3 July
Today will be an All Billy Bragg entry here in the land of the shining hedgehog, so if you don't like Billy you'd best bugger off and come back tomorrow!
I mean, why should I kill myself to think up amusing things to tell you people when I can just vomit up funny stuff that I heard at a concert last night! It's the key to daily writing--let others do it as often as possible.
So I went to both sets last night, the 7.30 and the 10.30 (or, in reality, the 8p and the 11p), and had an absolutely swell time.
It was the first time that I had been to The Bottom Line for something like ten years, since I saw Suzanne Vega there, and I remember the place as being a good deal smaller. I had what I described as a faintly crappy seat for the first show, but it ended up being quite good. I mean, the place is so small that if you are not directly behind a pillar every seat is a good seat.
I was supposed to meet my friend Andria and Sean before the second show, but I scanned the queue and couldn't find them at all. The funny bit was, though, as I was entering the venue for the first show a guy asked me "Do you have any extra tickets?" and I said no, and then he said "Do you live on 42nd St?" and I said no, but that I walk by there every day, and he said "Yes, 42nd and 9th! I saw you this morning!"
Later, when I was waiting to enter for the second show, the guy behind me suddenly says "Say, wasn't I standing behind you at the Squeeze concert? You had just been to the Fleadh and you told us about this concert!" so I suddenly had this picture of myself, flitting around the city like a fairy, influencing people's lives for the better!
My point being, though, that these complete strangers who saw me for mere moments found me immediately, but my friends who were looking for me on purpose could find neither hide nor hair of me!
Anyway, the show was probably about 70% the new Woody Guthrie songs from the Mermaid Avenue album, which were just swell.
You see, only 5% of Woody Guthrie's songs were ever recorded, and they were all songs that he wrote before leaving the dust bowl. He wrote thousands of songs in New York, but since he was blacklisted, and then sick, he never got the opportunity to record them. The point being that this person, this icon, that we know as Woody Guthrie, isn't anything like the whole picture.
Billy said that not only does Woody belong in the background of the film The Grapes of Wrath, but in the background of On the Town as well. "I mean, it's not as though he was sitting in his apartment in Coney Island wearing overalls in a red sand dirt box writing even more empathetic songs about dust!"
He started out, in fact, by saying quite seriously that Woody Guthrie is one of the greatest lyrical poets that this country has ever produced, then proceeded to sing an extremely dirty version of The Bear Went Over the Mountain (lyrics by Guthrie) and then said "Just like I said: One of the greatest lyrical poets that your country has produced!"
Shit, I have to go. Random amusing lines by Billy Bragg tomorrow, darlings, I have to go to rehearsal now. And a hearty welcome to all my new readers from the Wired link! Had I had any idea you were coming, I would have straightened up a bit, but I guess you'll just have to take me as you find me!
One year ago today:
Which basically means that every check I send out for the next year will absolutely reek of inscect spray.
* Yesterday / Index / This Month / Tomorrow *
Logo and graphics and random bodily noises by:
DinoNeil!
This page was written by hand. My hand. Only
pussies use HTML editors.
Last Updated Fri 3 July 11:51:09 1998