A Sense of Doubt blog post #1735 - reprint - Two poems on CITIES for analysis - "That's Entertainment" and "Chicago"

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1735 - reprint - Two poems on CITIES for analysis - "That's Entertainment" and "Chicago"

https://www.mediastorehouse.com/granger-art-on-demand/trains-trolleys/chicago-traffic-1909-congested-traffic-dearborn-street-6191179.html

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1382 - That's Entertainment - Chicago edition - Musical Monday Mix for 1812.03 and Concordia University WR121 WONDERFULS

Hi there,

Here's another mix that starts with an assignment for my students at Concordia University who are practicing analysis for the final exam next week. For this practice in class writing, they will compare the song and lyrical content of the Jam's "That's Entertainment" with the classic American poem "Chicago" by Carl Sandberg.

This is the second practice I have hit them with. Last week's was Kate Bush on Musical Monday 1811.26.

Some more songs by the Jam follow.

If not for the comparison, I would call this mix either "Days of Speed and Slow-Time Mondays" or "Smells of Pubs and Wormwood Scrubs." I actually now have another mix named this...

Both could be subtitles for this mix. Yeah, that's a link to it on You Tube.

One other thing, it's FUNNY (in an irony way) that with this post and last week's I am asking students to analyze and interpret lyrical content of songs and music, last week, I shared my COCTEAU TWINS MIX with them (a future Musical Monday) called "Ella Megalast Burls Forever," which really had no (or little to no) discernible lyrical content in an actual language, though to call it "gibberish" is to unfairly cast shade onto the beautiful sounds of Cocteau Twins and Elizabeth Fraser.

Now, on to today's assignment and mix.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: (updated 1911.18): What follows are two poems about cities. Read and consider both poems. Construct an analytical argument that compares and/or contrasts how the poems describe their cities ("That's Entertainment" is about LONDON). Once you have constructed an argument about the meaning of the poems, use the language of the poems to support this interpretation. Quote liberally from each and then deconstruct the language to support the interpretation.

The poems follow. For one, there's a VIDEO.

A quiet street in Convent Garden 1973
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/09/snapshot-27-photos-of-1970s-london

"THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT"
by THE JAM
from the 1980 album Sound Affects

A police car and a screaming siren
A pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete
A baby wailing and stray dog howling
The screech of brakes and lamp light blinking
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

A smash of glass and a rumble of boots
An electric train and a ripped up 'phone booth
Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat
Lights going out and a kick in the balls
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

Days of speed and slow time Mondays
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday
Watching the news and not eating your tea
A freezing cold flat and damp on the walls
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

Waking up at six am on a cool warm morning
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard
Watching the telly and thinking about your holidays
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettes
Cuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfume
A hot summer's day and sticky black tarmac
Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were far away
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight
Two lovers missing the tranquillity of solitude
Getting a cab and travelling on buses
Reading the graffiti about slashed seat affairs
That's entertainment, that's entertainment

Songwriters: Paul John Weller
That's Entertainment lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/09/snapshot-27-photos-of-1970s-london

https://youtu.be/Wnvr0aJ0hgs

compare to:

Chicago
BY CARL SANDBURG

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, 

Stacker of Wheat,

   Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

   Stormy, husky, brawling,

   City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are 
brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.


And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
   Bareheaded,
   Shoveling,
   Wrecking,
   Planning,
   Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,

                   Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog 
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

n/a
Source: Poetry (Poetry Foundation, 1914)

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I left this post under construction for a week, believing I would come back here and post the videos individually with commentary given that the Jam are one of my all-time favorite bands: a top five band.

Here's my T-shirt post on the Jam: T-shirt #346.

I listed my favourite bands in T-shirt #46 DEVO  and the Jam came out third. Here's the list:

1. 10,000 Maniacs
2. Cocteau Twins
3. The Jam/ Style Council
4. Spyro Gyra
5. Steely Dan
6. Pink Floyd
7. Everything But The Girl
8. King Crimson
9. The Indigo Girls
10. Talking Heads

As much as I love Devo, they do not make this list. And other bands who I love with a great burning passion, like Joy Division (see T-shirt #35), Kraftwerk (T-shirt #36), and Sigur Rós (T-shirt #12); other great bands do not break the top ten but would be in my top twenty, such as Radiohead, Roxy Music, the Clash, Dead Can Dance, and the Police.

Even though DEVO is not in the top ten favorites, they are in the list of bands or musical artists that I want to see live. A list that also includes bands I cannot see live, such as Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, and the Jam.

Anyway, I stalled out for a week on doing all that work to update this item, and so I made an executive decision. I am going to create a second post that goes song-by-song through these tracks by the Jam and shares commentary, and of course loads of pictures.

I got it sussed.

For now, it's just this, which I thought was a fairly successful assignment.

Here's the video player to the You Tube mix.




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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1812.03 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1282 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1911.18 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1598 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.