From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #177 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, May 3 2001 Volume 10 : Number 177 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: childhood musical inspirations? [Viv Lyon ] Re: childhood musical inspirations? [Tom Clark ] Re: childhood musical inspirations? ["Mike wells" ] seminal notions ["Natalie Jacobs" ] Re: childhood musical inspirations? [Stephen Mahoney ] intellectual idiot dancing ["Lilac Doorway" ] Re: intellectual idiot dancing [Eclipse ] RE: childhood musical inspirations? ["Bachman, Michael" ] Re: seminal notions [HAL ] intellectual idiot dancing ["Poole, R. Edward" ] Re: intellectual idiot dancing [HAL ] Re: seminal notions [Stephen Mahoney ] Re: seminal reruns ["Mike wells" ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V10 #167 ["Richard Zeszotarski" ] Re: intellectual idiot dancing ["victorian squid" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 08:59:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Viv Lyon Subject: Re: childhood musical inspirations? On Wed, 2 May 2001, Karen Reichstein wrote: > 1. The entire album: The Point by Nilsson (just ask Carole about "Oblio") I could sing this whole thing from start to finish, at one time in my life. Even now I often find myself humming "Poly high- poly technic poly technical high...." Or "This is the time and we are the people, this is the time and the people all say..." Oh gosh, the memories are flooding back. Need to go...lie..down... Vivien ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 08:47:43 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: childhood musical inspirations? on 5/2/01 10:42 PM, Karen Reichstein at karen_reichstein@hotmail.com wrote: > > What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, directly > influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes dark music of > Robyn Hitchock? > Zappa, Bowie, Zeppelin, Doors, Beatles. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 11:46:24 -0500 From: "Mike wells" Subject: Re: childhood musical inspirations? > > What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, directly > > influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes dark music of > > Robyn Hitchock? Since the question is "listened to" it's probably cheating... but I'll certainly say that a lot of what WANS'T any good probably had as much to do with me acquiring this weird, twisted appreciation than did those things which were similar to RH. The mostly mindless dreck pumping out of the clear channel stations back in the late 70's, early 80's - we're talking Rockwell here people - led to deeper searches and alternative avenues of obtaining music...and the subsequent exposure to artists I never would have actively sought out otherwise. But yes, I suppose there are comparisons in my echo chamber to: Beatles Ultravox Kinks ('yes' I hear Jill saying) Lou Reed Talking Heads FZ Concrete Blonde's first two albums Byrds (though I never liked them the way I love RH) Gloria Gaynor JUST KIDDING folks, I WAS KIDDING about that last one. Calm down. Michael "Norway, Sweden - what's the difference" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 10:12:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: Balls. meanwhile, back at the ranch on a balmy afternoon on Wed, 2 May 2001, Glen Uber oozed: > This is slightly off-topic, but slightly not: > > When I saw Paul McCartney in 1990, I was standing in front of some "real" > Beatles fans. All they did was talk through McCartney's new material > (_Flowers In The Dirt_) and half-heartedly sing off-key during some of the > Wings tunes. > > One of the first Beatles songs performed that night was "Fool On The > Hill". When the first few chords of that began to permiate the air, the > Beatlemaniacs behind me yelled the following: > > He: "C'mon Paul! Play something we know!" > She: "Yeah, play a Beatles' song!" > > My friend Steve and I almost demanded that their concert-going privileges > for the evening be revoked. Instead, we decided to enjoy the show, despite > the dirth of Beatles' songs. > at least they didnt yell out "do freebird!" :) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 10:21:15 -0700 From: "Natalie Jacobs" Subject: seminal notions >What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, >directly >influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes >dark music of >Robyn Hitchock? I listened to the Beatles constantly from the age of five... especially the records my hippie uncle bequeathed us - "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road." For some reason, "Got to Get You Into My Life" really spooked me....I always associate it with this weird mental image of car headlights piercing through the darkness. Once when I was very small, my parents went out for the night and I was scared, but then I listened to "Sgt. Pepper" and felt better. (Now, of