The Great Lover - Rupert Brooke

THE GREAT LOVER

I have been so great a lover: filled in days
So proudly with the splendor of Love's praise,
The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,
Desire illimitable, and still content,
And all dear names men use, to cheat despair,
For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear
Our hearts at random down the dark of life.
Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife
Steals down, I would cheat drowsy Death so far,
My night shall be remembered for a star
That outshone all the suns of all men's days.
Shall I not crown them with immortal praise
Whom I have loved, who have given me, dared with me
High secrets, and in darkness knelt to see
The inenarrable godhead of delight?
Love is a flame: -we have beaconed the world's night.
A city: - and we have built it, these and I.
An emperor: -we have taught the world to die.
So, for their sakes I loved, ere I go hence,
And the high cause of Love's magnificence,
And to keep loyalties young, I'll write those names
Golden forever, eagles, crying flames,
And set them as a banner, that men may know,
To dare the generations, burn, and blow
Out on the wind of Time, shining and streaming....

These I have loved:
White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,
Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, fairy dust;
Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust
Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;
Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;
And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;
And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,
Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;
Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is
Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen
Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;
The benison of hot water; furs to
touch;
The good smell of old clothes; and other such-
The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,
Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers
About dead leaves and last year's ferns....
Dear names,
And thousand others throng to me! Royal flames;
Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;
Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing:
Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,
Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;
Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam
That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;
And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold
Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mold;
Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;
And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;
And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass; -
All these have been my loves. And these shall pass,
Whatever passes not, in the great hour,
Nor all my passion, all my prayers, have power
To hold them with me through the gate of Death.
They'll play deserter, turn with the traitor breath,
Break the high bond we made, and sell Love's trust
And sacramental covenant to the dust.
Oh, never a doubt but, somewhere, I shall wake,
And give what's left of love again, and make
New friends now strangers . . . .

But the best I've known
Stays here, and changes, breaks, grows old, is blown
About the winds of the world, and fades from brains
Of living men, and dies.

Nothing remains.
O dear my loves, O faithless, once again
This one last gift I give: that after men
Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed
Praise you, " All these were lovely"; say, "He loved." 

Cultural Appropriation

Dr. Jessica Metcalfe (who is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa from North Dakota):
states that when we don Pocahontas costumes or " dress up...  for Halloween or for a music video, then you stop thinking of us as people, and this is incredibly dangerous because everyday we fight for the basic human right to live our own lives without outsiders determining our fate or defining our identities."

I have real trouble with this extension of an old tradition -- costumes, and claiming we do not recognize the originators of a specific item as a whole group. [That is my italics in her quote, by the way.]

The idea that we take these because of an imbalance in the power structure in the underlying societal fabric is  flawed, in my opinion.

If there was no mixing of cultures and ideas the whole literary tradition will collapse. Was Shakespeare wrong to write about the Italian family traditions of the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet, which is based on an old Italian folk tale.
A piece of drama since been adapted for Latinos in New York, (West Side Story,) or Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet about gangs in L.A.

I completely agree that there has been  misuse of cultural imagery by colonial powers, but I think too many people throw around this sociological theory as if it is profoundly correct when a little more insight is required to understand what is really going on and the amount of deliberately negative stereotyping that is implied.

Cult Movies

Last year I read a book on Cult Movies. Very interesting and of course, made my mind race for what I would choose.
I tried to write to the author but my email returned undeliverable.
However, I kept the email with my choices and post it now for any friend's curiosity.


Hello {name deleted},
I enjoyed your book on cult movies, and as you rightly pointed out in the Intro, we all react by going :"Never, how could he choose that one, or why isn't <My Life Part III>, etc listed".

I did feel it was lacking on some great foreign language ones, or British ones from the '60s.

My feeling for a cult movie would be one I would enjoy being stranded on a desert island with and have an electricty source for the portable video player!
The following films would never bore me and remind me of the society I was stranded from:

"Z"
Women in Love
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Andy Warhol's Frankenstein
Diva
2001:A Space Odyssey
Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment
Alfie
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Little Big Man
Run, Lola Run

michael lavalette
Bedford, Nova Scotia

>from an old geezer who has loved movies from childhood with cowboy & Indian fanatasies.. who also had the luxury of seeing Roy and Dale and Trigger in real life + Gene Autry and Champion the wonder horse when they did world tours in the '50s.
Loved Astaire, Don O'Connor, Marx Brothers at mignight showings when I was a student.
To living the swinging London of the Sixties and enjoying North America in the last quarter of the C20th.
I have always been a part of a movie loving family and circle of friends.<
thanks for an interesting book.

