a kind of eulogy

Artist: John Cale
Song: Hallelujah
Lyrics
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this: The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah,
Hallelujah etc.

Baby, I've been here before,
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
I've seen your flag on the Marble Arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah,
Hallelujah etc.

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do ya?
I remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah,
Hallelujah etc.

Maybe there's a God above,
But all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah,
Hallelujah etc,
Hallelujah etc.

61

My 61 favourite songs, in a sort of order. Why 61? It was 60 but at the last minute I realized I'd forgotten one.
The one bias is that I've tried not to include too many by any one artist. And essentially only English language popular music, I can't make one list for all kinds of music.
61. Stage Fright- The Band (1970)
60. 12:51- The Strokes (2003)
59. Back in Black- AC/DC (1980)
58. Graceland- Paul Simon (1986)
57. Walk This Way- Run DMC feat. Aerosmith (1985)
56. Daisy Jane- America (1975)
55. Adia- Sarah McLachlan (1997)
54. Find The River- R.E.M. (1992)
53. Bowl Of Oranges- Bright Eyes (2002)
52. Warning Sign- Coldplay (2002)
51. Highway Star- Deep Purple (1971)
50. Up On Cripple Creek- The Band (1968)
49. American Girl- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1977)
48. Fall At Your Feet- Crowded House (1991)
47. Red Hill Mining Town- U2 (1987)
46. The Wind- Cat Stevens (1971)
45. Streets Of Phildelphia- Bruce Springsteen (1993)
44. She Bangs The Drums- The Stone Roses (1989)
43. One- U2 (1991)
42. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go- Bob Dylan (1975)
41. A Heart In New York- Simon and Garfunkel (1980)
40. The Silver-Tongued Devil And I- Kris Kristofferson (1971)
39. Time- Hootie And The Blowfish (1994)
38. The Closest Thing To Crazy- Katie Melua (2003)
37. Sally Cinnamon- The Stone Roses (1987)
36. Oliver's Army- Elvis Costello (1978)
35. Shady Lane- Pavement (1997)
34. Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts- Bob Dylan (1975)
33. In My Life- The Beatles (1965)
32. Linger- The Cranberries (1992)
31. The Blower's Daughter- Damien Rice (2003)
30. Teach Your Children- CSNY (1970)
29. Subterranean Homesick Alien- Radiohead (1997)
28. Lincoln Avenue- Train (2003)
27. Wishlist- Pearl Jam (1998)
26. A Thousand Miles- Vanessa Carlton (2001)
25. The Difficult Kind- Sheryl Crow (1998)
24. A Murder Of One- Counting Crows (1993)
23. Torn- Natalie Imbruglia (1998)
22. Answer- Sarah McLachlan (2003)
21. No Surprises- Radiohead (1997)
20. On The Road Again- Willie Nelson (1981)
19. Anyone At All- Carole King (1998)
18. Alive- Pearl Jam (1991)
17. You're A Big Girl Now- Bob Dylan (1975)
16. 14th Street- Rufus Wainwright (2003)
15. The Whistler- Jethro Tull (1977)
14. Drops of Jupiter- Train (2001)
13. Driftwood- Travis (1999)
12. One More Night- Bob Dylan (1969)
11. I'm No Angel- Dido (1999)
10. Fields of Gold- Sting (1993)
9. My Back Pages- The Byrds (prefer their version to Dylan's)(1967)
8. Hallelujah- Jeff Buckley (his is my favourite version)(1994)
7. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town- Pearl Jam (1992)
6. Fake Plastic Trees- Radiohead (1995)
5. Beautiful Girl- INXS (1992)
4. Nightswimming- R.E.M. (1992)
3. Sister Golden Hair- America (1975)
2. The Scientist- Coldplay (2002)
1. Northern Sky- Nick Drake (1970)

I actually made a much fuller and better list of 500, but there's no way I'm going to sit and type that out.

Philip Roth for Nobel

To my mind no living writer deserves the Nobel Prize for literature more than the great American Philip Roth, Born in New Jersey in 1933, Roth made his name with the story collection "Goodbye, Columbus" in 1960 before achieving international stardom with the shocking, bitterly funny "Portnoy's Complaint"- one of my favourite books, an exploration of the Jewish consciousness, sexual repression and perversion, as well the Oedipal complex.

