We attend to the poem that gave us the phrase “ignorance is bliss” and reflect on what it means there, then a few songs on various kinds of ignorance and finally a George Ade fable about a “Learned Phrenologist” and the “Human Being” who gets a “good Jolly” and remains blissful in his ignornace. You are invited to attend.
[As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]
We attend to the theme of Worrying, first with songs by the Beach Boys, Ricky Valence, and several by the Kinks, then poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, and Wendell Berry. You are invited to attend. [As heard first on Cambridge 105 Radio]
As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio, Part 2 of our discussion of Dylan’s album Oh Mercy.
We attend to the timely tracks on Dylan’s Oh Mercy album, with a few Declaration of Independence moments to begin with. Part 2 to follow next time.
As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio.
And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.
Picking up on Whitman’s offer of help, we start with songs about helping and being helped, and then some absurd attempts at help, and then, moving further into Whitman, we draw upon Ralph Waldo Emerson’s call for us to “enjoy an original relation to the universe”, based on our own experience, not on what other’s have experienced. Blake comes into it, too, so does Joseph Campbell on myths. You are invited to attend.
We attend to more songs and literary treatments of trains: Robyn Hitchcock, Flanders and Swann, Solomon Burke, Louis Armstrong, Josh White, O’Jays, Duke Ellington, and Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens, William MacGonagall, and others. You are invited to attend.
[As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]
From the Archives, we attend to many, varied songs and poems about trains. More here than meets the eye. You are invited to attend.
[First heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]
We attend to different aspects of Moving, with one song after another, featuring: Kinks, Stones, Jr Walker, Josh White, Juke Boy Bonner, Temptations, Goons, Fats Waller, Melanie, Dylan, Simon & Garfunkle, Fraggle Rock. Something for everyone (maybe). You are invited to attend.
(As heard first on Cambridge 105 Radio.)
Closing out Cambridge 105 Radio’s week of focus on Loneliness, we attend to various aspects of loneliness, alienation, solitude. You are invited to attend.
From the Archives, to set us up for the Cambridge Companions week focusing on the problem of loneliness, coming up at the end of this month.
“But I would not feel so all alone / Everybody must get stoned”, sings Dylan, and we take up that thought and attend to the ways it can adjust our outlook, bringing us all together in the inevitable adversity that is part of our humanity, consoling ourselves and reaching out to console others, with music by Dylan, Frederick Knight, The Four Tops, Solomon Burke, Ernest Bloch, the Kinks, and some comforting words from Stephen Levine, ending with a miraculous Holocaust story. You are invited to attend.
(As heard first on Cambridge 105 Radio.)