course, I'm totally sick of it.) Anyway, the Robyn connection should be clear. I adored Spike Jones and the Goons - I had this tape with Spike on one side and the Goons on the other, and I must have played it to the point of disintegration, since it seems to have vanished. I can still sing "I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas" and do that Peter Lorre bit at the end of "My Old Flame." ("She would always treat me mean, so I took a can of gasoline...") This sort of warped humor definitely seems to be a Robyn precursor. I'm sure he likes the Goons (who doesn't??). The early days of MTV primed me for surrealism. Remember Peter Gabriel being attacked by midgets? Or David Byrne's spastic preacher dance? Of course you do. David Bowie's videos always scared the hell out of me. There was that one weird band singing something called "Senses Working Overtime" in slow motion. And I do remember seeing the video for "Raymond Chandler Evening," which I thought was boring. That was probably the first Robyn song I ever heard. My steady diet of Tom Waits, the Velvet Underground, and REM in my high school days may have readied my palate for the equally pleasing sounds of Robyn and XTC (both of whom I discovered at around the same time). Oh, and there was my Monkees fetish... and my short-lived adoration of the Doors... oh, I don't know. I should get back to work. n. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 10:27:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: childhood musical inspirations? On Wed, 2 May 2001, Glen Uber ruminated while still oozing: > My dad had some Homer & Jethro and Ben Colder (Sheb "Purple People Eater" god I thought I wuz the only critter who growed up listenin to homer and jethro > Wooley's drunken hillbilly alter ego) records that I listened to quite > often. They were my prelude to Weird Al and other parodists. I maintain that > one of the knee-slappingist funny songs you'll ever hear is a song Homer & > Jethro made famous, entitled, "I Am My Own Grandpa". Second to none in its > cleverness. > I also thought that the Disneyland "Sounds of the Haunted House" was a > pretty cool record when I was about 6 or so. I grew up 15 minutes away from disneyland not bragging by any means just that it was part of my childhood( cant say that I wish to go to either the new disneyland or the new knotts berry farm, new for me being after 1984) > "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" by Brian Hymen > "Monster Mash" by Boris Pickett same here also grew up with older sisters who were beatles fanatics beatles '65 rubber soul magical mystery tour the white album light my fire suzy q space oddity those were my older brothers along with a full collection of herb albert and chicago (I-VIII) and the score from shaft!!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 10:30:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Wolfe Subject: weeds >>Kay, reasking her -does anyone know an eco-friendly way to get >>rid of weeds, cause they sure come back real fast question;-) > >we used to pour boiling water on the weeds in the sidewalk >cracks. i think it worked but it was a long time ago. And as we all know, major advances have been made in weed-technology in the last 20 years. Scientists have created a new, super-weed that can throttle a pig at 20 paces. And don't even think about that boiling water crap. Today's weeds'll take that boiling water and pour it right down your shorts, and give you a slap in the puss in the bargain. What a wonderous age, what a brave new world we live in, and what a great debt we owe our friends in industry! - -Michael Wolfe ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 17:54:08 -0000 From: "Lilac Doorway" Subject: intellectual idiot dancing Was listening to Rubber Soul over lunch and realized that even at that stage there was so much melancholy to John's stuff. (BTW,the side of my nose which dosnt look like Bawb's looks likes John's ;^). Part of the beauty of some of his stuff is how he dosnt whine, but lets the sadness linger in, underlie the music. Carole--my parents made me pull weeds and water the plants all summer long too. Same reason-work ethic. I hated it. It wasnt my garden. I had no say in what was in it. This is why Im looking for a better method now than having my daughter pull them.;-) And yes the earth smells very good. Ive always thought it funny we call soil dirt. Soil is fecund and savory. Dirt is ... dirt, at best soil out of its right place. And sorry--I loved clamming, crabbing and fishing as a kid. The whole point thou was to eat the stuff right after you caught it. And I still love fresh raw(or steamed) shellfish. Karen: >What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, >directly >influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes dark >music of >Robyn Hitchock? I assume by childhood you mean pre-puberty. The obvious, the Beatles. The