Every once in a while you find a song that somehow nakedly isolates basic incontrovertible truths, common sense suggestions to help navigate the human dilemma. The unbearably soulful hook upon which the song is built drives the message home with its radical simplicity. Mr. Bartholomew, a pivotal New Orleans music motivator, lived to 100. His recordings are profound indications of time spent in deep creativity
“Yeah
The monkey speaks his mind
And three monkeys sat in a coconut tree
Discussing things as they are said to be
Said one to other now listen, you two
”There’s a certain rumour that just can’t be true
That man descended from our noble race
Why, the very idea is a big disgrace
No monkey ever deserted his wife
Starved her baby and ruined her life
Yeah
The monkey speaks his mind
And you’ve never known a mother monk
To leave her babies with others to bunk
And passed them on from one to another
’Til they scarcely knew who was their mother
Yeah
The monkey speaks his mind
And another thing you will never see
A monkey build a fence around a coconut tree
And let all the coconuts go to waste
Forbidding other monkeys to come and taste
Why, if I put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me
Yeah
The monkey speaks his mind
Here’s another thing a monkey won’t do
Go out on a night and get all in a stew
Or use a gun or a club or a knife
And take another monkey’s life
Yes, man descended, the worthless bum
But, brothers, from us he did not come
Yeah
The monkey speaks his mind”
“Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.”
I.F. Stone, American journalist
“Shadow boxes become poetic theater or settings wherein are metamorphosed the elements of a childhood pastime. The fragile, shimmering globules become the shimmering but more enduring planets—a connotation of moon and tides—the association of water less subtle, as when driftwood pieces make up a proscenium to set off the dazzling white of sea foam and billowy cloud crystallized in a pipe of fancy.” ”
Mr. Cornell
Even Cab’s bow tie is enthusiastic!
““The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.””