way, Briarwood, the wood used to make smoking pipes, is the section in Queens, New York where stands the high school building known as Arch Bishop Malloy. 

in Briarwood

 

VERSE I

You can't live up to Briarwood

And yet you always think you should, but

Things have changed.  They're not the same

As what we believed they were

 

Living with the statuettes, you

Find the shape that suits you best

And learn to meet those folks again

In hard up days to come

FOR THE STEM SHALL KEEP US AS ONE.

 

VERSE II

And you can't live up to Briarwood

That's why we know it must be good

It's not the time to understand

To know what we're lying on.

 

Since the day I met you I knew

Love would always bind our hearts

But we have grown.  Though just the same,

We slowly have torn apart

 

BRIDGE

And though you make the study of this master plan

You never really know just What goes on,

Just bits and pieces of the structure.

And like those in charge you know there's more than you see,

As Briarwood is a growth of many minds.

For this bundle of society to form has taken time.

 

(End of Part One)

                    Briarwood (Part Two)

 

You're body is diseased; it's being Eaten Away

It starts from the inside and then One Day

The disease breaks through and you are Filled With Holes

When you looked so good just a Short While Ago.

 

Sitting on a chair in a Flourescent Room

Eating up your hands as you Wonder Who

Are the people waiting with you who are _-_Not_- Anymore

But you're happy there together 'cause you've seen them All Before

 

Unable to control where your Mind Will Go

Periods of darkness, then a Time To Show

That you and I are both Still Here

Though the time is growing short with the seconds made of fear.

 

                    Briarwood (Continued)

 

Wish I still had that House on the Hill,

Stayed alive through this Matter of Will.  There we'd be

Tearing faces just by Turning the Dial.

Had dinner then hung Out for a While

God I really walked in Style.

 

(The Briarwood Walk)

 

Yes I went out.  Played ball with the kids,

Had dinner and then hung out for a while

Sometimes went shopping.  Stopped off at Macy's.

Always saw something that I had to buy.

 

What a position I always was in.

Gambling out the Days of the week.

Worked as a gesture.  They needed me.

A nice little branch out by the leaves.

 

Oh what a time.  You should have been there.

It was so easy, for we were all one.

I can't figure out how I caught this disease.

 

Ah.  And may we fight together

Ah.  In the right, together.  May they

All see through our Griefs

To our beliefs

With only their conversions in our Minds.

That they not be blind!

They understand that our purpose is single. 

That we are ... .That we all become equal.

 

 

That we all are the best.

VERSE III

But you can't live up to

Briarwood.  You

Laugh as though you

Understood, but

This has reality

More than you or I

For this bundle of society to

Form has taken time.

And Briarwood is a growth of many minds, yes

Briarwood is a growth of many minds.

 

                                  c 1975, Peter Dizozza

Dealing With My Friends

 

"Richie Rich.  This is a song about Richie Rich.  Yeah, Richie is just a rich lad and this is a song about his friends, and this includes God as well."