Re: National Poetry Month - April 29, 2004: What lovely (music

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Re: National Poetry Month - April 29, 2004: What lovely

Posted on: 2004-04-29 07:15:41 PST

George Dance wrote:
>Will Dockery wrote:
> >George Dance wrote:
>>>Barbara's Cat wrote:
>
> > > > > > > It was mostly disco and punk and that ridiculous New Wave
shit. But, Elvis Costello had a few moments.
>
> > > > > > Most everything premadonna, even 1910 Fruitgum Company,
> > > > > > was, and remains, far superior to anything postmadonna.
>
> > > > > Sounds like you never heard of REM
>
> > > > Like I said, ...
>
> > > You consider the 1910 Fruitgum Company to be "far superior" to
REM.> --
>
> > There's at least one good post from Barbie where she expounds on her
love of Country music, and calls it poetry...
>
> I remember a bit of that: how she'd defend her poetry writing to her
> redneck friends by telling them, "Well, Hank Williams was a poet,
> too." Profoundly true; probably the most such comment best she's ever
> made on usenet.

Well, yeah, though she probably wouldn't dare make such a statement today.
That post is worth reposting, where she brings in Tom T. Hall and Merle
Haggard songs as examples of great poetry:

http://www.guitartablab.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12154

From: Barbara's Cat (c...@127.0.0.1)
Subject: Re: National Poetry Month - April 29, 2004: What lovely
locomotion!
View: Complete Thread (8 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Date: 2004-04-29 07:15:41 PST

Karla wrote:
> Once in awhile, good poetry creeps into song lyrics. Who are the
songwriters and which songs do you
> think qualifes? Oh and "name that tune" in the subject line.

There are so many candidates for your subject-of-the-day, how can I choose
just one? Well, I'm going to present Tom T. Hall, one of the greatest (IMHO)
song/poem/story writers that have ever lived. You might remember a song he
wrote titled "Harper Vally P.T.A.", a No. 1 hit on the country music charts
in 1968 that was sung by Jeannie C. Riley.

Here are two songs that I think are, in their own way, poetry. The first
one, "I Love", was a No. 1 hit in 1973 (it also made the pop charts that
same year). The other, "The Year that Clayton Delaney Died", was No. 1 in
1971.

I LOVE

I love little baby ducks,
old pick-up trucks,
slow-moving trains,
and rain.
I love little country streams,
sleep without dreams,
Sunday school in May,
and hay.
And I love you too.
I love leaves in the wind,
pictures of my friends,
birds in the world,
and squirrels.
I love coffee in a cup,
little fuzzy pups,
bourbon in a glass,
and grass.
And I love you too.
I love honest open smiles,
kisses from a child,
tomatoes on the vine,
and onions.
I love winners when they cry,
losers when they try,
music when it's good,
and life.
And I love you too.
- Tom T. Hall

THE YEAR THAT CLAYTON DELANEY DIED

I remember the year that Clayton Delaney died.
They said for the last two weeks that he suffered and cried.
It made a big impression on me, although I was a barefoot kid.
They said he got religion at the end and I'm glad that he did.

Clayton was the best guitar picker in our town.
I thought he was a hero and I used to follow Clayton around.
I often wondered why Clayton, who seemed so good to me,
never took his guitar and made it down in Tenn-o-see.

Well, Daddy said he drank a lot, but I could never understand.
I knew he used to pick up in Ohio with a five-piece band.
Clayton used to tell me, "Son you better put that old guitar away,
there ain't no money in it, it'll lead you to an early grave."

I guess if I'd admit it, Clayton taught me how to drink booze.
I can see him half-stoned a-pickin' out the lovesick blues.
When Clayton died I made him a promise, I was gonna carry on somehow
I'd give a hundred dollars if he could only see me now.

I remember the year that Clayton Delaney died.
Nobody ever knew it but I went out in the woods and I cried.
Well, I know there's a lotta big preachers that know a lot more than I
do, but it could be that the good Lord likes a little pickin' too.
Yeah, I remember the year that Clayton Delaney died.
- Tom T. Hall

I hope you enjoyed this post.
Cm~
----

I'm not so sure anyone else "enjoyed" that post, since I was the only
one who responded to it when Barbie first posted it, iirc.

> > so she could be one of
> > those types I know who just ignored everything beside that genre that
> > came before and after Madonna.
>
> > I can remember when R.E.M were playing little clubs back in the dawn
> > of the Eighties.
>
> There's an interesting story in the archives, which you probably
> posted, about their song "Nightswimming" (that they used to end the In
> Time album); how it was inspired by a summer of . swimming in a
> Georgia hotel pool, which was finally ended by a police raid.

Yes, that was Pied Piper (I don't use his real name on Usenet since it
brings in him and our other friend 0x0000 and then they wind up having a
huge flamewar!), who was in school at UGA in Athens at the same time Michael
Stipe was, iirc, they worked in the same fast food joint or something. If he
sees this, I'll let him repost it if he wants, or just Google "Nightswimming
Revisited" and it should manifest.

> Not that there's anything wrong with 1910 Fruitgum Company
>
> I liked the Fruitgum Co.; they were the best thing out of the
> Katzenach-Katz machine. The l.yrics, like all the KK stuff, were the
> same old pre- rock -- 1,2,3 Red Light, Simon Says, and the like --
> but the music was pure psychedelia. For that I thank the Beatles: the
> Beatles didn't invent psychedelic music on Sgt. Pepper, but they did
> sell an unprecedented number of copies with it, and that last changed
> main stream music almost overnight in 1968>, there's sure not much
comparison between the two groups, as most of us know.
>
> > > > "Hell is full of musical amateurs."
> > > > - George Bernard Shaw
>
> > I'd wager there's a few dozen in Heaven and Purgatory, as well...

--
The Ride (Combat Zone)- by Will Dockery & Dennis Beck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZ3VAmNTWc

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