tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40387225183729395782024-03-17T23:03:24.589-04:00Classics Rock!BOOKS SHELVED IN SONGSLarry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-37337513850005654832016-04-23T12:52:00.001-04:002016-04-23T12:52:15.924-04:00Romeo and Juliet/Dire Straits<em>In honor of #Shakespeare400, here's our post from June 17, 2009 about songs inspired by </em>Romeo and Juliet.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPgbhDEzrxY" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348048569560052690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwayiqlMfOHdoelF129BfJNGRbN1MnG3lsbZO90NgLnmKisFU1Sky7htLDfeAEdMC99VVwChxbVyYeTOOC5jqzWrJLXMK3-ZuKSQ6yTn0APTy0sLbh1cYhtOdAF5cQW0yBRxUZ5RQXGA/s200/Romeo.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 200px;" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348048473024718338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWFa_FbP2zi1s1HoFkxzvN_Ui-A5hvdXA3c7ooB0KWfzB9FMS94z85Jz288qUX0SwZGtcORMgjqCeYrsN_iVjb7PELNQvgeFm1qCbx9MLFQpLrS2wOhr-mGv4uvlye1aFZo2hhImO9Bw/s200/Romeo+book.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 130px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NS20WE?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001NS20WE" target="_blank">Romeo And Juliet</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NS20WE" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, from Dire Straits' 1980 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004Y6NX?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00004Y6NX" target="_blank">Making Movies</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00004Y6NX" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, translates the balcony scene from Shakespeare's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743477111?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743477111" target="_blank">Romeo and Juliet</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743477111" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> into a modern setting and idiom (<em>Juliet says hey its romeo you nearly give me a heart attack/he's underneath the window she's singing hey lay my boyfriend's back/you shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that/Anyway what you gonna do about it?</em>). The song also includes a subtle allusion to another adaptation of Shakespeare's play with the line: <em>there's a place for us you know the movie song</em>--a reference to the song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137WT58?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00137WT58" target="_blank">Somewhere</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137WT58" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000405W?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00000405W" target="_blank">West Side Story</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000405W" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, which was itself an updated version of the Romeo and Juliet story. The two lovers pop up in many other songs too--e.g., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J29NCY?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001J29NCY" target="_blank">(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001J29NCY" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />by the Reflections--and of course Blue Oyster Cult's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136RU4E?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00136RU4E" target="_blank">(Don't Fear) The Reaper</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136RU4E" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> is always there to remind us that <em>Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity.</em><br />
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<em>Dire Straits submitted by Bob McLeod</em><br />
<em>The Reflections and Blue Oyster Cult submitted by Carrie Jennott</em><br />
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<span style="font-size: 0px;"></span><br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-49677904800307107232016-04-15T00:27:00.000-04:002016-04-15T10:06:51.289-04:00Dark Territory/Dave Douglas<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBIcWi238Mk" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBIcWi238Mk" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdff7K4Mapo84IWtLM_593JiE4-0L4jmj3QfO8UU0mxkHNaDhznK90je-EgAQmAFqM32VpoOUkeGPS7iIDcO2EUo08hYD8cNirwmDRizapgQmcKELq1i724C2wtfvJg-jm8ZTebM6ygH0/s200/dark+territory+album.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://www.fredkaplan.info/dark-territory.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.fredkaplan.info/dark-territory.htm" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-u4SsEDXAaUB5_37CRdSPkA7gdpn6bV9vVvoH78oCSZHUUuh2M4CVmTNzbRNiXH10HuIl6QvUm1zvmk_jXM81azCj0RvrG-i1Nenjy1AsI0unWzOCm7Wyu60CkTWyAc0U0ApLINGfz0M/s200/Dark+Territory+book.jpg" width="132" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas's new album <a href="https://www.greenleafmusic.com/dark-territory/" target="_blank"><i>Dark Territory</i></a> comes out tomorrow, April 16th, as a special release for <a href="http://recordstoreday.com/Home" target="_blank">Record Store Day</a>. It's a follow-up to his 2015 release, <i>High Risk</i>, which is described by Douglas's record label, Greenleaf Music, as "an album where avant-jazz and electronic music met in a spacey atmospheric middle ground, delivering something new in the world of genre. Melding traditional instrumentation and modern electronic music production challenges the ideals of both the traditional term 'jazz' as well as the modern term 'electronic music.'” </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<i>Dark Territory</i> follows up on this area of risk, going into new, as yet unexplored musical spaces," Douglas says. "The title was suggested by the writer <a href="http://www.fredkaplan.info/" target="_blank">Fred Kaplan</a>, whose new book <i>Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War</i><i>,</i> talks about the similarly mysterious, murky waters of underground activity. In a way, we’re playing through a similar territory without rules where the dangers and challenges of technology are much greater than normal."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Kaplan is the "War Stories" columnist for Slate and the author of several books. He also <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/category/fred-kaplan" target="_blank">blogs about jazz</a> at Stereophile. Published last month, <i>Dark Territory</i> traces the history of cyber war from the earliest days of the internet half a century ago through the role that "information warfare" has played in tilting the outcomes of conflicts in Haiti, Serbia, Syria, the former Soviet republics, Iraq, and Iran.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The liner notes to Douglas's album i<span style="font-family: inherit;">nclude an extensive excerpt from Kaplan's book that explains the shared title <i>Dark Territory</i>. It is attributed to Robert Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense in both the Bush and Obama administrations. In conversations with colleagues about cyber espionage and cyber war, Gates would say: "We're wandering in dark territory." In the book, Kaplan reveals the origin of the term<span style="font-family: inherit;">:</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a phrase from Gates's childhood in Kansas, where his grandfather worked for nearly fifty years as a stationmaster on the Santa Fe Railroad. "Dark <span style="font-family: inherit;">territory" was the industry's term for a stretch of rail track that was uncontrolled by signals. To <span style="font-family: inherit;">Gates<span style="font-family: inherit;">, it was a perfect parallel to cyber<span style="font-family: inherit;">space, except that this new territory was much vaster and the danger greater, because the engineers were unknown, the trains invisible, and a crash could cause far more damage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Full disclosure: We played an active role in pro<span style="font-family: inherit;">moting Kaplan's book (beyond t<span style="font-family: inherit;">his modest blog post). So we're wandering in some dark territory of our own.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-812611760420851032016-03-05T20:26:00.001-05:002016-03-22T22:10:06.575-04:00In Memory of Pat Conroy: The Prince of Tides/Jimmy Buffett, and more<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4znyqGIWH8" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJLdi1bKkoWhCeaeXPZwOGQYeT9ise2HpQyb36GsuF-YB9U1P_GBa0xlFRgj7hC6UZsCMHktXi9VE92N9fIqzNrPeX_rGwOXqWxEIzl1RFyVljkOdqnPGYgTCNJ1zHn77SeiGnujHUI9U/s200/Hot+Water+Buffett_.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://www.patconroy.com/the-prince-of-tides.php" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.patconroy.com/the-prince-of-tides.php" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOejsMDK5kbIMCoU2cMbfeFv9lO1rKbMNgT2mXpIkIHbrCEXE3r3WMaFSnEoddVd0toxff45EFYXWlbACMnBs3Em1FZwT_3AmmVH3jgFyj0wU4HPYHENP-00beIIe6EhgO6JQTIjnAfA/s200/Prince+of+Tides.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.patconroy.com/" target="_blank">Pat Conroy</a>, the bestselling author of several novels and works of nonfiction, died yesterday at the age of 70 after a bout with pancreatic cancer. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/books/pat-conroy-who-wove-his-family-strife-into-novels-of-carolina-dies-at-70.html" target="_blank"><i>The New York Times</i></a> reported that at the time of his death, Conroy was at work on a new novel and a memoir.<br />
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Conroy’s fiction was deeply autobiographical, drawing on his dysfunctional family and unhappy childhood growing up in coastal South Carolina to flesh out the characters and action in his novels. His 1986 novel <i>The Prince of Tides</i> is a good example, chronicling the travails of the Wingo family of Colleton County, South Carolina. Early in the story the narrator, Tom Wingo, travels to New York to meet Dr. Susan Lowenstein, a psychiatrist caring for Tom’s twin sister Savannah after her most recent suicide attempt. In Lowenstein’s waiting room, Tom scans the bookshelves and comes across a copy of Savannah’s second published collection of poetry, entitled <i>The Prince of Tides</i>. He is brought to tears by the dedication:<br />
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<i>Man wonders but God decides</i><br />
<i>When to kill the Prince of Tides.</i></span></blockquote>
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In the course of the novel, Tom and Lowenstein become romantically involved as they uncover the traumatic source of Savannah’s suicidal behavior and the secrets of the Wingos.<br />
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Conroy’s novel inspired a song called “The Prince of Tides” on <a href="http://www.margaritaville.com/jimmy-buffett" target="_blank">Jimmy Buffett</a>’s 1988 album <i>Hot Water</i>. Buffett’s dedication to the song says: “Pat Conroy, Doc Pomus and the people of Dafuskie Island have already said it all. I am thankful for such inspiration.” Dafuskie Island is located along the South Carolina coast and was home to a large population of Gullah—freed slaves and their descendants—who first arrived in the area at the end of the Civil War. As a young man, Conroy spent a year teaching at an impoverished schoolhouse on Dafuskie, an experience he turned into his 1972 book <i>The Water is Wide</i>.<br />
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Buffett’s song is largely a lament about the development and commercialization of Dafuskie Island. The recording opens and closes with Buffett reading passages directly from Conroy’s novel. The lyrics namecheck the Wingo family (<i>African drums are silent and the Wingos are poets at last</i>), and Buffett alludes to the dedication from Savannah’s poetry volume with the refrain: <i>Now I realize who killed the Prince of Tides</i>.<br />
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Near the end, the song segues into a version of "Save the Last Dance for Me," co-written by Doc Pomus, who along with Conroy is acknowledged in Buffet’s dedication. The last line of the song, before the concluding passage from <i>The Prince of Tides</i>, is: <i>And beach music, beach music, beach music just plays on</i>.<br />
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In 1996 Conroy told AOL’s <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.oocities.org/soho/7315/conroy.html" target="_blank"><i>The Book Report</i></a> about the origin of the song:</span><br />
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He called me on the phone. He said "Hi, I'm Jimmy Buffett." I said "Hi, I'm Paul McCartney." He said: "May I write a song called Prince of Tides?" I said: "You do, and I will kiss your behind." He said: "How much will I have to pay you?" I said: "I will kiss your behind --- I told you." So he wrote the song.</span></blockquote>
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Conroy also revealed that the song provided inspiration for his next novel. “At the end he sings ‘Beach music, beach music....’ And that gave me the title.” Conroy’s novel <i>Beach Music</i> was published in 1995.<br />
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In 1989 the <a href="http://www.fayobserver.com/living/pat-conroy-finds-inspiration-for-characters-in-kin/article_6d631623-1b30-52fc-9643-85195659a212.html" target="_blank"><i>Fayetteville Observer</i></a> reported that Conroy loved Buffett’s song. "It gave me status with my children, for about eight hours," Conroy said.<br />
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A more cryptic allusion to Conroy can be found in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfGFsgUqTP0" target="_blank">“Pat Conroy Beach Music”</a> by Preston Lovinggood, from his 2014 album <i>Shadow Songs</i>. Lovinggood described it to <a href="http://ghettoblastermagazine.com/2014/from-the-horses-mouth-preston-lovinggood-on-shadow-songs/" target="_blank"><i>Ghettoblaster Magazine</i></a> as “an instrumental spoken word interlude piece.” It consists of the sound of heavy rainfall (or waves on a beach?) with the actress Abbey Miller and Todd Fink, from the band The Faint, speaking indecipherably behind it. Lovinggood described the track to <a href="http://youhearthis.com/from-sunlight-to-shadows-the-journey-of-preston-lovinggood/" target="_blank"><i>You Hear This</i></a> as “sort of like waking up from a dream.” The connection to Pat Conroy and/or <i>Beach Music</i> is unclear, at least to us.<br />
<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-44953032494283828252016-01-11T22:25:00.001-05:002016-01-11T22:26:03.110-05:00In Memory of David Bowie<em>Rock music innovator David Bowie died yesterday, just two days after his sixty-ninth birthday and the release of his final album, </em>Blackstar. <em>Bowie inhabited many personas and experimented with many musical forms in the course of his decades-long career, but here we will touch on his musical connection to George Orwell's dystopian novel </em>Nineteen Eighty-Four.<br />
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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgDWLewgQk" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345041315095898818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsGmIBC9JWTuwblSUZQNKp4OO-_GCVzzovIH9fBXNcdwv_3RpWRJQJySC2VGs40rIKV1omDf1RqmZJM0NqUV9hDMZ8hvp3FJF6jemYFEq61PSpJNvKYxh4NHGa9mJguYx7sGfzQMlD7A/s200/1984+cd.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 200px;" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345041255872204850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzBxoggB40c5dFb_-KUTALxavXJOFK9dKTSV2FIQFYWG5tayNhGqe35GqNZp-KT805mjwlQGKnAFVqxLYXA9hEBE1IRCLRHka3WjJyL64oVTZH5qWUEBkV8kqsm0XuHQdpboOA0zpThw/s200/1984+book.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 140px;" /></a></div><br />
References to George Orwell's classic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452284236?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0452284236" target="_blank">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0452284236" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> abound in popular music, but David Bowie created a number of songs that relate to Orwell's book. In the early '70s, Bowie began working on a musical adaptation of the novel that never came to fruition. Instead Bowie featured much of that work on his 1974 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00001OH7S?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00001OH7S" target="_blank">Diamond Dogs</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00001OH7S" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, including the songs <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TDYTXM?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TDYTXM" target="_blank">1984</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TDYTXM" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TDWTV6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TDWTV6">We Are The Dead</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TDWTV6" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> (a line from the novel spoken by the main character, Winston Smith); <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TE0RFU?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TE0RFU">Big Brother</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TE0RFU" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, after the dictator of the totalitarian state depicted in the book (with the repeated line <em>We want you Big Brother</em>); and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TDWTZC?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TDWTZC">Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TDWTZC" height="1" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, inspired by the novel's "Two-Minute Hate," a daily ritual required of those faithful to The Party (the ruling political class) in which they must express their hatred for the Party's enemies. The album ends with the first syllable of the word brother (as in Big Brother) heard over and over. <br />
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Bowie's final album, <i>Blackstar</i>, also features at least one literary reference: The track "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" (originally released as a single in 2014) takes its title from the play "'Tis a Pity She's a Whore" by British dramatist John Ford, first published in 1633.<br />
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Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-20323042209024706582013-03-04T00:08:00.000-05:002013-03-04T00:08:20.804-05:00Both Sides Now/Joni Mitchell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/_i7WceS--p4" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqLcI56kMeHUHxVMr5UvkQgSjxROu5XRMyc06AgHTRhgliV3gFvWxbJL6ijVowornkOgPb7_qF2Tdsbb4EAFdvPEzJSrXMSpf-4fCxuqn95NserrHJ8qkKm4pjHCpfAa1RBaUwBhfcBbA/s200/Both+Sides+Now.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_the_rain_king" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIT1h3UTYVYtc3limiTp4azxz76Ltdl3u2QuZLkPocTebIOs_jVYdib3XLjd1lKkVciGYsEao9XfaMssh7aGccC4nEmtdGEAk-djworheGBXElcUnobvy_Qh_KLJKAgUvOqebJ_YZQnek/s200/Both+Sides+Now+book.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://jonimitchell.com/" target="_blank">Joni Mitchell</a>'s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047P1RSI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0047P1RSI&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Both Sides Now</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0047P1RSI" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> appeared on her 1969 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002KOJ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000002KOJ&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Clouds</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002KOJ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (though Judy Collins's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122RYGS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00122RYGS&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">hit recording of the song</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122RYGS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> was released the previous year). Clouds provide the central image in the song, particularly in the line <i>I've looked at clouds from both sides now</i>.<br />
<br />
The song has literary origins, but the exact nature of them is a little, well, cloudy.<br />
<br />
In one version, the song was inspired by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143105485/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0143105485&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Henderson the Rain King</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0143105485" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow. The protagonist is a successful middle-aged man, Eugene Henderson, who suffers a crisis of spirituality and travels to Africa in search of answers. Through a series of misadventures, he is named the Rain King of the Wariri tribe. Early in the novel, Henderson is <span style="color: #444444;">o</span>n a plane flying to Africa when he looks out the window and muses about the clouds below him: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bg">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br />
And I dreamed down at the clouds, and thought that when I was a kid I had dreamed up at them, and having dreamed at the clouds from both sides, as no other generation of men has done, one should be able to accept his death very easily.</span></blockquote>
