Singled Out: P.J.M. Bond's Ponderosa Pine

P.J.M. Bond just released "Ponderosa Pine", the second single from his forthcoming "Coyote (King of the Island) album", and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

The melody for "Ponderosa Pine" had been there for quite a while, and I felt that each verse of the song had to finish with the kind of catchphrase Bob Dylan might use (such as "Shelter from the Storm," "The Times They Are A-Changing", etc.). But nothing really stuck or made sense. I was condemned to wait until inspiration struck. And luckily enough, it did, but rather oddly.

While we were on tour playing with Her Majesty, we got to talking about the Beat Generation, about Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac, which was when our sound engineer, Meindert van der Werf, told us that he once toured Europe with a member of the Beat Generation, a poet and writer named... Herbert Huncke. Having a degree in English and American Literature at the University of Amsterdam, I thought I was quite familiar with the Beat Generation and its laureated affiliates, but I had never before heard of mister Huncke. Kerouac actually describes Huncke in "Desolation Angels": "Huck, whom you'll see on Times Square, somnolent and alert, sad, sweet, dark, holy. Just out of jail. Martyred. Tortured by sidewalks, starved for sex and companionship, open to anything, ready to introduce a new world with a shrug." (chapter 77). Meindert told us wonderful stories about being on the road with the homosexual hobo and street-smart, heroin-addicted vagabond, and next week came back and borrowed me his copy of Huncke's "The Evening Sun Turned Crimson," published in 1980, and signed by the man himself. I sat down to read it right away, and next to all the wonderful stories in the collection about New York City in the '70s, and about being a broke artist - both financially and physically - at great odds with the world, one story in particular stood out to me, titled "Ponderosa Pines." I read the story once, and then another time, and was fascinated by Huncke's intense and almost violent observations of the world around him, while at the same time displaying a tender and deep love for creation and nature. I fell in love with the story, and its title. And as sometimes happens, when one is very lucky, the muse struck quickly and decisively.

I wrote about 7 different verses very rapidly, all ending with that similar line: "you haven't ... until you've ... a ponderosa pine", but eventually settled on the best ones. The song conjures up Huncke's observations and feelings in the mountains of Montana and is amalgamated with my own unhappy and shambled personal life at the time of writing the song. The feeling of just climbing into that tree and never climbing back down again, to escape the everyday chaos and embrace nature and the ponderosa pines that burst from its bosom. So thanks to Herbert Huncke (and Meindert van der Werf), I managed to write one of my favorite songs and lyrics on the album: "Ponderosa Pine."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

Behind The EP: P.J.M. Bond's Big Two-Hearted River: Part II

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