Recorded in 1965 by Peggy Lee, I love this version of “Pass Me By”, a Cy Coleman song originally from the 1964 film, Father Goose.
I got me ten fine toes to wiggle in the sand,
Lots of idle fingers snap to my command,
A lovely pair of heels that kick to beat the band,
Contemplating nature can be fascinating,
Add to these a nose that I can thumb,
And a mouth by gum have I,
To tell the whole darn world,
“If you don’t happen to like it, deal me out,
Thank you kindly, pass me by.”
Marching orders from Fleurmach! Here’s to 2013 kicking 2012’s sorry ass!
Lucille Ball and Paula Stewart as Wildy and Janey Jackson, live on the Ed Sullivan Show (1961), performing “Hey, Look Me Over” from the Broadway musical, Wildcat. These feisty dames are Thelma and Louise’s crazy aunts.
Hey look me over, lend me an ear,
Fresh out of clover, morgaged up to here,
Don’t pass the plate folks,
Don’t pass the cup,
I figure whenever you’re down and out,
The only way is up…
And I’ll be up like a rose bud,
High on the vine,
Don’t thumb your nose folks,
Take a tip from mine,
I’m a little bit short of elbow room,
But let me get me some,
And look out world, here I come!
A child in the dark, gripped with fear, comforts himself by singing under his breath. He walks and halts to his song. Lost, he takes shelter, or orients himself with his little song as best he can. The song is like a rough sketch of a calming and stabilizing, calm and stable, center in the heart of chaos. Perhaps the child skips as he sings, hastens or slows his pace. But the song itself is already a skip: it jumps from chaos to the beginnings of order in chaos and is in danger of breaking apart at any moment. There is always sonority in Ariadne’s thread. Or the song of Orpheus. … One launches forth, hazards an improvisation. But to improvise is to join with the World, or meld with it. One ventures from home on the thread of a tune.
~ Deleuze & Guattari, in “1837: Of the Refrain”, from A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Continuum, 1987. pp. 343-4
Passion that shouts
Red with anger
I lost myself
Through alleys of mysteries
I went up and down
like a demented train
Don’t take it personal
I choose my own fate
I follow love
I follow hate
Searching for something
that makes hearts move
I found myself
But my best possession
walked into the shade
and threatened to drift away
Don’t take it personal
I choose my own fate
I follow love
I follow hate
For all of myself
I left you behind as if I could
possessed by Quixote’s dream
Went to fight dragons in the land of concrete
Don’t take it personal
I choose my own fate
I follow love
I follow hate
Rolling in pain
discovered what hurts
and tasted hell
infatuated by madness
I danced in flames
and drank in the depth of love
