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


3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Definitely never heard that one. Not that I remember.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Newish, independent group ... just beginning to get some exposure, Charles.

ed markowsk said...

July 4th

Broke
&
Bleeding

Faces

Spangle
The
Banner


ed markowski