Play That Funky Music
This week we made the trek across the wilds of Pennsylvania to see the Geologic Concert in beautiful Bethlehem. Although the drive wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had, seeing a concert that we had been looking forward to for months with my wife and son was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
In celebration, today’s poem by Carl Sandburg ties into music and the city I grew up around, if not in.
Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio
It’s a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.
Ship riveters talk with their feet
To the feet of floozies under the tables.
A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers:
“I got the blues.
I got the blues.
I got the blues.”
And . . . as we said earlier:
The cartoonists weep in their beer.
– Carl Sandburg
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