Sorry for the long delay. It has been quite a month. This week’s installment is a video shot in Budapest using the song “Xtal” by Aphex Twin.
The video itself is about eight years old and taken arguably in happier times, as Hungary has since experienced the rise of its own Trump-like leader. The closing scene was taken at the southern edge of Budapest’s City Park, and features the 1956 Memorial to the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence – the 50th anniversary of which passed just a few days ago. If you’re ever in Budapest, it is well worth visiting for yourself.
Don’t forget to tip your bartender before you leave.
I’ve been busy all week insulating my remodel. I only have the cathedral ceiling left.
Not my favorite job.
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Just the thought of dealing with insulation would give me nightmares. There are a few home repair projects that I’ll eventually need to get to. The previous owners were really into the whole DIY thing, and they left us with a few features that were half-finished or poorly done. Replacing some carpet in what has become the study is next on the list. Probably sometime next year after I get some money saved up.
Just enjoyed one of my favorite movies again, “Ghost World.” The remarkable song which played through the opening credits:
Pop culture is weird and wonderful.
Yes it is.
It goes without saying that rock, in particular, owes a huge debt to Robert Johnson.
There’s been a lot of great writing about Johnson and his music, but nothing matches Greil Marcus’ inspiring words about Johnson in his fantastic book “Mystery Train.”
That book’s treatment of Sly Stone as the modern inheritor of the Stagger Lee legend has remained in my mind since I read it more than 30 years ago. His reading of the lyric for “Thank you falettin me be mice elf agin” transformed every subsequent hearing of this fantastic song. Marcus:
“Lookin’ at the devil
Grinnin’ at his gun
Fingers start shakin’
I begin to run.
Bullets start chasin’
I begin to stop.
The poetry of those lines is the use of the words “start” and “begin,” which slow the pace of the violent images Sly is presenting. The eye is working here, taking in the scene from the edge of action; the description is minimal and the economy is absolute. The eye turns and the listener, or the reader, is give only a vague sense of physical motion, a whole body aware of itself with the precision of the eye in the first three lines. You feel the slowing down, the endless, instantaneous decisions and hesitations involved in turning to face the gun again. It all moves in pieces, and you are in the song, in the riot, breathing its risk.”
The other thing I took from Marcus’ invitation to look deeply at Sly’s art here is the exhilaration and terror of the last two lines of the verse:
We begin to wrestle/I was on the top.
A man wrestling with the Devil is often viewed through distant metaphor, but the strength of Stone’s presentation here makes it live as physical reality. It’s overwhelmingly powerful to me.
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Every aspect of that Sheb Wooley video was execrable.
OK, now you’ve done it, nalbar. Time for me to put an unpleasant earworm (with bonus obnoxious acting!) in your head:
I’ve forced men younger than you to listen to the entire Ray Stevens songbook. Didn’t want to do it. I felt I owed it to them.
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I almost posted that exact video! Oh well…lol.
Try this #1 hit from 1974:
That man is a P-I-G Pig.
I will chase you to the gates of Hell in this battle of deplorable music, my man.
The thing is, every song I post I don’t find deplorable at all, I like all of them, and remember them all from long ago.
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OK, I was going to deliver some pain that arrived on the charts more recently, but here’s a vintage solid gold pop turd:
Your move.
No list is complete without this one. A classic.
T
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Well, sure. Here’s some sweetness:
Nice that they showed the tape machine to depict the overdub.
The Coasters are fine. Can’t find myself able to admire Sheb Wooley, though.
And is it possible to like “They’re Coming To Take Me Away”? I’m amused by it, but liking it seems a bridge too far.