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Uplifting Thoughts for the Isolated and Depressed in Times of Plague

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South Dakota’s first poet laureate lived much of his life alone in a prim cabin in the heart of Custer State Park. He wore whipcord breeches and polished riding boots, a Windsor tie and an officer’s jacket. He fed the deer flapjacks from his window in the mornings, paid $10 a year in ground rent and denounced consumerism at every turn. “Lord, how I pity a man with a steady job,” he wrote in his diary in 1941.
Born January 1, 1883, Badger Clark (no connection to Wisconsin, you Badger Fans) built a career writing what many today call “cowboy poetry,”
In his 1915 book of poems, Sun and Saddle Leather, was a poem, “A Border Affair.” An Arizona cowboy named Bill Simon happened upon a copy of the poem and composed a melody to go with it and turned the poem into a popular campfire singalong. Before long, it had become a fixture in the folk canon. The song came to be known by the first line, Spanish is a loving tongue.
In 1963, A year before they married, the famed Canadian folk duo Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker (one of my favorite folk acts - Sylvia was so hot!*) recorded “Spanish Is a Loving Tongue” on their album Four Strong Winds; the lyrics’ cowboy spirit may have particularly spurred the interest of Tyson, a former rodeo rider.
Spanish is the lovin' tongue,
Soft as music, lights as spray.
'Twas a girl I learnt it from,
Livin' down Sonora way.
I don't look much like a lover,
Yet I say her love words over
Often when I'm all alone -
'Mi amor, mi corazon.'

Nights when she knew where I'd ride
She would listen for my spurs,
Fling the big door open wide,
Raise them laughin' eyes of her
And my heart would nigh stop beatin'
When I heard her tender greetin',
Whispered soft for me alone
'Mi amor! mi corazon!'

Moonlight in the patio,
Old Señora noddin' near,
Me and Juana talkin' low
So the Madre couldn't hear -
How those hours would go a-flyin;!
And too soon I'd hear her sighin'
In her little sorry tone -
'Adios, mi corazon!'

But one time I had to fly
For a foolish gamlin' fight,
And we said a swift goodbye
In that black, unlucky night.
When I'd loosed her arms from clingin'
With her words the hoofs kep' ringin'
As I galloped north alone -
'Adios, mi corazon'

Never seen her since that night,
I kain't cross the Line, you know.
She was Mex and I was white;
Like as not it's better so.
Yet I've always sort of missed her
Since that last wild night I kissed her,
Left her heart and lost my own -
'Adios, mi corazon!'

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Great music is always better with a strip.
That performance - with those solemn, serious-looking players in the orchestra, the chorus line gents in tails, the audience in wrapt, respectful silence, is surely a classic example of Brecht's 'alienation effect' (Verfremendungseffekt)!
 
That performance - with those solemn, serious-looking players in the orchestra, the chorus line gents in tails, the audience in wrapt, respectful silence, is surely a classic example of Brecht's 'alienation effect' (Verfremendungseffekt)!

That's easy for you to say!
 
Another way to "soothe your soul'



Just take those old records off the shelf
I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself
Today's music ain't got the same soul
I like that old time rock 'n' roll
Don't try to take me to a disco
You'll never even get me out on the floor
In ten minutes I'll be late for the door
I like that old time rock'n' roll
Still like that old time rock'n' roll
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock 'n' roll
Won't go to hear them play a tango
I'd rather hear some blues or funky old soul
There's only sure way to get me to go
Start playing old time rock 'n' roll
Call me a relic, call me what you will
Say I'm old-fashioned, say I'm over the hill
Today' music ain't got the same soul
I like that old time rock 'n' roll
Still like that old time rock 'n' roll
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock 'n' roll
Still like that old time rock 'n' roll
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock 'n' roll
Still like that old time rock 'n' roll
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock 'n' roll
Hey, still like that old time rock 'n' roll
That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock 'n' roll
Still like that old time rock 'n' roll
 
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A little belatedly, greetings for Rosh Ha-shanah to all who celebrate it -
this classic performance of Max Bruch's hauntingly beautiful Kol Nidrei
speaks to me in these troubling times

 
A little belatedly, greetings for Rosh Ha-shanah to all who celebrate it -
this classic performance of Max Bruch's hauntingly beautiful Kol Nidrei
speaks to me in these troubling times

Thank you so much, @Eulalia for posting that. Every time I hear Jacqueline Du Pré play I end up almost sobbing - from the beauty of the performance and the tragedy of her life!
 
The Seekers, 1967. A timeless classic. "The Times they STILL are a-changin' " And I find that fact uplifting!


Now I'm one of the old farts who should relish the past!
 
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