Bob Dylan

My sixties vinyl, I gave away in 1970 when I emigrated. My '70s & '80s Vinyl are in my basement storage. My CD's are in the living room "cluttering up" the place - my wife says! My digital collection is on this computer as I type. I couldn't sleep last night -- listened to Bob in the dark, again & again, with headphones plugged into my iPhone , as my wife slept uncluttered. Wherever I am, there's Bob !

Daddy Cool and oldies playlist for a friday. (Or any day.)

 I recently played the sultry tune , Fever by Peggy Lee a hit from 1958 on my Radio Cobequid show.  Here is the original by Little Willie John's and his RnB hit from 1956. To me it sounds somewhat sexier.

Another hit from that year is Church Bells May Ring by The Willows. A group from Harlem that had a hit with this song on the RnB charts and then in 1957 the song was chosen by Canada's Diamonds  singing group as the follow up to their big hit Little Darlin' and their version made the Top 20 in Billboard. Of course, this was very common in the fifties where a black group's hit (still called Race Music by many stations,) was covered by a "white" group who by virtue of wider radio exposure, became the bigger hit. I am sure many will remember the hilarious scene in the  Dreamgirls movie where this was played for laughs.  Listen for the bell ringing in the song. The bells are played by a young Neil Sedaka who happened to be in the studio. This is another fairly rare song which I had difficulty getting any details about in Wikipedia and my source books. Then through the wonders of  the internet sales pages,  I found 18 copies for sale at the absurd price of $1.32 !

After them is Rosie and the Originals with Angel Baby. Rosie Hamlin was the lead singer. She is quoted by John Lennon in a Seventies interview as one of his favourite singers. High praise for a singer with not many hits to her credit. It reminds me of my exam time in London. I should have been revising for my O levels but was tuned to the Radio Luxembourg listening for the new releases in early 1961 -- this was one I loved back then.

 

SONGS

Fever 3:22 Peggy Lee

Church Bells May Ring 2:26 - The Willows

Angel Baby 2:47 - Rosie and the Originals.

Gene Autry

 As  children   my sister and I were obsessed by the Cowboys of the American west, and poured over the comics my American aunt sent to us in Calcutta. (Talk about confusing cultures, we were kids in India wanting to "go west" and fight Indians. Thankfully we were not truly harmed by these childish episodes and sorted out our terminology! Although I do think it unfair that she always got to be the "good guy"  and I ended up a dead bad guy ..)  

 

One of those early heroes was Gene Autry. We had recently moved to London when Gene and his troupe performed at the Empress Hall at Earl's Courts. My family went to see him there.  Gene and his horse, Champion, the Wonder Horse,  came into the audience.  He was right in front of me!

It was an amazing moment for a wide-eyed 12 year old.

One of my favourite songs is Gene Autry singing the Cole Porter tune Don't Fence Me In. Love it !!

 

More Beatles Playlist and dialogue from my radio shows.

Kingsburyman is also Daddy Cool   Remembering The Beatles.

 

On this Blog, I am celebrating 1968. The Beatles had returned from India at the beginning of spring, disillusioned by the Maharishi and his hanger-on's. While there, though, they worked on a lot of tunes which became the fertile material for the album released late in  1968 as a double album, nowadays  referred to as "The White Album" ; Although back in 1968, it had no title except the words "The Beatles"  simply embossed on the cover.  The very first pressings, certainly in Britain, were actually individually numbered in sequence. Those early numbered albums are highly collectible now.

First on the Playlist is Glass Onion from the white album.

 

 

SONGS

 Glass Onion 2:18 The Beatles
Fixing A Hole 2:37 The Beatles

 

Glass onion was followed by Fixing a hole; originally on Sgt. Pepper's album but also used in their Yellow Submarine animated movie.

