All posts by Dona

27. Tap, step one-two-three

Music, Song Blog, ,

While we’re in London in 1979, here’s another one.

I cannot sing and I cannot dance. It is a fact, confirmed by both my college “kiddie music” professor and my former aerobics instructors. Oh, and the general public.

That doesn’t necessarily stop me from doing either, or both, but the results are rather disastrous.

Tim didn’t believe I couldn’t dance, and since it was still the the days of disco he decided to teach me the Latin Hustle. It was at a Bring Your Own Baby party at Southlands College in London. (The college was Methodist and didn’t allow alcohol – so we brought our own, but could not advertise it as such. So the posters said Baby instead of Booze. I sure bet we fooled the authorities!)

I only have vague visions of that night – maybe I had too much baby or maybe it was just too long ago. I do remember Tim showing me the steps – and saying Tap Step one-two-three a lot. I tap stepped one-two-threed a lot and he claimed I did well. I also remember being exhausted.

In later years, with different dance partners I tried to tap step one-two-three, but the results were much different – usually involving laughing and hurt feelings.

Never mind – I didn’t much like disco anyway.

This video isn’t Tim, (I don’t’ think it is Tim, cannot see his face) but it’s someone Doing the Hustle. And there seems a lot more numbers (and fruit, imitation dairy products and animals) involved than I remember.

26. It’s nice to be a lunatic

Song Blog

Another London winter of student teaching song memory.

Bill was a fellow student teacher – a droll fellow with a dry sense of humor. He’d get on a subject and once he knew folks found it amusing, got us laughing and begging him to stop. His room heater was broken, and he didn’t know that the flat enameled white thing under the window was a radiator. He just assumed that since it was England, there was no heat in the rooms. He kept quiet about it for a while, but finally mentioned it to me and it was fixed. He told the story over and over again about how he didn’t expect much in London, but thought at least he’d have a little heat in his room.

Another ongoing, oft repeated joke of his was about the #1 song in UK in January 1979, Ian Dury & The Blockheads’ Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick. He’d burst out laughing whenever it came on, then would move to the beat and sing along, waving imaginary sticks in the air, on tables, on people.

When I needed dowels for a project I was working on in the 2nd-year classroom where I student taught, I got a couple extra for him, decorated them and presented him with his own pair of rhythm sticks.

Nothing profound, nothing amazing. Just a fond memory of a funny guy and silly song.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Opens up a new browser at The Blockheads’ Website)

In the deserts of Sudan
And the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatán
Every woman, every man

Hit me with your rhythm stick
Hit me! Hit me!
Je t’adore, ich liebe dich
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick
Hit me slowly, hit me quick
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

In the wilds of Borneo
And the vineyards of Bordeaux
Eskimo, Arapaho
Move their body to and fro

Hit me with your rhythm stick
Hit me! Hit me!
Das ist gut, c’est fantastique
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick
It’s nice to be a lunatic
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me! Hit me! Hit…

In the dock of Tiger Bay
On the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fé
O’er the hills and far away

Hit me with your rhythm stick
Hit me! Hit me!
C’est si bon, ist es nicht
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick
Two fat persons, click, click, click
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me!
Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me!

Don’t Panic, here is what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has to say.

25. I’m lookin’ for one thing real tonight

Music, Song Blog,
Otter asked me what my favorite Dan Bern song was. I still don’t really know, but for a while I considered One Thing Real to be it. He seemed to play it every time I saw him live the first couple of years. The one time I really remember was the time I worried about him most.

He’d been promised the Music Hall at the Birchmere. This is the same Birchmere that launched Mary Chapin Carpenter among others. The new Birchmere has a large room with a stage and seating for hundreds of people. Birchmere has a policy that if you don’t sell a certain number of tickets before the show day, they don’t put you in the Music Hall. My friend’s boyfriend worked there at the time and told me the bad news.

I worried that Dan would be upset that he’d been denied the Music Hall. I got there early to get a good seat in the Bandstand – Pretty much just an extension of the bar. I didn’t have to worry. There were a handful of people there. I sat front and center. I could put my feet on the stage if I’d dared. (for those of you thinking of ever seeing Dan Bern live – I’d suggest you not sit that close. See, he gets really into his songs and sometimes saliva is involved. If you like that kind of thing, then go for it. Otherwise, sit a couple of rows back).

So anyway, he got on stage and seemed out of it as I’d worried. He’d plugged his guitar in and sang a couple of songs. Then he sang my favorite, One Thing Real.

When he got to this part:

I’m up here singin’ these songs every night
Sometimes I wanna just make ’em all up on the spot
Maybe they wouldn’t rhyme too good, they might not make sense
But then at least I wouldn’t be repeating myself
I’m lookin’ for one thing real tonight

He stopped singing but still strummed his his guitar and he looked at the small audience. Then told us that if we wanted to we could crowd around the stage and he’d sing unplugged – since it was such a small audience. In retrospect, perhaps he was not angry – maybe disappointed, but wanted to give us a good performance as possible. And that meant intimate.

Although I was worried for him at the time and didn’t really like the show, a friend gave me a CD he’d burned from a recording he’d made of the show. All-in-all, it was a good show and the intimacy made it all the better. If he had been on the big stage in the Music Hall it would have been so different.