semi-obvious: G&S(not dark, but certianly witty and fantastical) The not so obvious: Showtunes, caberet music--Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Arlen--my parents were big fans. My first musical memory is of twirling around in our den singing "They All Laughed." Its influence makes me appreciate a well-made song--inventive lyrics with an interesting melody. It also makes me appreciate people who really know how to interpret a song, modulate the phrasing. There are worse things than being raised on Billie Holiday and Nelson Riddler-era Frank Sinatra. Oh--also jazz; Lots of Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz. There is a story my parents tell(which I personally dont believe;-), that one night, my nanny's night off when they couldnt find any sitter, I ended up, at about 8 months old on my mom's knee at Birdland. Mike: >Fatboy slim Video on.... >Has Christopher Walken on it.... >DANCING? Actually, I think thats his background. He started as a kid?(How do I know this? Dont have a clue;-) Best phrase of the last few digests: Branscombe: >intellectual idiot dancing. Eureka! thats it! Thats what Ive been doing my whole life(thou in different costumes, currently in Pierrot pj's.) Godwin, youve inspired a new craze. OK--this question comes to mind as a good "what music" sorta question since as I mentioned, I was just listening to "Rubber Soul" and started moistening(maybe cause its always played at funerals these days) to "In My Life." - --You know you need a good cry. What music do you put on? Kay _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 11:14:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Eclipse Subject: Re: intellectual idiot dancing On Thu, 3 May 2001, Lilac Doorway wrote: > --You know you need a good cry. What music do you put on? let me be the first to answer this, since i'm probably first in the queue of people who've had a good cry lately. for me, hands down, it's Grant Lee Phillips' _Ladies' Love Oracle_. "Foldin'" and "Flamin' Shoe" can always turn on the waterworks. other good selections include Kate Bush's _The Sensual World_, sometimes Radiohead's _OK Computer_, Peter Murphy's _Deep_, and, if i'm also pissed, Skinny Puppy's _The Process_ or _Vivisect VI_. also, _Disintegration_ and The Smiths' self-titled are more cliched in this category, but still very appropriate .. someone bring me another box of kleenex, Eclipse np: "Human Music" and "Where Are The Prawns?", over and over and over again in my head - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Eclipse | eclipse@best.com If this is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 14:15:37 -0400 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: childhood musical inspirations? Terrence Marks wrote > What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, directly > influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes dark music of > Robyn Hitchock? Late childhood: Psychedlic Lollipop by The Blues Magoos Then Play On by Fleetwood Mac (my introduction to free form FM rock radio in 1969). Parachute by The Pretty Things Early adolescence My older sister's Beatles records Watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Feb. 1964 Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 11:49:49 -0700 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: childhood musical inspirations? >From: "Karen Reichstein" >What music did you listen to in childhood that, in your opinion, directly >influenced your taste for the sometimes fanciful, sometimes dark music of >Robyn Hitchock? That's sort of a loaded question, given the adjectives. :) When I was a little kid, the music of my parents' that I liked the best was Simon & Garfunkel and the Mamas and the Papas (they weren't into the Beatles or the Stones or the Beach Boys...it was Elvis for them, and as for Dylan they only had Nashville Skyline). I suppose it's possible that the Smothers Brothers records influenced my views on the comic possibilities of crustaceans ("crabs walk sideways and lobsters walk straight") but it's more likely that the early 80s new wave I fell in love with set me up to love quirky British pop music. I didn't even _like_ the Beatles until halfway through college (they are still, however much I might respect them, not on my list of favorite bands), and until very very recently I was sure I hated Bob Dylan. I liked the Byrds as soon as I heard something besides "Turn, Turn, Turn." "Fanciful" and "dark" were more likely set up for me by books. