Segall began his recording career as a part-time musician in various underground bands in Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area, before beginning a solo career in 2008. Segall's first solo release was the cassette Horn The Unicorn released on the Wizard Mountain label (later re-released by HBSP-2X on vinyl record). Around the same time, Wizard Mountain also released a split cassette featuring Segall and the band Superstitions entitled Halfnonagon.
In 2012, Segall released three LPs: His solo album, Twins; a collaboration with White Fence titled Hair and Slaughterhouse, an album with the Ty Segall Band.
Salamanda Palaganda
Ty Segall Lyrics
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Bridled with an orchid ribbon
His curved brow in Scarlatti fashion
Boots that ride the night sky eagle
An old crone squirms upon a cushion
Made from Madras silk and satin
Her steel eyes hold a scimitar passion
For the skull hewn in Scarlatti fashion.
Slaughtered a Malayan sun bear
Night stood erect with brozen haunches
Zapped the seer and gave the bear back to us
Salamanda Palaganda Oh Palamino Blue
Salamanda Palaganda June's Buffalo too In the Parisian zoo.
The lyrics of Ty Segall's Salamanda Palaganda has a surrealistic quality, using vivid and nonsensical images that aim to convey a dream-like state. It's a lyrical exploration of strange characters and events that don't necessarily make sense on the surface. The opening lines introduce us to a young girl with a happy ape or "smiling 'gibbon" that is adorned with an "orchid ribbon". Scarlatti, the Italian composer of Baroque music, is referenced with a metaphorical nod to the "curved brow in Scarlatti fashion," perhaps indicating that the ape is an admirer of classical music or a reference to its perceived refinement. The imagery of the "boots that ride the night sky eagle" adds an otherworldly, fantastical element to the imagery.
The lyrics then shift to an "old crone" sitting on a cushion made of exquisite Madras silk and satin. The description of her "steel eyes" that hold a "scimitar passion" has a sinister undertone, adding a sense of danger to the song. The skull hewn in Scarlatti fashion implies that the same composer has created something deathly or macabre. Meanwhile, a cobra seer with a punctured ear slaughters a Malayan sun bear. The image is shocking, and the motivations behind it, of course, are unknowable.
The refrain of the song, "Salamanda Palaganda, Oh Palamino Blue / Salamanda Palaganda, June's Buffalo, too / In the Parisian zoo," seems disconnected to the rest of the verses. Still, it adds to the overall sense of randomness, invoking an imaginary world where anything can happen. These lyrics taken together thus form a somewhat surreal and abstract poem, invoking a dreamy world beyond our mundane lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Small girl with the smiling 'gibbon
A young girl with a happy and contented expression is beside a small ape.
Bridled with an orchid ribbon
The ape has a decorative flower tied around its neck like a harness.
His curved brow in Scarlatti fashion
The ape has a distinguished arched brow like the composer Scarlatti.
Boots that ride the night sky eagle
The girl wears boots that allow her to fly on the back of a giant eagle at night.
An old crone squirms upon a cushion
An elderly woman fidgets uncomfortably while sitting on a soft cushion.
Made from Madras silk and satin
The cushion is made of luxury fabrics from Madras, India - silk and satin.
Her steel eyes hold a scimitar passion
The woman has fierce, cutting eyes that show her intense enthusiasm for something, like a scimitar sword.
For the skull hewn in Scarlatti fashion.
She fixates on a skull that has been stylishly fashioned like Scarlatti's music, perhaps as an art form.
A cobra seer with the punctured ear
A wise snake with a pierced ear is present.
Slaughtered a Malayan sun bear
The snake has killed and butchered a type of bear from Malaysia.
Night stood erect with brozen haunches
The darkness of the night seems to take on a physical form that is tall and muscular with metallic hind legs.
Zapped the seer and gave the bear back to us
The night creature struck the snake with a burst of energy and returned the bear to its rightful place among the living.
Salamanda Palaganda Oh Palamino Blue
This phrase appears to have no literal meaning, it may be used to convey a sense of wonder, excitement or nonsense.
Salamanda Palaganda June's Buffalo too In the Parisian zoo.
This is likely a continuation of the nonsense phrase, adding further detail of an unrelated event - a buffalo in a zoo in Paris.
Contributed by Ella B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.