<br />
In an interview conducted just days after she'd written the song in 1967 (excerpted on her <a href="http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=83" target="_blank">website</a>), Mitchell said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br />
I was reading a book, and I haven't finished it yet, called <i>Henderson the Rain King</i>. And there's a line in it that I especially got hung up on that was about when he was flying to Africa and searching for something, he said that in an age when people could look up and down at clouds, they shouldn't be afraid to die. And so I got this idea 'from both sides now.'</span></blockquote>
<br />
She repeated the story in a 1996 interview with the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-08/entertainment/ca-6804_1_early-songs" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br />
I was reading Saul Bellow's <i>Henderson the Rain King</i> on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song.</span></blockquote>
<br />
However...<br />
<br />
In 1967 Joni was an avowed fan of J.R.R. Tollkien's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544003411/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0544003411&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">The Lord of the Rings</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0544003411" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, thanks to her then-husband, folk singer Chuck Mitchell. "Joni had picked up Chuck's ardor for <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>," writes Sheila Weller in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743491483/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743491483&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743491483" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. "Both were swept up in the world of Middle Earth." (In fact, reports Katherine Monk in her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155365837X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=155365837X&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=155365837X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, "The two formed Gandalf Publishing together, a nod to their shared <i>Lord of the Rings</i> fascination; the name was formally approved by the famed author after the Mitchells made a request in writing.")<br />
<br />
Weller writes that Mitchell "once said that 'Both Sides Now' was inspired by <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> (she'd begun to write a children's fantasy based upon it)." In an interview in 2000 with <a href="http://www.hotpress.com/archive/392108.html" target="_blank">Hot Press</a>, Mitchell elaborated on the fairy tale she was working on, and Tolkien's influence:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br />
It was called <i>Mythology</i>, and focused on a place that had two kingdoms. It was kind of like childhood Zen. The kingdom of Fanta and the kingdom of Real. Fantasy, reality. And 'Both Sides Now' came out of that mythology, from Sequan, the queen of that mythology. It was a children's story! And yet people say it's narcissistic because I'm referring to myself. But it was the queen of the kingdom of Fanta singing. And the whole idea probably came from my reading <i>Lord of The Rings</i>. That was a direct influence.</span></blockquote>
<br />
So which author inspired the song--Bellow or Tolkien? Perhaps both did. In any case, we're glad to have given you the opportunity to consider the question from both sides now.<br />
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<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-82675684209240276422013-02-15T00:37:00.002-05:002013-02-18T15:19:43.873-05:00For Presidents Day 2013: A List of Songs That Mention U.S. Presidents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HPnH9Sg8yj_jZh55x4bJ4VMXVLW35RiX2hVH-NyhOcOUS4EYXxzEnpXKCXVj0DGslWQzlNqf-bNfQypZ4tGkoGED3oQCJANuGpRsmyKjuGSPDqxRtKL2lmusn0QSeYPW-Grd945y6No/s1600/presidential-seal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HPnH9Sg8yj_jZh55x4bJ4VMXVLW35RiX2hVH-NyhOcOUS4EYXxzEnpXKCXVj0DGslWQzlNqf-bNfQypZ4tGkoGED3oQCJANuGpRsmyKjuGSPDqxRtKL2lmusn0QSeYPW-Grd945y6No/s200/presidential-seal.png" width="200" /></a></div><br />
It's been two years since we first collected songs that feature U.S. presidents in honor of Presidents Day. Here is the list again, updated for Presidents Day 2013.<br />
<br />
We're sure there are other songs we've missed that name check a past or current Commander in Chief. If you know of one, please feel free to suggest it using the <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/05/please-read-ground-rules-before.html" target="_blank">Submit a Song</a> feature on the left side of this page. Like the great experiment in democracy that is America, this list is a work in progress.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUn0vvgEvBc" target="_blank">Abraham, Martin and John</a> by Dion. The Abraham is Lincoln, the John is Kennedy (and the Martin is MLK). <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NtXXv21_AE" target="_blank">Apollo</a> by the Alan Parsons Project, an instrumental that includes a snippet of JFK's 1961 "Man on the Moon" speech.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TOIXQE?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001TOIXQE" target="_blank">Ballad of Ronald Reagan</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001TOIXQE" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by the Austin Lounge Lizards. "They called him Ronald--Ronald Reagan..." <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014DI4GO?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0014DI4GO" target="_blank">California (Rutherford Hayes in the Morning)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0014DI4GO" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Darryl Purpose. In addition to Hayes, the song also mentions Chester A. Arthur.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DOTNOU?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002DOTNOU" target="_blank">Campaigner</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002DOTNOU" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Neil Young. "Even Richard Nixon has got soul..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EBUJUA?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EBUJUA" target="_blank">(A Child's View Of) The Eisenhower Years</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001EBUJUA" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by Al Stewart. "Elvis on the television, G.I.s in Korea/It's a child's view of the Eisenhower years..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137IPUQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00137IPUQ&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20"target="_blank">Dear Mr. President</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137IPUQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> by Pink. The President in question is not identified by name, but this is clearly addressed to George W. Bush.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014C17BO?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0014C17BO" target="_blank">Diary</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0014C17BO" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Andrew McKnight, about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. "Jefferson writes, 'Dear Diary, what have I done...?'"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BG3Y3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002BG3Y3Q" target="_blank">Do The Clinton</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002BG3Y3Q" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by the Foremen, a dance based on Bill Clinton's moves ("Hustle free trade and stage a bombing raid/Everybody do the Clinton...")<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V6NWF8?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000V6NWF8" target="_blank">Eisenhower Blues</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000V6NWF8" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Elvis Costello. "Oh oh oh I got the Eisenhower Blues/Thinking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do?"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NYCXWA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001NYCXWA&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">The End Of The Innocence</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NYCXWA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Don Henley. "They're beating plowshares into swords/For this tired old man that we elected king." The <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yqo5_don-henley-the-end-of-the-innocence_music" target="_blank">video</a> for the song makes it clear that this is a reference to Ronald Reagan.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y5O5SQ?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003Y5O5SQ" target="_blank">Franklin Pierce</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003Y5O5SQ" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by the Two Man Gentlemen Band. "There ain't nothing funny 'bout the death of Franklin Pierce..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019J15OG?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0019J15OG" target="_blank">George Washington</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0019J15OG" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Andrew McKnight. "The sign says George Washington slept here/Now there's a guy who had a couple of good ideas..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043RF0AQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0043RF0AQ&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Gimme Some Truth</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0043RF0AQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by John Lennon. Features perhaps the most popular epithet for Richard Nixon: "No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky/Is gonna Mother Hubbard soft soap me." *<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OGLRT2?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001OGLRT2" target="_blank">Grandpa Was A Carpenter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001OGLRT2" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by John Prine. "...And voted for Eisenhower/'cause Lincoln won the war..."<br />
<br />
<a _blank="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012P7NC0?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0012P7NC0" target="">Gush or Bore</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012P7NC0" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by David Roth. "I won't say who I voted for, or even if 'twas Gush or Bore..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/ELcb-Em8tq8" target="_blank">Hard to Find</a> by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. "Johnny F and Jackie looked like they had it all..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WNZ4BC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003WNZ4BC&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Here. In My Head</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003WNZ4BC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Tori Amos. "So maybe Thomas Jefferson/Wasn't born in your backyard."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/VYEm76840Yo" target="_blank">Johnny Can't Read</a> by Don Henley. A generic presidential reference: "Well, is it Teacher's fault? Oh no/Is it Mommie's fault? Oh no/Is it the President's fault? Oh no/Well, is it Johnny's fault? Oh No!"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUsQj_ha0zU" target="_blank">I Do the Rock</a> by Tim Curry. "Carter, Begin and Sadat/Brezhnev, Deng and Castro..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001RYB84A?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001RYB84A" target="_blank">Inaugural Blues</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001RYB84A" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Loudon Wainwright III features Bill Clinton: "Bill and Hill are our first couple..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KOMFJI?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002KOMFJI" target="_blank">I Saw It On T.V.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002KOMFJI" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by John Fogerty. You'll find two presidents in this song, only one of them mentioned by name:<br />
1. "A man named Ike was in the White House/Big black limousine..."<br />
2. "A young man from Boston set sail the new frontier/And we watched the dream dead-end in Dallas/We buried innocence that year..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137YQVI?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00137YQVI" target="_blank">It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137YQVI" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Bob Dylan. "Even the President of the United States has to stand naked..." Another generic reference, but we'll take it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A96UG6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003A96UG6" target="_blank">James K. Polk</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003A96UG6" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by They Might Be Giants. "And when the votes were cast the winner was/Mr. James K. Polk, Napoleon of the stump..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWr7i5n7Xrw" target="_blank">League of Notions</a> by Al Stewart."Woodrow Wilson waves his fourteen points around..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EBRNB8?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EBRNB8" target="_blank">Like William McKinley</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001EBRNB8" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Al Stewart. "I'll sit on my porch like William McKinley/And I'll let the world come to me..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDlwYxxtys">Lincoln's Man</a> by Ben Bedford. "A lover's note, a mother's prayer, and a father's curse/But I'm Lincoln's man, I'm Lincoln's man for better or for worse." <br />
<br />
<i>Lindy Comes to Town</i> by Al Stewart. "Mr. Coolidge he will say, it's a public holiday..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GJYGZ6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004GJYGZ6" target="_blank">Line 'Em Up</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004GJYGZ6" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by James Taylor. "I remember Richard Nixon back in '74 and the final scene at the White House door..." <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012423BM?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0012423BM" target="_blank">Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012423BM" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Tom Paxton. "I got a letter from LBJ/It said 'This is your lucky day'..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136NVD8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00136NVD8&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Mexico</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136NVD8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Jefferson Airplane.Features an oblique reference to Richard Nixon: "But Mexico is under the thumb/Of a man we call Richard/And he's come to call himself king." *<br />
<br />
<a _blank="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GNXCUK?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001GNXCUK" target="_blank">Obama</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001GNXCUK" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Ridi. Because, you know, it's about Obama.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GKILM6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002GKILM6" target="_blank">Ohio</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002GKILM6" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LDVD4O?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004LDVD4O" target="_blank">On To Victory Mr. Roosevelt</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004LDVD4O" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Loudon Wainwright III. Mostly about FDR, but the last couple of stanzas are about Obama. <br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHMq5wBwT8" target="_blank">Presidents Day</a> by Loudon Wainwright III. "George was the first one--Abe was the best," Loudon sings, but he expresses some regret that "there's been more than one George, I'm sorry to say."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VWH01O?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VWH01O" target="_blank">Postcards From Richard Nixon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000VWH01O" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by Elton John. "We heard Richard Nixon say, welcome to the USA..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122T8MG?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00122T8MG" target="_blank">Post World War Two Blues</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122T8MG" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Al Stewart. "Uncle Ike was our American pal/Nobody talked about the Suez Canal..." <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019IOLG6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0019IOLG6" target="_blank">Ray & Ron</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0019IOLG6" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Rod MacDonald. Compares the lives of Ray Charles and Ronald Reagan ("Ray was a musician/Ron was a president"), who died the same week.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W2725W?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000W2725W" target="_blank">Russians</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W2725W" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Sting. "Mr. Reagan says we will protect you/I don't subscribe to this point of view..." <br />
<br />
<a _blank="" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8S6_NLCgdU" target="">Semper Fi</a> by John Gorka, which tells how Gorka's father met Eleanor Roosevelt. "Her husband was the President/Til he ran out of time/Her Franklin D. was history/And they'd put him on the dime..."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A95AXA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003A95AXA&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Summerfling</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003A95AXA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by k.d. lang. "We ran on the beach with Kennedy flair."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G5QING?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001G5QING" target="_blank">Superbird</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001G5QING" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Country Joe and the Fish. "It's a bird it's a plane, it's a man insane, it's my President LBJ..."<br />
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<a _blank="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016CLEW4?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0016CLEW4" target="">Sympathy For The Devil</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0016CLEW4" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by the Rolling Stones. "I shouted out/Who killed the Kennedys..." <br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012F6WYA?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0012F6WYA" target="_blank">Teddy Roosevelt's Guns</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012F6WYA" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Silver Mt. Zion. "Shop and save/Beneath the western sun/Bought and paid for with Teddy Roosevelt's guns..."<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O0KS3O?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001O0KS3O" target="_blank">Ten Cents A Coup</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001O0KS3O" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Phil Ochs. "Here's to Nixon and Agnew/They are the stars of the stage and screen..." (Lyndon Johnson appears too: "I thought that Johnson was the devil...")<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003141XNK?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003141XNK" target="_blank">Tricky Dicky</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003141XNK" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Country Joe and the Fish. Richard Nixon appears as "Tricky Dicky from Yorba Linda/The genuine plastic man..."<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010WLYLG?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0010WLYLG" target="_blank">Two Men In The Building</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0010WLYLG" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Steve Gillette, describes learning of the John F. Kennedy assassination while in Paris in 1963 ("Came a knock on the door, said the word was on the wire/They wounded your president when he drove into the crossfire...").<br />
