On The Radio

[Jim Rotonda]

About a half hour ago I was driving home from a racquetball club here in southern NJ
I just moved here, outside the reach of most NY city radio stations so I was scanning the radio dial
hoping to find some right wing talk show host I could curse at.
Then I heard it – From the Songwriters Hall of Fame - K.D. Lang singing “Halleluiah”
The DJ introduced it by saying that LC had called the performance “Glorious”
I couldn’t hear most of it, it kept fading in and out, but I could tell that the phrasing was different than other covers I’ve heard.
I could also hear the audience go bonkers at the end.

Jim

[Henning]

Hola Jim,

I like those short snippets of a day and how you described it. Thanks !

[~greg]

I could also hear the audience go bonkers at the end.

They went bonkers over everything,
including an incredibly skuzzy "Sugar Sugar"
(which started out fun, but turned into pure scum.)

However, you could tell they really meant it for LC.

(applause is such a totally wierd pheonomenon anyway. )

http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... ptance.mp3
3.3 meg, 3:31 min
hi-fi

http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... D_Lang.mp3
5 meg, 5:15 min
hi-fi

(for forum use only!)

-----------------------------------------------------


i'm revising this to say that these mp3s have been revised since
they were first put up last night; - i found a good 2 secs of ambient
room sound and used it to eliminated it. I think these revised mp3s
are both much better now, esp the Lang.

it's almost 6 years now that we had the last beer together.
We should go drinking again and don't forget the portable player.
You're the service man

What would you like to replace the applause with ? A deep sigh ?
A threatening fart ? a high "C" ?

well, since ladies can't fart, and gentlemen can't hit high C,
that leaves a deep sigh as the common denominator.

Which I think would in fact be most appropriate.

At least it has a short built-in duration,
(- or else people'ld be hyperventaling, with unpredictable consequences:

I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch

)

The thing about applause - or one thing about it -
- nobody wants to be the last one clapping, or the first one to stop.
So it's the purest form of mob psychology.

~

Berlin! - bis! - I wish to hell I could get there, but I don't know.
I don't think I can.

I saw a good documentary - on Nova I think -
on the Potsdamer Platz reconstruction.
And it would sure be a rush to see it.
(I've always been crazy about architecture,
and I'd have gotten into it except I can't stand
the smell of paste. (that's not a problem anymore I guess.))

And "to drink beer in berlin" --these were the 2nd set of words
I wistfully, sighingly, ever spoke as a child, I am told.
(Right after "ok, I'm here now. Now take me to Moulin Rouge.")

[Henning]

Hello Gregory,

thank you, too, for the mp3-service in here.

It's almost 6 years now that we had the last beer together. We should go drinking again and don't forget the portable player. You're the service man

What would you like to replace the applause with ? A deep sigh ? A threatening fart ? a high "C" ?

[lizzytysh]

Henning ~ You're a trip . My former husband tends to look at people clapping and think of them as seals. He agrees with you, Greg, that it's a weird phenomenon. Both arms raised in the air, waving side to side, would be pleasant. I've always loved the lighting of a match/lighter at performances. It would never work with the fire marshall as a standard, though. There's a build-up of 'appreciation energy' that clapping allows to be released [the same as laughter], so one can relax into the next song. It does serve a useful purpose for both sides.

~ Lizzy

Now ~ I'm going to go [hopefully!!] listen. Thank you for this thoughtfulness and effort, Greg.

I'm now sitting getting chills, listening again to Hallelujah. Am I able to download that onto a cd from my computer here, which does have downloading capabilities? [If I've just said something computer-stupid, please forgive my ignorance ~ it only disappears in increments, when it comes to computers.]

Hi Jim ~ Don't you LOVE it when that happens !?! SOOOOOO much better than Rush Limbaugh .

[Bobbie]

Jim.. it happened to me this week, too.. that unexpected serendipity.. the kind that makes you think crazy things, like... "maybe the world is ok, after all." Which as we all know.. it isn't. Anyway.. it was Sunday morning, and as I was descending the stairs, thinking about coffee, the Sunday paper, and some old rituals and routines I'd had forever that have gone by the wayside, I was thinking about how on Sunday mornings I used to sit with coffee and watch "CBS Sunday Morning" with Charles Osgood, and how much more amenable that gentler focus on the news is for me, someone who gets too easily and adversely affected by the brutality of the daily newspaper. And then my mind wandered to the time a few years ago when I turned on the show and there it was, a totally unexpected little snippet about Leonard Cohen. And I thought (this past Sunday, going down those stairs) about how I hadn't watched that show since I left Maine, and that when my coffee was ready, that I'd turn it on. I thought... "who knows, maybe I'll even see LC again." I was in need of inspiration. So there I sat, all comfy, the old coverlet I've had for years across my lap, nice and cozy, steamy mug in hand... and on came a segment about music and baby boomers, with lots of great old footage... Dylan, Rolling Stones, Beatles, The Who, you know, all that from the 60's. The focus changed and it went on to talk about the ways music has morphed over the last 40 years, showing clips of this band and that performer, different styles, Eminen, that sort of progression... and nestled in there, so incredibly, especially given my thoughts coming down the stairs just a few minutes earlier, was a snippet of Leonard's face and voice, from the video First We Take Manhattan.

Crazy, man, crazy.

B

[Partisan]

Crazy, man, crazy.