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Daniel M. Pinkwater, and the wonderful gothic juvenile fiction of John Bellairs, for example. Maybe your question isn't as appropriate for those of us who were four when the Soft Boys formed. :) >From: =b >Subject: Re: god save san francisco > >about the one-liner in the EYE-liner: > > > If I'm not mistaken it was recorded in S.F. They had that awful earthquake > > right before it was to come out (the one that postponed the World > Series). I > > think it was a kind of dedication to the city. > >i'd always assumed it was a tongue-in-cheek combining of "God Save the >Queen" and the fact that there are a lot of gay guys in San Francisco. >God save the Queens... get it? At the time I didn't know much about Robyn and I got a little paranoid about that and the puzzling "Queen Elvis" (which I must admit I am still not sure I understand fully). It didn't seem far-fetched to me then that Robyn hoped God would turn all the SF homos straight. Eek! >huh! i belatedly looked it up, and it's considered *offensive* slang. What, "queens"? Naw, not especially. As with all of them (except maybe "fag," which is pretty dire), it's all in who you are and how you say it. Drew - -- Andrew D. Simchik, drew at stormgreen dot com http://www.stormgreen.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 11:50:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: intellectual idiot dancing On Thu, 3 May 2001, Lilac Doorway wrote: > Oh--also jazz; Lots of Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz. > > Best phrase of the last few digests: > Branscombe: > >intellectual idiot dancing. > Eureka! thats it! Thats what Ive been doing my whole life(thou in different > costumes, currently in Pierrot pj's.) Godwin, youve inspired a new craze. yes that is a great phrase it made me think of a situation being at a mixed ethnicity wedding with a black dj and feeling that I had two left feet and a couple of toes to spare! - -mahoney ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 13:01:02 -0600 From: HAL Subject: Re: seminal notions Natalie: > Once when I was very small, my parents went > out for the night and I was scared, but then I listened to "Sgt. Pepper" and > felt better. That's actually really beautiful. I've had a sad or foul mood altered positively by Sgt. Pepper myself on a couple of occasions. I can recall an "old hippie" program director at a radio station I worked for years ago swearing that it was *the* cure for bad acid trips ("Put it on and it's instantly familiar. It's like an old friend. It's just so...FRIENDLY!!") > (Now, of course, I'm totally sick of it.) So are the remaining Threetles (preferring, of course, Revolver). I don't think John ever favored Pepper (too much Paulie). I tend to shelve it for years at a time and then I'll occasionally pull it out and play the thing in it's entirety. Works best for me that way. As a kid, I used to skip "Within You Without You", but now it's become my second favorite track (after "A Day In The Life"). /hal fave rave early (pre-pube scent) childhood records: 45's: === Sea Cruise - Frankie Ford (1959 - I musta heard this one in the crib) Itchycoo Park - Small Faces Daydream Believer - Monkees Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles A Question Of Temperature - The Balloon Farm Who's Nuts, Alfred? - JD Blackfoot Long-players: ========== The Beatles - entire catalogue The Doors - debut album/Strange days Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money There's A Kind Of Hush - Herman's Hermits CCR - Bayou Country Santana - debut album Cream - Disraeli Gears Capt. Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica The Monkees - debut album/More Of.../Headquarters George Carlin - Class Clown TV shows: =========== The Monkees Batman HR Pufenstuf/Sigmund and the Sea Monster SpiderMan (animated) The Outer Limits Lancelot Link Secret Chimp Laugh-In Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 15:18:10 -0400 From: "Poole, R. Edward" Subject: intellectual idiot dancing >You know you need a good cry. What music do you put on? Joan Armatrading, "Joan Armatrading" LP Janis Joplin, "Cry Baby" (live version) Fugazi, "13 Songs" (esp. "Promises" -- for when the crying is mixed with rage) ============================================================================This e-mail message and any attached files are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) named above. This communication may contain material protected by attorney-client, work product, or other privileges. If you are not the intended recipient or person responsible for delivering this confidential communication to the intended recipient, you have received this communication in error, and any review, use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, copying, or other distribution of this e-mail message and any attached files is strictly prohibited. If you have received this confidential communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail message and permanently delete the original message. To reply to our email administrator directly, send an email to postmaster@dsmo.com Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP http://www.legalinnovators.