Roth went on to write several brilliant books in the 1970s and 1980s, especially his semi-autobiographical sequence about his alter ego, the Jewish novelist Nathan Zuckerman. Amazingly enough, Roth has entered the golden period of his writing life only after the age of sixty, in the 1990s. With "Patrimony", "Operation Shylock", "Sabbath's Theater", "American Pastoral", "I Married A Communist", "The Human Stain" (the last three narrated by Zuckerman but with him as witness rather than protagonist), "The Plot Against America" and now "Everyman", Roth has written an uninterrupted sequence of brilliant books, abandoning the wild humour of his youth for more measured and meditative but no less powerful works, It is clear from recent awardees that having written three excellent books is enough qualification for a Nobel, By this mark, Roth deserves several Nobels- let's hope they give it to him while he's still alive (he's 73 now). Luckily, only Saul Bellow and Toni Morrison are Americans to get it in recent decades, and thus Roth has a good chance with the region-conscious comittee.

Overrated

This could kick up some disagreement, but anyhow, let me throw my opinions into the ring.

The 5 most Overrated books:

1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
2. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (haven't read anything else by her)
3. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
5. The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

What do you think?

As for debunking The Seven Habits and its ilk, there's an erratically excellent book by Francis Wheen called "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Brief History of Modern Delusions". It's about the load of rubbish people have somehow bought all across the world and is very well researched and written.

Kudos to me for getting over the barrier of posting as im pretty much part of the "blogs give away too much" school of thought! which may be considered as conventional or too non-conventional by anka (=D) but thats me. so like the rest of you i might as well conquer some blank space and post a poem. Here's one of my favorites from as far back as i can remember, a children's poem that practically every kid in America devours as Shel Silverstein is only too well known. Nothing too complicated that requires a lot of head-scratching, which i think is usually what we all enjoy, but you might still like it!

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends,
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

-Shel Silverstein

yet another poem

sorry for not putting them together-i read this one only later. it is by the same author, and this is rather unusual. all, please comment-i would like to have my opinions backed up!


It has no name, just a number.
It is always working, spring to summer.
It knows nothing but one word,
Yet it is always listened to-isn't that absurd?

It has nothing to do but sit on a table all day,
Unless it is spoken to it has nothing to say.
It is constantly being picked up and put down,
It is totally rigid, alas! it cannot even frown.

It hears what one says, hears what the other replies
But it cannot respond, mentally it just sits back and sighs.
It if forced to listen to things it may not want to hear,
From 'I'll kill you' to 'I love you, dear'.

It is forced to endure such a terrible smell,
Beer or cigarettes? It cannot even tell.
It is often slammed down, for not fault of its own.
The faces of its users to it will remain forever unknown.

You dumb little thing, you can't even express yourself.
You ugly little thing, stop working and I'll throw you off the shelf.
You pathetic slave, helpless little thing
Forced to sit still all day and go ring, ring, ring.

poem by a 16 yr old

Since everyone seems to be putting up poems (or in anka's case, snippets of poems), i thought i'd put something up as well, only not written by any famous poet. i searched for poetry written by teenagers of our age so that those of us who write poetry can compare ourselves to them. i found this one rather interesting. the author was anonymous.

The trees need dusting, the streets need cleaning.
This can be done, but not with brooms sweeping.
The clouds gather round, the sun takes the backseat,
A motionless breeze sets in; there goes the heat.

The men look at the sky, and shudder.
The young schoolboys switch from canvas to rubber.
The lights begin to dim, people in their places-
Everyone the same in a sea of unknown faces.

The air tries to make way, moving this way and that.
It fails, and the rain begins to fall-pat, pat, pat.
The drops fall fast, slicing through the air,
The rain has no uncovered ground to spare.

The streets are empty, the trees have company.
Bus stops and porches being used by all and sundry.
Nature takes over, we are shoved aside;
The drops continue to sail and glide.

The world appears washed, the trees seem clean.
The roads shine with a sun-fed sheen.
Can the rain wash away everything? Maybe it can,
Everything but the sins of a bad, bad man.