Play On Demand

The sense that you just have to go on living
That life is a ‘must.’
When you say to anything spontaneous, see, life is spontaneous
It happens in the words of the Taoists – zìrán, which means “of itself so”
That’s the Chinese expression for nature
What happens by itself. What isn’t pushed, but it just pops up, you see?
You came into being, you know?
It happens in a kind of a plop! way, like that, see? Now, you can’t tell that process, “You ought to happen! You must happen!”
Because that puts a bind on it in the same way as when you have a child, and all the relatives have come to a party on Thanksgiving, the child into the middle of all the relatives and say, “Now, dear, play!”

[Chorus]
Now, dear, play
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play
Say, “Now, dear, play”
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play

See? It absolutely bugs the child to do it like that
And so this is the problem for every artist
Because an artist is a man who makes his living by playing
Whether he’s dancing, or painting, or playing music, or whatever it is
And he has to overcome this problem
He has to know how to play in public at a given time on an appointment, see?
And that’s not an easy thing to learn
But when you catch on to the trick of it, you can do it
To play on demand
That’s the hardest lesson of life: to contrive, what is called by my Japanese artist friend Saburo Hasegawa – a controlled accident

[Chorus]
Now, dear, play
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play
Say, “Now, dear, play”
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play

[Chorus]
Now, dear, play
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play
Say, “Now, dear, play”
Now, dear, play
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play on demand
Play