Songs of Cupid by Ichor

Songs of Cupid record album
by Ichor

I found this rare and wonderful vinyl at the IDU Record Shop upstairs from the Second Reliquary of Purgatory. The album includes the unforgettable hit single “Hover Over You” as well as the very danceable “Like an Arrow.” And the prolific Ichor’s timeless “Ugly as Sin” has a mix of deep blues roots and murder-pigeon pathos. (He uses a 12-bar 1-4-5 blues progression in C#m, but shifts to Aeolian mode in the chorus to underscore the melancholia. It really tugs at the heartstrings.)

I woke up this morning
Then I went for a fly…
Said I woke up this morning
And went out for a fly.

Got a funny kind of feelin’ like I’m ugly as sin
People in them headsets, makin’ fun o’ my skin…

Well I ain’t got no money
Just flyin’ round PL
I got no money honey,
Shootin’ peeps in PL…

Gotta work for some dough, buy me a .44…
Take out some hoomans — don’t want them no more…

In a jarringly different vein, his operatic experiment, “On a Wing and a Curse,” is itself worth the price of admission. I don’t understand a word of it, as he sings it in the ancient language that is at once guttural and lilting, but you can feel the angst of his cyclic life and death to your core.

And let’s not forget his excruciating love song, “The Girl from California,” dedicated to his favorite human gamer! It is kind of cheesy and poppy, but when his voice breaks in the line about Don you can feel the sheer hopelessness of being in love with a human visitor.

This Cupid needs a break
Time to hover in the fog
It’s like you messed up my aim.
I can’t hit nothing, shoot my arrows into space
I fell for you baby and now I’m a waste
Girl you know it’s true
All I ever think about is you
It’s so much harder when you’re gone
You put down that headset
And I know you’re with Don.
But when you come back ’round baby, I wanna fly…
Fly on outta the Abyss,
Get away from it all with you
An’ give our hearts to this…

The album is very revealing, not only for its glimpses of IDU musical tradition but for the emotions of a character we never take seriously. Ichor is also the author of the classic textbook, Archery Tips for Cupids.

This is part of the In Death: Unchained literature collection by Steven K. Roberts.