 

Coming up is Instant Karma from John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band, followed by Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and another hit from 1968 -- Judy In Disguise by  John Fred and his Playboy Band. At  the time, Lucy in the Sky was supposed to be a veiled reference to the drug LSD. The Beatles vehemently denied it back then, claiming that people were reading too much into a co-incidence. Now, they readily admit it was very much their LSD imbibing phase. John Fred's song was clearly meant as an homage to the Beatles tune, he even makes the phrase "Judy in Disguise" sound like "Judy in the Sky". Including a lot of other psychedelic imagery in the lyrics.

  

SONGS

Instant Karma 3:24 John Lennon & Yoko Ono   2
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds 3:29 The Beatles Rock Sgt. Pepper's
Judy In Disguise 2:59 John Fred  Hits Of 1968 

 

Still featuring  Beatles material from the White album are songs featuring girl names in their titles. Dear Prudence, Martha My Dear, Sexy Sadie and Julia. That last one Julia, is by John written to his Mother Julia Lennon, who, when his father died while John was only 5, Julia Lennon left him with his aunt Mimi who raised him. Julia died young herself when John was only 17. A lot has been made of the possibility that the song is also for Yoko Ono who John referred to as "Mother".

 

SONGS

 

Dear Prudence 3:56 The Beatles Rock
Martha My Dear 2:29 The Beatles Rock
Sexy Sadie 3:15 The Beatles 
Julia 2:57 The Beatles Rock The Beatles (White Album) [Disc 1] 1
 

In England, films were first released in an area know as the "West End " of London, where there were a lot of cinemas. Sometimes after weeks or months of playing in the West End, the films got released to suburban theatres. Being young and trying to keep up with what's the latest hits, my friends and I often went to the West End we did not want to wait for the suburban release.  In 1966, we had gone to see, I think, James Coburn in Our Man Flint. I was walking In Leicester Square to get to the tube to go home, when I spotted a Rolls Royce outside a theatre. I was walking passed it thinking "Nice, wonder whose it is?" when a young couple came running out of the cinema -- I was now between them & the Roll's open door, The young Man crashed into me, knocking me over. He stopped, helped pick me up and asked "You all right, Mate?" I was and gave a dumb-struck nod to Paul McCartney and Jane Asher. "You sure?" -- I was. They smiled, jumped into the Rolls and sped off.

 

Here is a tune Paul was working on in early 1966: Paperback writer.

 

SONGS
Paperback Writer 2:20 The Beatles (1966)

You Won't See Me 3:20 Beatles Revolver

Taxman 2:39 The Beatles Rock Revolver 

 

After Paperback writer we heard You won't see me from Rubber Soul and Taxman, which was from the Revolver album. Taxman is sung by John, but was written by George Harrison who had just discovered how high their Tax rate was -- 95% hence the line where the Taxman says "There's one for you, nineteen for me". The high level of taxation on their creativity was also a spur to setting up Apple Corp to have more ownership& control of their productivity.  

 Now two songs from Ringo & John's solo careers. First is Ringo's cover of the Platter's 1950 hit Only You. Done as a smooth ballad not in the Do-wop style. Love by John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band phase. Also a haunting slow love song.

 

SONGS 

Only You (And You Alone) 3:24 Ringo Starr
Love 3:23 John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band

A trio of memorable tunes from their early days : First a couple of covers sandwiched around  one of their most popular love songs.

Arthur Alexander's Anna (Go To Him). The only singer-songwriter of this era who was covered by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Then the Beatles' All My Lovin', and followed by Larry William's Dizzy Miss Lizzie from their Hamburg days, but also in the movie Help!

  

SONGS

Anna (Go to Him) 2:57 The Beatles 

 All My Lovin'  2:05 The Beatles
Dizzy Miss Lizzy 2:57 The Beatles  

 Here are the Beatles with 2 rarely heard songs from the White album, Good Night and Long, Long, Long, but before them is the fun song from Sgt. Pepper : Good Morning, Good Morning. I hope you are listening to this on your stereo radio or Tuner because the Beatles and George Martin had a lot of fun with the sound effects and the Stereo separation. The fox hunters on horses run from one speaker to the other as do the barking dogs!!  This was a very popular song in 1967  for the Summer of Love stoners to experience via headphones. Cool, Man!

 

SONGS

 Good Morning Good Morning 2:41 The Beatles
Good Night 3:14 The Beatles
Long, Long, Long 3:06 The Beatles
 

More songs from Beatles For Sale & Revolver, and a smattering of other faves , but starting with

 Good Day Sunshine which is from Revolver

 

SONG 

Good Day Sunshine 2:09 The Beatles 

As an opening to their more well known songs we are also presenting a couple of early tunes -- Besame Mucho (approximates to Kiss me a lot in Spanish,).

