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.
Whitman reminds us that we are on “a perpetual journey”, and he comes with us as far as he can, then sends us off on our adventure. We look, this evening under lamplight, at various angles of life as journey, with Andy Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Broceliande, Ray Davies, Béla Fleck, Jefferson Airplane, String Driven Thing, and talk from Joseph Campbell and RLA’s CD Journey through the Seasons. You are invited to attend.
You are invited to attend The Athena Connection, looking at what it means to be a Mentor, passing on to others the spirit of Athena, goddess of weaving and tactics (and tact). What do we do with Athena’s inspiration? – dance with it, or deny it, like Arachne, that spiderwoman. We take a few breaks along the way for music by the Greek dance band Athena, some Dylan, some Rolling Stones, also Malcolm Guite and a Scottish weavers’ song, and another dose of Walt Whitman, leading to the “unnameable ardors of my breast” with Mozart’s Queen of the Night.
You are invited to attend this week’s show, exploring tongue twisters, lies, truths, and other games of language. There’s a story here too, both literally and mythically true. And a great variety of music: Danny Kaye, Fraggle Rock, Gilbert & Sullivan, Leonard Cohen, Bruckner motet, Bob Dylan, CBS Jubilees, Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis from India.
Though disrupted by a sniffly, coldy voice, RLA substitutes for his intended show this triad of three relatively long pieces this week: Carnival of the Animals, with comic verses by Ogden Nash, spoken by Noel Coward; the Firesign Theater’s “Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him”; and an alternate version of “Desolation Row”. You’re invited to attend.
Tags: Cambridge 105, Carnival of the Animals, Desolation Row, Dylan, Firesign Theater, Noel Coward, Ogden Nash, Saint-Saens
Walt Whitman comes to us “disorderly fleshly and sensual … eating drinking and breeding”, with many other interesting and outrageous assertions this week: “copulation is no more rank to me than death is”, or “the scent of these armpits is aroma finer than prayer”, and the sumptuous new word “omnifutuant” – tune in to find out what this word means. And it’s all supported with music from the Waterboys, Russian Orthodox liturgy, John Lennon, Lou Reed, the Four Clefs, the Kinks, and Leonard Cohen. You’re invited to attend.
