Musical Interlude

Well, it is raining profusely on a Monday and I am off work and studying for the GRE, so I thought I would pop in briefly and write a post on musical interests. The first is a random incident as far as concerns things "mythopoeic" - simply that a friend of mine was in town (Pittsburgh) over the weekend to see U2, a fact for which I am very jealous of him (tickets sold out in 4 hours when they went on sale last May). He said it was an amazing show ... I guess they are closing their shows now with "Yahweh" into "40." Paul Simon: But on a more mythopoeic note, Dominic (friend/housemate) related to me that he figured out what he thinks (and I agree) is the primary image in Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" from the 1986 Graceland album. But before I say this, let me note - I'm saying this is the primary "image" not the primary identity. In other words I do not think the song to be a musical adaptation of the whole thing where every line of the song draws out to Dante in a tight correspondence. Simply put, an image struck Simon's imagination and he wrote a song from the experience of being struck by it, working in other aspects in following the song where it led him (especially imagery from the third world cultures of Africa, which he was drawing on musically.) One word ... "multivalence" (multiple layers/levels of meaning) Here it is: "Betty" = Beatrice "Al"= a shortened form of Dante's last name (Alighieri) "Bodyguard" = the fact that Beatrice leads Dante through Heaven as his guide up to the Mystical Rose, and it was she who sent Virgil to guide Dante through Hell. "a Man walks down the street" = Dante wakes "midway this way of life we're bound upon" ... i.e., midway down the "road" of life. "A Cartoon in a Cartoon graveyard" = Dante journeys through the underworld. "Dogs in the moonlight" = The most dangerous of the three beasts that block Dante's way up the hill and out of the woods, thus necessitating that he go to the gates of Hell ... is a she-wolf. "The third world" = Heaven in the Paradiso (simultaneous with being the third world cultures of Africa and, later, South/Latin America - see the final note below on "literary background".) "Angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity" = just look at the illustrations that have been done of the Mystical rose from the Paradiso. (the link is to the one from the book Dom put on the table in front of me while telling me. I think Dore's illustrations are pretty well known and standard. I think Blake and Dali also did famous illustrations) Literary background This is exactly up the line of the imaginary traditions Simon drew on for the Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints albums. the literary genre known as "Magical Realism" officially comes from Latin America but I believe that African folk literature fits the model as well. This genre is defined by the wonder of the magical combined with the nitty gritty details of realism (hence the third world being Dante's Heaven with angels, and at the same time a third world marketplace place with cattle, scatterlings and orphans). Simon's music has always struck me as "Magical Realism" - especially starting with the song "Hearts and Bones" (I think a primary image for that song was taken from My Name is Asher Lev. "One and One Half wondering Jews ... Traveling together, in the Sangre deChristo, the Blood of Christ Mountains" - I believe this to be based in the image of Asher joining his mythic ancestor in "wandering the world" after his painting the "Brooklyn Crucifixions" - a Jew wandering in a world of Christian imagination) When you think about it - this is what the sacramental is about (the Body, Blood, Soul and divinity of God in a common white wafer), or as my friend Smitty (the lucky jerk who got to see U2) put it yesterday morning over breakfast when I described this all to him, "well, sounds to me pretty much like it sums up real life."