Empty Glass: Issa's Sunday Service #133

Original promo video

Empty Glass
Why was I born today
Life is useless like Ecclesiastes say
I never had a chance
But opportunity's now in my hands

I stand with my guitar
All I need's a mirror
Then I'm a star
I'm so sick of dud TV
Next time you switch on
You might see me...oh.what a thrill for you

I've been there and gone there
I've lived there and bummed there
I've spinned there, I gave there
I drank there and I slaved there

I've had enough of the way things been done
Every man on a razors edge
Someone has used us to kill with the same gun
Killing each other by driving a wedge

My life's a mess I wait for you to pass
I stand here at the bar, I hold an empty glass


Why was I born today
Life is useless like Ecclesiastes say
I didn't get a chance
Opportunity's in my hand

I stand with my guitar
All I need's a mirror
Then I'm a star
I'm so sick of dud TV
Next time you switch on
You might see me...

I've been there and gone there
I've lived there and bummed there
I've spinned there, I gave there
I drank there and I slaved there

I've had enough of the way things have been done
Every man on a razor's edge
Someone has used us to shoot with the same gun
We where killing each other by driving a wedge

My life's a mess I wait for you to pass
I stand here at the bar, I hold an empty glass

Don't worry smile and dance
You just can work life out
Don't let down moods entrance you
Take the wine and shout

My life's a mess I wait for you to pass
I stand here at the bar, I hold an empty glass


Where to begin with this pure gem of rock, ambition, and spiritual questing?  Pete Townshend has always been at the forefront of the quest, as literary a rock writer as, say, Lou Reed, with a little wider focus and less pretense.  In "Empty Glass" there is a lot to chew over.

First, there is the Bible - the allusion to the always upbeat Ecclesiastes.  It's the Good News translation that specifically gives us "Life is useless" - many of the others, including the King James provides the more standard "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."  In any case, point well taken.

Then, there is the slightly more subtle "every man on a razor's edge," an allusion to the Katha Upanishad, possibly by way of Somerset Maugham's popular novel, The Razor's Edge:

Get up! Wake up! Seek the guidance of an
Illumined teacher and realize the Self.
Sharp like a razor's edge is the path,
The sages say, difficult to traverse.
                       Katha Upanishad – 1.3.14

Townshend was at on time (and perhaps still is) a disciple of Meher Baba.  In many religions, including Christianity, the idea of making oneself an empty vessel to receive teaching/enlightenment is familiar.  Townshend also struggled with alcoholism and that is alluded to in the image.  The line "Take the wine and shout," however, might also be seen as part of the spiritual ecstatic approach, Omar Khayyam being a well-known proponent of this approach to living and dying.

The irony of "vanity of vanities" and "all I need's a mirror and I'm a star" certainly isn't lost on Townshend.  Watch how he preens and alters the timbre of his vocal while singing the lines in the video above.  It's a lot to jam into one simple pop song; come to think of it, it's not so simple after all, a real litrock classic

------------

useless me

useless weeds...

the cuckoo's opinion

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS.Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 133 songs

Lyle Daggett & Kala Ramesh: Wednesday Haiku, Week 76

Photo by Maxquijano

   on the dark water
a white lily floats —
   almost silent

         Lyle Daggett

Photo by selbst

spring rain . . .
halfway through my meal
a scoop of loneliness

     Kala Ramesh

Photo by Tubifex

from the azaleas
the azaleas' pure
water

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 132 song

Issa's Sunday Service, #132: "Goodbye, Hello"

Lao Tzu

Goodbye Hello - Tim Buckley
The antique people are down in the dungeons
Run by machines and afraid of the tax
Their heads in the grave and their hands on their eyes
Hauling their hearts around circular tracks
Pretending forever their masquerade towers
Are not really riddled with widening cracks
And I wave goodbye to iron
And smile hello to the air

O the new children dance ------ I am young
All around the balloons ------ I will live
Swaying by chance ------ I am strong
To the breeze from the moon ------ I can give
Painting the sky ------ You the strange
With the colors of sun ------ Seed of day
Freely they fly ------ Feel the change
As all become one ------ Know the Way

The velocity addicts explode on the highways
Ignoring the journey and moving so fast
Their nerves fall apart and they gasp but can't breathe
They run from the cops of the skeleton past
Petrified by tradition in a nightmare they stagger
Into nowhere at all and they look up aghast
And I wave goodbye to speed
And smile hello to a rose

O the new children play ------ I am young
Under the juniper trees ------ I will live
Sky blue or gray ------ I am strong
They continue at ease ------ I can give
Moving so slow ------ You the strange
That serenely they can ------ Seed of day
Gracefully grow ------ Feel the change
And yes still understand ------ Know the Way

The king and the queen in their castle of billboards
Sleepwalk down the hallways dragging behind
All their possessions and transient treasures
As they go to worship the electronic shrine
On which is playing the late late commercial
In that hollowest house of the opulent blind
And I wave goodbye to Mammon
And smile hello to a stream

O the new children buy ------ I am young
All the world for a song ------ I will live
Without a dime ------ I am strong
To which they belong ------ I can give
Nobody owns ------ You the strange
Anything anywhere ------ Seed of day
Everyone's grown ------ Feel the change
Up so big they can share ------ Know the Way

The vaudeville generals cavort on the stage
And shatter their audience with submachine guns
And Freedom and Violence the acrobat clowns
Do a balancing act on the graves of our sons
While the tapdancing Emperor sings "War is peace"
And Love the Magician disappears in the fun
And I wave goodbye to murder
And smile hello to the rain