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 13:19:42 -0600 From: HAL Subject: Re: intellectual idiot dancing kay wrote: > Was listening to Rubber Soul over lunch and realized that even at that stage > there was so much melancholy to John's stuff. And even earlier, "Help!" was (originally) conceived by John as a melancholy ballad. In the PLAYBOY interview just before he died, he mentioned that he had always regretted allowing the Beatles upbeat treatment of that song, since it disguised the intended painful message (that in later years he would have no trouble revealing more directly.) /hal ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 12:30:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: seminal notions On Thu, 3 May 2001, HAL wrote: tee vee shows > =========== > The Monkees > Batman > HR Pufenstuf/Sigmund and the Sea Monster > SpiderMan (animated) > The Outer Limits > Lancelot Link Secret Chimp > Laugh-In > Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (didnt steve martin write for them?) my older sisters went to high school with him but werent cool enough to know him on a first name basis (damn!!!!!) in addition to those above: six million dollar man electric company lidsville/lamd of the lost bananna splits three stooges the munsters/addams family the little rascals speed racer get smart hogans heroes occasional doctor who episodes ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 15:25:42 -0500 From: "Mike wells" Subject: Re: seminal reruns > On Thu, 3 May 2001, HAL wrote: > > tee vee shows > > =========== > > The Monkees > > Batman > > HR Pufenstuf/Sigmund and the Sea Monster > > SpiderMan (animated) > > The Outer Limits > > Lancelot Link Secret Chimp > > Laugh-In > > Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour > (didnt steve martin write for them?) > my older sisters went to high school with him > but werent cool enough to know him on a first name basis > (damn!!!!!) > > in addition to those above: > six million dollar man > electric company > lidsville/lamd of the lost > bananna splits > three stooges > the munsters/addams family > the little rascals > speed racer > get smart > hogans heroes > occasional doctor who episodes === A Sigmund & the Sea Monster reference - now that'll date you. Oh God, to see those little furry green seaweed bastards shuffling around again... Try these on for size: Ernie Kovacs (all hail the KING, baby) Fractured Fairy Tales (set the wayback machine, Sherman) Garfield Goose (WGN) Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (dig that giant plastic squid) Captain 11 (for those of you from Souix Falls) Blake's 7 (the best sci-fi TV series ever, no contest and sorry Tom Baker) The French Chef with Julia Child (what can you say - it was insane) Space 1999 (Martin Landau & Barbara Bain in the same show? Gotta be a winner!) Wonder Woman (duh...) And don't forget the British contingent, courtesy of public television: Dave Allen (the whiskey glass that never got empty) Benny Hill (when you run out of material, show the girls) The Two Ronnies (when you run out of material period...) and, of course Monty Python Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 17:12:29 -0400 From: "Richard Zeszotarski" Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V10 #167 >- "The Film": Soundtrack to The Wall film, available on bootleg (Ken >Weingold take note.) Identical to the album The Wall except for the >deletion of "Hey You", the inclusion of "When The Tigers Broke Free", a >snippet of "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" at the very beginning, >the alternate movie version of "Mother", and the replacement of "Empty >Spaces" with "What Shall We Do Now?" (which was included in the lyric sheet >for the original Wall LP but not actually on the album.) Also has the song >"We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn tacked on to the end. I seem to remember one of the songs on "The Film" bootleg being a version of a song on the regular "Wall" album, except the film version had an extra verse or two. Not sure which song it was, though. And there was some short, extra song right before "Teen Lust" if I reemmber right. Sorry if I've gotten the titles wrong-I know Pink Floyd to here it, but I'll be damned if I can ever remember the tunes' titles. >- Also, there is a soundtrack album from the early '90s which has a few >songs from Roger Waters and the Bleeding Heart Band (in addition to ones by >Bowie and others) but I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called >or what film it's from. I think it was an animated film. That would be "When the Wind Blows", an animated film about a naive elderly English couple trying to cope with the aftermath of a nuclear war (how very Waters!) A friend told me that the Pythons were asked to work on this film, but refused, saying that it was just too damn depressing. I have the film's soundtrack on record (pilfered from my old college radio station), but have not listened to it in its entirity, as it contains songs by the god-awful Paul Hardcastle. - -Rich Z. