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| Thursday, September 02 | | · | The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - Toronto International Film Festival |
| · | Billy at Neuqua Valley High |
| Wednesday, September 01 | | · | David Pajo Interview - Punk Planet |
| Thursday, August 19 | | · | Jimmy's studio photos. |
| Saturday, August 14 | | · | Journal Post From Jimmy 8/14 |
| Wednesday, August 11 | | · | James News - Remix of Blue released |
| Thursday, August 05 | | · | Jimmy C. News |
| Wednesday, August 04 | | · | 08.03.04 - Billy Journal Post |
| Monday, August 02 | | · | BC Live show. |
| Friday, July 23 | | · | More Breaking Benjamin News |
| Sunday, July 18 | | · | Jimmy Chamberlin's self-maintained homepage |
| Saturday, July 17 | | · | Pumpkins on GTA: San Andreas Soundtrack |
| · | 07.15.04 - Billy Journal Post |
| Thursday, July 08 | | · | This song so many have covered |
| Wednesday, June 30 | | · | IGN's Breaking Benjamin CD Review |
| Tuesday, June 29 | | · | Corgan's analysis a smashing success |
| Monday, June 28 | | · | The Wrigleyville Report with Billy Corgan |
| · | Billy Corgan: Blinking with Fists |
| Sunday, June 27 | | · | ''Rock's Graduate Student'' |
| · | Looking For A Break |
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| Poetic license or verbal abuse? - Sun-Times |
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 Two weeks ago, the Rev. Joseph Simmons -- better known as "Run" of hip-hop legends Run-DMC -- was rejected in his bid to become the poet laureate of his native Queens, N.Y. (The judges ruled against him because he currently lives in New Jersey, but the panel also split over the question of whether rap is a legitimate form of poetry.)
In September, Billy Corgan, the former leader of the Smashing Pumpkins, did his debut reading at the prestigious Poetry Center of Chicago, only to be savaged by the editor of Chicagopoetry.com for "his forced, sophomoric attempts at creating what he must have thought poetry is supposed to sound like."
In 1999, singer-songwriter Jewel published a book of her verse, A Night Without Armor: Poems, and the reviews were brutal. They must have had some effect: Amazon.com currently lists 144 used copies for sale, with the price as low as 49 cents.
Popular musicians attempting to cross over into the realm of poetry isn't a new phenomenon. Nor is it out of the ordinary for them to be scorned for their troubles.
In 1971, Macmillan published a still-controversial book called Tarantula, a novel masquerading as poetry -- or perhaps a collection of poetry trying to be sort-of-a-novel -- marking the best-known attempt by a rocker to make a grab at literary immortality.
"[The book] is not a literary event because Bob Dylan is not a literary figure," harrumphed the New York Times. "It is a throwback. Buy his records."
That critique was penned by a rock critic, Robert Christgau; many of the literary reviewers were even harsher. Even the book's publishers expressed doubt about the worth of this tome: In an unsigned introduction, the editors wrote that they "weren't quite sure what to make of the book -- except money."
The book remains an obscure collector's item -- a souvenir for the hard-core fans -- rather than a significant literary achievement, and the same is true of the many poetry collections that have followed in the years since from musicians-poets such as Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, Richard Hell and Leonard Cohen. Despite this daunting legacy, two of the most respected and successful rockers who've ever called Chicago home are set to try once again to breach the world of poetry.
Corgan will issue Blinking With Fists, his first collection of poems, under the aegis of well-respected publishers Faber & Faber in September, a few months before the release of his first solo album. Meanwhile, Adult Head, the first book of poetry by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, has already arrived in bookstores. Adult Head was published by Omaha's prestigious Zoo Press a few weeks ago, preceding the release of Wilco's fifth album, "A Ghost Is Born," which is due on June 22.
Corgan and Tweedy both say they've been writing poetry for years, in addition to penning lyrics for their songs. They both know that their books will be greeted with some skepticism from fans and literary critics. So why make the move from sharing their thoughts as lyrics released on an album to issuing poems between the covers of a book?
"I see my poetry as totally distinct from my lyrics; they're two separate things," Corgan said. "I started writing poetry about four years ago because I think there are things that I can do that I can't do in my lyrics. I don't think the poetry is going to be for everybody, but I've never let that stop me before.
"There are things I wanted to express, and I don't think I have to play the guitar to do that. And I don't know why I shouldn't be allowed to try to join the club."
C.J. Laity, who's the editor of Chicagopoetry.com and a major figure on the city's thriving poetry slam scene, isn't necessarily opposed to rockers joining the poetry club. He is a fan of Frank Orrall and thinks that Poi Dog Pondering's leader is a very good poet. But he believes that Corgan is not.
Laity reviewed Corgan's debut reading at the Art Institute of Chicago sponsored by the Poetry Center of Chicago last fall. Tickets for the event were $35 -- a level previously reserved for the likes of William S. Burroughs, Carlos Fuentes and Allen Ginsberg -- but organizers defended the steep charge because it was a benefit to fund the center's educational programs.
