The Mule

Fascinating link, Lon. Good find. Thing is, I know I've seen that quote attributed to Monk IN PRINT more than once. Can't remember where tho...

Over the years I've seen the quote, "Writing about jazz is like dancing about architecture," attributed to several people but most often to Thelonius Monk. Does anybody know if Monk actually said it? If he didn't, who did?

btw, if you haven't seen it already TIME magazine did a fine cover story on Cash. Richard Corliss wrote a wonderful piece. Here's the link: The Man In Black

Spreading the word of jazz is pretty much the only proselytzing I ever do...

I'm guilty as charged! Take me away! But where to, the boobie-hatch or jazz jail?????

Hey! Don't forget his great score for Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL!

Thanks! Don't suppose that's still in print?????

Virtually the same version can be found on "I, aye, eye," (if my memory is correct) and on "Volunteered Slavery." We will have to agree to disagree. I think the performance of "I Say a Little Prayer" on DOG YEARS IN THE FOURTH RING is much wilder and more intense than the one on VOLUNTEERED SLAVERY. Complaining about Kirk repeating various tunes on albums is like complaining that Monk played the same 12 tunes throughout his career. Couw, sorry I misread your post. Obviously I haven't heard or seen that performance. Where have you heard/seen it?

If you mean the I, EYE, AYE album the answer is no. It's definitely on my list of must-haves, tho. I REALLY like the live stuff on the DOG YEARS IN THE FOURTH RING collection, especially the version of "I Say A Little Prayer."

Damn, I think that may be the best description of Kirk's music I have ever read!

...it's the 40th anniversary of the church bombing in Birmingham that killed those 4 little girls.

Excellent post, Jim. It's what I was groping to say when when I wrote he was "unafraid of the truth," but you said it much better than I did... The other thing I greatly admired about Cash is that he embodied the ideal of the American maverick. He was his own man. He had integrity. He was a proud American but he never wrapped himself in the flag like so many of those phony, wannabe, cowboy types that have turned "country" music into a bad joke. Cash understood people's struggles and didn't judge their failings. Is there any major American musician who still plays concerts in prisons and proud of it? I don't think so.

Gentlemen, gentlemen...this thread has become so huge that we're now duplicating many album covers! Some of these have been posted three times now! We must dig deeper! Search farther! Put your backs into it!

This has been an awful week for music. Another American maverick gone. First Warren Zevon and now Johnny Cash. Very similar artists in some ways as their songwriting explored similar themes: outlaws, sinners, society, heartache... Cash had an incredible career and a profound influence on musicians in and outside of country music. In my mind, he was one of the greatest American artists and I'm just glad he received so much recognition during this lifetime. Take Jim's advice and check out the video to "Hurt"---it's the greatest music video ever and an incredibly moving career summation from a man with amazing integrity who was unafraid of truth.

"Satan is Real" should have been titled "Satan is Cardboard"....

No, it's NOT!!!! The album cover Pat Cooper is making fun of... ...was single-handedly responsible for this Mule's sexual awakening. Makes me ill looking at that Pat Cooper cover, man...

Love this one, but I've always been a sucker for "frame within a frame" compositions.

Always been fond of muscle cars, myself. My dad had a 1967 Cougar much like this one: Then he bought at 1975 Firebird Esprit, which became MY first car. My old man charged me full Blue-Book value on it too, but I didn't care. I LOVED that car...

I draw the line at art that intentionally, explicitly, and insidiously promotes a philosophy of hate. I don't think it's that slippery a slope.

Should have been titled "Sea of Wet Dreams...."

I didn't realize that Satan's first name was "Buddi." Good to know...

Why? In a general sense I might agree with separating the art from the artist (which is, in and of itself, a debate--Isn't it true that "who" the artist is, as a human being, informs the art?) EXCEPT when that art is in the service of irredeemable EVIL. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL is an evil film. It celebrates fascism, racism, anti-semitism, and presents Adolf Hitler as God. I don't care how ground-breaking or well made it was, it was created to promote EVIL. Indeed, because of it's high craft and seductive powers it fits the very definition of insidious. Riefenstahl may not have known about the "Final Solution," but she sure as hell knew that the Nazi Party was virulently anti-semitic, racist, bent on world domination, and believed the German people to be the "master race." One has to assume that she was down with the program. Indeed, if you look at her work previous to her time with the Nazis, she sure seemed to extol Aryan virtues regardless. Sorry, but Fritz Lang got on the next boat to America when the Nazis came to him and that's what any human being who didn't believe in the Third Reich should have done. Why, then, should history NOT harshly judge this woman who used her immense talents to promote one of the most hateful and vile regimes the world has ever seen? btw, your Cat Stevens analogy isn't the same thing at all. Cat Stevens may or may not be financially supporting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism--I don't know. What he ISN'T doing is writing and singing catchy little songs extolling the virtues of brave Islamic terrorists killing Israelis and Americans. Leni Riefenstahl wasn't a Nazi party member who made great melodramas. If that were the case I might agree that one should separate her poltics from her work. What Riefenstahl did--consciously--was make fascism and Adolf Hitler look RIGHT. Correct. Worthy. Justified. Appealing. She exhalted EVIL in her ART.

I really do think it's a fascinating subject. As you well know, many great artists were pretty monsterous to the people around them and yet... Is the act of artistic creation so difficult that the artist MUST be self-absorbed or narcissistic in order to create? There's a book there Chris and if you don't write it, I might!

Furthermore, she was quoted just before her 100th birthday as saying, "I don't know what I should apologize for. I cannot apologize, for example, for having made the film "Triumph of the Will' --- It won the top prize. All my films won prizes." That quote, at best, can be held up as an appalling example of tone-deafness. When I read that I see a woman who either still believes in the Third Reich or is so blindly arrogant, ambitious, and narcissistic she is undeserving of any respect. Not to mention incredibly callous.

Chris, I understand what you're saying and think the dichotomy between the artist and their art is a fascinating subject. However, we're not talking about "Miles Davis beat his wives and yet he as capable of such beautiful music" here. Once again, Leni Reifenstahl was a Nazi-sympathizer and career opportunist who created a ghastly work of propaganda that indirectly led to the slaughter of tens of millions. When Fritz Lang was approached by the Nazis and basically offered a blank check to become Hitler's propagandist, he was appalled and fled to America. Reifenstahl saw an opportunity and she seized it. In my mind, Lang was the greater person and a greater filmmaker. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL continues to inspire hatred today (the same goes for BIRTH OF A NATION which was often screened by Klansmen right before lynchings of blacks in the south). The woman NEVER apologized or even expressed regret. In interview after interview there was a disconnect in her mind between her film and what it represented. She was either too proud or arrogant or still too much of an "Aryan" to ever grapple with her contribution to fascism and the subsequent horrors. Nothing of what I've seen of her subsequent work redeems her or TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. btw, please DO NOT associate me with PFunkJazz's obnoxious and uncalled for accusations of racism or Nazism.