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<a _blank="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122MN78?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00122MN78" target="">Warren Harding</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122MN78" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by Al Stewart. "Warren Gamaliel Harding alone in the White House watching the sun come up on the morning of 1921..." <br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136JD9Y?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00136JD9Y" target="_blank">We Didn't Start The Fire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136JD9Y" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> by Billy Joel. Mentions Harry Truman, Richard Nixon (twice!), Eisenhower, Reagan, and "JFK blown away."<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FX4M5Y?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002FX4M5Y" target="_blank">William Howard Taft</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002FX4M5Y" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by the Two Man Gentlemen Band. "William Howard Taft got himself stuck in a bath..."<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TELP8I?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TELP8I" target="_blank">Young Americans</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TELP8I" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by David Bowie. "Do you remember your President Nixon...?"<br />
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Honorable Mention to the band <a href="http://www.presidentsrock.com/" target="_blank">The Presidents of the United States</a>.<br />
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*<i>Submitted by Bill Gregg</i><br />
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<i>With thanks to Greg Hughes.</i><br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-26314865350041790632013-02-06T23:22:00.000-05:002013-02-17T14:04:04.038-05:00The Sirens/Chris Potter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://youtu.be/FEnZxNVvm0Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdyHeTwZ7CoCRy-D8QCAnHaxJf-PCQ0iPEBiKhzpl0qjOHSXBziekp5MSfnZMIlZ9t7NvWx1EfgNO7eOsKLSb8uvQBgvgTNYvIp_VimoRYIL-Pn0hV7HNv67veEXfvdCtjU3lDVIqnxh0/s200/The+Sirens+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_odyssey" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-lAkWdI031o4aAvH6V69-mpvWuEl2Z2Hqi4uCbdKyYAgcdJjMnIyrXW-ChSA1PpgcGGh4LIjXw6ty9M8JTO-KX2BVY5zNylS_LZttEahSaHh8QfD7EdkD7kIHiPetKTrvbkUOL7UZrQ/s200/The+Sirens+book.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><br />
We're back--and so is Odysseus, a <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/search/label/Homer" target="_blank">regular visitor</a> to these pages.<br />
<br />
Homer's epic hero--featured in Cream's <i>Tales of Brave Ulysses</i>, Steely Dan's <i>Home at Last</i>, Suzanne Vega's <i>Calypso</i>, and many other contemporary songs--has inspired still more modern music, this time a new album by saxophonist <a href="http://www.chrispottermusic.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Chris Potter</a>, released late last month. “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A8ZZ570/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A8ZZ570&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">The Sirens</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00A8ZZ570" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> draws inspiration from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140445293/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0140445293&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">The Odyssey</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0140445293" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, the ancient Greek epic poem of exile, homecoming and the treacherous path in between," writes the <i>New York Times</i>'s Nate Chinen in an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/arts/music/q-and-a-chris-potter-on-the-sirens.html?_r=0" target="_blank">interview</a> with Potter.<br />
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The album features such tracks as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1OI3SK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B1OI3SK&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Wine Dark Sea</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B1OI3SK" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, a title drawn from Homer's poetic description of the Mediterranean; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1OI51K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B1OI51K&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Penelope</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B1OI51K" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1OI5A6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B1OI5A6&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Kalypso</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B1OI5A6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1OI5JW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B1OI5JW&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">Nausikaa</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B1OI5JW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, each inspired by specific characters in the tale; and of course, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1OI4PM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B1OI4PM&linkCode=as2&tag=claroc-20" target="_blank">the title track</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B1OI4PM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, about the mythical women whose irresistible song lures sailors to shipwreck on the rocks.<br />
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In the <i>Times</i> interview, Potter talks about what drew him to <i>The Odyssey</i>:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444;">I read it in high school and thought it was cool but didn’t go much further than that. When I reread it, I was really taken with the beauty of it and how many of the themes in the book resonate. It’s good and evil, these big decisions — and a lot of stuff about interpersonal relationships, which is rare for an ancient text, I think. It’s very psychological, in a way....A lot of what’s interesting to me is how Odysseus actually interacts with people. He’s in these situations where he has to represent himself. That to me is a big reason why it feels so contemporary. A couple of the tunes that are about women—'Penelope' and 'Nausikaa'—are played on soprano saxophone. In a way that’s them speaking in their voice. It works also because most of the album is on tenor, which is a lower, more male voice: Odysseus.</span></blockquote><br />
He also suggests that a working musician can particularly identify with Homer's peripatetic hero: "As universal as the themes in <i>The Odyssey</i> are, there might be some that personally resonate more with me: leaving, and not knowing exactly how it’s going to go, or who you’re going to run into, or what problems are going to arise. Just that being-away-from-home thing, and returning home."<br />
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For an additional musical reference to Homer, visit our companion blog <a href="http://classicsrock.tumblr.com/search/Homer" target="_blank">Classics Rock! The Sequel</a>.<br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-51029018460550410392012-06-06T23:04:00.000-04:002013-02-19T23:54:43.580-05:00In Honor of Ray Bradbury: Sound of Thunder/Duran Duran, and More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/nTGQ6hryKos" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaX4FSmrBEh2BBYJ_ACJx15F5JCDDtHM-Dln4x7mtxAjqZCMTlWy6zrpTI_OKbVl8TJxepCFhgHn3qsGVoMnnM_ik4A36j3VXRV5TNRFxaUmO5jpfP5REPgxMwVUixnGKmyytVWuh8ILY/s200/Thunder+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_bradbury" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-z5Pf7kHIO_eDtLndA2Mz8sHyPUEtD-i92SI5DyKvfl9NsMPai-uOYl_ldgJu7niIApU93Apaenhm6qGQLf0nDQDAzgZb9jrOGki9jeMpDlc0IbgK-7xY-6rCc4WbMwLZpVweypz7GQU/s200/SoundofThunderCover-2ivhlhr.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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In honor of Ray Bradbury, the prolific writer of fantasy and science fiction who died yesterday at the age of 91, here are some musical selections influenced or inspired by his work.<br />
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The title of Duran Duran's song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SXNZXS?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000SXNZXS" target="_blank">Sound Of Thunder</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000SXNZXS" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, from their 1981 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009L1OA?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00009L1OA" target="_blank">Duran Duran</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00009L1OA" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, alludes to Bradbury's celebrated short story "A Sound of Thunder." First published in the magazine <i>Collier's</i> in 1952, Bradbury's tale has become one of the most widely reprinted science fiction stories ever written, and is currently available in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060785691/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060785691" target="_blank">A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060785691" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. It concerns a hunter named Eckels who contracts with a company called Time Safari to go back in time to kill a tyrannosaurus rex. While visiting the distant past, Eckels is repeatedly warned by his guide not to stray from Time Safari's predetermined path--damaging even a single blade of grass might cause reverberations through time that could have a dramatic impact on history. "A little error here would multiply in sixty million years, all out of proportion," the guide warns him. Unfortunately Eckels is terror-stricken when confronted with the live T. rex, and in his panic he steps off the path, inadvertently killing a butterfly. Upon returning from the past, the hunting party discovers that the death of that single butterfly millions of years earlier has produced devastating changes to their own time. The song's lyrics seem to refer specifically to Eckels with the lines: <i>I'm the man who stepped off the path/And I just lie here/It's what I was made for</i>. [In the story, the phrase "a sound of thunder" does double duty: It is used to describe the terrible noise made by the approaching dinosaur as well as a climactic gunshot.]<br />
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Elton John's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VWJPSU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VWJPSU" target="_blank">Rocket Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000VWJPSU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, from his 1972 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001EGE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000001EGE" target="_blank">Honky Château</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000001EGE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, is often said to have been inspired by Bradbury's short story "The Rocket Man," but as lyricist Bernie Taupin explained in an interview in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=1wkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA14-IA33&dq=%22Rocket+Man%22+%22Elton+John%22+%22Ray+Bradbury%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dP7PT72QJsqD0QGHtvnpDQ&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Rocket%20Man%22%20%22Elton%20John%22%20%22Ray%20Bradbury%22&f=false" target="_blank">Billboard</a>, that's not entirely true:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
No, it was a guy named Tom Rapp, who used to be in a band called Pearls Before Swine. He actually wrote a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004U41U4M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004U41U4M" target="_blank">Rocket Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004U41U4M" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, which was based on a Ray Bradbury story from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062079972/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062079972" target="_blank">The Illustrated Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0062079972" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. It's about a guy who's an airline pilot and he goes off every day and then one day he sort of burns up. And the kids are always looking up to see their dad come home. It's a great story. The Tom Rapp song was much more based on that… I thought it was a great idea to sing a song about a guy in the future, where being an astronaut would be akin to being an airline pilot—which will probably happen. And I just made it a bit more a product of its time and made it a bit more spacey.</blockquote>
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Harry Nilsson's second album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GP6RIE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004GP6RIE" target="_blank">Pandemonium Shadow Show</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004GP6RIE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is named for the sinister carnival featured in Bradbury's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380729407/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0380729407" target="_blank">Something Wicked This Way Comes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0380729407" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Nilsson reportedly hoped to name the album after the book itself, but never received permission to do so from Bradbury.<br />
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The <i>Los Angeles Times</i> has compiled <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/06/musical-works-inspired-by-ray-bradbury-writing.html" target="_blank">a list of ten musical works</a> inspired by the writing of Ray Bradbury.<br />
<br />
The <i>Dallas Observer</i> posted a list of <a href="http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2012/06/rip_ray_bradbury_five_musician.php" target="_blank">five musicians who love Bradbury</a>. </div>
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</script><noscript></noscript>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-56946908531262971882012-05-02T00:12:00.002-04:002012-05-02T00:35:41.030-04:00Helen and Cassandra/Al Stewart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/sILQz7O0XzQ" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1PAQ5_RS3SNSXXof2KVAeCW-Ex-Huf9K8z5k6rc1eEFsY4TucwyYKghLY4oCLEwfa3DEIVftPGHT8ElPjJYOWoPBC4yZOk3QiG1X2OapHjgEdNuqG3WFbyCeek38mS6ZNn4PEaOT48d4/s200/Helen+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iliad" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0d1gyLdUaiY2_3xOJV6cDHshCym5wnYlvK88cTjwZdjnE66kE5TxC11mT0jBkjdgQ2NxVDkIDFUC5YgCw1TuyoDIicvnZlMQH9T-QyKyR69bY4iSVAfrFkmJgC6kOAY-Z13crasQzGW0/s200/helen+book.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>
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Two recurring figures in these pages are <a href="http://www.alstewart.com/" target="_blank">Al Stewart</a>, a literate and literary songwriter, and Homer, the shadowy poet of ancient Greece who is credited with writing two of the foundational volumes of Western literature, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439163375/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439163375" target="_blank">The Iliad</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1439163375" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OCXGRS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000OCXGRS" target="_blank">The Odyssey</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000OCXGRS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. They intersect in Stewart's song "Helen and Cassandra," which appears as a bonus track on a 2007 reissue of his 1988 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000246VQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000246VQ" target="_blank">Last Days of the Century</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000246VQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
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Stewart focuses on the events of <i>The Iliad </i>and, as Suzanne Vega did in her song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W01X1I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000W01X1I" target="_blank">Calypso</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W01X1I" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, he approaches Homeric themes from the perspective of female characters. The first part of the song deals with the abduction of Helen, queen of Sparta, by Paris of Troy, the event that precipitated the Trojan War. Key figures from the epic make appearances--the warrior Achilles and Agamemnon, king of Mycenae--but the focus always returns to Helen, who is depicted as a seductress (<i>She could have turned the head of Paris/With the gentle sway of her hips</i>).<br />
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In the second part of the song, Stewart focuses on Cassandra, who stands in stark contrast to Helen. The god Apollo granted Cassandra the ability to see the future, but for spurning his advances he cursed her so that no one would ever believe her warnings. Stewart presents her as a tragic figure, powerless to prevent the destruction she knew was coming (<i>Gazing at the ruined city/That your warnings could not save/Oh Cassandra, so still and so grave</i>).<br />
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Stewart also acknowledges the author of the source material:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<i>It's funny how the story lingers</i><br />
<i>It's probably a myth of course</i><br />
<i>A whisper in the ear of Homer</i><br />
<i>Perhaps there never was a horse</i></blockquote>
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The last line is, of course, a reference to the Trojan Horse. Technically this episode does not occur in <i>The Iliad</i>, but is mentioned in <i>The Odyssey</i>.<br />
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The familiar and repeated line <i>Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships</i> derives from Christopher Marlowe's play <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466325798/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1466325798" target="_blank">The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1466325798" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, published in1604 but performed much earlier. In the play Faustus, with the help of the devil, conjures up Helen of Troy and, upon seeing her, says: <i>Is this the face that launched a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?</i><br />
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For other songs that reference the works of Homer, see <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/search/label/Homer" target="_blank">these previous posts</a>.<br />
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For an additional musical reference to Homer, visit our new companion blog <a href="http://classicsrock.tumblr.com/search/Homer" target="_blank">Classics Rock! The Sequel</a>.<br />
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<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-112284385073696642012-04-25T00:01:00.000-04:002012-04-25T00:42:52.844-04:00A Wasteland Companion/M. Ward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/1APAlqn5fYM" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLglbA5b3l8eku_Vsxkk4Z_1XXz9ojojaRqWLe8E_F8RzCFfhW4HkvL51w8BSrTFWay0Zj3-fYUE4ytA0GbI0a9SohB34Eg_UILGK862Q5Lad_sc4tz0vBjFeWeYtuXtXMTiVxG_Ixgpc/s200/Wasteland+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_waste_land" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLzbupqmK3_58C15VZ430ZbC_Xo5avNOLe8R8x0vitafdPkytcGJrl9shW9faaqyvyjFYCXTjh0mso705JVY2DmJXmmJB7RCvnENuS4nyVY6Vf3JB84V3qT1Iw3LRCNOL4mwRpPg3N5Y/s200/wasteland+book.jpg" width="123" /></a></div>
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"April is the cruellest month," according to the first line of T.S. Eliot's 1922 poem <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393974995/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393974995" target="_blank">The Waste Land</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0393974995" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but that's when <a href="http://www.mwardmusic.com/" target="_blank"> M. Ward</a> of <a href="http://www.sheandhim.com/#" target="_blank">She & Him</a> chose to release his new solo album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0070XEQKA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0070XEQKA" target="_blank">A Wasteland Companion</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0070XEQKA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. While it would be a stretch to say that the album was inspired by Eliot's poem, Ward says Eliot wasn't far from his mind. "I'm a huge fan of T.S. Eliot," Ward told <a href="http://austinist.com/2012/03/06/m_ward_interview.php" target="_blank">Austinist</a>, "and I probably first heard of that 'wasteland' idea reading T.S. Eliot in high school; to me, it's a pretty useful term, because it can be applied to someone or something in many different situations."<br />
<br />
Ward recently told the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/arts/music/m-ward-on-his-new-solo-album-a-wasteland-companion.html?_r=1&pagewanted=al" target="_blank">New York Times</a> that in addition to Eliot, his favorite writers include Virgil, Homer, and Dante. "I’ve been reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451531396/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451531396" target="_blank">The Inferno</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0451531396" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> for a long time," he says. "I’m a huge fan of that book." <br />
