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Today's song is as brief as brief can get - mere seconds over a single minute yet, though only the title seems to allude to its source, Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to Monkey House, somehow it feels to me that it captures nicely the spirit of that volume.
Which is pretty weird, since it primarily talks about the outs and ins of the music biz:
Welcome to the Monkey House
Wire is coming back again
Elastica got sued by them
When Michael Jackson dies
We're covering Blackbird
And won't it be absurd then
When no one knows what song they just heard
Unless someone on the radio tells them first
So come on come on come on
Come
Come on come on come on
Come on
Come on come on come on
You monkeys
The Dandy Warhols have been a late acquired taste for me. Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is an album I can listen to almost anytime and come away tapping, scratching and smiling.
On the other side of the coin, Mr. Vonnegut was great fun to hear in person. What follows is one of his routines he regularly trotted out and, like so much of his work, this is at once spot-on, hysterical and somehow is lightly tinged with ennui.
Or maybe I need another cup of tea.
Perhaps the most famous story from Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House is Harrison Bergeron - if you haven't read it, have a taste.
Nothing like a little Vonnegut to get things straight.
best,
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Photo by William Cho
laughing politely
while tea is served...
Buddha
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue
best,
Don
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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 173 songs
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4 comments:
Thanks for the Vonnegut service - enjoyed listening to him and re-reading the tale from the Monkey House. It's been a long time since I've read Mr.V. - what a wild and crazy guy! Love the Buddha pic and Issa, fits with Vonnegut so well.
Mary
Thanks so much, Mary - his last novel, Timequake, is probably one of the great neglected books of recent years. It is very fine, indeed.
Don
Don, Timequake is on one of our many bookshelves. I haven't read it yet but will soon. [Probably a purchase at the fabulous Farley's!]Thanks for the reminder.
Mary
Mary:
I'll be very interested to see how you like it.
It was generally disparaged when it came out mostly, I believe, because within the novel itself he tells of the difficulty he had writing it.
I think he brilliantly incorporated what he previously had written and it is the crowning achievement of his career.
Still, I've never met anyone he felt as I do about it so it will be interesting.
Don
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