"For the most part, his poetry was so bad, it was comical, sounding like a pile of high-school assignments composed by the C-minus student in the class," Laity wrote. "His poetry contained no energy, no rage, no dazzling metaphor or impressive usage of language, no unique voice, no imagery, no passion: in short, no Billy Corgan."
Kenneth Clarke, the executive director of the Poetry Center, disagrees. He defends the reading and Corgan's poetry in general. "The overwhelming response was positive," he said.
"From talking to Billy, I think that he does understand the difference between song lyrics and poetry lyrics. He's been writing song lyrics for a lot longer than he's been writing poetry lyrics, and he made it clear that this was his first poetry reading. He didn't say, 'I've been doing this for 100 years, and I'm the world's best.' I think it was a vulnerable moment, but he pulled it off."
Tweedy also knew that he was opening himself up to criticism when he entered into the realm of poetry. "Publishing my poetry is a no-win situation," he said. "I will only lose. But I like poetry, and I've always written poems. I tear them apart and make songs out of them."
Zoo Press created its Nightingale Editions imprint with the intent of exploring "the relationship between song and word" and "the literary merit of contemporary popular lyricists," according to its mission statement. Its Web site goes on to note that, "The Greeks referred to singers and poets with the same word, 'aoidos,' long before the word 'poietes' came along."
Publisher Neil Azevedo was unfamiliar with Wilco's music before a friend brought it to his attention, but he was impressed enough with Tweedy's lyrics to seek him out and ask if the musician wrote poetry. He then worked with Tweedy to select and edit the 43 poems that are compiled in Adult Head.
"When I started listening to the music, there was something that seemed more ambitious than the trite narratives you normally hear in popular songs," Azevedo said of Wilco. "When I initially spoke with Jeff, I was so impressed with his intelligence. We do kind of high-brow stuff, and we wanted to do a serious book of poetry. He took it and ran with it and wrote some really incredible stuff."
Azevedo couldn't be happier with Adult Head -- though as a non-rock fan, it's doubtful that he knows the title comes from a pun on the Flaming Groovies' hit, "Teenage Head." "It's already been well received in my world -- the poetry world," the editor said. "Jeff wrote a literary book -- he wrote a book of poems; he didn't just throw a bunch of words together -- and he uses a ton of rhetorical devices.
"He used a French received form -- sestina -- in 'The Singing Combat' poem. The prose poem 'The Bench-warmer's Daughter' is right out of the notebooks of Apollinaire, and I mean that in an homage way, not a rip-off way. There are poems like 'Yachting?,' which are really funny, and 'Doris,' which are straight narratives. I think for the most part, every poem in the book succeeds."
Azevedo believes that rockers with poetic talents as strong as Tweedy's are rare, but they should be encouraged -- hence the mission of Nightingale. But Clarke believes that we'll see more musicians crossing over into poetry, and that's something that should be encouraged, if it helps keep poetry alive.
To that end, the Poetry Center will sponsor more events like the Corgan reading, Clarke said. On June 4, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams will share the stage with her father, Miller, a renowned poet. (Tickets are $35 for general admission, $20 for members; visit www.poetrycenter.org for more information.)
"When somebody like Billy Corgan or Bob Dylan branches out into another set of aesthetics or a whole other world of the arts, there's always going to be some crotchety old men and women saying they don't belong," Clarke said. "It's a tough world, and there's an inherent cronyism in any kind of thing like this. I am a poet, but I am also a big fan of rock 'n' roll.
"I've always been confused by the difference between song lyrics and poetry lyrics, and I know from my graduate school education that the lyric song and the lyric poem come from the same place. If you go back 5,000 years, there is no difference. Like the psalms -- they're set to music and they're poems. The poet singer is still an idea that is relatively current in France and in Europe. That's a big reason why I was interested in hosting musicians reading their poetry."
***
Now, I'm not a knowledgeable-about-what-constitutes-good-poetry critic; in that world, I just know what I like. But I do know good rock 'n' roll, and in my realm, Tweedy is one of the best lyricists of his generation.
Corgan has had his moments, too, especially since he's grown past the angst of the "Siamese Dream" and "Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness" era into the maturity of "Adore" and the new Chicago songs.
But as Steve Allen proved on his television show way back in the '50s, rock lyrics cannot and should not be divorced from the music that drives them -- the words are only a small piece of the pie -- and this holds true no matter how many former English majors turned rock critics subsist on reviews that do little more than quote the choruses.
Attempting to ridicule the great Little Richard, Allen (who really should have known better, given that he sometimes backed Beat poet Jack Kerouac on piano) famously read the song's lyrics as poetry, solemnly intoning each word: "Tutti Frutti, aw, rootie/A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop, a-lop bam boo."
In the context of the recording, with its rampaging rhythm and hell-bent-on-salvation-through-sex vocal performance, rock has produced few lines more brilliant or profound. They're poetic, but who cares whether they work as poetry? As part of a timeless rock song, they're something better, since the combination of words and music affect us in a way that the written or spoken word alone can't touch.
This is to say that while we can wish Corgan and Tweedy well in their hobbies while moonlighting as poets, we should hope they don't lose sign of their primary careers. Rock 'n' roll needs them right where they are.
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Posted on Monday, May 10 @ 17:59:18 MST by anova |
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