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For more music influenced by <i>The Waste Land</i> and other works by T.S. Eliot, check out these <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/search/label/Eliot%20T.%20S." target="_blank">previous posts</a>.<br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-78210225746213328642012-04-18T00:01:00.003-04:002012-04-18T00:06:15.995-04:00Boats Against the Current/Eric Carmen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://youtu.be/R1OWrKQWNFY" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jY53EWI-XgC28Qa6M5ROO4kHjqSKSzaj9aNDudcVgjL9HCpgy30H3tYTvbgxouu4o0YDmBJVzeCvCSpnYTx2S3NJjdVfN9WNIta2jMrvMSGOgdzpUyz4xo6Q3BwNYzVbUjVvDOD05O8/s200/boats+album.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gatsby" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUxWZkdidUXPNxwhg89pn14y1z58whip2uFuCPtZIP6vYo27z6EPhSfVkg6ePRATNHH3R3kVbPtDj0tt9yDPaJPbcVt-6LCYhZZeLKURwP2HZ34BQQDU4eLFfNIgps4dHi4GWgUWe5EU/s200/boats+book.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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The last line of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic 1925 novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743273567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743273567" target="_blank">The Great Gatsby</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743273567" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />--<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.</blockquote>
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--provides the chorus and the title of Eric Carmen's song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GP3I2M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004GP3I2M" target="_blank">Boats Against the Current</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004GP3I2M" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, as well as the title of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P46PEQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000P46PEQ" target="_blank">the 1977 album</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000P46PEQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> it appeared on. The song wasn't directly inspired by the book, however, but by a falling out Carmen had with his record producer.<br />
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On his <a href="http://www.ericcarmen.com/ec-eric/ec-interview.html" target="_blank">website</a>, Carmen describes the origins of the song:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
It came, music and lyrics, at four in the morning out of a sound sleep. I wrote it down as fast as I could. It came all at once—the first two verses were completely written. The lyric was originally inspired by the breakup of myself and Jimmy Ienner, my producer. It was written about a friendship that had reached a point where we both knew we had to go our separate ways for a time....As is sometimes the case with me, my very best song will come last, when I don't need it anymore. I just happened to be finishing <i>The Great Gatsby</i> the day I had written the verses of "Boats Against The Current," and that one paragraph was exactly about what the song was about. So I sat and read it and I thought, "Tomorrow, we'll run a little bit faster, tomorrow…" I was on that last page when I said, "Here's the chorus and the title of my album." </blockquote>
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Carmen describes "Boats Against the Current" as "my favorite song that I've ever written."<br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-53597081537584421022012-04-03T00:09:00.006-04:002012-04-03T19:00:49.547-04:00In Memory of Harry Crews: The Gospel Singer/Harry Crews, and More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/o3-gWE8yTyc" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjEmGNh6fs1oF1ijkFb37H6cVHII9nvn9D-XLhvlpy7TUwhRbnccrCsWx_U-kSTzo3NyCq-4u1HM_XvDLJBKO1QKUaNK7plf1As7skFH-LsoHhmSQ8_mBsHNmjbU_QKLaRtQJdTVvpo8/s200/Harry+Crews+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Crews" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIs0OR01bHeoJFXdERTWioFCpPPqlPCNnfD936MQ70vt5Cj7ibgoZY2qwFDN3Vraj4ulP-DX3JdvIuTvAUrssKk1t6QP6HRhZYdoIi0-txqeWhYya9yXnoq6HNNLy11d63sta7xhEwVxA/s200/Gospel+Singer+book.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>
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Novelist <a href="http://www.harrycrews.org/" target="_blank">Harry Crews</a> died last week at the age of 76. In an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/books/harry-crews-writer-of-dark-fiction-is-dead-at-76.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Harry%20Crews&st=cse" target="_blank">obituary</a> in the <i>New York Times</i>, Margalit Fox wrote that Crews's novels "out-Gothic Southern Gothic by conjuring a world of hard-drinking, punch-throwing, snake-oil-selling characters whose physical, mental, social and sexual deviations render them somehow entirely normal and eminently sympathetic. . . . Despite their teeming decadence, or more likely because of it, Mr. Crews’s novels betray a fundamental empathy, chronicling his characters’ search for meaning in a dissolute, end-stage world. His ability to spin out a dark, glittering thread from this tangle of souls gave him a singular voice that could make his prose riveting."<br />
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Crew's novels include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/189900601X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=189900601X" target="_blank">The Gospel Singer</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=189900601X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1968), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BYMKW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0006BYMKW" target="_blank">Naked in Garden Hills</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006BYMKW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1969), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/207074633X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=207074633X" target="_blank">Car</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=207074633X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1972), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684842483/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0684842483" target="_blank">A Feast of Snakes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0684842483" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1976) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060915749/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060915749" target="_blank">The Knockout Artist</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060915749" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1988), among other works of fiction. He also wrote a celebrated memoir called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820317594/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0820317594" target="_blank">A Childhood: The Biography of a Place</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0820317594" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1978).<br />
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Crews and his work have been embraced in various corners of the music world:<br />
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The <a href="http://menwithouthats.com/info.html" target="_blank">website</a> for the band Men Without Hats features a quote from Crews's story <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C7G2D0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000C7G2D0" target="_blank">The Hawk Is Dying</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000C7G2D0" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />: "Find what was real in the world and touch it, that was what a man ought to do." The band's 1991 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000723Z/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00000723Z" target="_blank">Sideways</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000723Z" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> includes a track called "Harry Crews," but, the website states, "the links between <i>Sideways</i> and the author run even deeper. Like Crews, the album is characterized by this search for what is real and meaningful, and is bound to real places, people and memory, offering a new perspective to those who think they know Men Without Hats…. <i>Sideways</i> is a testament to a way of life championed by the Bukowskis and the Crews of the world--that is, the idea of living life and music by the moment." Lead singer Ivan Doroschuk sums up Crews's writing style by saying, "He's really real. . . . He wrote a lot of things for <i>Playboy</i> magazine and <i>Esquire</i> and he's just real--like Bukowski's <i>Barfly</i>."<br />
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<a href="http://robotswin.com/" target="_blank">Season to Risk</a> has a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S499AU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000S499AU" target="_blank">Snakes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000S499AU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> on their <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000008KIT/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000008KIT" target="_blank">self-titled first album</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000008KIT" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, released in 1993. The song is inspired by the Crews novel <i>A Feast of Snakes</i>, which centers on the bizarre ritual of the annual Rattlesnake Roundup in a small Georgia town. Another band,
<a href="http://www.dragtheriver.com/" target="_blank">Drag the River</a> features a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QL8CH6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QL8CH6" target="_blank">Mr. Crews</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000QL8CH6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> on their 2006 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F7CLYG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000F7CLYG" target="_blank">Its Crazy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000F7CLYG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. The lyrics begin: <i>I was a gospel singer feasting on rattlesnakes</i>, and continue with a grab bag of Crews references. The song also captures the spirit of Crews's work with the lines: <i>I never seen this kind of beauty before/Mud, blood, lost love, liquor, guns, whores</i>.<br />
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In 1989, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Lydia Lunch, and Sadie Mae formed a band called Harry Crews and released one album, a collection of live performances, called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000003H49/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000003H49" target="_blank">Naked in Garden Hills</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000003H49" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> after Crews's novel. As <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=b9_qs_-pof8C&pg=PA76&dq=harry+crews+sonic+youth&hl=en&sa=X&ei=odh3T_fQJafq0gGZ3NCTDQ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=harry%20crews%20sonic%20youth&f=false" target="_blank">Spin Magazine</a> points out in a review, "lyrics to some of the songs—notably 'The Knockout Artist,' 'The Gospel Singer,' and 'Car'—are inspired by Crews's stories, though the connection is loose, a sort of Cliff's Notes/free-association combo. Once in a while the lumbering brake-shop squall of the music suggests something of Crews's stories…."<br />
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If <i>Spin</i> did not embrace the album--"The stated good intentions of the project (promoting Crews's work and reading in general) count for something, but more effort should have gone into composition and execution"--Crews himself was even more dismissive: "Anybody that thinks this album in any way illuminates my work or is somehow related to my work except in instances lifted out of my books—my reaction is that whoever thinks that, they have misread me," Crews told <i>Spin.</i> "I wish [the band] well. But my feeling is, if you want to do something with your life, that's great, but don't jack around in mine."<br />
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One other related note: Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon's Sonic Youth band mate and husband, provided a blurb for Crews's short novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0940941015/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0940941015" target="_blank">An American Family</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0940941015" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />: "God bless Harry Crews, America's best writer. He'll break your heart but he'll always bring you love. They just don't make 'em like this anymore."<br />
<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-56429543040082359822012-04-01T12:20:00.017-04:002012-04-01T13:15:33.529-04:00A Classics Rock! Exposé: Highway 61 Revisited Revisited<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LZKUD6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000LZKUD6" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000LZKUD6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJFLRo2HR7qMajbxo132e_q5fwiWMZA5xDDrvhzMBqssxcvizHLFmKdpoy7UV5e33u4mutuuG7YvbjMzCYxVjFlqKVELYtyXKao-0pTn_t0Pu4No4arxawtLwnzEXmGkHFUVgeim1qJM/s200/highway+61.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b>WHY ARE VETERAN ROCK STARS RETHINKING, REWRITING, </b></div>
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<b>OR RENOUNCING THEIR CLASSIC SONGS?</b></div>
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One night not long ago Elton John awoke in a cold sweat, shaken from slumber by an alarming revelation: his 1976 song <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word</a> got it all wrong. In a moment of crystalline insight, Elton realized that the hardest word is, in fact, "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." He vowed to correct the lyrics and record a new version of <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Seems to Be the Hardest Word</a> later this year (for a free download, visit<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html"> www. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com</a>).<br />
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A few days later, Paul McCartney heard <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Live and Let Die </a>on his car radio and was "stunned" by the lyrics. "All this time I thought it was 'Live and Let Live,'" said McCartney, who has been performing the song for the last 39 years. "'Live and let die' is not the kind of message I want to send to young people today," he told friends, who assured him that young people don't listen to his music. But he was dumbfounded when pressed about the Beatles song <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Happiness Is a Warm Gun</a>. "You sure about that?" he said.<br />
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Meawhile, Paul Simon was at work updating his 1973 hit <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Kodachrome</a>. "The advent of the digital camera has rendered it an anachronism," Simon said. "I'm changing the title to 'Mem'ry Card,' so now the fade-out goes:<br />
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<i>Mama don't take my mem'ry card </i></div>
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<i>Mama don't take my mem'ry card </i></div>
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<i>Mama don't take my mem'ry card awa-a-a-ay </i></div>
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"I'm still stuck for a rhyme for 'pixel,' though."<br />
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These incidents, seemingly unrelated, proved to be harbingers of an inexplicable and disturbing trend that has shaken the music industry to its core, as growing numbers of veteran rock stars rethink, rewrite, or renounce their classic songs.<br />
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Gene Simmons, lead singer of Kiss, was next. Simmons was studying his tongue in a mirror when it occurred to him that the band should stop performing their signature tune<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html"> Rock and Roll All Night (and Party Every Day)</a>. "Such a schedule is unrealistic," he said. "It doesn't allow for sufficient sleep, an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Nor does it leave time for other rewarding activities, such as reading, gardening, and spending time with friends."<br />
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Bob Dylan came forward to reveal that his classic album <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Highway 61 Revisited</a> is a lie. "I've never even been on Highway 61. It's all been a sham," Dylan told <i>Rolling Stone</i>. The magazine, being inanimate, just lay there on the coffee table and didn't respond.<br />
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Considered individually, these incidents don't amount to much. When viewed as part of a larger pattern, it becomes clear that the cumulative effect is potentially devastating for rock and roll.<br />
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"This type of second-guessing is typical of artists in middle-age," said Dr. John, Counselor in Residence at the Mr. Mojo Risin Center for Getting Your Head on Straight, Man at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. "It reflects an unconscious desire to remain relevant--to be what Freud called 'hep' and what Jung referred to as 'with it.' B.F. Skinner preferred 'fly,' but these are merely clinical terms for what you and I would call 'cool.' Underlying this desire, of course, is a repressed fear of mortality."<br />
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This last theory was borne out by a panel of aging rock stars who appeared on "Piers Morgan Tonight" to discuss why musical icons would disavow their own work.<br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> • </span>Blue Oyster Cult's Eric Bloom told Morgan why he no longer performs <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Don't Fear the Reaper</a>: "I'm a lot older now. Man, I'm terrified." </li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> • </span>Roger Daltrey expressed similar sentiments about the Who standard <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">My Generation</a>: "I never really wanted to die before I got old. Also, I don't stutter." </li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> • </span>Bruce Springsteen admitted he had second thoughts about his iconic hit <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">Born to Run</a>: "I get winded pretty easily these days, so I’m reworking it as 'Born to Mall Walk.'" </li>
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The program offered no easy answers, and concluded on an ominous note when Robert Plant explained his decision to retire Led Zepplin's <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2008/12/april-fools-day.html">The Song Remains the Same</a>: "Obviously, it doesn't."<br />
<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-20896361064024009172012-02-21T00:11:00.000-05:002016-03-16T11:23:22.658-04:00Extravagant Gestures/Dionne Warwick<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRdYbPhxopA" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRdYbPhxopA" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9OZxy_Xiv32Eiho93hE3WoXzJsy89AWEpVV_cOFO9cMvt5O0YwzIqDXvAZWXsyqUIWBLna5ut5BqXA5xF-tTfGvvYu4IEEsvWIj-yGm5dnB2L8a9XiRbG_86HDbUjJ6XT2pJS4rlvhI/s200/Dionne+Warwick+Friends.jpg" width="188" /></a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RpoXjjpJJEYC&q=%22extravagant+gestures%22+%22carole+bayer+sager%22&dq=%22extravagant+gestures%22+%22carole+bayer+sager%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLosaopb_LAhVILyYKHbVHB6YQ6AEIHDAA" target="_blank"><img alt="https://books.google.com/books?id=RpoXjjpJJEYC&q=%22extravagant+gestures%22+%22carole+bayer+sager%22&dq=%22extravagant+gestures%22+%22carole+bayer+sager%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLosaopb_LAhVILyYKHbVHB6YQ6AEIHDAA" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcpOfTjykbPCdHCqnj9q7zi8kevfEDTzhPledzEXylQ55ZUyUZAfEymIyt85d4FbIDM7aTHy7pS69oj9aFlp-dl8FBOGv4JfFfjcb1FKksmEEpckIJ6euqhYVlUEE9_60hFHPwnqbnZZU/s200/extravagant.jpg" width="121" /></a></div>
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<i>People Magazine</i> described <i>Extravagant Gestures</i> as "the only song in recent memory to have been penned as a theme for a novel."<br />
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<i>Extravagant Gestures</i> is the closing track of Dionne Warwick's album <i>Friends</i>, released in December 1985. But it was first recorded as a limited edition single earlier that year by lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, who co-wrote the song with then-husband Burt Bacharach. Sager composed the song as a promotional tool for her first novel, also called <i>Extravagant Gestures</i>. <i> </i><br />
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<i>People</i> covered the glitzy publication party, held at the Tiffany Boutique in Beverly Hills and hosted by Sager's good friend Elizabeth Taylor. Noting the A-list celebrities in the crowd, <i>People</i>'s writer observed: "When they leave, they take copies of <i>Extravagant Gestures</i>—the record, not the book." When Sager appeared on TV to promote her novel, she would often perform the song live. [Full disclosure: We may have had something to do with organizing the publicity tour for the book.]<br />
