Poetry and Lyrics in Motion

[Angeline]

Fats Waller

Way up in Harlem at a table for two
There were four of us:
me, your big feets and you

Your Feet's Too Big

 

[Angeline]

Goodnight

Dream sweet dreams for me. Dream sweet dreams for you.

 

[Tzara]

The Kinks

When I was in junior high, I loved these guys. Their early stuff is metal before metallurgy, Black Sabbath, and fuzz pedals--Dave Davies took a razor to the speaker cone in his amp to get the distortion. I guess he could afford it. I couldn't.

Dated, but cool.

• Classic number one: You Really Got Me, from some television show.
• Classic number two: All Day and All of the Night. Gotta be live, with all the fuck ups in their playing. Goofy hair. Screaming pre-teen girls. Ah. The 60s.
• Oh, dear. It's the eighties. In this medley of You Really Got Me/All Day and All of the Night, Ray even makes that John Travolta move from Saturday Night Fever. Embarrassing, but funny. At least it is if you have a fondess for horn arrangements of punk songs and find wide lapeled jackets sexy. I know I do. Hey! Pyrotechnics!
• But then, can that be in any way more embarrassing than David Lee Roth doing the hippy hippy shake over Eddie V's manic guitar in Van Halen's cover of You Really Got Me? I certainly hope not. Ye Gods!

I looked for a polka band version of You Really Got Me but no luck. Sorry.

 

[Angeline]

For my Terry

Grace, Meshell Ndegeocello

 

[Tzara]

Oh yeah. Tom Petty. Guy's even older than me, if you can believe it. You should, 'cuz he is. Thinner hair, as if. But more of it. I'll give him that.

And oh, yeah, rock star. I am so not rock star. Can't keep my fucking lawn mowed. Or car washed. I vote, though. Does that count?

So, of course, I loved Tom from the very first. Bought his first album (on LP, youngsters!) at Discount Records on the Ave in Seattle. His best ever song, "American Girl" is on it. So youtubians, here's my take:

• OK, this performance is number one at youtube. Live Aid. Nice logo. Don Johnson introduces the band, or at least Tom. Tommy is playing a lovely Rickenbacker (12 string?) and Mike Campbell is, as usual, doing the guitar honors. McGuinn glasses and a cool jacket for Mr. P. Honor your ancestors, I guess. Good basic performance. Give it an A-.
• Mr. T's playing a Telecaster in this one. Not a 12. Campbell doesn't seem to be playing a twelve either. Where's that ringy sound coming from? Some guy offstage? Good performance, though.
• This is fun, though it's like shot from the nosebleed section at a concert. How most of us experience these things. That is Tom Petty, isn't it? Tom? Petty?
• OK, off TV and probably lipsynced. Still, this has some interest. God, like that to die for beautiful Vox Phantom guitar Mr. Tom is "playing." Is that a twelve? If so, why is Mr. Campbell playing the ringy riff? No matter. Great guitar. I want it. I really really want it. Yeah, I know--they're not plugged in. Oddly, that makes the 12-string sound with no 12-string more palatable. Don't it?
• And, oh yeah, this one. Shot from outer space, I think. Some spy satellite thing.

No, I am absolutely not jealous. Much.

God, I wish I was rich.

 

[Angeline]

<snip>

I looked for a polka band version of You Really Got Me but no luck. Sorry.

Would you accept the Lawrence Welk Orchestra covering the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray? (And just look at that audience rocking out to it!)

 

[Angeline]

I Love this song!

Bajo los cielos de Africa

(By the way Tzara, eagleyez is a big Tom Petty fan, too. He--EE--lived in Tom's hometown--Gainesville, Florida--for about ten years and saw him play locally a bunch of times.)

 

[Tzara]

Would you accept the Lawrence Welk Orchestra covering the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray? (And just look at that audience rocking out to it!)

Oh. Oh. Oh!

That is so funny that my bladder control is, um, unoptimal.

Hey! If I learn the banjo part for Venus in Furs will Mr. EE play it with me in some sleazy bars in collegeasty Maine? I'll wear shades! Promise!

Oh, my dear, I am sick with laughter. That is hilarious. Especially 'cuz the banjo guy looks kinda like John Cale. Well, with no mustache or beard and wearing a sports coat the color of a carrot. But otherwise, really like him. So, what? Alternate gig, perhaps? Better pay?

Thank you thank you thank you. Made my otherwise sad and unhappy day.

 

[Tzara]

So how poetic can nothing be? There's no words here, other than the babbling commentators, but this is a (hey!) concert performance of John Cage's 4'33". Silly? Perhaps, but über influential.

I actually "met" Cage once, when I was young. He gave a retrospective concert at the Cornish School in Seattle, where he once taught, and popped down off the stage to sit next to me. He giggled a lot. No other word for it.

I love art.

Tacet.

 

[Tzara]

Steely Dan was always an odd band. I mean, how many groups do you know who were named for a dildo in a William Burroughs novel? Uh huh, uh huh. Thought so.

Anyways, the Dan was always the band that did that arty farty jazzy rock thing with clever but somewhat obscure lyrics through much of the 70s (primo Tzara territory, a course), then mostly disappeared until the zeros. Basically two guys, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and some tip top session guys. Hardly a "band."

So, this clip. My Old School, kinda sorta about Bard College maybe or not. Hey. It swings. I like this version because (1) It appears to actually be recorded live as opposed to lip synced, which is how Mephistopheles gets in your pants, video-wise, and (2) It's got some guy named Jon Herington playing the lead guitar part and he, in my stupid and unknowledgable opinion, really rocks. Downsides? Donald Fagen's voice is thin, the audience is my age, and where the hell is Becker?

Oh, well. Such is a musician's life. Jon is caressing what looks like a lovely Gibson ES-335, and Fagen is combing his hair forward. Makes him look like a pseudo-hip philosophy professor, which, I suppose, he is. Tch.

Anybody know if Youtube has any Captain Beefheart? I'd better go look.