Epic dream in which I somehow get roped into helping work on a documentary on The Clash and their two wholly imaginary attempts to recreate themselves as a folksinging children’s entertainment outfit.

The dream included:

– a guerilla editing suite, in which one had to constantly be alert for discovery and be prepared to run.

– a banjo allegedly invented by the world’s greatest banjo player, unidentified in the dream, which appeared to have wooden copies of elements of a pre-qwerty circular keyboard attached to the tone ring such that the player could chord the keys in order to engage frailing and chording patterns and eleven strings (somewhat in the manner of an oud).

– the epic re-recording of the bawdy “Whale Boat Song” as the more kiddie-friendly “Walrus Boat Song,” during which Mick and Joe meet again after a hiatus of twenty years, Joe inexplicably wearing a black satin damask cassock, richly detailed. His hair was inadvisably dyed and teased to cover his grey and disguise his retreating hairline, unlike Mick who made no attempt to hide his age.

This last amusing detail, Joe as priest, was somehow prompted by a recent viewing of Michael Palin and John Cleese’s famous appearance on late night British TV in which an Anglican bishop and Malcom Muggeridge treat Palin and Cleese as though they were the Sex Pistols over the then recent and controversial release of “Life of Brian.”

Other contributing factors include having spent a half-hour reviewing the history of the Rutles yesterday, Joes actual and brief stint with the Pogues, and of course, Spinal Tap.

The dream went on and on and on and was utterly exhausting. As you might imagine, the music was not very good (a combination of the terribleness of the idea itself and the fact that my insufficiently-gifted subconscious was having to invent the songs).