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Sager's novel is about a glamorous pop psychology author writing bestsellers about the mother-daughter relationship, who must come to terms with her own estranged mother, a larger-than-life Auntie Mame figure who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. According to an interview in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/09/30/the-lyricists-novel-technique/628fcc15-fb5f-43f0-9d05-f9f3610b892b/" target="_blank"><i>Washington Post</i></a>:<br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br />
Sager said she decided to write a novel because she felt "constricted" by the 36 bars of a song's lyrics, having to make things rhyme and so forth. She started out to write a screenplay, but that was constricting too. "You make your own form in a novel," she says..."My goal was to write something from me, that turned me on, that told a story. And I didn't even know what that story was until I was well into writing it," she said. "It was a growth experience for me. As a collaborative being, a person who has spent 20 years writing lyrics for composers, this was the first time I felt I could do something alone."</span></blockquote>
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The year after Sager's novel was published, another industry insider, entertainment lawyer Freddie Gershon, published <i>Sweetie Baby Cookie Honey</i>, a <i>roman </i><i><i>à</i> clef</i> about the music business. [Sager's publisher, Arbor House, also published Gershon's novel. Full disclosure: We may have had something to do with this book too.] Like Sager, Gershon produced a promotional record to publicize his novel at book industry events and other venues. The <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-28/entertainment/ca-9459_1_rock-industry" target="_blank"><i>Los Angeles Times</i></a> noted: "One of the many dark themes running through Gershon's book is that pop stars are now worth more dead than alive, which he sees as symbolic of the music industry's greed and cynicism." In 2009, when Michael Jackson's sister La Toya suggested publicly that her brother was murdered to increase the value of his music catalog, <i>Sweetie Baby Cookie Honey</i> became part of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv2UAugj7rI" target="_blank">conversation</a>. Around that time Gershon himself weighed in on the novel and its themes on his <a href="http://freddiegershon.com/freddiesblog/?p=33" target="_blank">blog</a>.<br />
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<br />Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-64764937662142167172011-12-23T18:53:00.005-05:002011-12-23T20:37:27.784-05:00Christmas Bells/John Gorka<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/P64tdKrQiY4" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifYiY5ly-IXL7eKhRazFvK3x9CjT1UDuVRvrzw0A4y5LVKPK1iKprkERWDmzmzSn_6dW94QicMNP4SGBYRifAQs5PFUBMF0JaAYNoxgBgWH8M7lq7AQ6pvUWQW4ReycK29tte6E_2CxbY/s200/Longfellow+CD.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://www.potw.org/archive/potw118.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXLx_Vb4QeFnywUmNzbP9Dq1ucnqMwMqhVXsKtzXACL2bh1dimOk-s5MSOD0L7DM2ACy6ax06JcmsJHsUfcQNuu-9QASiOMcDjMn7gBsMcUp6B7xr_U-BrmNc4Xhrn_fJCz_RlTRtAK1s/s200/Longfellow+book.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://johngorka.com/" target="_blank">John Gorka</a>'s 1990 song "Christmas Bells," available on the Windham Hill compilation <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000NI1/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000000NI1" target="_blank">A Winter's Solstice III</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000000NI1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, is based on the poem of the same name, written on Christmas Day in 1864 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and published in February 1865. The poem is available in many Longfellow collections, including <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188301185X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=188301185X" target="_blank">Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=188301185X" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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Brought low by the death of his wife and the wounding of his son in the Civil War, Longfellow welcomes the bells of Christmas and their message of peace on earth in the poem, but then despairs that there is no peace on earth: <i>Hate is strong/And mocks the song/Of peace on earth, good-will to men.</i> In the end, the bells win him over:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="color: black;">
<i>Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>The Wrong shall fail,</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>The Right prevail,</i></div>
<i style="color: black;">With peace on earth, good-will to men."</i></blockquote>
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Longfellow's "Christmas Bells" consists of seven stanzas, including some that make specific reference to the Civil War. Gorka uses four of the stanzas in his song, which is just one of several musical arrangements of Longfellow's poem that have been done over the years.<br />
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The story behind the writing of the poem is told in the 2009 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606411543/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1606411543" target="_blank">I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1606411543" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Lloyd & Karmel Newell, and illustrated by Dan Burr.<br />
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Merry Christmas! <br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-39778263111885395312011-10-29T18:04:00.003-04:002011-10-29T18:19:30.007-04:00The Classics Rock! Halloween Playlist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RSttcHVW0WalC3SNYq4MKNYnBjj1CoREFT5Ji8JpXAgXkhEwco43Fn9EngFFknNKkwj6iPDaexNWB9JSc6ZgzikAHEegxGwS4pi08TvFNatTdLgYhE4-1rk4NeR3zR71UfKatKBjRc8/s1600/2009+jack+o%2527lantern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RSttcHVW0WalC3SNYq4MKNYnBjj1CoREFT5Ji8JpXAgXkhEwco43Fn9EngFFknNKkwj6iPDaexNWB9JSc6ZgzikAHEegxGwS4pi08TvFNatTdLgYhE4-1rk4NeR3zR71UfKatKBjRc8/s320/2009+jack+o%2527lantern.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you're looking for something besides <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VRWV4U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000VRWV4U" target="_blank">The Monster Mash</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000VRWV4U&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136JS9E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00136JS9E" target="_blank">Ghostbusters</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136JS9E&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0022XJLLW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0022XJLLW" target="_blank">Thriller</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0022XJLLW&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> to provide the soundtrack for your Halloween, then the songs below can help get you started. Some are obvious, others probably less familiar, but each one is appropriate to the season, either for exploring spooky subject matter or creating an eerie mood. In keeping with our mission at Classics Rock!, some even have literary sources, as noted below. We'd love to see this list grow--suggestions are welcome!<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013ADSNM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0013ADSNM" target="_blank">This Is Halloween</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013ADSNM&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Danny Elfman<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HZURME/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005HZURME" target="_blank">Theme from Halloween</a> - John Carpenter<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00206OYSQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00206OYSQ" target="_blank">The Voice</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00206OYSQ&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Alan Parsons Project<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122RRFQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00122RRFQ" target="_blank">One Stage Before</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122RRFQ&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Al Stewart<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QP64XA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001QP64XA" target="_blank">Fear Of The Unknown</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001QP64XA&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Martin Briley<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W2383W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000W2383W" target="_blank">Moon Over Bourbon Street</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W2383W&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Sting (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/04/moon-over-bourbon-streetsting.html" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GH3ODQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001GH3ODQ" target="_blank">Bad Moon Rising</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001GH3ODQ&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Creedence Clearwater Revivial<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GJV2JO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004GJV2JO" target="_blank">Ave Satani (Theme from The Omen)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004GJV2JO&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Jerry Goldsmith<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136RU4E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00136RU4E" target="_blank">(Don't Fear) The Reaper</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136RU4E&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Blue Oyster Cult<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KOKHRU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002KOKHRU" target="_blank">Eye Of The Zombie</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002KOKHRU&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - John Fogerty<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137ZGEO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00137ZGEO" target="_blank">The Legend Of Wooley Swamp</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137ZGEO&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Charlie Daniels Band<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122P9J2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00122P9J2" target="_blank">Life In Dark Water</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122P9J2&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Al Stewart<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014JAAEM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0014JAAEM" target="_blank">Walking With A Ghost</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0014JAAEM&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Tegan and Sara<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013803BO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0013803BO" target="_blank">Hurry Sundown</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013803BO&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Outlaws<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V68WYY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000V68WYY" target="_blank">The Raven</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000V68WYY&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Alan Parsons Project (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/04/tales-of-mystery-and-imaginationthe.html" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JEL9X6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003JEL9X6" target="_blank">The Ghost Who Walks</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003JEL9X6&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Karen Elson<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00123266K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00123266K" target="_blank">Charlotte Corday</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00123266K&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Al Stewart<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00415AAKK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00415AAKK" targe="_blank">Invisible Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00415AAKK&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Joe Jackson<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013G2T7M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0013G2T7M" target="_blank">Curse Of the Mummy's Tomb</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013G2T7M&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - World Party<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00123M11K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00123M11K" target="_blank">Miss Ghost</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00123M11K&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Don Henley<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TRVI5U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000TRVI5U" target="_blank">Spooky</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TRVI5U&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Classics IV<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137KH2U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00137KH2U" target="_blank">Season Of The Witch</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137KH2U&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Donovan<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011Z0WFQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0011Z0WFQ" target="_blank">Witchy Woman</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0011Z0WFQ&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - The Eagles<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00147UDFK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00147UDFK" target="_blank">Ghost in the Attic</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00147UDFK&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Dave Nachmanoff<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NTLYGG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001NTLYGG" target="_blank">Dead Man's Party</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NTLYGG&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Oingo Boingo<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004AV2MBU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004AV2MBU" target="_blank">Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004AV2MBU&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Men at Work (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/search/label/Men%20at%20Work" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TEBHIG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000TEBHIG" target="_blank">Goodnight Moon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TEBHIG&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Shivaree<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W00E9K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000W00E9K" target="_blank">Tombstone</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W00E9K&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Suzanne Vega<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122P5S2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00122P5S2" target="_blank">Moondance</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122P5S2&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Van Morrison<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122ML0W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00122ML0W" target="_blank">Werewolves Of London</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00122ML0W&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Warren Zevon<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TDWKJW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000TDWKJW" target="_blank">Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000TDWKJW&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - David Bowie<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VGYWTI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000VGYWTI" target="_blank">Scentless Apprentice</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000VGYWTI&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - Nirvana (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/06/scentless-apprenticenirvana.html" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/IvSc7RLfUpA" target="_blank">The Resurrectionist</a> - Pet Shop Boys (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/08/resurrectionistpet-shop-boys.html" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048ZLPIY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0048ZLPIY" target="_blank">At The Mountains Of Madness</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0048ZLPIY&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - H.P. Lovecraft (<a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/05/at-mountains-of-madnesshp-lovecraft.html" target="_blank">literary source</a>)<br />
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Happy Halloween! <br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-36326103342977529992011-10-08T15:19:00.001-04:002011-10-08T15:39:17.867-04:00The Time Machine/Alan Parsons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/eNrs2iDsccw" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwsyanotTMOxPYNM7eH3AWafdDBDYvxOjm7KFcbUU25JEH9LSyKX7_PiL5QY4AJNtcIklBJOeAimBsbyZsigiYxZOOzS3cJoNb_zipSFkXDCRIy94QxX31YZOSmT8SCmp1Zy8_jA6wb3I/s200/Time+Machine+album.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_time_machine" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp7HtiJ9JhQjnnJImp45c55xRru8IYYD-b3XVORRa4bZTc9Fub6IUmPudiXwa21YP40XDvE1TnACbpoyHYf_2imI9zHvhOmDLgmBJ1LSwO4AJ9VptBSvLFUHB0zG0626vgTcvfZgLPnzc/s200/Time+Machine+cd.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.alanparsonsmusic.com/" target="_blank">Alan Parsons</a>' third solo effort following the dissolution of <a href="http://www.the-alan-parsons-project.com/" target="_blank">The Alan Parsons Project</a> was called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00001NFFB/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B00001NFFB" target="_blank">The Time Machine</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00001NFFB&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, released in 1999. Clearly Parsons was referencing <a href="http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/" target="_blank">H.G. Wells</a>' 1895 novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612930824/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1612930824" target="_blank">The Time Machine</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1612930824&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but the fan site <a href="http://www.theavenueonline.info/site3/time-mch.htm" target="_blank">The Avenue</a> says that "while it was inspired by the H.G. Wells story of the same name, the album is not a musical interpretation of his book. Instead, the album looks at time travel as a generic subject, as well as looking into other aspects of time and space."<br />
<br />
Parsons was reportedly interested in exploring the theme of time travel on an album since the 1970s and wanted to devote the second Alan Parsons Project release to that concept. At the time his partner, the late <a href="http://www.ericwoolfsonmusic.com/" target="_blank">Eric Woolfson</a>, was more interested in the robot stories of <a href="http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html" target="_blank">Isaac Asimov</a>, and the result was the album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JLQSW4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000JLQSW4" target="_blank">I Robot</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000JLQSW4&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. As <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-robotthe-alan-parsons-project.html" target="_blank">discussed previously</a> in these pages, that album is very loosely associated with Asimov's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055338256X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=055338256X" target="_blank">I, Robot</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=055338256X&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (the placement of the comma is key).<br />
