Sunday, May 3, 2009

Issa's Sunday Service, #2


Rejoyce by Jefferson Airplane on Grooveshark
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Here's a song that puzzled the bejesus out of many a now aged acid head upon it's initial release. Rejoyce, penned by Grace Slick and performed by Jefferson Airplane on their fine After Bathing at Baxter's disc, is this week's contribution to the legacy of LitRock.

For trivia buffs and Joyce aficionados, ReJoyce was also the title of an excellent introduction to the work of James Joyce by Anthony Burgess.

If you didn't get a chance (or want to give it another glorious spin), check out last week's Summertime in England by Van Morrison.

This week's poem comes from issue #2 of Lilliput Review, sometime in 1989. Enjoy.




D. C. Dance Steps
Entering the crowded floor,
You are pulled left
And I am lured right
To travel on my own.
While you seek poetry
Body rocking in the rhythm of meter
--------and soul
I smile and sway, deep in the heart
--------of Borneo.

Laurie Anderson



best,
Don

PS. If anyone has suggestions for future songs in the LitRock category, particularly those dealing with poems/poets, just drop it in the comment section or send me off an email. I've got a nice list of titles so far, but group-think would be great for this little project.

16 comments:

Greg said...

nice poem! i like the beat to it.

Charles Gramlich said...

Bullet the blue Sky by U2 is their hardest rocking song and their best lyrical poem. It's gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

I've always been partial to Paul Simon's "A Single Desultory Philippic" for literary refs:

I been norman mailered, maxwell taylored.
I been john o’hara’d, mcnamara’d.
I been rolling stoned and beatled till I’m blind.
I been ayn randed, nearly branded
Communist, ’cause I’m left-handed.
That’s the hand I use, well, never mind!
I been phil spectored, resurrected.
I been lou adlered, barry sadlered.
Well, I paid all the dues I want to pay.
And I learned the truth from lenny bruce,
And all my wealth won’t buy me health,
So I smoke a pint of tea a day.

I knew a man, his brain was so small,
He couldn’t think of nothing at all.
He’s not the same as you and me.
He doesn’t dig poetry. he’s so unhip that
When you say dylan, he thinks you’re talking about dylan thomas,
Whoever he was.
The man ain’t got no culture,
But it’s alright, ma,
Everybody must get stoned.

I been mick jaggered, silver daggered.
Andy warhol, won’t you please come home?
I been mothered, fathered, aunt and uncled,
Been roy haleed and art garfunkeled.
I just discovered somebody’s tapped my phone.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Greg,

Thanks, I'll pass your comments on to the poet ...

Charles,

Yes, indeed, one of their most lyrical pieces ... in future posts, my thought on the LitRock thing is to feature work that refers to or is based on some literary piece, as with Morrison's referring to the Romantic poets last week and the Airplane talking about James Joyce in this post ... just to clarify what I think may have been a bit muddy ...

Joseph:

Ah, I'd forgotten about this great Simon tune recorded by Simon and Garfunkel. Many, many thanks for posting the lyrics and, if I can find it, I'll definitely slate it for a future "Sunday Service."

I've been "art garfunkled!"

Don

Ed Baker said...

out of Bob Dylan's
Highway 61 Revisited

the Desolation Row piece


next to last stanza...


Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody's shouting
"Which side are you on?"
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower (...etc)

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, thanks, I've jotted down "Desolation Row" for a future Sunday post/airing ...

Don

Ed Baker said...

NOW

who can forgwet POETRY MAN

Phoebe Snow's version don't know who wrote the song..

maybe Judy Collins regarding Leonard Cohen?

here is the lyrics.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/poetry-man-lyrics-phoebe-snow.html



and

more connects when I was in Lindos (1968,9, 70) Leonard Cohen was over on ( I think ) Kos

he came over to Lindos and "giged" at the local cantina...


hwith him was a "cute" skinny blonde girl must have been Suzanne Takes You Down To her Place By the Water

she feeds you tea and oranges

that come all the way from China...


but

I die-gress..

just saw the Dalai Lama on CNN..

CHINA OUT OF TIBET!

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

I HAD forgotten "Poetry Man" - good call, Ed.

Likes like Phoebe wrote that one.

I'm sure Cohen will be a LitRock gold mine ...

Anonymous said...

yeah yeah yeah yeah
they love me yeah yeah yeah

just read beyond the lyrics of Poetry Man


the girls-of-the-poets of the 60's of The Beats sure knew how to "treat" and support their "poetry men" both legally and illegally..

mentally and physically

just go down or up the list...


etc...

Ed

Anonymous said...

well there is yet another "Judy" a tall girl with an huge. deep voice

she sang and most likely co-wrote the song

SNOWBOUND

in it this line:

"Fallbrook Sedgewynd
gave to Rosie
Twenty sonnets bound in
gold"

etc

my best guess is that "Rosie" is Judy Henske and

"Fallbrook Sedgwynd" is her husband Jerry Yester

but I cld be wrong ( as I frequently am) it could have been a BLACKSABBATH "thing" but I think that it was



Henske/Yester... oldie goldies all!

EB


hey "perse" is word to verify!

geezw e St. John Perse...

Anabasis? will check. I got it somewhere..

Anonymous said...

SNOW BLIND!!!

not "snowbound"

as snow was the drug of choice in them Golden Age of rock/folk daze...

so I betcha ...

Henske/Yester both "tooted" a bit


thus her unique deep voice and uncatagorizable style/point of vie?

as I recall on cover os album that I have she is in high heels, wearing knit (blac) stockings, black leather "hir" pants .. and her legs go all the way up to her shoulders!

boy, she sure could "waile"

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

ah, a little Lovin' Spoonful, eh ... took a little bit to put it together ...

Don

Ed Baker said...

well this guy will "top" things off

and I betcha a Buddha Beer that he's got lots of songly poems ..

he was on cover of Coldspring Journal 1974 or so issuwe that I had a few pieces in out of Restoration Poems

and I always liked his work/attitude..

a bit "corn-pone" but a good poet/songster..

ROD MCKUEN

I think that he is yet performing... a real "song and dance man"

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

McKuen ... hmn, no there's a deal breaker, eh ... just listened to his "Eros" ... ouch.

Ed Baker said...

same "deal breaker" back in 1974!

he invented The Big Mac!


1200 calories not including the air

saw that he has a web-site and was surprised...


Ed

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

ed, you take the cake out of the rain ...