MANICHAEAN
12-13-2010, 10:25 AM
CREATIVE INSPIRATION.
He was a middle aged Californian song writer with a drink problem & was currently having a mental breakdown. A half bottle of John Lee rested by the typewriter. Later it would join in the kitchen trash can, the respective empties of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam & Wild Turkey. For Donald Pace was, if nothing else, catholic in his taste for bourbon whiskey.
His thoughts were exploding his mind in tangential confusion, but all had a common theme: the mishearing of song lyrics!
Robert Palmer’s big hit “Loving You” came out as "I've got a backache from loving you," rather than "A bad case of loving you." “Guantanamera” was reborn as “Want Americana,” and then Creedence Clearwater Revival’s, "There's a bad moon on the rise" somehow became "There's a bathroom on the right."
“God how his head was spinning!”
In trying to gain some semblance of mental equilibrium, he put a lot of it down to those dissolute, formative but enjoyable years of his early manhood living in Bangkok.
Thais he remembered had a great difficulty with their “R’s” which came out as “L’s” and other phonetic fantasies unique to that country. Thus a “Rolls Royce” became a “Lolls Loyce,” and he certainly did not want to go anywhere near “Lomeo, Lomeo, where art thou Lomeo!”
But to Don on that day, it still hard to beat back the memories. The long-standing unique rendition of “Moon Liver” and its close relatives, “Yellow Liver” and “Liver of No Return” being foremost.
In the bars & clubs he had become imbued with such Oriental originality as the Billy Joel number "You made the rice I made the gravy," which is perhaps more entertaining than the original, "You may be right, I may be crazy." Even Louis Armstrong seemed to cause confusion by a half cut karaoke singer one night with his rendition of "The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night" as "The bride bless the day, the dogs say goodnight".
The stirring lines of "Born free, as free as the wind blows" somehow never after quite carried the same impact in life as when it was evolved as "Born flea, flea in the window".
He grasped for the bottle, his hands shaking.
“Oh No, please Lord, not the Beatles number; “She's got a chicken to ride!".
He was a middle aged Californian song writer with a drink problem & was currently having a mental breakdown. A half bottle of John Lee rested by the typewriter. Later it would join in the kitchen trash can, the respective empties of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam & Wild Turkey. For Donald Pace was, if nothing else, catholic in his taste for bourbon whiskey.
His thoughts were exploding his mind in tangential confusion, but all had a common theme: the mishearing of song lyrics!
Robert Palmer’s big hit “Loving You” came out as "I've got a backache from loving you," rather than "A bad case of loving you." “Guantanamera” was reborn as “Want Americana,” and then Creedence Clearwater Revival’s, "There's a bad moon on the rise" somehow became "There's a bathroom on the right."
“God how his head was spinning!”
In trying to gain some semblance of mental equilibrium, he put a lot of it down to those dissolute, formative but enjoyable years of his early manhood living in Bangkok.
Thais he remembered had a great difficulty with their “R’s” which came out as “L’s” and other phonetic fantasies unique to that country. Thus a “Rolls Royce” became a “Lolls Loyce,” and he certainly did not want to go anywhere near “Lomeo, Lomeo, where art thou Lomeo!”
But to Don on that day, it still hard to beat back the memories. The long-standing unique rendition of “Moon Liver” and its close relatives, “Yellow Liver” and “Liver of No Return” being foremost.
In the bars & clubs he had become imbued with such Oriental originality as the Billy Joel number "You made the rice I made the gravy," which is perhaps more entertaining than the original, "You may be right, I may be crazy." Even Louis Armstrong seemed to cause confusion by a half cut karaoke singer one night with his rendition of "The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night" as "The bride bless the day, the dogs say goodnight".
The stirring lines of "Born free, as free as the wind blows" somehow never after quite carried the same impact in life as when it was evolved as "Born flea, flea in the window".
He grasped for the bottle, his hands shaking.
“Oh No, please Lord, not the Beatles number; “She's got a chicken to ride!".