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“A vaudeville night that combines music and literature, resulting in one of the finest nights of entertainment this city has to offer.”—The New Yorker

 “Inspired silliness…the audience roared in delight.”—Wall Street Journal

Musician/author John Wesley Harding once again brings his Cabinet of Wonders back to New York’s City Winery for a 3-show residency on March 14, April 19 and May 24. Drawing together collaborators from the worlds of music, literature and comedy, the Cabinet of Wonders features Harding curating, hosting and performing with a number of hand-picked artists in a variety show format. The March 14 show features Leo Allen, Fred Armisen, Peter Carey, Graham Parker, Amy Sohn, Dan Zanes and more performing alongside John Wesley Harding and the English U.K. Participating artists in the upcoming April and May performances will be announced shortly. “I wanted to bring together my novel writing friends (who mostly envy my musician friends) and my musician friends (who mostly envy my novel writing friends) under one flag,” says Harding. “The fact is: I like everyone who’s performing.” Additional artists to be announced, line-ups are subject to change.

For a second season, the Cabinet of Wonders continues to join together with NPR to exclusively distribute the show. Recorded live at City Winery and airing in seven one-hour episodes beginning in May, NPR’s “Cabinet of Wonders” features an exciting mix of musicians, authors, comedians and other artists including Fountains of Wayne, Ron Sexsmith, Steve Earle, Loundon Wainwright III and Dean & Britta, comedy from Eugene Mirman and John Oliver, and readings from authors Colum McCann, Chuck Klosterman, Paul Muldoon, and Gary Shteyngart among many others.

The Cabinet of Wonders premiered in the spring of 2009 to packed houses in New York City presenting a diverse lineup of performers. Many talented artists have joined in. Past collaborators include Andrew Bird, Colin Meloy, Rosanne Cash, Jonthan Ames, Daniel Handler and Patton Oswalt. The Village Voice calls the Cabinet of Wonders “a brilliant evening of laid-back fun,” while Time Out New York compares it to “an awesome mythological beast…another fantastic hybrid creation.”

Since his critically acclaimed 1990 debut Here Comes the Groom (lauded by the LA Times as “the first great rock record of the `90s”) John Wesley Harding has recorded 18 records for both major (Sire, Hollywood) and independent (Mammoth, Rhino, Appleseed) labels alike, with his most recent release The Sound of His Own Voice (Yep Roc Records) being hailed as “Wes’ most exciting album ever” by Magnet and “first-rate folk-rock” by the Utne Reader. His novels have been published by Little Brown and Picador in the U.S. and his fourth novel, Wonderkid, is due in early 2014 on Overlook Press.

See http://www.jwhcabinetofwonders.com/ for additional info.

Some of you may feel you’ve been taking this course for years, and it’s nice that someone finally bothered to lay it out.

Others may suspect I’ve put this together as an elaborate “Confessions of St Ace”-like hoax

But no! This is Professor Gilbert Gigliotti’s course at CCSU and I’d like to thank him for considering the novels and music worthy of study.

I look forward to talking to them on February 28th!

—–

ENG 214-01: Studies in World Literature –

The Allusive John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace

Spring 2013

MW 10:50-12:05 Willard Hall 311

Dr. Gilbert L. Gigliotti, CCSU English Department

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

Recognize the chronology of the major songs, albums, criticism, and novels of the songwriter and novelist Wesley Stace (a.k.a John Wesley Harding);

Explain some of the specific influences (literary, musical, historical, and artistic) on his songs and novels;

Discuss the literary techniques characteristic of the writer’s lyrics and novels; and

Write coherent and cogent analyses, using textual support and appropriate academic conventions and language, about the writer’s novels, songs, and criticism.