O the new children can't ------ I am young
Tell a foe from a friend ------ I will live
Quick to enchant ------ I am strong
And so glad to extend ------ I can give
Handfuls of dawn ------ You the strange
To kaleidoscope men ------ Seed of day
Come from beyond ------ Feel the change
The Great Wall of Skin ------ Know the Way

The bloodless husbands are jesters who listen
Like sheep to the shrieks and commands of their wives
And the men who aren't men leave the women alone
See them all faking love on a bed made of knives
Afraid to discover or trust in their bodies
And in secret divorce they will never survive
And I wave goodbye to ashes
And smile hello to a girl

O the new children kiss ------ I am young
They are so proud to learn ------ I will live
Womanwood bliss ------ I am strong
And the manfire that burns ------ I can give
Knowing no fear ------ You the strange
They take off their clothes ------ Seed of day
Honest and clear ------ Feel the change
As a river that flows ------ Know the Way

The antique people are fading out slowly
Like newspapers flaming in mind suicide
Godless and sexless directionless loons
Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide
They put on their deathmasks and compromise daily
The new children will live for the elders have died
And I wave goodbye to America
And smile hello to the world


So, why is this song selected as Litrock, one might ask.  This line, and its variations, are what does it -

As a river that flows ------ Know the Way

- and it's the caps that cap it.  Know the Tao, Know the Way.

Know the Tao, Know the Way.

blown to the big river
floating away...
cherry blossoms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 132 song

Bill Killen and Lisa Espenmiller: Wednesday Haiku, Week 75

Photo by Saveourhill

by the old pond
in morning light
blue heron-very still

Bill Killen

Rain. Pittsburgh, PA by John Vachon

4 a.m. piss -
through the open window
the sound of rain

Lisa Espenmiller

listening to the insect chorus
right after
night's second piss

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 131 song

Issa's Sunday Service, #131: Ehson Rad & D. Kent Watson, via Guest DJ, Ed Baker

William Butler Yeats, attributed to John Butler Yeats

As most know who tread the creative path, the very best things are birthed in the moment of inspiration, the moment of un-thought, spontaneous, serendipitous, alive.  And so, the birthing of the guest DJ on Issa's Sunday Service, with this winning bit of musical adaptation by Ehson Rad and D. Kent Watson (I wanted to type by the awesome folk rock duo "Rad and Watson" but I don't want to be too spontaneous ...). The song is an adaptation of William Butler Yeats's pointed poem, Politics.

Oh, and who might this guest DJ/MC be?  Why the inestimable Ed Baker, of course, poet/artist/raconteur/lover and now Guest DJ.  First the poem, then the song ...



Politics
  `In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in
   political terms' - Thomas Mann

     How can I, that girl standing there,
     My attention fix
     On Roman or on Russian
     Or on Spanish politics?
     Yet here's a travelled man that knows
     What he talks about,
     And there's a politician
     That has read and thought,
     And maybe what they say is true
     Of war and war's alarms,
     But O that I were young again
     And held her in my arms!

     W. B. Yeats

While he's at it, Ed is also recommending connecting with the avant band "Sun Rock Man", via Professor Martin Jack Rosenblum. Ed says:

these guys shades of Cage and Glass and Xenakis and Schoenberg and Antheil & etc I like the discordant way they progress back into the darkness(silence)

There is the Cid Corman connection and Carl Rakosi was mentioned, too.  Some of "Sun Rock Man's" debut videos can be found on YouTube and, so, I'm passing along those, too, for the experimentally minded.

Looking through some of Cid's volumes, a number of postcards and a letter fell out of one (Aegis), and on one of the cards, this:




Death explains
every
thing at once

Cid Corman

rainstorm--
monk-like on a rock, under a tree
a minor official

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 131 song

 

Live Forever: Ray Bradbury Celebration & Reading

For those within striking distance Tuesday evening, July 17th, there will be a celebration of the life and work of Ray Bradbury at Awesome Books, Downtown, 929 Liberty Ave, at 6:30 pm.  The reading is free, the bookstore is awesome, and Ray Bradbury touched us all often and deeply.  See the above for a list of who is reading what.  


On the day he died, there was a touching tribute to Ray by a fan on Harlan Ellison's webpage that said it all:


"Mars seems unbearably far away today."


Join us for the celebration.

Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, & Julius Schwartz

my stars--
a gang of old men
in the Milky Way

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 130 song

Pat Nelson and Tom Montag: Wednesday Haiku, Week 74

Spring Moon by Dcrjsr

a song & dance man
this spring moon!

        Pat Nelson

 White Hawks by Steve Ryan

First, shadow
of the hawk,

then the hawk.
         
        Tony Montag

Photo by Valerius Geng

scratching the face
of a bamboo shoot...
cat's shadow

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 130 song

H. F. Noyes: The Truth About Haiku

The Plum Orchard In Kameido by Hiroshige

"The truth is that readers require not so much to be informed as to be reminded. Haiku remind us that life is ever new, and of what compelling interest the everyday can provide." 

         H. F. Noyes - Haiku Canada Review Vol. 6, Feb. 2012, No. 1, pg. 22

The following is from Tom's fine collection, raking aside leaves, which you can find reviewed here:

Artwork by Gogaku Yajima

Religion aside
there are plum blossoms
and pussy willows

H. F. Noyes

Photo by Theodor Horydczak

the Buddha in the field
with a red skullcap...
plum blossoms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 130 song

Máire Morrissey-Cummins & Tony Burfield: Wednesday Haiku, Week 73

 Photo by J. Durham

spring rains
each drop a window
to the sky

Máire Morrissey-Cummins

Photo by Click

ice melting–
tied-down bonsai
grows up anyway

Tony Burfield

 Photo by Karpati

on the back window
dewdrops scatter
loudly

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 130 songs