It may seem that this selection for the Sunday Service is more of a reflection of the current state of things than a song with a literary allusion and all I can say is nobody is gonna "Mother Hubbard, soft soap" me, this late February Sunday morning.
Beatles songs, Van Morrison songs and any number of other well-known artists have been conspicuously absent from early on at the Sunday Service because of copyright issues. I've refrained from the youtube route but have decided to deviate in this instance because I just needed to hear this one.
To balance out the karma, from the other end of things (with a tip of the hat to Mr. Clark fromBeyond the Pale) here's a little something to warm the heart (Doc Cheatham - Someday You'll Be Sorry):
And this one's for John, again in the interest of balance - as angry as he could be, compassion, too, was a strong suit:
And one for John's Mom, done by son Sean, which recalls in the lyrics, a little something by Issa (haiku at bottom of linked post):
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speaking truth
the rainy season's crack
of thunder
This week was the birthday of the fab Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and so this week's selection for the Sunday Service comes from Sonic Youth and is entitled Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso). Paste Magazine in a review of The Eternal album, from which "Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)" comes, says that the song draws inspiration from the deceased New York beat poet and his poem “Leaky Lifeboat Boys,” comparing life on this planet to a vessel with a hole in it."
Tom's regular sharing of wisdom, poetics, and wonder at his blog, Beyond the Pale, is one of the finest examples of poetry/poetics on the web. It is well worth checking out regularly. Tom is one of the finest poets of his generation and his generosity, wit, and lyricism come through with gentle, assured strength.
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This week's feature poem comes from Lilliput Review #95, from which 4 poems were featured in a previous post.
Riding the Curved Bowl
We're traveling together so we can't see
we're traveling at the speed of light--
our feet are years from our eyes;
To observers standing in another place,
on fulcra different from ours,
we look like we might be standing still,
when we're leaving before we've arrived.
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, the inspiration for today's selection, is one of my favorite novels by one of my favorite authors. Largely overlooked by fans and readers in general, it is certainly one of the finest novels of the 20th century, well deserving of the Nobel Prize that it garnered for its author. It reprises all the great themes of Hesse's career, from duality through transcendence. There are bits of all of his great books here, if in slightly disguised forms: Siddharta, Demian, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and Journey to the East, as well as many of his early student novels.
Narrated by a fictional biographer, with introductory and supplementary material, the larger part of the book passes for a partial biography of Joseph Knecht, a great Masters of the Bead Game or Magister Ludi. Set in the 25th century, it relates the story of the intellectual province of Castalia, where the students all learn the glass bead game, a sort of interdisciplinary exercise of connections among all the great fields (literature, music, science etc.).
The folly of such an exercise, removed as it is from "the real world," slowly and steadily becomes apparent, no matter how attractive the concept. And attractive it is; witness the proliferation of exercises online attempting to recreate its chief philosophical premise (& that's just a handful).
Some have gone so far as to suggest that the internet itself is the glass bead game manifest. We won't go down that road but we will take some time to chill to the groove of The Thievery Corporation, a dance-acid jazz-trip hop band, that knows the ins and outs of the outs and ins. I just learned of them last week and I'm already listening to third of four albums I could rustle up from the library and, well, they make me relax and smile.
So there you go. The cut may have nothing more to do with The Glass Bead Game than a shared title, but if it made me mellow, well there will be no argument from me.
Sticking with the theme of the unusual, here is a composition performed by Jacques Burtin performed on the kora, entitled "La Lumiere Matin (Morning Light)," a piece the composer describes as a prelude to The Glass Bead Game.
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This week's featured poems come from Lilliput Review, #102. It is a triad of pieces that all appeared together on a single page, the stitch just tight enough to pull us through ...
Our hearts are empty for the Beloved,
and streetlamps are endless in the night.
W. T. Ranney
Dangerous kisses
pull us closer to heaven
Nowhere left to go
Kate Isaacson
The Goddess's Sweethearts
All those guys holding hands with Kali are
already rotting away
Tom Riley
even the heavenly gods
crowd 'round...
plum blossoms
I could have never foreseen when I started this series a year and a half ago that, among the first 78 songs to be featured, two would come from the group Deep Purple's self-titled album third album. Even if that would be the case, why not simply feature songs by other groups that haven't made it on to the Jukebox instead of dipping in the well a 2nd time so early on?
