Dante’s Inferno, Canto 5, wherein we find the lustful, and discuss modern and the mediaeval notions of lust – is it a passion, or is it a specific kind of action? We meet the horrible judge of Hell, Minos, and many personages from legend and history famous for their lustful behaviour. And we encounter Paolo and Francesca, perhaps the most famous episode in all of Dante. Music by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, the Band, Bob Dylan, the Clovers, and Purcell. You are invited to attend.
Tags: Bob Dylan, Dante, Dido and Aeneas, Francesca da Rimini, Inferno, Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg, Je t'aime ... moi non plus, Long Black Veil, Lust, Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street), One Mint Julep, Paolo and Francesca, Purcell, Tchaikovsky, The Band, The Clovers
[The sound begins at 1:59. We apologise for this unnecessary blank space. Perhaps we can use it as a time of silence, to prepare for what’s coming. Perhaps it will be corrected as soon as possible.]
We are in the Second Circle of Dante’s Inferno, the circle of Limbo, where we find the rational, honourable soul that feels no pain, but also no delight because it never stretched itself to share the joys of surprise, blind leaps in the dark, and holy chutzpah. Music from Chubby Checker, Jimmy Cliff, and a touch of Rumi. You are invited to attend.
Tags: Chubby Checker, Dante, Jimmy Cliff, Limbo, Rumi
Canto 3 of the Inferno, wherein Dante is challenged by the Gates of Hell, passes through the area of the non-descript souls, who have done nothing with their lives and spend eternity being stung to follow furiously behind meaningless banners, and then is ferried over the first river of Hell – but faints as soon as he gets across. Music by Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Amiri Baraka, Robert Johnson, Randy Newman. You are invited to attend.
Tags: Amiri Baraka, Bob Dylan, Dante, Inferno, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Robert Johnson
Three parts to the show: a story illustrating that “Evolutionism” and “Creationism” are not opposing views; Canto 2 of Dante’s Inferno, as he backs out of the journey and then consents to the journey, now for the right reasons; Leonard Cohen’s “Paper-Thin Hotel”, illustrating the lesson Dante also must learn, “You go to Heaven once you’ve been to Hell.” Also included is the impromptu opening moments, when the Sky News failed to appear, and RLA offered a different kind of “sky” news. You are invited to attend.
Series Four of Evening under Lamplight is taking us through Dante’s Inferno, bringing to life this great story, this great poem. We start in the middle, and e start lost. You are invited to attend, to jump into the middle of things, and to find yourself lost
Tags: Danny Kaye, Dante, Fraggle Rock, Gustav Holst, Inferno, Kinky Friedman, Woody Guthrie
As we come to the final parts of “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman rushes us along, since he can stay “only a minute longer”, and we must put the poem aside and move on into the future. But there’s time to talk about the merits of being inconsistent, about barbaric yawps over the rooftops, and of what happens when the poet disappears as the book comes to an end – but then stops some where (beyond the words on the page), waiting for us. And so, we come to the end of our journey through “Song of Myself” and to the end of Series Three of Evening under Lamplight. What will Series Four bring us? We’ll find out next time, and meanwhile, you are invited to attend.
Bridie Jackson and The Arbour giving us “Scarecrow” (see picture), and two Border Ballads, “Clerk Saunders and May Margaret” and “Edward, Edward”, enact the way dramatic voices give strength to the writing. Dylan’s “She’s Your Lover Now” shows that even more. And Whitman tags on with his contribution to the discussion, too. With incidental music by Janet Harbison, Jeannie Robertson, and Elgar. You are invited to attend.
Tags: Bob Dylan, Bridie Jackson and The Arbour, Bringer of Jollity, Clerk Saunders and May Margaret, Edward Edward, Elgar, Janet Harbison, Jeannie Robertson, Jupiter, MacCrimmon's Lament, She's Your Lover Now
We start with a tribute (of sorts) to Lee Andrews and the Hearts (pictured), then preview Louis Barabbas’ new album Gentle Songs of Ceaseless Horror, before moving on to our theme, taken from Robert Frost’s insistence on the need for literature to be “drama”, with support from Wendell Berry, Randy Newman, William McGonagall and Taj Mahal. It all leads into our (brief) look at Walt Whitman this week, supported by the Beatles, and the whole show closes with Michael Brecker. A broad enough range of items for you? Come along; you’re invited to attend.
Tags: Beatles, Lee Andrews and the Hearts, Louis Barabbas, Michael Brecker, Randy Newman, Robert Frost, Taj Mahal, Walt Whitman, William McGonagall
First we attend to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and their songs celebrating self-pity. Then there are the Incredible String Band’s energy projections wishing you well, and the usual wisdom from Walt Whitman, about soul-body connection, being a hero at work, sympathy or the devil, walking around “pocketless of a dime”, and much more. Guest appearances from Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander Pope, Ram Dass, and more. You are invited to attend. (Heard first on Cambridge 105.)
Tags: A Very Cellular Song, Cambridge 105, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Incredible String Band, passive-aggressive, Ram Dass, Robert Louis Stevenson, Statler Brothers, Walt Whitman
A succession of varied tangents arising from Whitman’s poetry, taking us to Godspell, dynamic education (which includes destroying your teacher), a Greek castration myth, and a Zen fable, which leads into songs by Dylan and Louis Barabas and the Bedlam Six. We bring in Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Book of Job, Jesus vs. the do-gooders, and the cowards rushing around the vestibule of Dante’s Inferno (see picture), who were, as Whitman says, “virtuous out of conformity or fear”. Randy Newman comments on following the flag, and Sly and the Family Stone share Whitman’s love for “everyday people”. You are invited to attend.
