RAW NOTES FROM THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK

 

 VII. RAW NOTES FROM THE AMERICAN SONG BOOK

        LET ME ASK A QUESTION: Is the American

        Songbook the same thing as your Leuchtturm1917?

        RESPONSE: It is, it is. Very good. This is called

        witnessing for the defense.

As of now the police are not working with ICE.

We live between the ridges, and this is an organization.

This is how we talk with each other up and down the valley.

Every day is a lobby day.

It’s already happening.

What it means to take direct action is what’s being explored.

NPR is here. Accompaniment.

Most of our work has been in churches

because they’ve got big buildings and they’re empty.

I remember the first time I heard B. B. King sing,

Don’t open the door for nobody. It wasn’t on no record.

Live, baby, live. Live blues.

Playing Lucille, his guitar.

The guitar that can’t be replaced

He didn’t see this coming. No, no, no. He didn’t.

That’s what I hear. It’s a point of emphasis.

Unless they’ve got a search warrant, don’t open that door.

Don’t open that door for Nobodaddy.

The strong man keeps coming on.

They taught you the religion they disgraced.

Don’t open that door. It was the poet Carl Sandburg

who said, Strong men coming on.

This is a history in rivers. Call it Upstream.

Call it from mothers coming from a dark sea.

Two names merging, diverging, calling Yes,

Carl Sandburg, calling Yes, Sterling Brown.

Celebrate Chicago. Celebrate African origins.

Celebrate any bodaddy who knows American poetry.

A quiz: Answer Sandburg. Answer Brown.

A clue: Both of them are saints.

Who wrote: They go down shot, hanged, sick, broken.

Who wrote:They put hammers in their hands.

B. B. King wrote: ‘Cause I don’t want a soul, baby

Hangin’ around my house when I’m not at home.

If you see something, you call.

You call.

Every time information gets passed around, it gets distorted.

The strong man talks everyday.

These raw notes.

They’re part of the preparation.

These woven voices.

Some of this stuff, some of this stuff

we have to be prepared for.

It takes people to circle the familiar.

Strong men keep me.

Strong men help me sleep.

There are others, keeping me

from sleep, but these are the ones

who come to me in song.

Jim Bodeen

24-31 January 2025