Here's the reason:
I got super busy about a month ago (2 poetry sessions for life-long learners teach - one on haiku, one on Robert Frost - two poetry readings to give, 1 session of 3 Poems by discussion group to participate in, and one lecture at the local library school - all within a span of 3 weeks!) and decided that, since the trusty IPod has over 12k worth of tunes and I often listen on shuffle, I would choose tunes that chose themselves. In other words, if a Litrock tune got in my face or, more specifically, my ears, that would be the week's selection. Since I listen to anywhere from 60 to 90 tunes every week walking to and from work, it seemed like a low stress, serendipitous approach to selection.
A go-with-the-flow method, if you will.
This week's tune wasn't even on my Excel list of 400 plus (and still counting - I'm always open to suggestions, folks) Litrock songs, so it was a bonus.
"Blind" is a cut from the days before Deep Purple became hard rock gods - a much more interesting, if decidedly less successful time. Not that they couldn't rock out - listen to the lead guitar over the wonderful harpsichord on this cut to catch a glimpse of what was right around the corner for this group. I realize this is hardly a popular pick (with tons of Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, U2, Pink Floyd, Dylan etc to go) but there you go - I didn't pick it, it picked itself.
The Litrock connection I noticed first was the use of the word "poet" and that was going to be enough for me until the myth of Daedalus and Icarus jumped out - it was a forest for the trees situation upon my first listening.
In any case, I have to say if ever there was a great lost Art Rock or Litrock album, this particular one by Deep Purple is it. And don't take my word for it; just in case you didn't get a chance to click through to the all music guide's review above, let me pull a succinct quote: "This is one of the most bracing progressive rock albums ever." Plus, it's not everyday that two Hieronymus Bosch artworks appear on this blog at the same time.
I have to say I may go to this well once or twice more time before the Sunday Service wraps up.
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This week's featured poems come from Lilliput Review #116, from March 2001. Any day with AlbertHuffstickler is a good day. And it certainly is a lot easier to ponder the winsome, wayward vagaries of a fruit fly in mid-November than later August, at least in this neck of the woods.
Enjoy.
It's good to be
cold somedays,
good to feel
the skin tingle,
to remember
how vulnerable
we are to weather,
how we and the
air interpentrate
each other.
I noticed earlier this week that Saturday was Adam Clayton's birthday, Adam of U2 fame that is, and I thought, well, I'll check the list of potential LitRock songs and grab one of it in his honor.
Imagine my surprise when I found I had nothing.
So, I dug in and took a poke around and I was surprised again when I found a whole site devoted to just the topic: U2Literary. Don't know if it is still an active site but the archive is up and its got quite an impressive list of allusions. Not all fit the criteria for Issa's Sunday Service - a song must contain a direct allusion, either in the lyrics or title etc., to something literary - and so many are Biblical in nature, but no matter. I've got some future numbers to share from the best band from the 80's.
Today's selection is one of their best: "Bullet the Blue Sky."
In the locust wind Comes a rattle and hum. Jacob wrestled the angel And the angel was overcome.
For those who've never had the opportunity to see U2 live, here is an extraordinary performance of "Bullet the Blue Sky," from Paris, 1987.
Last week, I mentioned that anyone with suggestions for future "Issa's Sunday Service" posts that were accepted would receive the current two issues of Lilliput Reviewfree. Two folks took me up on it and they already have received their issues. The offer stands, so if you have any suggestions for LitRock songs (songs with direct reference to something literary: an author, title, quote, genre etc.) send 'em along and I'll send you some poetry that rocks.
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This week's poem comes from Lilliput Review, #71, from August 1995. 5 poems, plus the cover, from #71 were featured in this previous post.
salt in good black earth of carthage sherman to the sea ghost towns of chernobyl fiddleheads unrolling under pineshade turned to find my footsteps
PS A complete list of all 45 songs is available on the stand alone LitRock website, along with a jukebox to listen to songs separately or altogether. Of course, the Jukebox is also available on the sidebar of this page.
