Charles Bukowski: "Don't try."

Peter J Ross wrote:
 > On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:49:53 -0500, Dale Houstman wrote:
 >
 >
  >>Peter J Ross wrote:
  >>
   >>>On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:54:04 -0500, Dale Houstman wrote:
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>>j r sherman wrote:
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------
   >>>>>"I walked with a Zombie, I walked with a Zombie, I walked with a
   >>>>>Zombie last night."
   >>>>> Roky Erikson
   >>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------
   >>>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>Good song.
   >>>
   >>>I don't know it. I'm rather fond of Dave Edmunds's "The Creature from
   >>>the Black Lagoon". I certainly sing it in the bath often enough.
  >>
  >>Dave is a great - mainly unnoticed - rocker. His ex-partner, Nick Lowe,
  >>has a much higher profile, and has done one fine album after another,
  >>although I still like one of his earliest best: "Jesus of Cool."
 >
 >
 > The only Nick Lowe song I can remember is "Broken Glass". I've found
 > that hardly anybody over here has heard of either NL or DE. I was
 > introduced to both of them by a very good man who used to play their
 > albums while giving me a lift home from work. That was a long time
 > ago, but if you ever happen to read this, Steve: thank you for the
 > music, the songs I'm singing.

I've seen Nick in concert a couple of times, and have most of his
albums. He's not as frenetically hilarious as he is on "Jesus of Cool"
(from which "Broken Glass" - a Bowie take - derives, but he's settled
into a very comfortable and "mature pop" sound that really delivers on
several fronts. One of his latest - "Dig My Mood" - is superb.


 >
 >
  >>The Roky song is from a collection that is mostly songs with titles
  >>carped from old horror/sci-fi movies, such as "Man With the Atomic
  >>Brain." The Zombie song is really a tune about a very bad date.
 >
 >
 > I especially like DE's C&W parodies that are just fractionally too
 > fast and just fractionally too noisy to be the real thing.
 >
 >
   >>>It's certainly better than anything Bukowski even dreamed of writing.
  >>
  >>I even pefer ABBA to the Buke.
 >
 >
 > At least Abba had cleaner clothes than Puke ever owned.

Way too clean! It's a scary "Stepford Wives" look that makes them look
like out-of-scale Ken and Barbie Disco dolls. You know that - underneath
those duds - their sexual organs have beeb Martinized.

dmh<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->

Dale Houstman <dmh7.TakeThisOut@citilink.com> wrote

   > >>Dave is a great - mainly unnoticed - rocker. His ex-partner, Nick Lowe,
   > >>has a much higher profile, and has done one fine album after another,
   > >>although I still like one of his earliest best: "Jesus of Cool."
  > >
  > >
  > > The only Nick Lowe song I can remember is "Broken Glass". I've found
  > > that hardly anybody over here has heard of either NL or DE. I was
  > > introduced to both of them by a very good man who used to play their
  > > albums while giving me a lift home from work. That was a long time
  > > ago, but if you ever happen to read this, Steve: thank you for the
  > > music, the songs I'm singing.
 >
 > I've seen Nick in concert a couple of times, and have most of his
 > albums. He's not as frenetically hilarious as he is on "Jesus of Cool"
 > (from which "Broken Glass" - a Bowie take - derives, but he's settled
 > into a very comfortable and "mature pop" sound that really delivers on
 > several fronts. One of his latest - "Dig My Mood" - is superb.

I remember them well... one of the things I "studied", when I should
have been spending some time with actual poetry and the mechanics of
writing actual poetry, was all forms of "new wave" I could find.
Haven't thought of him in a long time. I'll look up his "Dig My Mood"
next time I'm in a music store big enough to have a copy [in other
words, not likely to be in Shadowville]. A great many people have
"heard" Lowe, more than have heard "of" him... his one hit wonder
"Cruel To Be Kind" still pops up on the local radio stations often...

And Bowie, as I wrote before, was an imspiration/obsession for years,
including the "Low" period ya'll are refering to. Still think he *was*
a damned good writer.

"Baby
I've been
Breaking glass
In my room again.

You're such
A wonderful person!
But you've got problems!

Let me touch you!"

.......

  > > how to be a good writer
  > > by Charles Bukowski
  > >
  > > you've got to fuck a great many women
  > > beautiful women
  > > and write a few decent love poems.
  > >
  > > and don't worry about age
  > > and/or freshly-arrived talents.
  > >
  > > just drink more beer
  > > more and more beer
  > >
  > > and attend the racetrack at least once a
  > >
  > > week
  > >
  > > and win
  > > if possible
  > >
  > > learning to win is hard -
  > > any slob can be a good loser.
  > >
  > > and don't forget your Brahms
  > > and your Bach and your
  > > beer.
  > >
  > > don't overexercise.
  > >
  > > sleep until moon.
  > >
  > > avoid paying credit cards
  > > or paying for anything on
  > > time.
  > >
  > > remember that there isn't a piece of ass
  > > in this world over $50
  > > (in 1977).
  > >
  > > and if you have the ability to love
  > > love yourself first
  > > but always be aware of the possibility of
  > > total defeat
  > > whether the reason for that defeat
  > > seems right or wrong -
  > >
  > > an early taste of death is not necessarily
  > > a bad thing.
  > >
  > > stay out of churches and bars and museums,
  > > and like the spider be
  > > patient -
  > > time is everybody's cross,
  > > plus
  > > exile
  > > defeat
  > > treachery
  > >
  > > all that dross.
  > >
  > > stay with the beer.
  > >
  > > beer is continuous blood.
  > >
  > > a continuous lover.
  > >
  > > get a large typewriter
  > > and as the footsteps go up and down
  > > outside your window
  > >
  > > hit that thing
  > > hit it hard
  > >
  > > make it a heavyweight fight
  > >
  > > make it the bull when he first charges in
  > >
  > > and remember the old dogs
  > > who fought so well:
  > > Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.
  > >
  > > If you think they didn't go crazy
  > > in tiny rooms
  > > just like you're doing now
  > >
  > > without women
  > > without food
  > > without hope
  > >
  > > then you're not ready.
  > >
  > > drink more beer.
  > > there's time.
  > > and if there's not
  > > that's all right
  > > too.
  > >
  > >
  > > "Work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt,
  > > And dance like nobody's watching."<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->