Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Wine, Women and Song
Readers have suggested as topics for this blog the subjects sex and drugs and rock and roll a la the Ian Dury song from 1977. OK, but first let's look at that grouping of subjects. Is it not just a repetition of the more famous 'wine, women and song' with alternating more and less specific items? The idea of wine, women and song as a trio of wonderful things has been around for a long time.
Who does not love wine, women and song / Remains a fool his whole life long.
Heinrich Voss (1751-1826)
Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) a mathematician as well as a poet wrote:
"Two sweethearts,
Two flasks of old wine,
A book of verse
And a cosy corner in the garden." (Quatrain xii of the Rubaiyyat--which means quatrain)
which verse has more of the three way fantasy going for it in the original, but which was rendered less racy, less alky and more mainstream by Professor Fitzgerald as follows:
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!"
Which reminds me of a story I read years ago; I'm sorry that the name has escaped me, but the gist is an alien is studying humans for classification in the alien's natural history paradigm and after years and years the alien announces that he is ready to classify humankind. He says that humans are symbiotes What? his human hosts ask startled. Yes, the alien replies, you are symbiotic with the grape, because, without red wine, there would not be enough sex to keep the race going. It could be true. Except for the alien part.
Who does not love wine, women and song / Remains a fool his whole life long.
Heinrich Voss (1751-1826)
Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) a mathematician as well as a poet wrote:
"Two sweethearts,
Two flasks of old wine,
A book of verse
And a cosy corner in the garden." (Quatrain xii of the Rubaiyyat--which means quatrain)
which verse has more of the three way fantasy going for it in the original, but which was rendered less racy, less alky and more mainstream by Professor Fitzgerald as follows:
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!"
Which reminds me of a story I read years ago; I'm sorry that the name has escaped me, but the gist is an alien is studying humans for classification in the alien's natural history paradigm and after years and years the alien announces that he is ready to classify humankind. He says that humans are symbiotes What? his human hosts ask startled. Yes, the alien replies, you are symbiotic with the grape, because, without red wine, there would not be enough sex to keep the race going. It could be true. Except for the alien part.
Labels: Drugs, Rock and Roll, Sex
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Rock Concert Report
Went last night to Richard Thompson and band at the Gothic with Kit and he was great. I have just two little quibbles. Thompson has been playing in bands since 1966 and writing songs since shortly after that, and he is a prolific songwriter. The trouble with so large a catalogue is that often my favorite songs are not his favorite songs. So I heard nary a one. No Turning Of The Tide, no Waltzing's for Dreamers, no Hand of Kindness, no Cooksferry Queen, no When The Spell Is Broken, and nothing from the Fairport Convention years. Oh well. The second quibble is about his guitar playing, which is always good, but once in a while it goes into self indulgence and not good self indulgence.
On the other hand, I was amazed how good his voice sounded. It was a great show, but I said that. He's playing at the Fox in Boulder tonight. You could do a lot worse than go see him.
Labels: Rock and Roll
Friday, August 24, 2007
Soft Rock Review
Went with the double ex fiance to the Crowded House concert at the Filmore yesterday and had a really great time. I've always been a Finn Brothers fan and Crowded House at one time had both and now has just Neil Finn, the younger brother, the band's founder. They were great. Let me elucidate.
The Parthenon in Athens has little details which make it look better. The columns, for example, are slightly fatter in the middle to nullify the optical effect which makes perfectly straight columns next to each other look thinner in the middle. The base of the building bows up a little in the middle along two axes for similar reasons; and there are other architectural tricks as well.
Crowded House does a lot of little things right and has learned the tricks which makes its satisfying, but less than exciting, music sound fuller and richer. Neil Finn sings well, even without the close harmony his brother, Tim, can provide and you could hear every word, some of which are beautiful. They layer the sound well, if that's the proper description, and have at times just the right amount of echo to fill out the sound. Their instrument playing, as far as I can tell, was no better or worse than the average band, it was the words and lyrics and the musical architectural details described, poorly, above which make all the difference.
The opening act was Fountains of Wayne, of whom I have heard but never heard consciously. I thought they were pretty good, but a real fan said he thought they just mailed it in. Even if they just mailed it in, it was pretty good mail for an opening act.
Crowded House didn't play my favorite song, It's Only Natural, from Woodface but they played all the famous ones, except for Chocolate Cake (because Tammy Faye Baker, mentioned therein, died recently, I suspect). They also let the crowd sing along a lot to the famous ones and we sounded OK, I thought. They did a couple of encores including an impromptu Happy Together by the Turtles, with most of the lyrics intact. It was, I thought, an appropriate song for how I was feeling.
The Parthenon in Athens has little details which make it look better. The columns, for example, are slightly fatter in the middle to nullify the optical effect which makes perfectly straight columns next to each other look thinner in the middle. The base of the building bows up a little in the middle along two axes for similar reasons; and there are other architectural tricks as well.
Crowded House does a lot of little things right and has learned the tricks which makes its satisfying, but less than exciting, music sound fuller and richer. Neil Finn sings well, even without the close harmony his brother, Tim, can provide and you could hear every word, some of which are beautiful. They layer the sound well, if that's the proper description, and have at times just the right amount of echo to fill out the sound. Their instrument playing, as far as I can tell, was no better or worse than the average band, it was the words and lyrics and the musical architectural details described, poorly, above which make all the difference.
The opening act was Fountains of Wayne, of whom I have heard but never heard consciously. I thought they were pretty good, but a real fan said he thought they just mailed it in. Even if they just mailed it in, it was pretty good mail for an opening act.
Crowded House didn't play my favorite song, It's Only Natural, from Woodface but they played all the famous ones, except for Chocolate Cake (because Tammy Faye Baker, mentioned therein, died recently, I suspect). They also let the crowd sing along a lot to the famous ones and we sounded OK, I thought. They did a couple of encores including an impromptu Happy Together by the Turtles, with most of the lyrics intact. It was, I thought, an appropriate song for how I was feeling.
Labels: Rock and Roll
