Sunday, September 6, 2009

Issa's Sunday Service, #19: John Berryman Rock







For this week's Issa's Sunday Service, comes a song I heard for the first time yesterday, entitled "Stuck Between Stations." The band is The Hold Steady, sounding an awful lot like early Springsteen, though from the rest of the album it is obvious they've got a lot to offer. I'm down with any band that has lines like

"There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right"

Or

"The devil and john berryman
-took a walk together,
-They ended up on washington
-talking to the river"


And the rest of the lyrics aren't too shabbing either. As a bonus, here's their Late Night performance of "Stuck Between Stations" -




Geek rock for all us geeks. There ya are.


**************************************

Here's a poem from Lilliput Review #27, November 1991. Have a great Labor Day.




Untitled Wednesday Poem
Can snake misbehave
in Jungle? Can cougar
error by mountain cedar?
My sad old knees ache in bed
in dream before dawn, but
know their job is to bring
my body to its resting place,
like full bloomed rose
in August, like cherry tree
its trunk absorbing moon's heart.
Pat Andrus








from his hole the snake
glances back...
corrupt world of desire
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue





best,
Don

11 comments:

Ed Baker said...

WOW! I just two days ago mentione Joh Berryman and his leap off-n that bridge!
so I am RIGHT NOW in and out of

HIS TOY, HIS DREAM, HIS REST


sonnet 140 opens:


Henry is vanishing.In the first of dawn
he fails a little, which he figured on.

(etc)


and on the back book-wrap
Dudley Fitts (no 'slouch' either) says"

"Certain sonnets here - I have been admiring 106 again - like certain of 'The Dream Songs', are apparently inexhaustible; there is now end to the resonances that they set in motion. Sure control, a faultless ear, a wild and terrible wit."

Thank you, Henry!

also "try" on for size

Berryman's 'Homage to Mistress Bradstreet'

also re:visit 287 in His Toy, ...

Ed Baker said...

hey

noh sense not posting this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YUu3L-qGMI


as folks most likely will have stereo power sound amplifiers and may "get it"

and

I do believe that Berryman had some fatal disease that he "self medicated" via booze..

and this... with lots of "stuff" attached:

http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/03-04/John_Berryman/DefaultJohn_Berryman.htm


I could say more
however
I just might

say
something
de:finitive

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

As always, Ed, two heads are better than one ... glad you took the initiative and posted the Berryman video - as you know, I as was going back and forth on it ...

Thank you, Eddie!

So here's one for Mistress Bradstreet, per your other suggestion ...

Ed Baker said...

hey man.
you wanna hear.
something else?

well

in 1966 just before I graduated from Iniversity Maryland

I took a Creative Writing - poetry class Tuesday/Thursday

with Rudd Fleming

(I betcha there are folks who read your blog
wh knew and recall Rudd and Polly)

anyway

so I cut the Tuesday class to have (forgettable) sex with
"what's her name"

so

when I get to the Thursday class

my friend, Ronnie Wilson,
says


"you skipped the wrong day... John Berryman was here visiting Rudd"

jeeze!

what timing, eh?

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

It seems there is always a tradeoff for sex, both unforgettable and the other kind ...

Another amazing tale ... you are writing all this down, right?

Ed Baker said...

so I googled

"John Berryman Rudd Fleming"
and got this

http://www.flashpointmag.com/newgeo~1.htm

VIA THIS:

#
New Georgians
Bill Cohen is an admirer of John Berryman. .... I'm reminded of what my late-friend, Joyce scholar and fellow translator with Ezra Pound, Rudd Fleming, ...
www.flashpointmag.com/newgeo~1.htm - Cached - Similar -
#



hey

Carlo was there then and the others connected via flashpoint

jeeze... I rely mostly on my Absolutely ImpPeckable Memories/Reveries

I expect that my vast and growing audience of "poet tasters" will keep track of and for me..

otherwise

this will be an Unfinished Sympathy

keep track? write this shiot down?

as dfar as I am concerned:

I was born in D.C in 1941
still here 2009

everything in between...boring


just as

I just discovered

was also Berryman's attitude.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ok, we'll just print out all your comments at all the blogs all over the interweb, lulu-ify it all and title it Unfinished Sympathy; or The Shdiot's Delight.

Thanks, Ed, again, for all these wonder full memories ...

Charles Gramlich said...

I don't remember ever hearing these guys but it sounds kind of cool.

Jim H. said...

The Hold Steady were part of the Twin Cities music scene for a decade or so before moving to NYC. Theye have a terrific version of Take Me Out to the Ballgame -- the lead singer is a Twins fan. My son, a part-time musician and full-time Twins nut, has a Hold Steady tee-shirt with the Twins' old logo on it.

The arrangement and the vocals do kind of remind one of early Springsteen.

Thought-provoking and entertaining as usual, Don!

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Charles, being an old fart, they were new to me, too. Picked up the cd at the library and it is very good, indeed ....

And Jim is giving us both a clue - thanks for filling in the background. Was supposed to go to the Bucs game today, but our first day of rain in many (nobody's complaining), so I'll have seek out that rendition of Take me Out to the Ballgame.

Brian said...

I saw The Hold Steady in concert earlier this summer and they put on a great show. I'd recommend the ticket when they get back over your way.