Syllabus

M Jan 14 Introduction to class: Syllabus, Expectations, and Requirements

Outline of career of John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace

www.wesleystace.com

Bob Dylan, “John Wesley Harding” (1967)

John Wesley Harding, “Top of the Bottom” (2009)

“Window Seat” (1998)

W Jan 16   Mike Tony, “John Wesley Harding: How Not to Be a Dick” (2012)

JWH, “A Cozy Promotional Chat” (1989)

Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968)

JWH, “The Devil in Me” (1989)

JWH, “Nothing at All” (2004)

M Jan 21    Martin Luther King Day No Class

W Jan 23   Bob Dylan, “Song to Woody” (1962)

“Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues” (1964)

JWH, “Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Steve Goodman, David Blue and Me” (1986)

“Bastard Son” (1989)

“Talking Return of the Great Folk Scare Blues” (1994)

“Making Love to Bob Dylan” (2012)

“Musical Influence” assignment due

M Jan 28   *   John Lennon, “Mother” (1970)

JWH, “Famous Man” (1988)

Band Aid, “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (1985)

JWH, “July 13th 1985” (1988)

JWH, “Election Night” (1994)

JWH, “There’s a Starbucks Where the Starbucks Used to Be” (2011)

W Jan 30 Martial, De Spectaculis Liber I (81 c.e.)

Epigrammaton, Liber I x-xii, xxxvii-xl; II.xx-xxviii; III. Lxix-lxxi

(86-88 c.e.)

JWH, “Skyscrapers of Memphis” (1993)

“Humble Bee” (2000)

M Feb 4   *   Hesiod, Works and Days, 42-106 (c.700 b.c.e.)

 Theogony, 561-616 (c.700 b.c.e.)

JWH, “Oh, Pandora” (2009)

W Feb 6     Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche from The Golden Ass (2^nd Century c.e.)

JWH, “Cupid and Psycho” (1996)

M Feb 11 Paper 1 due

Wesley Stace, “Introduction,” The Haunted House (2004)

JWH, “Sussex Ghost Story” (2004)

W Feb 13 Wesley Stace, By George (2007)

M Feb 18  Presidents’ Day No Class

W Feb 20 By George 

M Feb 25 By George

W Feb 27 By George

R  Feb 28 Evening Appearance of John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace

 at CCSU!  Attendance Required

M Mar 4 Paper II due: Reflection on the Visit or Album Cover/Title Paper

“Anonymous 1916” (1991)

“Little Musgrave” (1999)

W Mar 6 Wesley Stace, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer (2010)

M Mar 11 Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

W Mar 13 Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

M Mar 18 Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

W Mar 20   * Erasmus, Abbatis et eruditae (1518)

JWH, “The Colloquy of Mole and Mr. Eye” (1999/2011)

John, 11:1-44 (c. 90-100 c.e.)

JWH, “Sorry, Lazarus” (2001)

M Mar 25

      } Spring Break! No Class

W Mar 27

M Apr 1 No class (in exchange for February 28^th concert event)

W Apr 3   * John Donne, “Negative Love” (c.1600)

JWH, “Negative Love” (2004)

M Apr 8   John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I.84-270 and 622-751 (1674)

JWH, “My Favourite Angel” (2009)

W Apr 10   JWH, “Miss Fortune” (1998) 

“The Ballad of Miss Fortune” (2006)

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV.285-388

The Love Hall Tryst, “Lord Lovel” (2005)

M Apr 15 Wesley Stace, Misfortune (2005)

W Apr 17 Misfortune 

M Apr 22 Misfortune

W Apr 24 Misfortune

M Apr 29 Misfortune

W May 1 JWH, “The End” (2009)

W May 8 Paper III due by 1:00 PM

Required Texts

Stace, Wesley.  By George.  Back Bay Books, 2007.

- – , Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer. Picador, 2011.

- – , Misfortune. Back Bay Books, 2006.