This week is the birthday of Mr. Johnny Winter who, for our purposes today, is the smokin'est blues guitar player of his generation. On another day, we might discuss this in depth; today he's it. Today's selection forIssa's Sunday Service is the Bob Dylan tune "Highway 61 Revisited."
This is Bob's re-imagining of the Abraham and Issac story, played out in the larger contest of the then (and still) impending threat of nuclear war. For those alive back in the day who remember the Kent State protest and killings ("Tin soldiers and Nixon coming ..."), you might also remember the sculptor George Segal's controversial memorial "In Memory of May 4, 1970, Kent State University," that set off its own firestorm of protest, drawing on the same Biblical story for its resonance in modern times:
Looking back over the first 40 plus weeks of selected LitRock songs, it seems that there is a really formidable subset of songs drawing on the Bible. And this rock and roll was supposed to be the devil's music - who'd a thunk?
Back in 1992, Johnny Winter performed "Highway 61 Revisited" at Dylan's big 50th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden. What follows is that performance; watch Johnny signaling the drummer to speed it up (!), G. E. Smith telling the sound crew to turn it up, and Steve ("Hit it, Stevie") Cropper's fixed stare at one helluva amazing guitar slinger ...
There are also two other possible literary allusions in this song I'd never caught before. Take a look at the 3rd verse:
Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King I got forty red white and blue shoe strings And a thousand telephones that don't ring Do you know where I can get rid of these things And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son And he said yes I think it can be easily done Just take everything down to Highway 61.
This song was written in the wake of the immense popularity of the Louis Armstrong rendition of the Brecht/Weill composition "Mack the Knife." Mack the Finger sung by King Louie: oh, yeah, I'd say so. Though one of his more popular numbers (a la "Hello, Dolly"), it certainly isn't one of Pops finer moments. However, I will never say anything negative about one of the great jazz musicians of the 20th century. Somehow, we all have to pay the bills.
The other allusion is a bit more generic: "Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night." Could be to Shakespeare but since Twelfth Night is a lot bigger than Will's take on it, I'll have to let that one go: the lyrical thread is a bit too tangled for me to undo.
Finally, why Highway 61 revisited? Well, it may be as simple as Highway 61 runs by Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan's hometown, on its 1400 miles trek to New Orleans. Also Dylan, ever the singer steeped in the folk and blues tradition, would have been well aware of Mississippi Fred McDowell's song "61 Highway," with its blistering slide guitar that even Mr. Winter could learn a thing or two from.
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Today's feature poem comes from the California poet, Tom Riley, originally published in Lilliput Review, #67, April 1995. Think of it as an admonishment, think of it as a cautionary tale - think of it:
What You're Good For
The ice giants fry the eggs of the snow serpent, the tastiest morsels they know, on the bare backs of hot-blooded lads like you.
Tom Riley
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And here's one for those who, though perhaps success in avoiding those ice giants, have been breaking their backs with all the recent snow:
he's also in no mood to sweep the snow... scarecrow
Introducing Issa's Lit Rock Jukebox, an outgrowth of the special weekly music/literature feature, Issa's Sunday Service. The Sunday postings highlight rock songs that have some direct reference or allusion to literature - litrock, for short. To date, there have been 40 songs featured on Sunday postings; a list, with links back to the music and original posts, may be found on this standalone website. In addition, the Jukebox itself also has its own page.
You can listen to the songs featured on Issa's Sunday Service, either individually or in sequence, via the grooveshark widget above or on the separate page. Simply use the slidebar on the side of the juke to select particular songs from the current list. I've embedded the Jukebox on the sidebar on the right a bit of the ways down, after the listing of Issa sites around the web, for listening after this post is history. I will update the Jukebox weekly with the new Sunday posts.
And, as always, if you have a song suggestion for the Litrock Sunday series that passes muster, in appreciation I will be happy to send you the two currentissues (or extend your current subscription by two issues) of Lilliput Review,free of charge.
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