Way Beyond The Flesh

by Howard A. Landman

You don't have to wear no high-heels baby
I'd rather see you skip like a child
You don't need a low-cut see-through nightgown
As long as your heart runs wild
Polish on your fingernails is wasted
When I need your tender caress
And you know that lipstick can be tasted
It only makes a greasy mess

I've seen women the whole world wide
From Malibu to Marrakkesh
You have a beauty that shines inside
My love for you goes Way Beyond The Flesh

You don't need no makeup or mascara
Your eyes are deep enough to drown
You don't have to shave your legs or armpits
I like to feel you soft as down
You don't have to tattoo your body
With dragons running down your back
You don't need to pierce your ears or nipples
Your jewelry ain't what I lack

You can't believe all you read in books
There's wheat and there's chaff, and you thresh
And real worth isn't based on looks
My love for you goes Way Beyond The Flesh

Love can be as gentle as a flower, so soft you hardly feel its touch
Love can knock you over with its power, and make you cry that it's too much
You know Love is vaster than an ocean, so why do you still quake in doubt?
I wish I could plant in you the notion, that I can take what you dish out
Now I don't want to be a superhero
So hard that the world seems soft
I just want to be there at ground zero
When your Big Love Bomb goes off
Bathing me in white light - white heat - bright light - all night
Searing me skin from bone
Fusing my salts with the sands of the desert
So my minerals won't be alone

And when that moment comes to pass
And our tiniest atoms mesh
We'll flow together like molten glass
My love for you goes Way Beyond The Flesh

San Jose, May 1994
bridge: Hollyhock Center, July 1996

This song came to me in a very strange way. Here's an email that I sent to Carol about it at the time:

God it was nice to see you last night. Hope you had a good flight and are having a productive day.

When I got home Gelly love-bombed me ... wow the weekend really had a powerful effect on her. And I hadn't had an orgasm in 10 days or so, so it seemed to go on forever when it hit.

I woke up at 3 AM ... I think Robert was making noises ... and I felt really loved and secure, just wrapped and enveloped in love. Got up, drank some water, read my email ... around 5:30 I sat down to meditate. The house was really cold; the girls had left the bathroom window (and door) wide open. I closed it and turned on the heat. I sat down to meditate again. Within seconds, something strange was happening. Instead of a mental exercise, my body started vibrating. At first I thought it might be some kind of shivering due to the chill, but it started deep inside my belly, and expanded from there. It came and went in waves along with my breath ... build up on the inhale, getting really intense at maximum, enough to shake my whole body, I had trouble keeping my hands on my knees it was that powerful, and then easing off slowly on the exhale. The frequency of vibration was, oh, maybe 8 Hz give or take a factor of 2.

I think if I hadn't read Joys Way this would have frightened me, but he talked about something similar happening to him (although I think he was lying down), and he considered it to be a major healing experience. So I just kind of opened to it and let it take me. Unfortunately, at that moment the alarm in the girls room went off (some wacky cartoon voice saying "Six o'clock! Time to get up!" over and over) and it kind of broke the mood ... the vibrations tapered off, and stopped after a few more minutes.

I was hungry (hadn't eaten since the late lunch at 3:30 the day before) and made myself a can of chicken noodle soup for breakfast. Then I went back to bed and slept for a while till Gelly got back into bed and we love-bombed each other again. After we got up, she made me breakfast while I showered (and I remembered to thank her :-)

While I showered, fragments of a song started coming to me, a song that I had first started hearing when I woke at 3 AM. It's not finished yet, and there's some chance it will never be, but here's what I've got so far. Hope it brings you a chuckle and a smile.

... followed by most of the verse lines (in a somewhat different order than they are today). I had to struggle to get it all down and fill in the gaps and write down the music that I was hearing in my head. It was two years before I added the bridge and really considered it finished.

Click here to see the chords. Click here to download Postscript sheet music. Note that the sheet music hasn't been updated to the final lyrics, but the melody is still right.

I wonder what would have happened if the alarm hadn't gone off?

Last updated 1998 May 22