Sweet Marie again…

All this talking about Dylan and poetry and of course I forgot the most important thing…

Feast your brain on the lyricalities of today’s song

 

                Words and Music by Bob Dylan
                1966, 1976 Dwarf Music

Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can’t jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I’m just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously
But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately.

Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin’lly delivered down to the penitentiary
But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Well, I don’t know how it happened
But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate
But ev’rybody else, even yourself
They’re just gonna have to wait.

Well, I got the fever down in my pockets
The Persian drunkard, he follows me
Yes, I can take him to your house but I can’t unlock it
You see, you forgot to leave me with the key
Oh, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can’t give his address out to bad company
And now I stand here lookin’ at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
Wond’ring where you are tonight, sweet Marie.

ABSOLUTELY SWEET MARIE

Absolutely Sweet Marie

Now, one of my faves from Dylan.

“Blonde On Blonde” (1966) is probably my fave Dylan album, if I had to choose one. Obviously, it’s a classic and everybody knows this one.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Zimmy is only my fourth best poet. Why is this? Well, frankly he lost a lot of points just for being such an obvious choice. I like to promote the less hallowed heroes. Plus, a lot of his albums really suck, especially in the seventies. His recent work has been pretty good, but his track record is patchy.

A lot of his best songs don’t make any sense, and that’s an observation not a complaint. I like “Blonde on Blonde” (BoB) because the songs do kind of make sense and are very emotional and even romantic by Dylan standards.

I used to hate Dylan when I was younger, because I couldn’t stand his voice. It’s grown on me, clearly, since then. But I think he’s one of the most god-awful/great singers we’ve got.

Coatimundi

UPDATE: The unidentified critter which got its little throat slit in “Cannibal Holocaust” was a coatimundi. (I thought it looked like a possum at first).

Coatis are members of the raccoon family and range from Southwest North America all the way down to Mid South America. Like many other denizens of the Amazon they face habitat destruction, overhunting and other human-related perils. I’ve seen coati at the Washington Zoo and they are very cute.

Movie Minute

Today’s movie is Ruggero Doedato’s 1980 ‘classic’ “Cannibal Holocaust”. This is widely known as one of the most controversial movies of all time – for very, very good reasons. Number One is the highly realistic depictions of depravity and violence. There are repulsive portrayals of RAPE, Disembowelment, Massacre and Cannibalism. Probably the worst I’ve ever seen. . I’m a fairly desensitized horror viewer, but that was gruesome, really gruesome.But well depicted human depravity is something a faithful horror fan is accustomed to and should be able to deal with.

More offensive is the portrayal of white and native relations.  The story is about a film crew doing some so-called ‘research’ in the Amazon. They commit atrocities against the native peoples and are in  turn butchered. This is probably completely historically accurate. There is no doubt European explorers abused the natives, and suffered at their hands as well. However, exploiting this degrading aspect of history for entertainment is deeply offensive. The natives are shown as brainless savages, and the whites are insensitive and savage themselves. Most likely true,  but not entertaining.

The worst aspect of this movie to me was the multiple instances of animal cruelty. The violence among people is highly realistic, but nevertheless visibly staged. This was made in the 70′s, before the idea of animal rights or even protection of species ever crossed anyone’s mind. Monkeys, snakes,pigs and creatures I cannot identify are butchered on camera and it is NOT FAKE. The worst is the capture and butchery of a turtle. I don’t know what kind of turtle, but it is large and probably endangered. The killing of the turtle is obviously real and is filmed in great detail. THAT is offensive!

I considered posting images, but felt that to do so would be in bad taste.

Don’t watch this movie, ye with weak hearts and stomachs.

Absolute Beginners.

 

Today we hit the jackpot!

 We have here David Bowie’s ‘Absolute Beginners’. Now I need to explain that Bowie is absolutely my favorite person in the known universe and I think he might be god or at least an angel. So we’re going to see a lot of him – at least once a week.

‘Absolute Beginners’ is the song David wrote for the 1986 movie he appeared in. The 80′s were not the greeatest decade for Bowie (or anyone of his generation, really), but it was not all bad. This video is aiming for a neo-noir style with the trench coat and the black’n'white. But the weird, big haired zebra lady kind of ruins that illusion. It’s kind of schlocky, but I think it’s a romantic song.  I confess I have not seen this movie. Bad fan, bad fan!!! I understand it’s a neo-50s juvenile delinquency musical or something like that. I admit it sounds a little cheezy, but I will get to it eventually. Because I must support Bowie in all things and also because it marks the comeback of James Fox.

 

James Fox will always be Chas Devlin to me. If you know not of what I speak go see “Performance” the greatest movie of all time!!! Anyway, our Chas suffered a bit of a nervous breakdown in the seventies and ‘Absolute Beginners’ was one of his first big jobs after a long sabbatical. Fox is a fine actor and he’s more familiar than you think. He can be seen in Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as Vercua Salt’s daddy. I love James!