Hand of Desire
Following the success of Lunacy in 1990, Sparky and Greg released Hand of Desire in 1992.
Track List
- God Was a Woman
- Brid
- Bright Sun, Dark Dearth
- Trance
- Shango
- Lament for the Queer Dead
- Lullaby
- Eye in the Dark
- Sacred Birth
- Ancestor’s Invocation
- [Honor to The] Untamed God
- Way to the Well
Lament for the Queer Dead
Now where was I?
Ah, yes, I remember.
Greg Johnson and I originally recorded and released this album in 1992. Our first album, the eponymous Lunacy, had come out in 1990; both were released as cassettes. A few years later, CDs were becoming very popular, but the money just wasn’t around to produce the recordings in the new format.
So eventually the cassette went the way of the buffalo; nonetheless, quite a number of folks hung in there through the years, begging, cajoling, and haranguing me to turn the cassettes into CDs. (“Poof! You’re a CD!”). (Oh, if only it were that easy…) I want to thank them all for their support and encouragement, particularly Rob O’Brien, M. Macha NightMare, Steven Posch, Anne Hill from Serpentine Music, and—last but certainly not least—my husband Ray Bayley, the official Lunacy roadie and self-declared president of the Lunacy fan club.
I must thank five men in particular for their help with this project; it would not have happened without them: Dave VanDerKamp, who remastered the cassette recordings into CDs, and did many other things I don’t know the names of to make the music soud as good as it does (and it does); Keith Ward, who generously contributed his wonderful artistic sense and prodigious skills to the new look of both recordings; and Drew Miller, who transformed the CDs into physical reality. They are truly magicians; and each of them has encouraged andn prodded me to get this done for…well, much longer than I care to admit. Thanks are also due to Johnny Deer, who answered each and every one of my grammar and composition questions with patience and grace; and finally, more thanks to my sweetheart Ray Bayley, who showed me how to use his Mac—over and over and over again.
Greg and I went our separate ways a few years after making this recording. He has my undying gratitude for his astounding talent and contributions to this treasure. I’m so glad it’s still around to be shared with new generations.
Enjoy the music!
Sparky T. Rabbit
God Was a Woman
(6:41)
Words and music by Lunacy [Refrain adapted by Sparky T. Rabbit from “The Goddess Chant,” words by Deena Metzger, music by Caitlin Mullin]
Arranged by Lunacy
I was driving down to Kansas City from my home in Rock Island, Illinois, in December 1989 for the very first Lunacy recording session. During the six-hour trip, I spent a lot of my time singing. I started playing with the famous Metzger-Mullin chant “Isis, Astarte…,” which soon became the syncopated chorus of “God Was a Woman.”
Soon after, I started writing the rest of the song. One day, Greg showed me a new verse he’d written for it. Turns out he’d remembered the melody incorrectly (tsk, artists) and instead come up with the beautiful bridge (“We heard Her voice in the force of the whirlwind”) that is now an integral part of the song. Thank the gods for such “mistakes”!
Bríd
(1:57)
Words traditional Scottish & Irish
Music and arrangement by Sparky T. Rabbit
Vocals: Sparky
“…on the 2nd of February ‘the mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oat, and dress it up in woman’s apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Briid’s Bed; and then the mistress and servants cry three times, Briid is come, Briid is welcome’…”
Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland, by John Gregorson Campbell (1902)
“…excellent woman, sudden flame…”
From a hymn to Brigid, attributed to Brendan the Voyager
This is a chant for the ancient Celtic goddess Brid, whose popularity is evidenced by Her many names—Brighhid, Brigit, Bride—and more than 70 other variants. Her worship remained strong through the new religion when sainthood preserved Her stories and rituals; more recently, She has become a matron for many in the new Pagan revival. Her sacred flame still burns at Her shrine in Kildare.
Bright Sun, Dark Death
(1:56)
Words. By Starhawk, music by Moonrose
Adapted by Sparky T. Rabbit
Arranged by Lunacy
I first read these lyrics in Starhawk’s seminal work The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1979). She sang it for me in 1982 as we sat around exchanging chants with friends on a warm Summer afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin.
Our cover of the song is a great example of Lunacy’s key modus operandi: we played around with other people’s melodies and lyrics—a lot! (There’s polyamory for you.). So if you’re looking for a song performed as written, you’ll have to check out the songwriter’s own work. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Lunacy’s interpretations of these songs.
