[Jim Moonan]

.

"Revival" is such a great word. (especially when paired with "rival" — which it is in the song.)

Here are the lyrics to Rocky Raccoon. It’s a western ballad. Included in the cast of characters in the song is this one:

His rival, it seems
Had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy
Her name was Magill
And she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy

Now that’s a girl I would take a bullet for.


Mark: “It is a great album. A glorious treasure trove of familiar pastiche and strange originality.”

Don’t get me started…. “Honey Pie” (and “Wild Honey Pie”) “Sexy Sadie” yes… “I’m So Tired”… “Dear Prudence”… “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”… “Helter Skelter”… “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey”... and on and on.


Aaron: "Fundamentally, I think, Poochigian wants poetry to be popular (written, on-the-page poetry, I mean; poetry, in the form of hip-hop is already arguably the most popular art-form in the world)."

We all want our poetry to be loved.
Hip Hop is not poetry any more than song lyrics are poetry. No?
Poetry is not Hip Hop any more than sonnets are Hip Hop. Yes?


.
.

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Jim Moonan

Hip Hop is not poetry any more than song lyrics are poetry. No?

Bad news for Sappho.

[Quincy Lehr]

"Rocky Raccoon" is, because a Beatles song, well-known. It is also a novelty song, an early stop on the path that would lead to Sir Paul writing "Wonderful Christmastime," an absolute abomination that, along with George Harrison's stellar early solo work, is an argument that Sir Paul should have let the lead guitarist get a few more songs on the later albums. Yes, it is the sort of song that a particular kind of Boomer plays for baffling reasons in a park, given how many easy-to-play-on-an-acoustic Beatles songs that aren't "Rocky Raccoon" there are. It's a dorky, throwaway song, and anyone who says, "yeah, that's the one!" sucks, even if good at playing and singing guitar, which may be what you're going for. (By the way, I haven't deliberately listened to The White Album in well over a decade, so this is ambient cultural knowledge here.)

Other common songs would be, if you're busking in a park but want to let it be known that you have a union card for laying pipe and are ready to go on-shift whenever, "Hallelujah." If you are maybe a little bit high and would be open to getting more so, Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels." If you're Irish on your mom's side and want everyone to know for some goddamn reason, "Whisky in the Jar" or "Dirty Old Town." If you're one of those New York "old-timey" players who's two gormless to play country, "Jimmy Crack Corn" or "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean."

These are all normie choices, too.

[Aaron Novick]

Hip-hop is poetry, unambiguously.

The linguist Michael Ferber, in his book Poetry and Language, notes that hip-hop has spontaneously rediscovered/recreated some of the rhythmic features of Old English verse (think Beowulf). He makes the titillating suggestion that this gives us some indication of how Beowulf might've been performed. If we discovered that Beowulf was, in its context, more or less rapped, would it cease to be poetry?

The sharp division between poetry as a medium "on the page" and song lyrics as things that are sung is a historical oddity, not entirely meritless, but best left aside when bemoaning the unpopularity of poetry.

It is no doubt true that every poet wants their work to be loved. That is trivial. But opinions differ widely about how that love should manifest: loved by whom? loved how? Poochigian has a quite distinctive answer to that question. Believe it or not, though I certainly won't hide that I dislike him (and his poetry; these two dislikings are, from my end, entirely unrelated, of course), my post was a neutral, accurate, non-judgmental summary of his aims as he expresses them.

[Mark McDonnell]

It is also a novelty song, an early stop on the path that would lead to Sir Paul writing "Wonderful Christmastime,"

McCartney was always on that path, Quincy. Apparently he wrote "When I'm 64" when he was 14, way before the Beatles even formed. Then you have "Yellow Submarine" , "Ob-La-Di", "All Together Now" etc. Children's songs, really. My tolerance for them is fairly high because I don't look to them for the same things that I'd get from, say, The Stooges. The Beatles had that sense of Victorian or Edwardian children's literature, and a music hall (vaudeville) thing that you get in a lot of early psychedelia. LSD was making everyone feel prelapsarian. "Rocky Raccoon" is certainly a novelty song of a sort, being throwaway and silly, but it's an unconventional one in that, unlike those others, it doesn't have a singalong chorus or even a repeated refrain. It's a pretty good novelty song, I reckon, like "A Boy Named Sue". And part of the White Album's charm (or its fatal indulgence, depending on your take) is its deliberate ramshackle eclecticism over 30 tracks, from frivolity through experimentalism, tenderness and fairly crazed weirdness.

I agree they should have let George write more.

And yes, the Christmas song is an abomination.

[W T Clark]

Originally Posted by Aaron Novick

Hip-hop is poetry, unambiguously.

The linguist Michael Ferber, in his book Poetry and Language, notes that hip-hop has spontaneously rediscovered/recreated some of the rhythmic features of Old English verse (think Beowulf). He makes the titillating suggestion that this gives us some indication of how Beowulf might've been performed. If we discovered that Beowulf was, in its context, more or less rapped, would it cease to be poetry?

The sharp division between poetry as a medium "on the page" and song lyrics as things that are sung is a historical oddity, not entirely meritless, but best left aside when bemoaning the unpopularity of poetry.

It is no doubt true that every poet wants their work to be loved. That is trivial. But opinions differ widely about how that love should manifest: loved by whom? loved how? Poochigian has a quite distinctive answer to that question. Believe it or not, though I certainly won't hide that I dislike him (and his poetry; these two dislikings are, from my end, entirely unrelated, of course), my post was a neutral, accurate, non-judgmental summary of his aims as he expresses them.

I agree. But that doesn't make it good. Like all poetry all through the centuries, most of it is rubbish. And that's from a person who listens to much of it.

[Aaron Novick]

To be sure—I claimed only that it is popular.

I would chafe at the suggestion that its gold:rubbish rate is systematically lower than that of other forms of poetry, but I don't read you as suggesting that.

[James Brancheau]

I've had that song in my head since you posted, Aaron. So thanks for that. Really, though, it is a pretty good song. And not quite the same animal as when I'm sixty four. I'm with Mark on this. Paul, I think, was always the more natural musician, who didn't exactly lack creativity. He was just a bit of a sellout. Wings shows a good portion of both, imo. (I love Uncle Albert/whatever.) And I agree George in the last years should have gotten more songs.

*I probably should have said more natural composer.

**Jim, I'd include this, as well.

https://youtu.be/p4E6KtQg_z0

[David Callin]

I think, by that stage, George was stockpiling all his best songs for his first solo album. Which I have still never heard. An omission that should be corrected, I suppose.

[James Brancheau]

Here's a good George, and I probably don't mind the video as much as I should.

https://youtu.be/fiH9edd25Bc