"You can take the girl out of the Sixties..........."

p.

[Bobbie]

"But you can't take the 60's out of the girl." You love me anyway, you ol' git.

B

[lizzytysh]

As I recall, it was CBS Sunday Morning that did the original special on Leonard that created so many call-ins, so many years ago, and, as a result, was deemed their most popular segment, at one point.

I used to love that show when I used to watch television.

Super serendipity with your Sunday morning .

~ Lizzy

[Jim Rotonda]

I had a similar encounter with LC Saturday night. at the book store.
I couldn’t find a book about the fifties,
So I picked “The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage” by Todd Gitlin
and opened it to the preface, which opened with:

“The age of lust is giving birth, and both the parents ask
the nurse to tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass.
And now the infant with his cord is hauled in like a kite,
and one eye filled with blueprints, one eye filled with night’.

Stories of the Street
By Leonard Cohen

A couple of months ago I was invited to my grammar school reunion, class of 61
I had never heard of such an event.
I didn’t go and later found out that over 200 people showed up and 50 had to be turned away.
Maybe the large turn out was because of the success of “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, celebrating our two famous alumni
Joe Pesci and Frankie Valli

Then I heard the Don McLean song “American Pie”
And I began to wonder – did we lose something in the sixties – some part of our soul
Don McLean seemed to think so

The fifties was a decade of blacklists and betrayal, bigotry and hate, fear of annihilation,
conformity and sexual repression, fortunes were made on the sale of masturbation fantasies.
Half the movie titles were double entendres. Yet it was inspired by something vital that we no longer seem to have.
I’m not sure exactly what that is but it has to do with the American dream, (American Pie), the failure of liberalism
and the music of the sixties. But I digress.

Jim

[lizzytysh]

Very interestingly so, however, Jim. A woman and I were talking about it today, about the seeming 'clarity' of that time in the less intense arenas than those you've mentioned. Everyone knew the 'rules' ~ men and women knew what was 'expected' of them in their 'roles' with each other. Much has been gained on many fronts, yet still something has been lost. I don't have time to flesh this out further, but that time is still nostalgic for me. It seems there's no 'perfect' time in history, is there? As a young girl, coming of age, I knew exactly what to do to be "a good girl" and what not to do, lest I be considered "a bad girl" ~ and being "a good girl" was a kind of badge of honour. That's just one aspect. Ah... no time. Feminism and its benefits would need to be included next.

~ Lizzy

[linmag]

You are right about the clarity of those times, Lizzie, and that this was down to rules and boundaries. This made life very easy for most people, but there were many who did not fit into the prescribed categories, and back then they got very little sympathy. The gradual redefining/abolition of certain boundaries and rules has no doubt helped these people, and the resulting confusion may be the price that the rest of us have to pay. It's always much harder when you have to think for yourself, and again, not everyone is up to it. There are some who would say that we have gone too far in the direction of compromise, and there will probably be a backlash, but I think we're still too close in time to judge clearly.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Linmag ~

As I think you know [many prior discussions and touching on these points], I agree with and support all you've said here... still, from time to time, one just gets wistful for the simplicity [with a dark side ~ many dark sides, in fact!] of 'the good ol' days,' even though many [including me] have "come a long way, baby" as a result of the changes.

I remember once asking my male friend [friend only] why he never seemed to offer to help me with anything ~ things I'd be in the midst of doing at my house. He responded, "Well, I would have, but you've never asked and you just never seemed to need any help with what you were doing, and aother women I know, do." That led to a discussion of how it's nice for someone to just offer sometimes, even if you don't need the help or seem to need it. We got it all sorted, and it was a minor thing, but still one of the many ramifications of being 'independent.'

I enjoyed the feeling of serenity I got when reading Leonard's account of his time with Marianne on Hydra. A division/sharing of tasks that seemed to work very well for them. Of course, 'picking up after' a man as fastidious as Leonard would be a moot issue, wouldn't it ?

I actually feel things are coming more into a sense of equilibrium, with the alienation that occurred between well-meaning men and well-meaning women, as a result of those changes. Change can be painful.

~ Lizzy

[peter danielsen]

Oh I am so deeply touched by this version by K.D. Lang, Im listening to it right now.

I finished my study last week, and are now moving out of my old flat. As I went through the old boxes in the cellar i found some 18 year old letters...oh the love we had and forgot..

I will finish this bottle of wine and salute you L.Cohen, and you Lang, and tomorrow try to...

Peter

[Tchocolatl]

I drink to that peter danielsen - especially if it is a red Bordeaux.

Hum.. G (ood) O (ld) T (ime). Always seems better. In the fifties there was no such thing as a "good" girl. This is why they burned their bra. Either you were a girl completely brain-washed with the culture of the time, in which case you were considered not OK in regard of the standards of US psychologists (the definition for a "normal" woman was the definition for an abnormal being - turn to the left, you are wrong, turn to the right, you are wrong), either you were a girl who could think by herself, and then you were not a "normal" female (turn to the left, you are wrong, turn to the right you are wrong).

"Good" girls of 60, 70, 80, 90 seem to me like poor Vietnam war US patriot soldiers : they did fight for their country in the name of their good up-bringing, they get out of this wounded, both physically and psychologicaly, and in addition they are considered like dejection by the avant-garde.

Thanks for the song. Halleluyah.