Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Creation of Adam – Michelangelo

These frescos were done with the greatest discomfort, for he had to stand there working with his head tilted backwards,

and it damaged his eyesight so much that he could no longer read or look at drawings if his head was not tilted backwards;

his condition lasted for several months afterwards – Vasari, Lives of the Artists

Vocal – Santino Fontana

Guitars – Ted Stafford, Bernd Schoenhart

Bass – Yuka Tadano

Piano – Greg Pliska

Drums – Mark Brotter

Tenor saxophone – Andy Snitzer

Violins – Cenovia Cummins, Rachel Handman

Viola – Hiroko Taguchi

Cello – Kate Spingarn

Strings arranged by Mel Marvin

Flat on my back, painting on the ceiling,
I can smell Heaven in front of my nose.
Prophets and losers, wheeling and dealing,
The story of Man when God slammed the gate closed.

I built a Tower of Babel in a holy chapel,
Sixty feet above the scrapple of religious crap.
I built a screen of plaster, painted fast and faster,
When you’re quick, you master–
That’s the way to last, paint over the past.

Flat on my back, painting on the ceiling,
I can smell God and it’s making me weep.
Mortar and mortals, scraping and peeling,
Art and religion two inches deep.

Painting on the ceiling,
Is that God the paint’s revealing?

Flat on my back, painting on the ceiling,
The life of an artist always up in the air.
Face full of stone, chisel revealing,
We’re born on a rock, we die in despair.
There’s nothing up there.