Reason For Being

Seldom Scene: Reason for Being
Framingham, MA...2/16/13


Ben Eldridge (banjo)
Ronnie Simkins (bass)
Lou Reid (mandolin)
Dudley Connell (guitar)
Fred Travers (dobro)

Dreamland

DJ Algoriddim: Dreamland mix *


there's a land that i have heard about
so far across the sea
to have you on my dreamland
would be like heaven to me

we'll get our breakfast from the trees
we'll get our honey from the bees
we'll take a ride on the waterfalls
and all the glories, we'll have them all

and we'll live together on that dreamland
and have so much fun
oh what a time that will be
just you wait, wait, wait and see

we'll count the stars up in the sky
and surely we'll never die




* Dreamland: Wailers
Dreamland: Bunny Livingstone & The Wailers
Dreamland Version: Upsetters
Dreamland: Winston Wright & The Upsetters
Dreamland Version: U Roy
Dreamland Dub: Upsetters
Dream Land: Bunny Wailer
Dub Dreams (Dreamland): Bunny Wailer
Love Land: Dub Specialist
Dreamland (Single Mix): Marcia Griffiths
Dreamland Dub : Marcia Griffiths
Natty Dub In A Dreamland: Bojangles

And Her Hair Hung Gently Down

Robert Hunter : Reuben and Cerise...3/28/84

the truth of love
an unsung song must tell
the course of love
must follow blind
without a look behind
Reuben walked
through the streets
of New Orleans 'till dawn
Cerise so lightly in his arms
and her hair hung gently down





Jerry Garcia: Reuben and Cerise


Phil & Friends w/ Joan Osborne: Reuben and Cerise...10/29/05


Yonder Mountain String Band; Reuben and Cerise...6/19/09

Un Canadien Errant

Whitehorse: Un Canadien Errant

Un Canadien errant,
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays étrangers.
Un jour, triste et pensif,
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
"Si tu vois mon pays,
Mon pays malheureux,
Va, dis à mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
"Ô jours si pleins d'appas
Vous êtes disparus,
Et ma patrie, hélas!
Je ne la verrai plus!
"Non, mais en expirant,
Ô mon cher Canada!
Mon regard languissant
Vers toi se portera..."
--Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (1842)


Leonard Cohen: Un Canadien Errant


Nana Mouskouri: Un Canadien Errant

A Canadian wandering afar,
Banished from hearth and home,
Would gaze at the northern star
And weep in the strange lands he roamed.
One day, with thoughts full of woe,
He sat by the river’s edge.
To the fugitive current below,
These are the words that he said:
If you see my country some day,
My country in sorrow’s thrall,
Go tell my friends faraway
That I remember them all.
O days of charm you have passed,
You vanished like summer rain.
And my fatherland, alas!
I never will see you again.
No, but on my dying day
These eyes will be filled with tears
As my longing look turns your way,
O Canada, ever so dear.
--Brian C. Puckett (2011)


Bonnie Dobson; Un Canadien Errant

Caturday

Cat Power: Naked If I Want To

would you let me
walk down your street
naked if i want to?

can i shoot fireworks
on the fourth of july?

can i buy
an amplifier on time?
i don't have no money now,
but i will pay you
before i die.

--moby grape

Man is the Reasoning Animal.
Such is the claim.
I think it is open to dispute.
Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
--Mark Twain
Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings