He attended Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas. His contemporaries at Monterey High School included Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Jo Harvey Allen and Jo Carol Pierce. Trained as an architect, he received a B.F.A. from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. His art has been supported by three NEA grants and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. His work Trees (the music, literary and third trees) is installed on the campus of the University of California San Diego as part of the Stuart Collection. His artwork has been featured at the L.A. Louver art gallery in Venice, California.
Terry Allen is represented by Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, CA. His works are represented in the collections of many international museums including the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Nelson/Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, l’Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain, Musee Saint Pierre, Lyon, France, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Terry Allen recorded eight albums during the years 1979 to 2004 and collaborated with David Byrne on the soundtrack for Byrne's movie True Stories. Allen's music is far from traditional. A quote attributed to Allen states: "People tell me it's country music, and I ask, 'Which country?'" Allmusic calls his 1979 release, Lubbock (On Everything), "one of the finest country albums of all time" and a progenitor of the alt-country movement
After The Fall
Terry Allen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
psychedelic nights
When your head come loose
and floated into the lights
And all them girls
without any tops at all
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh
After the Fall
fantasies worked
Little flags in front of the tract homes
by the church
It's a wonder anything's left
to hurt at all
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh
After the Fall
Yea
Remember the flower children
and their shit-eating grins
Wearing buckskin building teepees
trying to be Indians
An Remember the reservation
with the drunks against the wall
Peddling turquoise to the tourists
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh
After the Fall
Remember the Holy Road
running red
With blood from the mouths of mystics
when they said
"Let's eat flesh from the knees of Jesus
while he crawls"
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh
After the Fall
Yeah
Remember the Christian Soldiers
armed to the teeth beneath the stars
Watching the jungle burn
from beside their armored cars
We saw it all on TV
while we ate just what we saw
So we could partake in history
without our names on the Wall or
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh
After the Fall
(repeat first verse)
Terry Allen's "After The Fall" reminisces about the counterculture of the 1960s and all the cultural movements that defined the decade. The first verse begins with a nostalgic recollection of "psychedelic nights" and how people would "float into the lights" while watching girls without tops in the dirt. The imagery of the verse is suggestive of the music and arts scene that emerged during that period, with counterculture figures embracing new forms of expression and engaging in unconventional behavior.
The second verse recalls the "flower children" who wore buckskin and tried to live like Native Americans, complete with building teepees. It also references the "reservation," highlighting the destitution and poverty experienced by indigenous people at the time. The last two lines of the verse reference the Holy Road and religious mysticism, and how some people were willing to go to extreme lengths to find spiritual fulfillment.
The final verse talks about the Vietnam War and how Americans watched it unfold on televisions while eating their meals, thus not being directly involved in the conflict. The line "partake in history without our names on the Wall" refers to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, where the names of all the men and women who died in the war are inscribed.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey Remember all those psychedelic nights
Recall the times when drugs made us hallucinate
When your head come loose and floated into the lights
When we felt detached from reality and saw bright visuals
And all them girls without any tops at all
The free-spirited and risqué behavior at those events
Down in the dirt uhhh huhh After the Fall
Amidst the wreckage of a cultural revolution that passed by
Remember how all the fantasies worked
The ideals that we dreamed of and idealized
Little flags in front of the tract homes by the church
Nationalistic pride displayed among the suburban housing units and places of worship
It's a wonder anything's left to hurt at all
It's surprising that we still feel pain after experiencing disillusionment
Remember the flower children and their shit-eating grins
The carefree attitudes of youthful hippies
Wearing buckskin building teepees trying to be Indians
Attempting to replicate Native American culture as a symbol of rebellion
And Remember the reservation with the drunks against the wall
People of Native American descent who are marginalized and oppressed
Peddling turquoise to the tourists Down in the dirt uhhh huhh After the Fall
Making a living by selling souvenirs to those who are interested in their culture
Remember the Holy Road running red
The bloodshed caused by fighting for what you believe in
With blood from the mouths of mystics when they said
The spiritual leaders who preached theoretical and metaphorical teachings
"Let's eat flesh from the knees of Jesus while he crawls"
A statement of religious sacrifice with a macabre twist
Remember the Christian Soldiers armed to the teeth beneath the stars
The military personnel who represented the interests of the Christian faith
Watching the jungle burn from beside their armored cars
Overseeing the destruction of foreign environments from a safe vantage point
We saw it all on TV while we ate just what we saw
The limited and biased perspective of watching events through media
So we could partake in history without our names on the Wall or Down in the dirt uhhh huhh After the Fall
Observing and experiencing momentous events without having to personally suffer or die for them
Hey Remember all those psychedelic nights
Recalling the carefree days of youth
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: TERRY ALLEN
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