wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) (04/08/85)
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DEFINITIONS:
Ted Hughes -- A contemporary British poet, author of a
book of poetry called "Crow." Ted Hughes
was once married to the American poet
Sylvia Plath. His most recent book of
poetry (to the best of my knowledge) is
"River," which I recommended to net.books
readers a month or two ago. The poems in
"Crow" seem to be about death and the
death of innocence that results from
mankind's acquisition of language.
Capt. Beefheart -- An avant-garde blues/rock composer. His
most recent album (to the best of my
knowledge) is "Ice Cream For Crow." The
Captain's music sounds like what might
result if Howlin' Wolf decided to become
a beat poet and hired an avant-garde jazz
group to back him up. The songs in "Ice
Cream For Crow" seem to be about death
and the possibility of rebirth.
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SPECULATIONS:
In the cycle of poems in Ted Hughes' "Crow," the character named
Crow is presented as an anti-romantic and entropic force in the
universe. Mankind's real fall is the result of language; the Garden of
Eden was only possible before human beings acquired verbal skills. I
find the Captain's album "Ice Cream For Crow" his most disturbing
work; it seems to be obsessed with death and dissolution. Perhaps it's
a meditation on the Captain's own mortality. There's an interesting
connection between these two works that may or may not be
coincidental.
The poem called "Crow and the Birds" presents Crow as a no-nonsense
scavenger who makes his living from the detritus and misfortune of
civilization (although the dropped ice-cream is admittedly a comically
trivial misfortune):
...While the bullfinch plumped in the applebud
And the goldfinch bulbed in the sun
And the wryneck crooked in the moon
And the dipper peered from the dewball
Crow spraddled head-down in the beach-garbage, guzzling
a dropped ice-cream.
Captain Beefheart's song "Ice Cream For Crow" presents life as
celebration and dance, but a dance on the edge of the grave. His Crow
seems to be a totemic, mystical symbol of death. Crow leads the
dance:
...light the fire piano
the moon showed up
and it started to show
tonight there'd be ice cream
ice cream for crow...
But later on in the song, the Captain's Crow is presented as an agent
of possible rebirth through images of healing:
...tonight there's gonna be
a feather treatment...
...cut the cake
we'll all get well...
On the album cover, Beefheart appears in a black and white photo of
the desert. He holds his hat in his hand, and is alone. The image is
altogether a mournful one, as though the good Captain were going to
his own funeral. The photo is set against a window shade covered with
one of his paintings; the colors are black and blood-red. Is the shade
going down on a life? Is the connection between Ted Hughes' image of
crow 'guzzling a dropped ice-cream' and Beefheart's image of ice cream
at the crow dance (moonlight == ice cream?) coincidence? What do you
think?
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UNCONNECTED AFTERTHOUGHT:
Paul Simon uses imagery from Ted Hughes' "Crow" in his song "My
Little Town:" (the following from memory)
...And after it rains there's a rainbow
But all of the colors are black...
This is no accident, since a quote from Ted Hughes' poem "Two
Legends" preceeds the song's lyrics on the back of the "Still Crazy"
album.
-- Enjoy it, Bill Ingoglyabh6509@ritcv.UUCP (A. Hudson) (04/12/85)
> > DEFINITIONS: > Ted Hughes -- A contemporary British poet, author of a > > Capt. Beefheart -- An avant-garde blues/rock composer. His > > "Crow spraddled head-down in the beach-garbage, guzzling > a dropped ice-cream." > > Captain Beefheart's song "Ice Cream For Crow" presents life as > celebration and dance, but a dance on the edge of the grave. His Crow > seems to be a totemic, mystical symbol of death. Crow leads the > dance: > > "tonight there'd be ice cream > ice cream for crow..." > > -- Enjoy it, Bill Ingogly Absolutely Incredible!! First of all I'm amazed that someone made the connection between the two works of art, (was that an uninspired observation?). Secondly, its really a pleasure to experience wonder from insight in someone's creative process. For once I can really respect the intellect that went into the making of a musical concept. Especially in the days of the The Pure Pap for Now People. If only some people could realize that one of the aspects of "alternative music" that is so appealing is the intellectual challenge. "If you could but perceive.." But then the problem with a challenge is that is so challenging. I really enjoyed it! -- Andrew Hudson