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Polly's lyrical references
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Author:  shelob [ Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

Couldnt help noticing the similarities between 'Let England Shake'

"The Wests asleep, let England shake"

and epic Irish rebel poem "The Wests Awake"

"When all beside a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep -
Alas! and well may Erin weep...........

.....But, hark! a voice like thunder spake,
The West's awake! the West's awake!
Sing, Oh! hurrah! let England quake,
We'll watch till death for Erin's sake"

Author:  Seagull [ Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

listened to beefhearts 'safe as milk' today...and 'zig zag wanderer' reminded me very much of 'down by the water', or let's say: the other way round :eyeroll:
especially the way the verses are sung... sounds a bit similiar, I guess....anyone else noticed this?

Zig zag wanderer, zig zag wanderer (rep.)
You can huff, you can puff
You'll never blow my house down
You can zig, you can zag
Whoa I'm gonna stay, gonna stay around (rep.)

You can jump, you can holler
Never lose what I found
Heaven's free 'cept for a dollar
You can zig, you can zag
Whoa I'm gonna stay, gonna stay around (rep.)


(....)

--> and now I moan
and now I holler
she'll never know
just what I found

that blue eyed girl
she said 'no more'
and that blue eyed girl
became blue-eyed whore (...)

Author:  March [ Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

^ I have noticed this as well with Zig Zag Wanderer. I also cannot listen to either Meet Ze Monsta or Tropical Hot Dog Night without thinking of them as two halves of a strange conversation.

I don't know that I'd consider it a lyrical reference, but I read Wuthering Heights this week, and of course with two main characters called Catherine, I kept getting PJ's Catherine in my head. I found that the song in some ways rather fit the story, with Heathcliff's desire for Catherine and his rage. There are no verbatim references in the song like she has done with Tolstoy or O'Connor (the closest I recall reading was a line about coming to "murderous violence" and a passage: "I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches, and every word he says..." I am tempted to think it is just a coincidence, but a nice one.

Author:  March [ Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

This is from East Coker in Eliot's Four Quartets:

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away—
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing—
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

I'm not sure if the laughter in the garden line would have had an effect on Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen. That could be coincidence as I think that is a rather non specific image, but the when under ether line is interesting. It is a beautiful poem.

Author:  March [ Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

More on Beefheart- I was listening to Shiny Beast today and wondered if there may be any connection between his Love Lies and City of No Sun other than the possibly coincidental phrase of "love lies." I think there may be something similar thematically there, but I could be very wrong as well.

Author:  littledebbie [ Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

The Paris Sisters' 1954 song, Daughter Daughter, is thematically very reminiscent of Down By the Water. In fact, the phrase DBTW appears in the song. I think we might safely cite it as a source. Here are the lyrics transcribed as best as I could:

Paris Sisters - Daughter Daughter

Tell me where were you tonight, oh Daughter Daughter,
While the moon was shining bright, oh Daughter Daughter?
Were you walking all alone down by the water?
Tell me, Daughter Daughter, all I ought to know.

Well, I'll tell you all I can, oh Mother Mother.
I was walking with a man, oh Mother Mother.
But when he tried holding me, I said, "Oh Brother!"
Please, my mother mother told me to say no.

But every time he held my hand,
I had a feeling that was grand,
And so I hope you understand
What happened then:

Well he pleaded tenderly and still we tarried,
Then he shyly gave to me the ring he carried.
Mother Mother, can't you see that we were married?
Now you know where Daughter Daughter was tonight.

But every time he held my hand,
I had a feeling that was grand,
And so I hope you understand
What happened then:

Well he pleaded tenderly and still we tarried,
Then he shyly gave to me the ring he carried.
Mother Mother, can't you see that we were married?
Now you know where Daughter Daughter was tonight.

You can hear the song here:
http://tindeck.com/listen/dkdu

Author:  LAT [ Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

Surprised not to find any mention of Flannery O'Connor here - perhaps it's in another thread. The songs 'Joy' and 'The River' are inspired at least in part by her stories 'The River' and 'Good Country People', both of which are in the collection 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'. The line 'two silent birds...' is a verbatim quote, if I remember correctly, and a few other snippets, too (haven't read the stories for years, I'm afraid, so can't provide specifics - 'leave your pain in the river, to be washed away slow' is one, i think).

Is that news to anyone? I'm trying to remember whether any of the other ITD? songs have roots in Flannery O'Connor...
In any case, if you aren't familiar with the stories, they are wonderful, and well worth reading!

Author:  LAT [ Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

(Only thought to do a search after posting ^this - I see that it has been discussed before...)

Author:  Mr. Badmouth [ Wed Aug 17, 2016 7:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

I just randomly opened my copy of the collected poems of Yeats and I stumbled upon this in a poem called "Anashuya and Vijaya":

"-- Hear, and load our king
With wisdom hour by hour. -- May we two stand,
When we are dead
, beyond the setting suns,
A little from the other shades apart,
With mingling hair, and play upon one lute. "

Author:  Mr. Badmouth [ Sat Nov 12, 2016 2:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

One more thing that caught my eye while flipping again through William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience:

"Sweet babe in thy face,
Holy image I can trace"

from Cradle Song
becomes

"Young boy in your face
every loss I can trace."

in Polly's The Boy.

The metre of the poems is very similar, and reading them side by side makes each more striking.

Author:  Shadowboxer [ Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polly's lyrical references

On The Day Of The Wedding - (Before Departure) - from Russian Folk Lyrics

Say farewell, my dear girl friends,
My dear little doves,
If I was rude–don't be angry!
You, my darlings, will be off
To summer work,
For merry walks,
To winter parties,–
Remember me, my darlings,
In the spring, in the green meadows,
When you will be wearing wreaths
For me, for a pretty maid
I don't need a pale blue wreath
I wove one for the last time
And threw it into the rapid river,–
The wreath was carried off to a strange land,
To the blue sea of Svalynsk

Note: "This is a farewell of the bride before her departure".

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