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Images on the cover of <i>The Time Machine</i> make sly references to time travel--for example, a photo of a London police box suggests the time-traveling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardis" target="_blank">TARDIS</a> of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CNESV2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000CNESV2" target="_blank">Doctor Who</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000CNESV2&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> fame, and a picture of a Delorean refers to the time machine of choice in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U6SJUY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B003U6SJUY" target="_blank">Back to the Future</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003U6SJUY&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> films. The tracks on the album have titles such as "No Future in the Past" and "Far Ago and Long Away," and the song "Press Rewind" explores the idea of going back and doing your life over. The title of an instrumental called "Rubber Universe" refers to astronmer <a href="http://www.edwinhubble.com/" target="_blank">Edwin Hubble</a>'s theory that since galaxies are moving away from us, the universe must be stretching like an elastic band. Another instrumental, "Temporalia," interpolates physicist <a href="http://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/frankclose/" target="_blank">Frank Close</a> talking about how looking at the stars is, in effect, looking back in time. (Interestingly, the audio of Close is taken from a documentary called <i>The Rubber Universe,</i> which aired on the British television show <i>Equinox</i>. It was directed by graphic designer <a href="http://www.stormthorgerson.com/" target="_blank">Storm Thorgerson</a>, who also designed the album cover art for <i>The Time Machine</i>. Also worthy of note is the band <a href="http://www.rubberuniverse.net/" target="_blank">Rubber Universe</a>, which has associations with The Alan Parson Project.)<br />
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The song that most closely captures the spirit of H.G. Wells's novel is "Out of the Blue," which seems to be specifically about a time-traveler:<br />
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<blockquote style="color: black;">
<i>Out of the blue</i><br />
<i>I come sailing</i><br />
<i>Through the years</i><br />
<i>Through the years</i><br />
<i>What can I do?</i><br />
<i>Now that I've seen</i><br />
<i>All our hopes</i><br />
<i>All of our fears</i></blockquote>
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This "man from out of the blue" also states: <i>I travel far/Yet no distance/I'm still here/Always here</i>--as if he does not move through space at all, but only through time.<br />
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One other reference to Wells may be found on the Japanese release of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000K21C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00000K21C" target="_blank">The Time Machine</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000K21C&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, where the title tracks (Parts 1 and 2) were redubbed "H.G. Force."<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMCLW4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002HMCLW4" target="_blank">The Time Machine (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002HMCLW4&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1PW0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000FC1PW0" target="_blank">I, Robot (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FC1PW0&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-2574436878674992762011-08-18T02:11:00.001-04:002011-08-18T02:19:44.620-04:00For Winnie-the-Pooh's 90th Birthday: House at Pooh Corner/Loggins & Messina, and more<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/5G5x3fpfpFI" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5337lnjV5PQEnY12VD0XYOblOw8DaHERvqAoc5ep53CFnChFbz-KfZj5p8i7O34YsktYaYPqpwqsFI8_yv6fTNcwiiYTTLQ1kPlM6Fl-TJRUviUZdolnoxnM65_QrP1wot1Qxs8xgQfk/s200/Pooh+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_At_Pooh_Corner" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-a9dkUUyhJy8E8R2I4UOGzzmT7QNKA-nXtGIUVLbBC-WtNTBNHzwZEBgS-h9q9iml_GIZAVYEgwkvM5l-wL5SmceuLUaUTl09QzaMiOirjPXw5nTxBnfGg98P72NqJRNiTxeGnNL6IcY/s200/pooh+book.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
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This Sunday, August 21st, is the 90th birthday of A.A. Milne's beloved children's character Edward Bear, better known as Winnie-the-Pooh. Happy birthday, Pooh! Or as the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood might put it, <i>hipy papy bthuthdth thuthda bthuthdy</i>.<br />
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But how can Pooh be 90? The first Pooh book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142404675/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0142404675" target="_blank">Winnie-the-Pooh</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142404675&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, was published in 1926. That would make him a mere 85, wouldn't it? It turns out that Pooh's birthday is not calculated from the date of his first publication, but from internal evidence found in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140361227/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0140361227" target="_blank">The House at Pooh Corner</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0140361227&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />: Pooh was presented to Milne's son Christopher Robin on the occasion of the boy's first birthday, on August 21st, 1921. So Christopher Robin's birthday became Pooh's.<br />
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Pooh has inspired his share of songs--and not all of them are for the kiddies. The obvious choice to begin with is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137SQKU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00137SQKU" target="_blank">House At Pooh Corner</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137SQKU&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, written by Kenny Loggins. The song was originally recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for their 1970 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000087DSO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000087DSO" target="_blank">Uncle Charlie His Dog Teddy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000087DSO&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Band member Jimmy Ibbotson reportedly suffered from polio as a child and spent much of the time reading. The works of A.A. Milne were particular favorites, so he was eager to record the song. But it gained real popularity after it appeared on Loggins & Messina's 1971 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00175D7WU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B00175D7WU" target="_blank">Sittin in</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00175D7WU&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. It can also be found on their greatest hits album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009A1BJU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0009A1BJU" target="_blank">Best: Loggins & Messina - Sittin in Again</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0009A1BJU&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. The lyrics describe Pooh going about various Pooh-ish activities--counting bees, chasing clouds, getting a honey jar stuck on his nose--with the help of his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood, including Christopher Robin, Owl, and Eeyore (what, no Tigger?). The subtext is a wistful wish to return to a lost childhood, an aspect that was emphasized when Loggins revised the song as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003RFQSIS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B003RFQSIS" target="_blank">Return To Pooh Corner</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B003RFQSIS&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, which appears on a 1994 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000029FW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0000029FW" target="_blank">album of the same name</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000029FW&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Another follow up album, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045DO7QG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0045DO7QG" target="_blank">More Songs From Pooh Corner</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0045DO7QG&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, in 2000, includes Loggins' song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0022CSLXM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0022CSLXM" target="_blank">Your Heart Will Lead You Home</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0022CSLXM&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, which served as the theme to Disney's animated film <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6305942331/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=6305942331" target="_blank">The Tigger Movie</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=6305942331&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
In 1970 Dutch composer <a href="http://www.requiemsurvey.org/composers.php?id=101">Willem Frederik Bon</a> wrote an orchestral score called <i>To Catch a Heffalump</i>, after the mysterious and elusive creatures that bedevil Pooh and Piglet.<br />
<br />
Now things really do get nitty gritty. Arab Strap's song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XEEO8M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000XEEO8M" target="_BLank">Piglet</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000XEEO8M&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, from their 1998 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000064A1/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0000064A1" target="_blank">Philophobia</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000064A1&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, features a couple getting ready to go out clubbing. While the woman is in the shower, her boyfriend lets curiosity get the better of him: <i>I'd always planned to have a look/in your special Winnie the Pooh book/The place was marked and it was there in blue and white/it just said simply, "Paul stayed last night."</i>
Her infidelity is revealed--recriminations, scatology and explicit lyrics ensue.<br />
<br />
Jefferson Airplane's third album, 1967's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000A0DRX/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0000A0DRX" target="_blank">After Bathing at Baxter's</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000A0DRX&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, features a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013AIO9U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0013AIO9U" target="_blank">The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013AIO9U&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, written by Paul Kantner. "A song of love, hope, expectation, and a degree of doubt," writes Eric V.D. Luft in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965517926/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0965517926" target="_blank">Die at the Right Time! A Subjective Cultural History of the American Sixties</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0965517926&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. "Pooneil was Kantner's fanciful hybrid of A.A. Milne's character, Winnie-the-Pooh, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Neil" target="_blank">Fred Neil</a>, the New York City folk rocker." Kantner said Pooneil "referred to Freddie and Winnie-the-Pooh sort of thrown into a Mixmaster on the psychedelic era." The lyrics draw heavily from Milne's poetry collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140361235/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0140361235" target="_blank">When We Were Very Young</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0140361235&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, in particular the poems "Halfway Down" and "Spring Morning."<br />
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The band's follow-up album, 1968's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000A0DRZ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0000A0DRZ" target="_blank">Crown of Creation</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000A0DRZ&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, featured a follow-up song, the title of which made the Pooh connection even more obvious. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013ADZ62/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0013ADZ62" target="_blank">The House At Pooneil Corners</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013ADZ62&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, written by Kantner and Marty Balin, also draws lyrics from Milne's poetry, in this case "Noise, by Pooh" from <i>The House at Pooh Corner</i>. However, the tone of the song "was much darker than its predecessor," writes Luft. "Its graphically descriptive images of mass death and its gruesome aftermath made us think of nothing but nuclear war and its entailed universal annihilation."<br />
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Finally, there is an Italian band called <a href="http://www.pooh.it/" target="_blank">Pooh</a>. And check out <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/pooh-sticks/" target="_blank">The Pooh Sticks</a>, an English indie band whose name recalls the favorite pastime of Pooh and Piglet. If you think Quidditch is the first game to make the transition from fiction to the real world, think again: The annual Poohsticks World Championships have been held on England's River Thames since 1984.<br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-33714563028551160592011-07-16T13:08:00.005-04:002011-07-16T23:19:45.049-04:00For the 60th Anniversary of The Catcher in the Rye: Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?/Green Day, and more<div align="center">
<a href="http://youtu.be/Wnxlfe2M6l8" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343608173971577554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnVoS5W0IxHpkJfX7d0nPKnPNswMswFthUlKiRy0wTZ52VHsHBNn4mOwFDI_01E3UOC168v5wzaIqBljTxex9FOkp8sFNezAxp7OEck9ON6cNfK4b1HoTngSqwQxNUeCiWGIYg8B-Hw/s200/catcher+cd.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 200px;" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_catcher_in_the_rye" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343608248665383522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVsIuGoVoGYduji4kMeOi20HuXdIX1AVT73xwIvhi6OJC9Xv-I2w94ww7uH-TKx5j_M6iSEdr10NYX_d-CAXeM3fkBCkT9-mJnt0i1ZQkRol0Rx1xijDJ8qahuL9xMXQuGzWfYsIgsEg/s200/catcher+book.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 200px; width: 132px;" /></a><br />
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<i>In honor of the 60th anniversary today of the publication of J.D. Salinger's</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316769177/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0316769177" target="_blank">The Catcher in the Rye</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0316769177&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <i>we're reposting our <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-wrote-holden-caulfieldgreen-day.html" target="_blank">original list of songs</a> inspired by the novel, supplemented with other Salinger-related songs <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2010/02/salinger-follow-up-bananafishbonesthe.html" target="_blank">suggested by our readers</a></i>. <br />
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Green Day's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014JIVIY?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0014JIVIY" target="_blank">Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0014JIVIY" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> from their 1992 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JMKKG8?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000JMKKG8" target="_blank">Kerplunk</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000JMKKG8" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, is named for the novel's protagonist<i>. </i>Apparently the book is a favorite of the band's lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong.<br />
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In answer to Green Day's query, Screeching Weasel released <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QPDUPQ?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QPDUPQ" target="_blank">I Wrote Holden Caulfield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000QPDUPQ" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> on their 1994 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009FGWXA?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0009FGWXA" target="_blank">How to Make Enemies and Irritate People</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0009FGWXA" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />. Note to the Salinger estate: The song includes the suit-provoking lines: <i>I wonder if you'll ever come to realize what I always knew/I wrote Holden Caulfield and so did you</i>.<br />
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The definitive statement on the question of authorship comes from the Shy Guys 2006 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QR1RX6?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QR1RX6" target="_blank">Breaking Up Is Hard To Do</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000QR1RX6" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, with their song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQ0BEI?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QQ0BEI" target="_blank">J.D. Salinger Wrote Holden Caulfield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000QQ0BEI" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />.<br />
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The Guns 'N' Roses song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00382GXPI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00382GXPI" target="_blank">The Catcher In The Rye</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00382GXPI&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> appears on their <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037BBKIK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0037BBKIK" target="_blank">Chinese Democracy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0037BBKIK&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> album from 2008. It seems to have as much to do with John Lennon's murder as with Salinger's novel--Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, had a copy of <i>The Catcher in the Rye</i> in his possession when he was apprehended.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QN7X5Q?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QN7X5Q" target="_blank">William Holden Caulfield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000QN7X5Q" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, from Too Much Joy's 2005 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R00CSS?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000R00CSS" target="_blank">From All of Us to Both of You</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000R00CSS" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, includes the lyrics: <i>I'm afraid of people who like Catcher in the Rye/Yeah I like it too but someone tell me why/People he'd despise say I feel like that guy</i>.<br />
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Bodi Bill expresses a sentiment we can all get behind in their song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0022Y8UCM?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0022Y8UCM" target="_blank">I Like Holden Caulfield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0022Y8UCM" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />.<br />
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The title of the Old 97's song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UOL4MY?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000UOL4MY" target="_blank">Rollerskate Skinny</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000UOL4MY" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, from the 2001 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000059ZHP?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000059ZHP" target="_blank">Satellite Rides</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000059ZHP" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, comes from Holden Caulfield's description of his sister, Phoebe, in <i>The Catcher in the Rye</i>: "She's quite skinny, like me, but nice skinny. Roller-skate skinny. I watched her once from the window when she was crossing over Fifth Avenue to go to the park, and that's what she is, roller-skate skinny."<br />
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A band called Pencey Prep offers a double-barreled reference to Salinger's novel. The name of the band derives from the fictional school from which Holden Caulfield is expelled. In addition, the title of their song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X6ODHC?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000X6ODHC" target="_blank">The Secret Goldfish</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000X6ODHC" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, from their 2001 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AOV5Z?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000AOV5Z" target="_blank">Heartbreak in Stereo,</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000AOV5Z" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> comes from the title of a short story referred to in the novel, written by Holden's brother D.B. <br />
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There are also songs called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D15%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fdmusic%26y%3D18%26field-keywords%3D%2526%252334%253BHolden%2520Caulfield%2526%252334%253B%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-music-track&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957" target="_blank">Holden Caulfield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> from a variety of artists, including Tom Freund, Stefan Couture and the Campfire Orchestra, Harris Eisenstadt, Paul Kotheimer, and the Green Pajamas.<br />
