Peggy Lee - "Is That All There Is?"
My parents tell me that after I got home from my first day at school, I cried. I don’t remember this, but they tell me that I said I had expected the school to be covered in lights, I’d expected a spectacle. Both my parents had been enthusiastic teachers and my sister a committed student who probably tried to convince me of how great it was going to be (my brother would have known better). But the cloakroom, the plasticine, my classmates, Mrs. Kestler - they had all been terrible disappointments. I am also told that I was either slow at understanding or slow to respond when it was play time and that as a result I usually ended up playing with the disfavoured toys (old baby dolls, paper, etc.). But regardless of whether or not this humiliation/emasculation contributed to my chagrin, that day marked the first in a long line of disillusionments. Was that all there was? “Let’s break out the booze and have a ball,” I should have suggested. Alas, I was an innocent who, frankly, did not have the vocabulary or a taste for hard liquor.
Notice that dancing, drinking and general bacchanalian reveling are the only things in life (or death) that don’t disappoint poor Peggy Lee.
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Mississippi John Hurt - "First Shot Missed Him"
1. The shooter’s first shot was way off. The last one was right on. What happened in between we do not know. The quality of the shooter’s marksmanship is still in question. The life-status of the victim is not.
2. The intricate guitar playing tells the story along with Hurt’s genial voice. Uncharacteristically soft for a blues, it’s a small song that tugs hard on a little piece of your heart.