Monday, January 21, 2008

What I've Learned 1 and 2

OK. I'm stealing this from Esquire.

What I've Learned One:

Oral Surgery + Pain Management Mismanagement divided by Leonard Cohen then multiplied by a primarily 30-something upwardly mobile pub full of Brits (who look upon their parents' Elvis Costello and Squeeze albums much the way I looked upon my parents' Dean Martin and Brazil '66 collection) = utter disaster.

First song in my solo set I thought would be a youngish Brit pub crowd pleaser. "Goodbye Girl" by Squeeze. Easy-Peesy. Three chords. Sing-along chorus.

There's a You Tube version of Glenn Tillbrook playing this solo at a football match, and I used this as a model. When I finished my singing for the 9th "Goobye Girl"--that's it, that's the chorus--silence ensued except for an occasional uncomfortable cough. So mugged was not the word (whatever that means).

Next, because it has been running through my head on an endless loop since a friend of mine followed
Arthur's tracks to Australia for a recent holiday, I had to get this out of my system: "Victoria" by the Kinks. For me, this song kicks major ass (oh, I mean arse). Why it is not the British National anthem is a mystery to me.

Again--a great sing-along chorus. Veddy British. Veddy British crowd, but. . .

. . .when the song ended and as the vibrating, ringing tones of the chorus effects on my first position "G" chord died into the churlish, choleric chill of the desert evening, a weary tumbleweed cowered its way across the dance floor; somewhere crickets chirped as a loose shutter squeekily swung to and fro.

(Is that last sentence too Charles Karaultish?)

Next--Elvis Costello's "Veronica" which admittedly has some pretty depressing verses but it also has an uptempo, bright Buddy Holly-esque bounce to it and only a few naughty major 7ths and diminished chords that slow the song down at one point for a little E.C. poetry recital. I really like this song although I've long been lukewarm on anything E.C. has done since Imperial Bedroom--an early album of his and his opus--I only know this one well enough to play it because an old friend was once very much in love with this song (it reminded her of her grandmother so she'd play it over and over and over).

When I finished this song on its final first position "C", another short period of uncomfortable silence followed broken only by these words, “Where's the loo?"

I may as well have gone on to "Everybody Loves Somebody" at this point, but in a final act of defiance, like that mouse flipping off the eagle about to snuff the lil critter for dinner, I did not finish with my emergency back-up, leave them tapping their feet version of "Paint It Black" (which survives down the generations because of Vietnam war movies). I thought, "fuggit" and went with Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire".

Joe Cocker covered this song. In fact, he's the first person I'd ever heard sing it. So for me, that makes it a British, not a Canadian song. But this crowds' grandparents would only have known this song, yet then again, maybe not.

That song was about as out of place as. . .as. . .as a "drunk in a midnight choir".

I fretted about the underwhelming response in an Email I sent to this the feller I dueted with and he reassured me by writing back:

"Hey, Man,
Don't sweat the performance you gave. I've done songs there that haven't gone over very well just because they're a bit too folky or American. It's a very British crowd who wants lots of poppy, danceable tunes, preferably by British artists."


Beg pardon.

Squeeze? Elvis Costello? Kinks? Not poppy and dancey and British

Truth is, it wasn't just me. Even this very tight British blues power trio made up of architects also got a subdued response. The guitar player is exceptionally good. They even broke up what can be the monotony of 3-chord electric blues by playing this ballsy version of "Caravan"--and quite well, I must say.


The organizer of the once a month event and my duet partner did notice the same thing I noticed that, coincidentally, the blues guitarist also noticed and we discussed this: Everyone who did a Beatles' tune, got a nice round of applause. Chris and I did "The One After 909" and that did go over well. As did, "Things We Said Today", another song we played

So next month, the word is going around: we're gonna have a Beatles tribute night.

I've called dibs on "Across the Universe", "Yer Blues", "Julia" and "Run for Your Life". because they should all go down well with my upper register nasally mama cat giving birth voice.


What I've Learned Two:


In 1964, a banner welcomed The Beatles to New York. It read "Beatles 4 ever". And I'll be damned. That sign was right.



8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Freebird!"
(flicks lighter)

7:31 PM  
Blogger Mimi's Pa said...

Heh heh. You're funny. Do you remember when Otto played it on the school bus and the kids of Springfield Elementary broke out their lighters?

9:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

See? Now you go and reference The Simpsons and so I must put you into my pocket. (:

Otto Quote of the Day:
"My standards are just too high, you know? I feel like nobody's good enough for me.
[a flea falls from his hair]
Oh. You think you got 'em all, but you forget about the eggs!"

10:02 PM  
Blogger booda baby said...

Freebird (ha. I accidentally wrote 'Freebeard') = fleas. It's a short route.

That is just too bad for them young Brits. It'd take nearly forever for me to get out all my observations about Brits and their relationship with live music and THEN how they behave as expats. Mix those two up and you've got yourself a crowd of the patently disinterested. Almost studied.

1:48 AM  
Blogger Mimi's Pa said...

Booda, I wonder if your observations about SOME Brits and how they behave as ex-pats is anything like my take on SOME Americans and how they act as ex-pats. SOME Brits and SOME Americans in these parts come from very working class backgrounds, and if it t'weren't for the oil industry, they'd still be back home in their cookie cutter row houses bitching about immigrants and welfare (or dole) recipients--with no maids, no nannies, no drivers. They are both these blue collar breeder types who spend ten years abroad and never bother to learn how to say so much as "Thank you" in the local idiom. You find way more of this American variety in Saudi(they even have 110 voltage because Americans found their oil). We gots way more Brits along the coastal emirates because they once protected the shipping lanes, kept those nasty Persians from invading and they got to the oil first.

8:50 AM  
Blogger Mimi's Pa said...

Hat:
"Wow! I've never been called an adult before, but I've been tried as one."

9:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, you see - you should have tried something truly dreadful like a Phil Collins song! Or that bunch of twerps called - wotsitsname? - yes, Dire Straits!

By the way, please don't make the typical careless Yankee mistake of tarring all us Brits with the same brush. It's just that some of your strange Presidents (read: all of them since Nixon) have left us a little wary of you Transatlantic types and your apparently negative effect on the world. Hence the desire to not to mingle too much with the 'colonials'.

And please don't go down the road of "You're just jealous 'cos you had an Empire and now all you have is a nightmare of a multi-cultural melting pot" It's true, we did once possess an Empire, as well as a language, but we passed them on to others to see what sort of a mess they could do with them ... and you're doing really well!!

3:10 PM  
Blogger Mimi's Pa said...

Sandy Mac,
I am the first to toast Lord Nelson. Had it not been for his victory at sea, I wouldn't have a job teaching English around the world. Brits can do empire. We yanks are clueless rookies. What's the secret? Building railroads? Show us the way. Yeah, I'd say Phil Collins is a Revolution 9,i.e. a musical tragedy.

9:05 AM  

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