Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is the great survivor – the real deal in an age of passing music stars. Often incomprehensible, often mumbling, often surreal, he has carved his own legend.
Tag: rhyme
Spending cash, maxing out
A Trustafarian’s tale – but set to a Caribbean dance beat by guest Music Arranger and Composer, Damion Anderson.
New York Post 1983
‘Headless body found in topless bar’ is one of the best-lnown headlines in newspaper history. Written by Vincent Musetto for the New York Times in April 1983 it reported a gruesome Brooklyn muder by 23 year old Charlie Dingle; whilst snorting cocaine he killed a bar owner, took four hostages, raped a dancer, and then discovered that one of the hostages was a mortician. So he got her to cut off the bar-owner’s head with a steak knife (to get rid of the bullet that would tie the shooting to his gun). Hence ‘Headless body found in topless bar’.
She Loves Me to Death
She loves me….. but has she become obsessive? Will she let me leave for someone else? Or will she love me to death….?
Her Beauty Surrounds Us
The joy of believing – and letting those beliefs surround us with warmth and light. It may be unscientific and trite, but why not?
Sweet lady of the Silent Night
Another over-sentimental piece – the warmth of mother’s love. Caring and tender; helping us sleep safe at night. The rhyme equivalent of comfort food…..
Sweet Wondrous Youth
An over-the-top declaration of love from an older man to his younger companion. In a nineteenth century style. Oscar Wilde is the inspiration. He was arrested at the Cadogan Hotel in 1895 (in room no. 118). He was found guilty of ‘committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons’, and served two years hard labour.
300
The battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 BC when 300 Spartan warriors held the pass for three days, to delay the invading Persians. In fact, the 300 Spartans were only part of a larger Greek army of a few thousand, but it is the fighting valour of the Spartans that has proved immortal. They stood and died in a ‘glorious’ delaying action. For those three days they held the gap between two narrow cliffs, until they were eventually outflanked when the Persians were told of a goat path around the cliffs. The music includes extracts from the theme music of the 2006 cartoon film (which was, in turn, based on a 1990’s comic series). There are numerous books on the battle of Thermopalae but ‘Gates of Fire’ by Steven Pressland is an acclaimed faction novel – highly recommended.
A Party in Paddock Wood
A fantasy: at Michaelmas, all the animals on the South Downs get together for a party. The hedgehog is playing the violin, the owl is signing in an operatic voice, and there is dancing around the old oak tree. Animals that normally enemies are playing and talking together. All is harmony – as long as Man will keep away! Michaelmas is traditionally 29 September (the end of the farming year).
Anwen and her Knight
A non-serious pastiche of a medieval legend – the heroic knight rescues the damsel in distress. Nothing clever, sophisticated, or unexpected… just a straightforward epic yarn.
Butterfly Beauty
A butterfly lives for only two months. So it is a case of transient beauty. But all human beauty is similarly transient and ephemeral (although it may last for years, not two months). Hence ‘all beauty is briefly bright – a trick of nature’s light’.
Just For You
A love poem – but not one from a man or woman. From the ultimate best friend. Yes, it’s over-sentimental – but who cares?
Quiet Flows my Blood Tonight
I like the mystery of the opening line (‘Quiet flows my blood tonight’). But it is a story of undergoing major surgery 10 years ago, and being alive because of the blood donor – and medics in the NHS - who made that surgery possible. So it is a celebration of 10 borrowed, special, years. And the choice of Puccini as the accompanying music is super-corny….
Dirty Bastard
A pointless, silly, exercise in bad-language? But why not? And why shouldn’t rhyme or poetry use everyday language?
We all love social media – it has transformed our lives. But, as always there are some weirdoes who misuse it and who seem to have lost the plot ('sad losers, nutters and trolls, venomous posters, simply lost souls'). Why aren’t the the likes of Facebook doing more to control these people (they have got the money; they have got the resources) and maybe they should be made more accountable?
