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THE EXCITEMENT IS BUILDING FOR CARL SANDBURG WEEK -- I CAN JUST TELL

In the course of our recent blogviations on Dylan, Carl Wilson aptly raised Jan Kott’s vision of Shakespeare’s Lear’s Fool as descriptive of Dylan: “He has no illusions and does not seek consolation in the existence of natural or supernatural order, which provides for the punishment of evil and the reward of good.” Which is as good an introduction as any to the poem “Jerry” by Carl Sandburg, which was published posthumously.

Six years I worked in a knitting mill at a machine
And then I married Jerry, the iceman, for a change.
He weighed 240 pounds, and could hold me,
Who weighed 105 pounds, outward easily with one hand.
He came home drunk and lay on me with the breath of stale beer
Blowing from him and jumbled talk that didn’t mean anything.
I stood it two years and one hot night when I refused him
And he struck his bare fist against my nose so it bled,
I waited till he slept, took a revolver from a bureau drawer,
Placed the end of it to his head and pulled the trigger.
From the stone walls where I am incarcerated for the natural term
Of life, I proclaim I would do it again.



FROM WINE, WOMEN & SONG TO EVIL CREEPY FASCIST WAR RALLIES

It seems that whenever a movie scene depicts an evil creepy fantasy fascist rally just about off to march to war, or some other suitably dramatic and gruesome scene of mob or supernatural violence, the director hails down Carl Orff’s 1937 cantata “Carmina Burana,” or the film’s composer pays homage to same.

I’ve often suspected that Orff took inspiration for his wild intense pounding rhythms from Stravinsky. Today I heard Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” for the first time, a recording from 1960 conducted by the composer, for 4 pianos, 4 vocal soloists, chorus, and percussion ensemble. I want to listen to it again before commenting, except to say that my suspicion about Orff’s source of inspiration is stronger now. Not that Orff and Stravinsky sound the same, just that Orff depended on some of Stravinsky’s innovations.

It’s funny that Orff’s music has become synonymous with creepy evil extravagant violence, because a lot of the Carmina Burana poems are lighthearted paeans to sex. A Victorian English translator, John Aldington Symonds, called his selection from Carmina Burana and related poems, “Wine, Women & Song.”



SPEAKING OF CREEPY EVIL EXTRAVAGANT VIOLENCE

My bottom-line reason for wanting to throw George Bush out of office is that America needs to show the world that we ain’t cool with the horrors that went down in the interrogation torture chambers of Abu Ghraib. I forgive my fellow citizens who don’t understand that that mayhem flowed down from the top. I don’t forgive the mainstream media for letting Bush and Rumsfeld skate, and for abetting a disinformation campaign so successful that the majority of Bush’s supporters believe that Saddam helped Osama in the atrocity of 9/11, that the WMDs have been found, and that the world’s majority supports what we’ve done in Iraq.

Not that the media barons give a rolling donut about my forgiveness.