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Songs with the title <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fdmusic%26field-keywords%3DCatcher%2520in%2520the%2520Rye%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-music-track&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957" target="_blank">Catcher in the Rye</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> have been recorded by a number of artists as well, and there is a band called <a href="http://www.myspace.com/catchersintherye" target="_blank">Catchers in the Rye</a>.<br />
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There are also many musical references to other works by Salinger or to the author himself:<br />
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A song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036LEBEG?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0036LEBEG" target="_blank">Polar Bear</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0036LEBEG" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, from Ride's 1990 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002LNM?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000002LNM" target="_blank">Nowhere</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002LNM" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, mentions Salinger's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316766941?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0316766941" target="_blank">Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316766941" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. The same novella lent its name to <a href="http://www.myspace.com/raisehightheroofbeammusic">a Chicago-based band</a>.<br />
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The Cure's 1984 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ICL3C4?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000ICL3C4" targer="_blank">The Top</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000ICL3C4" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> features a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DOKH0A?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001DOKH0A" target="_blank">Bananafishbones</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001DOKH0A" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. Robert Smith, the band's primary songwriter, confirmed the song's connection to Salinger's story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," from his collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316767727?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0316767727" target="_blank">Nine Stories</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316767727" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, in an issue of the fanzine <a href="http://www.picturesofyou.us/fanzines/curenews-10.htm" target="_blank">Cure News</a>: "the title, for some no-reason, from 'a perfect day for bananafish' - a short story by j d salinger .. again me hating myself..." [Capitalization, syntax and punctuation courtesy of Mr. Smith and <i>Cure News</i>].<br />
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The title of the 2005 debut album from We Are Scientists, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BCHJ2E?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000BCHJ2E" target="_blank">With Love and Squalor</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000BCHJ2E" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, refers to Salinger's story "For Esmé with Love and Squalor," available in the <i>Nine Stories</i> collection.<br />
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For a time in the 1990s, Lisa Loeb's band was called Nine Stories, after Salinger's collection.<br />
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The Winona Ryders released a 1995 album called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000FIL?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000000FIL" target="_blank">J.D. Salinger</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000000FIL" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
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Finally, a song called "My Foolish Heart" was written for the 1949 film of the same name--the only film to date to be based on Salinger's writing (it was adapted from his story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut," another selection from <i>Nine Stories</i>). The song was nominated for an Academy Award and has been recorded by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26sort%3Dartistalbumrank%26ref_%3Dsr_grid_artistalbumrank%26qid%3D1310836525%26field-keywords%3DMy%2520Foolish%2520Heart%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-music%23&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957"target="_blank">a number of artists</a><img src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. [Technically, featuring this song violates our <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2009/04/ground-rules.html" target="_blank">Ground Rules</a>, but it's fun anyway.]<br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-34497731368388309072011-07-08T23:16:00.017-04:002011-07-11T21:55:22.840-04:00News of the World/The Jam, and others<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/DATpHu3RUbw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyM0EMyHZXbGgloHqwaXvKBTWbmhFqgxi0NhPZhLO2VUeUbSCYGdVBsZcewtmKQwiOrcLhFexhIwbfCnKWvV_q2PIO2HxT5oidxAt0VjrwTri6XJpmf14viTT8IPLoQ5RqbSfiEr3vgVM/s200/Jam+single.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_world" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNCaI2gGzA1OI_grEZHzzFJFAe8iA7G-FrzIfCK45cgCLph9JpSbSnt6JEP0FhkJw66SXpmCQR1LOy4oJGFRtODosXx7ltc2f6K2J-s5-ThM-cjGWf395VCp5uKg76df8cm29NQmj0N4/s200/news+of+the+world.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<br />
This is a special tabloid edition of <i>Classics Rock!</i><br />
<br />
Sunday will mark the final edition of the infamous British tabloid <a href="http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/public/home/" target="_blank">News of the World</a>. Founded in 1843 and currently owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the paper trafficked in sex, sleaze and celebrity scandal, and the methods used in gathering stories were sometimes ethically questionable. The paper was ultimately sacrificed by Murdoch in the growing <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/more-serious-allegations-against-british-tabloid-editors/?scp=9&sq=news%20of%20the%20world&st=cse" target="_blank">phone hacking scandal</a> that continues to unfold in the United Kingdom.<br />
<br />
The <i>News of the World</i> was a cultural touchstone, for better or worse, and turns up in a number of popular songs. <a href="http://www.beatles.com/" target="_blank">The Beatles</a> gave it a shoutout in "Polythene Pam," from their classic 1969 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0025KVLUQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0025KVLUQ" target="_blank">Abbey Road</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0025KVLUQ&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />: <i>She's the kind of a girl that makes the News of the World/Yes you could say she was attractively built</i>. This seems to suggest that Pam would be a candidate for the popular "P. 3 girl" feature, which displayed photos of scantily clad women on page three of every issue.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thepretenders.com/" target="_blank">The Pretenders</a>' 1982 song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00124AAJE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00124AAJE" target="_blank">Back On The Chain Gang</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00124AAJE&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, available on the album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NA2ALY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000NA2ALY" target="_blank">Learning to Crawl</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000NA2ALY&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, includes the line <i>The phone, T.V. and the News of the World/Got into the house like a pigeon from hell</i>. This was probably inspired by the intense media coverage that attended the death of the band's guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, from a drug overdose.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://queenonline.com/" target="_blank">Queen</a> released an album called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000OAC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000000OAC" target="_blank">News of the World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000000OAC&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> in 1977, though it does not feature a song with that title. However, the following year <a href="http://www.thejamfan.net/welcome.htm" target="_blank">The Jam</a> released a single called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W27AF4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000W27AF4" target="_blank">News Of The World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W27AF4&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000006X4G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000006X4G" target="_blank">The Very Best of the Jam</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000006X4G&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Whether or not it referred specifically to the Murdoch paper, the lyrics offered good advice for readers of that tabloid:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>Don't believe it all</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>Find out for yourself</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>Check before you spread</i></div>
<i style="color: black;">News of the world</i></blockquote>
<br />
Songs called "News of the World" have also been recorded by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050LL0NK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0050LL0NK" target="_blank">Mishal Zeera</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0050LL0NK&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057MD1U2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0057MD1U2" target="_blank">None of Us</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0057MD1U2&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026MUTV0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0026MUTV0" target="_blank">EL</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0026MUTV0&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NJRU3M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001NJRU3M" target="_blank">TC</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NJRU3M&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GQJ98G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001GQJ98G" target="_blank">ManBREAK</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B001GQJ98G&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and The Wildhearts.<br />
<br />
<i>Updated 7/9/11 11:18 pm</i><br />
This just in: The Smiths mention <i>News of the World </i> in "This Night Has Opened My Eyes," found on their 1984 compilation album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002MIF/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000002MIF" target="_blank">Hatful of Hollow</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002MIF&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> as well as on their 1987 collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002LBH/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000002LBH" target="_blank">Louder Than Bombs</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002LBH&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="color: black;">
<i>In a river the colour of lead</i><br />
<i>Immerse the baby's head</i><br />
<i>Wrap her up in the News of the World</i><br />
<i>Dump her on a doorstep, girl</i></blockquote>
<br />
Thanks to Jack Shafer and Michael C. Moynihan for pointing out the omission.<br />
<br />
And Paul Farhi suggests that we might want to include Joe Jackson's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W15CIM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000W15CIM" target="_blank">Sunday Papers</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W15CIM&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, from his 1979 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005N8Y9/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B00005N8Y9" target="_blank">Look Sharp!</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00005N8Y9&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. It's not clear whether Jackson was referring specifically to <i>News of the World</i>, but his song certainly captures the spirit of the thing.<br />
<br />
<i>Updated 7/11/11 9:48 pm</i><br />
Another musical mention of <i>News of the World</i> (as well as sister publication <i>The Sun</i>) in U2's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NB6HT8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001NB6HT8" target="_blank">Last Night On Earth</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NB6HT8&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, from their 1997 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001EAQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000001EAQ" target="_blank">Pop</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000001EAQ&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />: <i>She's at the bus-stop with News of the World and the Sun</i>.<br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-61734065252248999052011-06-16T00:16:00.001-04:002011-06-16T00:23:30.320-04:00For Bloomsday: Flower of the Mountain/Kate Bush<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFkJRESs73Y"target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIZt9B29A1u3BI92iOKV9D0_kJa-NawRKa0P22OrRWZq7Q_EFTMmA51xZYuFgb0WXVZE012552RCw_M5at4dcDhe_NGLgw49dzfeMXoFZBW6Ou8sivfi82Q7YLSPX87i1dZIReir7oWQ/s200/Molly+Bloom+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)"target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQL4hvlOYo3mJNVrcXtpGhLiD03Z0WWuwsYRB9pw11YyL4iqcmvvlW9W6_Aqv3txIJq1alCV_NUIxyM12-rcydFssQQXYtDWBjivCUCfyJr3LliScFYRDpuQaSqNgIsqqMHTfBx4n5oQU/s200/Molly+Bloom+book.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
<br />
All of the events in James Joyce's 1922 novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679722769?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0679722769" target="_blank">Ulysses</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679722769" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> take place on June 16th. That date has come to be known as Bloomsday, after the novel's protagonist, Leopold Bloom.<br />
<br />
Kate Bush's song <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136LO50?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00136LO50" target="_blank">The Sensual World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136LO50" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, from her 1989 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012GMUQI?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0012GMUQI" target="_blank">album of the same name</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012GMUQI" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, is drawn from the 18th and final episode, or chapter, of the novel. Often referred to as Molly Bloom's Soliloquy, it recounts the largely unpunctuated stream-of-consciousness thoughts running through the mind of Leopold's wife, Molly, as she lies in bed at the end of the day. The song employs the conceit of Molly leaving the fictional setting of the novel behind and entering reality (<i>Stepping out of the page into the sensual world</i>).<br />
<br />
"Originally when I wrote the song 'The Sensual World' I had used text from the end of <i>Ulysses</i>," Bush told <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/05/kate-bush-new-album-james-joyce" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> in London. "When I asked [the Joyce estate] for permission to use the text I was refused, which was disappointing. I then wrote my own lyrics for the song, although I felt that the original idea had been more interesting. Well, I'm not James Joyce am I?"<br />
<br />
Earlier this year Bush was preparing her latest album, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S6RIDY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004S6RIDY" target="_blank">Director's Cut</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B004S6RIDY&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, which features reworked versions of songs from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012GMUQI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0012GMUQI" target="_blank">The Sensual World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012GMUQI&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> and from another album, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012GN3PK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0012GN3PK" target="_blank">The Red Shoes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012GN3PK&camp=217145&creative=399369" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (1993). "The Sensual World" was one of the songs marked for revision. "When I came to work on this project I thought I would ask for permission again and this time they said yes," Bush said. For the new version of the song, she scrapped the original lyrics and replaced them with text drawn directly from <i>Ulysses</i>. She also changed the title to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051G6WYQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0051G6WYQ" target="_blank">Flower Of The Mountain</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0051G6WYQ&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. "I am delighted that I have had the chance to fulfill the original concept," Bush said.<br />
<br />
For other music inspired by <i>Ulysses</i> and the works of James Joyce--including another musical adaptation of Molly Bloom's Soliloquy, this one by Amber--see our <a href="http://theclassicsrock.blogspot.com/2010/06/for-bloomsday-rejoycejefferson-airplane.html" target="_blank">previous Bloomsday post</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026P4RTW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0026P4RTW" target="_blank">Ulysses (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0026P4RTW&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-86401814439845652472011-05-09T00:01:00.000-04:002011-05-09T00:01:03.309-04:00I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive/Steve Earle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/lFP8hwP3M9o" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3BbYVeMcMl4ZzrJnRxOjL5um9wj7qdpNnDhVU1ZoKAC9RPIfX24uzGh6KL2FBGP6VWRozlaenEkeX8ekUsoL8MmZszqLJf9KhyhfRz0WClOZFeLytoHbQJ5NDhr7rVsw5HZfA-lYQgqU/s200/I%2527ll+never+get+out+CD.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=694084&searchString=I%27ll%20never%20get%20out%20of%20this%20world%20alive" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhucY9wehto8OZ4CKSMwAM7i_EVmWC27IKHBEagcyZMizrtm51IxF8xhcyb33zLrsJQc_5eDhdwm4kkTUxvFAbGGDnkaGOQdy7rv1_w_4U-cSmhdlXsw9ZCYQVSRD3lRLLNYyhnXW3ry-o/s200/I%2527ll+never+get+out+book.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://steveearle.com/index.html" target="_blank">Steve Earle</a> wears more hats than Bartholomew Cubbins: Singer and songwriter, of course, but also actor (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BZ5AFU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B004BZ5AFU" target="_blank">The Wire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B004BZ5AFU&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, <i>Meme</i>), activist, and author (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618219242/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0618219242" target="_blank">Doghouse Roses</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0618219242&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, a collection of short stories published in 2001). Last week he released a new album called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N5DHSK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B004N5DHSK" target="_blank">I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B004N5DHSK&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. This week, his first novel comes out--also called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618820965/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0618820965" target="_blank">I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0618820965&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
The title for both projects comes from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014J7464/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0014J7464" target="_blank">a song</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0014J7464&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Hank Williams--one of the last singles the country singer released before he died in 1953. (Interestlingly, Earle does not cover the song on the new album.) A spectral Williams appears in Earle's novel, haunting the main character, Doc Ebersole, a disgraced physician who was among the last people to see Williams alive and may have provided the morphine dose that killed him.
