Sunday, November 28, 2010

Wordy Rappinghood: Issa's Sunday Service, #79










[Because of the holiday, there was no post last Friday.   Regular Friday posts will start up again this week]

This week, I got to thinking about some bands I hadn't thought of in a long time and, it turns out, I've come up with a selection that wasn't on my list for Issa's Sunday Service.  I got a hankering to hear Tom Tom Club, a group made up of a number of members of Talking Heads, a sort of side project that became much more than that.  I decided to listen to a couple of their albums, which I did, and realized that one of their big songs, "Wordy Rappinghood," makes for a great weekly selection.  

There are many versions of this song; back in the day of dance "club" music and free flowing coke, there were more 12" remixes, extended versions etc. of songs than rolled up Andrew Jacksons.  So, if you like what you hear above, you are going to be delighted with the following 12" extended play (count me among the delighted):








Of course, the song takes its title from the early fairy tale of the oral tradition entitled "Little Red Riding Hood," versions of which were done by both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm (no 12" remixes that I'm aware of).   Just this, and the homage to "words," would be more than enough to qualify for the LitRock canon, but the opening lines adds another dimension:

What are words worth?  Words.
What are words worth?  Words. 

If you'd like to know what Tina Weymouth was thinking about when she co-wrote "Wordy Rappinghood," here's a brief film from 2009 about just that topic (you'd never think the Dalai Lama would get a well-deserved shout-out on this one but, well, there you go):








This has all got me to inexplicably thinking about Tiny Tim, but perhaps I'll save that for another time.


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


This week's selection comes from the Lilliput archive, issue #117, from June 2001; two poems by the incomparable Albert Huffstickler, neither of which have here appeared before.  Enjoy.


I have measured
my solitude on
the scale of
my being
and come up with
a formula
for converting
ashes into sunlight.
Albert Huffstickler






For my funeral
write me a requiem
of herbs and wild flowers
and play it on the wind.
Albert Huffstickler








onlookers
at a funeral...
the autumn wind
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue





best,
Don


Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 79 songs
Hear all 79 at once on the the LitRock Jukebox

19 comments:

Ed Baker said...

AM looking forward to your re:surrectioning of
Tiny Tim
there is/was so-much-more to "Tiny Tim" than Miss Vickey and Tip Toe(ing) Through The Tulips...

he collected, AND remembered and sung 10,000 too-seldom heard 19 th Century 'ditties'

I seem to recall a live interview that he did on The Johnny Carson Show .. Orson Wells was the other guest... or was it The Jack Parr Show? etc etc etc

now... back to RTV and BAT MASTERSON...

next up? The Cisco Kid

Anonymous said...

More through the magic of the inner-net.. Tiny Tim


http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=tiny+tim+living+in+the+sunlight&aq=1&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=9e29d8a479094d56


I do believe that the Ukulele was our indigenous National Instrument ..in it s day

it was yet a big deal instrument in late 50's

sort-of
a 'poor man's" banjo!


K.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, spent the better part of yesterday listening to Tiny while working. Your memory is correct - youtube has the whole Carson thing, 4 or 6 parts covering the wedding, plus Orson Welles episode. Also listened to a 4 part Howard Stern interview with him in the late 80s early 90s. Amazing encyclopedic knowledge of the classic classic tunes. Posted "Living in the Sunlight" and "The Other Side" on FB yesterday.

I'll try to work up a post on just him sometime in the future. (I was watching Wagon Train yesterday on RTV).

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

There we go ... great link.

Anonymous said...

check-out these lyrics (and the tuning/fingering of:
http://www.tinytim.org/lyrics.html

a Real "zen/haiku" moment...

via 10,000 variations/combinations of three chords/three lines ... one stream

Anonymous said...

speaking of "poetry" and Tiny Tim..
check-out who did the introduction to THIS comic book!

http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/44191.gif

this strip pre-dated ALL of our Modern Politically Correct strips...

Ed

Anonymous said...

dear don

thanks much for 'wordy,' very sweet and spammable stuff to send friends.

tenzing

Charles Gramlich said...

tom tom club? I think you're just making that up. :)

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed,

As with blues and haiku, that three chord progression is infinite, indeed, the ten thousand petaled lotus, infinite in variation, as you say ...

Thanks, too, for the tip o' the hat to Krazy and pals.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

tenzing ... thanks for passing the word along and glad you enjoyed -

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Charles ... I should be that good!

Anonymous said...

DW
check out last 10 or-so pages of Chapter10 of
Lin Yutang's THE IMPORTANCE of LIVING

((especially section V. on flowers and flower arrangements (p 300))..

olden days Chinese CultureHere ARE the "biggies"::

the pine tree, and the bamboo, the orchid, the chrysanthemum and the lotus and etc...

this-all predates what-of Chinese Culture the Japanese have "borrowed" and 'made their own"

also imported into Japan many other "flowers" of other Eastern Kult-sures..

check out my Korean Spring Orchid in THINGS JUST COME TRUE...


Ed

ETCS

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, thanks for the note - just put it on reserve at the library - some of that chapter ... and some of the rest of the book ... is previewed on google books but will get the paper artifact to get the proper feel.

Anonymous said...

the EXACT place in the book where I now em (sic)
is in your link p 327.

notice WHEN this book was published! PRE

... WW 2wo!

AMAZING what is via the Internet... who NEEDs a University when all is freely "out there" given?

full moon/at the fork/in the road

EB

Ed Baker said...

I jus watched/listened to the video

no-sense/non-sense
makes
perfect

sense
to-me

notice the acre upon which
in which
they reside!

they
yet
have
travelling
to distant lands
down pat
the 'meaning' of
is far
be yond wds AND mynd

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, still waiting for the book from the 'berry. Glad you liked the vid ... amazing what they did, first try.

Last thought, worst thought?

Ed Baker said...

inestwaiting is good
add watching
and a 'pay-attention-mind
and ..... P.O.W.


I knew that I had something else in my sacred-stash-of-books

(remember books?)

and I do

I mentioned it to you or to Stone Girl
many full moon's arears

he did this A GREAT run of translations in 1967!


The Chinese Theory of Art (translations from the Masters of Chinese Art


he begins with a piece written by Confucius in Sixth Century B.C.:
"Powder Applied Last'

"Tse-Hsia said, 'What does this line [in the 'Book of Poetry'] mean? It says, "How winning her smiles! How attractive her eyes! And the white (su) makes up the pattern."
Confucius replied, 'In the art of painting, the white powder is applied last.'
'Do you mean that the rituals should come last?'
'Oh, Ah-shang, you have suggested a point here. You are worthy to discuss the 'Book of Poetry.'"

-Analects, Bk. III

then Lin notes: This is the earliest literary reference to painting, both of a lady's face, and of the art of painting, apart from the section on the painting of colours in 'K'ao-kung-chi."

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Sacred stash, indeed - this one none of the 70 libraries in the county have ...

I read a book yesterday and it didn't even feel funny ...

Anonymous said...

saw about 8 copies of

Lin Yutang's The Chinese Theory of Art
via amazon used hard-back

must be the one I have (x library book)
for about $21.13 up to (about) $140.37

here is another quote out of this book: from
Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322)::

"[...] I have tried since my childhood to paint narcissi, doing several dozen sketches a day, but never quite got it. There are specialities in art. I wanted to do it and tried to catch its likeness. But obviously one cannot catch the beauty of all things, [...]."

Yutang writes re: narcissi in the other book in the section on flower arranging, scents, and [et ceteras[.

can't find this book?

come visit ... you can read it here

I live about 6 miles from The Library of Congress..

they will have this book and others...


Kokkie-san