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 17:23:01 -0400 From: Eric Loehr Subject: Re: seminal notions At 10:21 AM 5/3/01 -0700, gnat wrote: >I listened to the Beatles constantly from the age of five... especially the >records my hippie uncle bequeathed us - "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey >Road." (snip).... Once when I was very small, my parents went >out for the night and I was scared, but then I listened to "Sgt. Pepper" and >felt better. (Now, of course, I'm totally sick of it.) Anyway, the Robyn >connection should be clear. > >I adored Spike Jones and the Goons - I had this tape with Spike on one side >and the Goons on the other, and I must have played it to the point of >disintegration, since it seems to have vanished. Yet a further connection is of course, that George Martin guy, who produced both the Beatles and the Goons albums.... Eric "Beatles trivia 'R' us" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 14:33:01 -0700 From: "victorian squid" Subject: Re: intellectual idiot dancing On Thu, 03 May 2001 17:54:08 Lilac Doorway wrote: >And yes the earth smells very good. Ive always thought it funny we call soil >dirt. Soil is fecund and savory. Dirt is ... dirt, at best soil out of its >right place. I find myself wondering if you guys would like Demeter "Dirt". OK, splaination is in order, I think. Demeter is a fragrance company that makes, for lack of a better way to describe it, "everyday scents". These aren't perfumes in the traditional sense but rather evocative smells like "Laundromat" and "Ditto". "Dirt" is one of their biggest sellers. Altho actually IMO "Tomato" smells a lot more like soil, since it sort of smells like tomato vines. In regard to childhood musical influences: >The not so obvious: Showtunes, caberet music--Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Arlen-- >my parents were big fans. My first musical memory is of twirling around in our den >singing "They All Laughed." Its influence makes me appreciate a well-made song-- Yes and yes. I really feel this is the -musical- thing most directly related to a Robyn Hitchcock appreciation in my case. This was a lot of what my mom listened to and we watched musicals all the time growing up. A Fred and Ginger movie is a bit like comfort food to me, that way. The thing is, I think this just primed me to know and appreciate quality songwriting by -anyone-. Altho if you know 30s musical comedies or 30s comedies, period, you've probably guessed that an absurd sense of humor might have been spawned here :). I would say childhood reading had probably the largest bearing. I read a lot of Poe and Fraqncis Hodgson Burnett (I'm not exaggerating when I say I read "The Secret Garden" probably hundreds of times). We had a children's Shakespeare with beautiful watercolor illustrations that I used to spend long afternoons poring over (my favorites were Macbeth and Hamlet). When I was home sick I used to like to read my mom's SJ Perelman books (he still cracks me up like nobody else). She had a cassette of "The Importance of Being Earnest" that she used to play in the car that I -loved-, even if I didn't quite get the significance of cucumber sandwiches to the whole thing. Starting when I was about 9 a local UHF station started running "Twilight Zone" at 3:30, right after I got home from school (yeah!) and I never missed one. I also used to get up at night and sneak-watch "Night Gallery". And "Wodehouse Playhouse" on Saturday nights. If you put these together that just about sums it up. >--You know you need a good cry. What music do you put on? Townes Van Zandt is by far the best thing when I'm soul-weary. Definitely takes the least energy to listen to. And to paraphrase what the protagonist of "Absolute Beginners" said of Billie Holiday, he's been through so much in his life that he carries it all for you. loveonya, susan Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 16:46:22 -0500 From: JH3 Subject: Cry, cry, cry, all the way home >--You know you need a good cry. What music do you put on? Hey, no problem there! I just got the latest Nick Cave CD! I remember an episode of the late-70's teevee series "Taxi" in which Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" was used to devastating effect, though I never liked that particular series much. (So maybe it's all a matter of context?) I also get slightly teary when I hear the theme from The Elephant Man. I'm not sure if it's because of the theme itself, or because it makes me nostalgic for the days when David Lynch made movies like that... The most recent thing I can think of that lots of people on this list would probably have is the Flaming Lips' "The Spiderbite Song." That usually does the job! Boo-HOO! John "haunting, harrowing, hee-haw" Hedges ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #177 ********************************