The novel takes place around the time of JFK's assassination and finds Doc living on the seedy side San Antonio. No longer allowed to practice medicine, and a morphine addict himself, he gets by performing abortions. Then a young woman named Graciela comes seeking his services, and changes his life--for she is able to miraculously heal with the touch of her hand.<br />
<br />
Shared title aside, there is no hard-and-fast connection between novel and album except that, according to Earle, they address similar themes. In a <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/46529-still-kicking-pw-talks-with-steve-earle.html" target="_blank">recent interview</a> with <i>Publishers Weekly</i> he was asked if the album was a companion piece to the book. Earle said:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="color: black;">
Normally I know what I'm going to call an album when I start recording it. There's a title track or I have a bone to pick. This time I didn't. I was just writing the best songs I could write. I recorded it in five days with T Bone Burnett. When I got it all done, I thought, "Oh my God, this album is about the same fucking thing the book is about." It ended up being about mortality, an experience we all have to go through. Not a final experience. Not necessarily a period, but a comma.</blockquote>
<br />
In <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8391549/Steve-Earle-interview-Why-I-am-a-Harry-Potter-fan.html" target="_blank">an interview</a> with <i>The Telegraph</i> in the U.K., Earle said that it took him about eight years to write the novel, "in six or eight separate marches." Earle also talked about his own reading preferences: "I mainly read non-fiction, and that's probably because I have a huge amount of insecurity about my lack of education and the things I don't know. But I loved <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0545162076/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0545162076" target="_blank">the Harry Potter books</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0545162076&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />." He cites Michael Ondaatje's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679767851/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0679767851" target="_blank">Coming Through Slaughter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0679767851&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> as another favorite and a big influence on his own novel. He also tends to go back to the fiction he loved as a child, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618640150/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0618640150" target="_blank">The Lord of the Rings</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0618640150&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. "Fiction is what I read least and then it tends to take the place of drugs," Earle says. "I get addicted and go back to things like Tolkien"<br />
<br />
See Steve Earle discussing his new album and novel <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kTjHr4ZLA&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N8513Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B004N8513Q" target="_blank">I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (Kindle Edition)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043EWTNK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0043EWTNK" target="_blank">Doghouse Roses (Kindle Edition)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QX06TW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B004QX06TW" target="_blank">Coming Through Slaughter (Kindle Edition)</a><br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-90698967388449332022011-05-02T00:01:00.001-04:002011-05-02T00:01:03.526-04:00The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite/R.E.M.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/3Wffhk60IPk" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26zZ7fQy8sTUBrIVi3ILG1j09z603xsE-yfmz6LvhmWoK9CjSVVJMK_4qD9VSo3i4cTdATwtmUINH3UjiutkPU_R3CmgQvYpaRS-7eKG43s9LQfKwxPhcuE5K0rK-FM23Tbc9334pQys/s200/sidewinder+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_in_the_Hat_Comes_Back#The_Cat_in_the_Hat_Comes_Back" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7Q3AmXInWUl4IQvIr_uwvfOee9V9KoD6gP2ukLM9DeVlZIyMCvXxCl8M-X-QFdoZUHtJjRfckCEczk_6nAqa3-ZrxmKndcXdhREYoGh0VdPasDA-rqXjCupkwJq_BDSa9K0L332T3No/s200/sidewinder+book.jpg" width="143" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017IZRYS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0017IZRYS" target="_blank">The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0017IZRYS&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, from <a href="http://remhq.com/index.php" target="_blank">R.E.M.</a>'s 1992 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002MG1/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B000002MG1" target="_blank">Automatic for the People</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002MG1&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, features one of the great misheard song lyrics of all time: <i>Call me when you try to wake her up</i>. Delivered in a rushed, compressed style, the line has inspired a variety of incorrect interpretations, from "Calling Jamaica" to "Coney jah waker" to "Come and eat your bacon now." In fact, it ranked as the #1 misheard song lyric in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8015543/REM-song-is-most-misheard.html" target="_blank">a poll</a> conducted in the United Kingdom last year.<br />
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The song also features a shoutout to beloved children's author <a href="http://www.seussville.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Seuss</a>. "<i>Automatic for the People</i> finds [lyricist Michael Stipe] in the attic, opening boxes containing all the souvenirs and reminders of his childhood and adolescence," writes Marcus Gray in his 1997 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306807513/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0306807513" target="_blank">It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0306807513&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. "Among the paraphernalia he rediscovers, in 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite,' is Dr. Seuss's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394800028/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0394800028" target="_blank">The Cat in the Hat Comes Back</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0394800028&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. Published in the late Fifties, it is the second in the Doctor's Beginner Books series, and a relatively modern example of the anthropomorphic fable."<br />
<br />
The song's narrator, who has fallen on hard times and appears to be living in a phone booth, sings about some things he'd like to have, including <i>A can of beans or blackeyed peas, some Nescafe on ice/A candy bar, a falling star, or a reading from Dr. Seuss</i>. The song then goes on to reference the specific book featuring Seuss's best-known character:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>The cat in the hat came back, wrecked a lot of havoc on the way</i></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<i>Always had a smile and a reason to pretend.</i></div>
<i style="color: black;">But their world has flat backgrounds and little need to sleep but to dream.</i></blockquote>
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On the recording, Stipe can be heard to laugh following the mention of Dr. Seuss. Gray quotes bandmember Mike Mills explaining the levity: "I kept trying to get Michael to say 'Seuss' [hard s], not 'Zeuss' and he couldn't do it."<br />
<br />
Stipe used the 1961 Tokens hit <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137TEXI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B00137TEXI" target="_blank">The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B00137TEXI&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> as a jumping off point for the song, though little of the original survives ("To acknowledge the debt, Michael yodels a brief snatch of the melody during the introduction," Gray writes). There is a lot of conjecture regarding the meaning of the song, with theories ranging from drug use to a soured relationship to telephones. In his 2004 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879307765/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0879307765" target="_blank">Reveal: The Story of R.E.M.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=claroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0879307765&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, Johnny Black quotes Stipe on the subject: "I have no idea what the song is about. It's a little bit of a cartoon song to me and it took place in a world of flat surfaces and clear delineation of no depth of field, it's all about cartoons. That's what I saw when I wrote it."<br />
<br />
If the song really is nonsense, there's no better way to signal that than with a reference to the master of nonsense himself, Dr. Seuss.<br />
<script src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=claroc-20&o=1" type="text/javascript">
</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-36887957313276044052011-04-25T00:01:00.001-04:002011-04-25T00:01:00.611-04:00Saskia Hamilton/Ben Folds & Nick Hornby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdc3fOxb8N_NSAmynXL98WCydUGSXAUdsiZaO3M6JpReIvXRmvJOfyOViX_LbDzrbD-sUqE3MQEaiftSPNAdl06YOg0XbwsCget0XtNNrILeKo1fNn4KIPvV0zEbWgWox8vYIQquy_Eio/s1600/saskia+hamilton+cd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdc3fOxb8N_NSAmynXL98WCydUGSXAUdsiZaO3M6JpReIvXRmvJOfyOViX_LbDzrbD-sUqE3MQEaiftSPNAdl06YOg0XbwsCget0XtNNrILeKo1fNn4KIPvV0zEbWgWox8vYIQquy_Eio/s200/saskia+hamilton+cd.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkaibJ3wu2N1X1oUfvN5qvm8-ry65vSHeYrThsKBf4VH73mJOT8dbrLWe4wVhwEpJEM_R3Hl-L0BpTWIRIn10Cb-hrnYFORA1LqFyNeB9gpUeumUBrGaQhE7vV5KqhhpqF8yvAhLNeaY/s1600/saskia+hamilton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkaibJ3wu2N1X1oUfvN5qvm8-ry65vSHeYrThsKBf4VH73mJOT8dbrLWe4wVhwEpJEM_R3Hl-L0BpTWIRIn10Cb-hrnYFORA1LqFyNeB9gpUeumUBrGaQhE7vV5KqhhpqF8yvAhLNeaY/s200/saskia+hamilton.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
<br />
For the 2010 album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SS9DPY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B003SS9DPY" target="_blank">Lonely Avenue</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B003SS9DPY&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://benfolds.com/" target="_blank">Ben Folds</a> collaborated with author <a href="http://www.nicksbooks.com/" target="_blank">Nick Hornby</a>, whose books include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594481784/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1594481784" target="_blank">High Fidelity</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1594481784&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (1995), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1573229571/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1573229571" target="_blank">About a Boy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1573229571&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (1998), and most recently <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594484775/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1594484775" target="_blank">Juliet, Naked</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1594484775&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (2009). Hornby provided the lyrics, Folds supplied the melodies and recorded the songs. "Each track is a story," <a href="http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2021946,00.html" target="_blank">Time Magazine</a> wrote of the album. "And in every story, there's something relatable. In fact, the album almost comes across as a short-story collection put to music. Perhaps this is the benefit of asking a novelist to co-write the songs." <br />
<br />
One of the tracks on the album is called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043IJ6NC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0043IJ6NC" target="_blank">Saskia Hamilton</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0043IJ6NC&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, named for the poet whose collections include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555973167/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1555973167" target="_blank">As for Dream</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1555973167&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (2001), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1904614159/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1904614159" target="_blank">Canal</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1904614159&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555974228/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1555974228" target="_blank">Divide These</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1555974228&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (both 2005). She also edited <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374530343/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0374530343" target="_blank">The Letters of Robert Lowell</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0374530343&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.The song is less about Hamilton herself, however, and more about her name. (<i>I've only ever seen her name on the spine but that's enough. I want to make her mine!</i>) "One night I just found myself thinking about what a fantastic name she has for her line of work," Hornby wrote in the liner notes. "The song's narrator is a teenage poetry nerd. There are some, still."<br />
<br />
One final note: The album's name was inspired by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RAR41Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B002RAR41Y" target="_blank">Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus</a>, Alex Halberstadt's 2008 biography of the blues musician. There's a song called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043IOFLA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B0043IOFLA" target="_blank">Doc Pomus</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0043IOFLA&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, inspired by the book, on the album.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W965QW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B000W965QW" target="blank">High Fidelity (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W965QW&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W94GYA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B000W94GYA" target="_blank">About a Boy (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W94GYA&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DW92SE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B002DW92SE" target="_blank">Juliet, Naked (Kindle Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B002DW92SE&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
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</script>Larry Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11394127529069748000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038722518372939578.post-25179272910870050212011-04-18T00:01:00.002-04:002011-04-18T00:01:03.910-04:00Like a Great Gatsby/Elliott Murphy, and more<i>As reported yesterday by <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/17/sunday/main20054710.shtml" target="_blank">CBS News Sunday Morning,</a> the Long Island mansion that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel </i>The Great Gatsby<i> was demolished on Saturday. The current owners could no longer afford the upkeep, and the once-elegant building had been condemned. The story moved us to repost our item about Elliott Murphy's song "Like a Great Gatsby," inspired by the novel, supplemented with a word about Reg & Phil's song "Daisy Buchanan," named for the object of Gatsby's desire.</i><br />
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<i> </i><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-75xhPsX5So" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387717174264719650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkTo1IRl17tdrisZF1wWqIv_Xo0xPiJLdP4XsqdLQ-UIO3VSaslvU6Txf2GBHkMtc-PQNghJSW8JU7xbneFEnYaKEm2B0vkRGEBBIOGeUhv8UtOAhdVsRdgADa33fK1csGtfgu61aqORI/s200/gatsby.jpg" style="height: 200px; width: 197px;" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_great_gatsby" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387716462557633170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqma54lRXVlBNqgQSU7nDIZz2OBfMbFbgY3Ner_-dZ5CxNOHuWN9SLBah4L3w0oJCMcipwyFZQlM8yQ63JWewXL7SU0_MbezLRCDZjY_IQycLfxswseY4rsnYvhOu0s2M8ReHwbYTExMc/s200/gatsby+book.jpg" style="height: 200px; width: 132px;" /></a></div>
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Elliott Murphy's 1973 debut album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000008IQP/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000008IQP">Aquashow</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000008IQP" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> features the song "Like a Great Gatsby," a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743273567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743273567">The Great Gatsby</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0743273567" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, published in 1925. The song opens with the lines: <i>Waiting for some dream lover like a great Gatsby/And then I look in the mirror and it's only me</i>--a reference to the novel's rich and mysterious title character. Gatsby lives in the wealthy-with-new-money Long Island community of West Egg and pines for Daisy Buchanan, who lives across the bay in the wealthy-with-old-money community of East Egg. Gatsby fell for Daisy before he became wealthy, and social constraints kept them apart. Everything he has done--acquiring a fortune, throwing extravagant parties--has been designed to attract her attention. But Daisy is married now and lost to Gatsby, just as the narrator of the song seems to be addressing a woman beyond his reach (<i>Use to follow you home/Hold on to you at dancing school and call you on the phone forever/But now your world begins with never</i>).<br />
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The line <i>Do you ride on ancient ships under Dr. Eckleburg's eyes to heaven </i>alludes to one of the key images in the novel, a fading billboard on the road into New York City featuring a huge pair of blue eyes behind enormous yellow spectacles. ("Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens," speculates the narrator, Nick Carraway.)<br />
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On his <a href="http://www.elliottmurphy.com/aquashowextras.html" target="_blank">web site</a> Murphy talks about the album's cover art: "I suggested that we shoot in the Palm Court of the Plaza Hotel because that’s where part of <i>The Great Gatsby</i> took place. . . . The white suit I had bought not far from Gatsby land on the north shore of Long Island. It was made in France and I still have it hanging in my mother’s closet. Maybe I should give it to the Hard Rock Hotel."<br />
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For another musical take on Gatsby, there is <a href="http://regandphil.reginaldespiritu.com/track/daisy-buchanan-2" target="_blank">Daisy Buchanan</a> by the duo Reg & Phil, from their self-titled 2010 album. Here the narrator (or possibly a series of narrators) tries to convince Gatsby of the futility of his obsession with Daisy.<br />
<br /><blockquote style="color: black;">
<i>Mr. Gatsby, I know how this feels.</i><br />
<i>
I won't forget her name; </i><br />
<i>You're right, she's a steal. </i><br />
<i>But this Saturday's one hundred; </i><br />
<i>It's the one hundredth party. </i><br />
<i>You'll want hundred more </i><br />
<i>
days and house filled. </i><br />
<i>you'll need a lifetime </i><br />
<i>of days and house filled.</i></blockquote><br />
A free download of the song is available on the <a href="http://regandphil.reginaldespiritu.com/track/daisy-buchanan-2" target="_blank">Reg & Phil website</a>. The<a href="http://youtu.be/2gFzNDK7g4k"> video</a> features stills from the 1974 film <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AUHQT/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000AUHQT" target="_blank">The Great Gatsby</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0000AUHQT" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, adapted from the novel.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC0PDA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=claroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FC0PDA"target="_blank">The Great Gatsby (Kindle Edition)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FC0PDA" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
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