Trance
(5:20)
Words by Sparky T. Rabbit
Music by Sparky T. Rabbit & Ray Bayley
Improvisational descant by Greg Johnson
Arranged by Lunacy
The Faggot Witch Camp Planning Committee was meeting in Iowa City one hot summer weekend in 1991. During a ritual, my husband Ray started playing a compelling rhythm on the drum; I began singing and out came this.
Shango/Changó
(4:12)
Words & music traditional Yoruba
Adapted & arranged by Lunacy
A praise song (oriki) in honor of the powerful orisha Changó, a patron for many queer people who worship in the traditions of African ancestors. According to Randy P. Conner & David Hatfield Sparks in their Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions (New York: Harrington Press, 2004), He is the butchest of butch males, and He also “…is said to have an ‘effeminant [sic] road,’ in which he dresses and behaves as a sensuous woman.” Changó wields the edun ara, the double-bladed ae of thunder and lightning. Tórr, the Thunderer of the North, also has a hammer—and He dressed as a bride to regain it from the Giants who stole it from Him.
Lament for the Queer Dead
(8:11)
Words & music by Sparky T. Rabbit
Arranged by Lunacy
This song employs tropes that are common to many human cultures—the meeting of the living and the dead, the otherworld sees as beyond a body of water, and the ship that sails between worlds—to tell an old story in a newer context: that of many thousands of gay men who died from the plague in the 1980s and ‘90s, and the stunning grief carried by those who were left behind.
Lullaby
(5:00)
Words & music by Greg Johnson
Vocal: Greg
I don’t know what other song could follow “Lament for the Queer Dead” but this one. I hope folks who aren’t gay men can understand how meaningful it is for many gay men to hear this tender, loving song—and then the words “my darling man” near the end, sung from one man to another.
Eye in the Dark
(2:37)
Words & music by Sparky T. Rabbit
Arranged by Lunacy
A good song to sing with friends outside at night in the pitch black.
Sacred Bitch
(1:35)
Words & music by Donald L. Engstrom
Arranged by Lunacy
People have told me that this is their children’s favorite Lunacy song—and that the kids like to sing it in public. Hooray!
Ancestors’ Invocation
(4:07)
Words & music by Greg Johnson
{“Invocation of the Queer Directions,” “Witness Invocation” & “Faggot God Call”
(Spoken poetry) by Bert Provost]
Arranged by Greg Johnson
Singing: Greg, speaking: Sparky
Just as women before us (who had written, sung, and spelled themselves into spiritual reality with the many faces of the Goddess), the Faggot Witches knew that if we were to become part of the world, we would need poetry, songs, and stories that named out experiences and ourselves as sacred. This song conflates—and even confuses—gay gods and spirit powers with all gay men of the past; names those men-loving men as ancestors bound to those now living; and gave this album its title in the haunting list of bynames for those powers (“The open door / the hand of desire…/ The naked man draped in purple”). It reveals the passionate desire we carried as we searched for gods and powers who were ours—and ours alone. It reflects the deep need all humans have for a home where we are welcomed with open arms, loved for who we are, valued for our unique gifts, and supported as our true selves.
(Honor to the) Untamed God
(6:02)
Words by Starhawk & Lauren Liebling
Music by Mara June Quicklightning
Adapted by Sparky T. Rabbit
Arranged by Lunacy
“Honor to the Untamed God,” the ancestor of this song, was written for the first performance, in 1979, of the Spiral Dance ritual, created as a launch for Starhawk’s book, The Spiral Dance, and still presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Reclaiming community annually at Samhain.
Way to the Well (A Song for Brigid)
(8:02)
Words by Starhawk & Rose May Dance
Music adapted by Starhawk from a South African freedom song
Arranged by Lunacy
A song for Brigid, the holy well and sacred flame.
“God Was a Woman” ©1990 by Lunacy, “Brid” ©1983, “Eye in the Dark” ©1986, “Trance” ©1991, “Lament for the Queer Dead” ©1991 by Sparky T. Rabbit, “Ancestors’ Invocation” ©1990, “Lullaby” ©1991 by Greg Johnson.
All arrangements ©1992 by Lunacy
(P)1992 by Lunacy. All Rights Reserved.
Engineered & mixed by Lane Turner at City Spark Studios, Kansas City, Missouri.
Cover art on original cassette by Bert Provost. Photo[?] by Everett Wright
Layout by Greg, Copy by Sparky
Thanks to the Sons of the Bitch for clapping on “Untamed God” and “Bright Sun.”