It was a 1940's hit which indicates the wide background of tunes the early Beatles played to keep the drunken masses happy in the bars in Hamburg. This is their take on the tune done for their  audition for a contract with Decca Records.

That's Alright, Mama, a blues song from Arthur Big Boy Crudup, which was also Elvis Presley's first release done for Sun Records. It was not a hit. 

 The Beatle's recording is from the POP Goes the Beatles BBC radio show in 1963.

Then a Demo of a John Lennon song Continuing story of Bungalow Bill.

 

 

SONGS

Besame Mucho [Artist-Test] 2:37 The Beatles
That's All Right (Mama) [Live: BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" 16th July, 1963] 2:56 The Beatles
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill [Home-Demo] 2:33 The Beatles 

 

While in India, the  Beatles wrote a bunch of songs. On their return they set about making Demos of them at George Harrison's house.

The demo heard here, was recorded on George’s four track Ampex tape machine and features The Beatles playing acoustic guitars, along with some banging on furniture, handclaps, etc., for percussion. Accompanying John’s lead vocal, we hear a second vocal track with John speaking to Bungalow Bill and some rudimentary jungle animal noises in the background.

 Playing this now in the Summer of 2015 is exceedingly apropos. There is all the world wide  attention on the killing of Cecil the Lion in Africa; John wrote this about an incident in India when one of the people with the Beatles left for a break and went hunting; He came back with his trophy shot.

You can find quite a lot on the Internet if you wish to dig deeper. Here I'd rather press on with a great tune from George:  Awaiting on You, from his solo album, All Things Must Pass; plus a solo hit for Ringo -- Back Off Boogaloo, and the weird but catchy, Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

 

 SONGS

Awaiting on You All 2:49 George Harrison  All Things Must Pass
Back Off Boogaloo 3:20 Ringo Starr 

 Maxwell' Silver Hammer 3:30 The Beatles 

 

Now 3 perennial Beatles favourites and sing along tunes. Everybody knows these.  All My Lovin' ; All You Need Is Love and , If I Fell in Love.

 

 SONGS

 All My Lovin' 2:05 The Beatles 

All You Need Is Love 3:47 The Beatles 

If I Fell in Love 2:24 The Beatles  

 

If I fell was John's first attempt at a Ballad and he said the precursor to In My Life. If I fell was for Hard Day's Night movie. In my life was on Rubber Soul.

 

Now Can't Buy Me Love the big hit from March 1964. It was still  number 1 in the week of April 4 1964 when the Beatles had all 5 places in Billboard's Hot 100, with a further seven singles in the charts. Then follows Girl and Run For your Life from Rubber Soul and Got to Get You into my Life from Revolver.

SONGS

Can't Buy Me Love 2:13 The Beatles

Girl 2:32 The Beatles 
Run for Your Life 2:21 The Beatles
Got to Get You into My Life 2:29 The Beatles 

 

 The back ground material for this Blog comes from two books -- Ian MacDonald's' Revolution of the Mind and Beatlesongs by William J. Dowlding plus Wiki of course.

 

 

PLAYLIST SONGS

 Glass Onion 2:18 The Beatles
Fixing A Hole 2:37 The Beatles

Instant Karma 3:24 John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds 3:29 The Beatles Rock Sgt. Pepper's
Judy In Disguise 2:59 John Fred  Hits Of 1968 

 

Dear Prudence 3:56 The Beatles Rock
Martha My Dear 2:29 The Beatles Rock
Sexy Sadie 3:15 The Beatles 
Julia 2:57 The Beatles Rock The Beatles (White Album)

 Paperback Writer 2:20 The Beatles (1966)

You Won't See Me 3:20 Beatles Revolver

Taxman 2:39 The Beatles Rock Revolver

 

 All My Lovin' 2:05 The Beatles 

All You Need Is Love 3:47 The Beatles 

If I Fell in Love 2:24 The Beatles 

 

Can't Buy Me Love 2:13 The Beatles

Girl 2:32 The Beatles Rock
Run for Your Life 2:21 The Beatles
Got to Get You into My Life 2:29 The Beatles