Showing posts with label Aztec Two-Step. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aztec Two-Step. Show all posts

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Neal Cassady: Issa's Sunday Service, #108





This is at least the fourth time Neal Cassady has made an appearance on Issa's Sunday Service (previously here, here, and here) and that says boatloads about lots of things (he also got a mention on the Sunday Service here, though the song wasn't about him).

For the second week in a row, I'm featuring a song by a group I hadn't known 10 days before. Weather Underground I somehow stumbled on, possibly on youtube, but how I couldn't say. They are obscure enough to not even have a bio on allmusic, just some cursory info on their self-released discs, When I Was a Soldier and Psalms & Shanties, the last being where "Neal Cassady" comes from.

I particularly like the pacing of this song. Which got me to thinking about the musical approach of each of the bands to their enigmatic subject - is their any relation between Aztec Two-Step, King Crimson, the Grateful Dead, and The Weather Underground, musically, in how they portray Mr. C.?

Here they are all together:








And, because serendipity is the grease that works the wheel of magic, after putting this together, I stumbled across this article in The Guardian about a famous photo which I was familiar with but had no idea was of Cassady.

Photo by Lawrence Schiller




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

This week's featured poem comes from Lilliput Review #83, November 1996. Dream on.




for Melanie
   I called to confirm the calling dream,
   the dream, the dream, the calling dream.
            Kyle Christopher




(While typing this poem, this song came on the random mix of, oh, 14,000 or so songs.  Never get in the way of a runaway train ...)












calling down--
from deep in the well
an answer
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue



- Don


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

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 107 songs


Sunday, May 17, 2009

Issa's Sunday Service, #4






This week's segment of the ongoing Issa's Sunday Service features the LitRock song The Persecution and Resurrection of Dean Moriarty by the fine folk rock duo, Aztec Two-Step. Here's the poem from which they took their name:


See
----it was like this when
----------------------we waltz into this place
a couple of Papish cats
-----------------------is doing an Aztec two-step
And I says
-------------Dad let's cut it
but then this dame
-----------------comes up behind me see
------------------------------and says
-------------------You and me could really exist
Wow I says
---------------Only the next day
-------------------she has bad teeth
---------------------------and really hates
-----------------------------------------------poetry

Lawrence Ferlinghetti



This particular tune has a unique POV, the speaker being very suspicious and seemingly hateful of Jack Kerouac's god of the road, Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady. One word of warning though: listen to this song 3 times and you won't be able to stop. The cut comes from their great debut album, which is available to purchase direct from the band.

This week's featured poem comes from Lilliput Review #5, from August 1989, which was the first broadside issue. The broadside consisted of 9 poems by small press poetry legend, Lyn Lifshin. Here's a little take on the ol' bait and switch:



Madonna Who Throws So Many
Intimate Details Out Fast

to camouflage
or distract
like pick
pockets who
work in pairs
a shove to
get you off
balance as
she moves in
to lift your
heart

Lyn Lifshin










the tea smoke
and the willow
dance partners

Issa
translated by David Lanoue


best,
Don