Grading Breadown

Musical Influence Gloss   5%

In-Class Writings (4) 20%

Paper I 15%

Paper II . 15%

Paper III: 25%

Reading/Listening Quizzes (unannounced) 10%

Attendance and participation 10%

Description of Assignments 

Musical Influence Gloss (5%)

Joan Baez

The Band

Elizabeth Barraclough

David Blue

Leonard Cohen

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

Steve Goodman

Nic Jones

Joni Mitchell

Phil Ochs

John Prine

Townes Van Zandt

Suzanne Vega

Neil Young

Warren Zevon

For their assigned musical influence, students need to submit the following:

1. a) Artist’s (real where applicable) name and dates (birth, death and/or floruit) or,

in the case of a group, all members’ names and dates

b) Titles and years of release of his/her/their most popular and/or influential songs (and/or albums)

c) A link to and title of a video from youtube (or some other similar website) of a

representative song by the artist accompanied by

d) a sentence explaining why the song is representative of the artist.

e) Works cited list (not including Wikipedia)

In-class Writings (20%)

Four (4) in-class responses to a specific question about the assigned texts/songs for that class.  The answers, to be assessed using the attached rubric, should directly address the question by offering textual evidence.

Possible Paper I Topics (15%)

1. I. Compare/Contrast some significant aspect(s) of designated JWH’s lyric with the proposed short story/essay/poem/film

1. a) “The Fall of the House of Harding” with E. A. Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” (1839)
2. b) “The Celestial Shuttle” with N. Hawthorne’s “Celestial Railroad” (1843)
3. c) “Goth Girl” and Sarah Vowell’s “American Goth” (from Take the Cannoli, 2001)
4. d) “Orpheus Must Die” Tuatara (with JWH) and Vergil’s “Orpheus and Eurydice” from Georgics, Book IV (29 BCE)
5. e) “Sleeper Awake” and “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” (1697)
6. f) “Humankind” and the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
7. g) “For an Actress” and the film Rear Window (1954)

1. II. The “Why?” Question

1. a) “The Examiners” – why was JWH attracted to this poem as a lyric for a song?
2. b) “Roy Orbison Knows” – why Roy Orbison?
3. c) “The Robert Frost Rag” – why Robert Frost?

1. III. Criticism

What are some of the representative themes in Wesley Stace’s reviews of biographies of Prince, Neil Young, David Bowie and Bob Dylan?

Possible Paper II Topics (15%)

1. I. Using the song 1996 “Heart without a Home” from John Wesley Harding’s New Deal, create some piece (artistic/video/performance/literary) for the 18 April 2013 (1-8 PM) University-Museum-Community (UMC) Collaborative event at The New Britain Museum of American Art.

1. II. Research and discuss a particular aspect of one of the following JWH album covers (and titles)

Why We Fight

Confessions of St. Ace

Who was Changed and Who was Dead

1. III. Write a reflection on the visit to/performance at CCSU by John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace

1. IV. Answer Question 3, 4, or 10 in the back section of By George.

1. V. Create a Youtube video for any of the John Wesley Harding songs on the syllabus thus far.

Paper III (25%)

An analysis of either:

1. a) one song from Songs of Misfortune within the context of the novel or

b)   one myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses within the context of the novel

Reading/Listening Quizzes (unannounced) 10%

Participation and Attendance (10%)

Students can miss up to two classes during the course of the semester, but, given the timeliness of the assignment, not on the day of an in-class essay.  These absences may be related to illness, “better offers,” or even sloth, with little penalty. If students miss three or more, however, their grades may well be affected negatively.  The other half of this grade is participation (i.e., what students do after showing up for class: demonstrating their preparation by asking pertinent questions, answering questions, respectfully challenging the professor’s and fellow students’ interpretations, volunteering to read aloud, etc.).  Even attending every class is still only half this grade.  Nota bene: Students cannot receive full credit for this grade without attending the JWH/Wesley Stace event on 2/28/13.

Contact Information

Gilbert L. Gigliotti

Professor

CCSU Department of English

Emma Hart Willard Hall 329

Gigliotti@ccsu.edu

The End

It’ll end with a bang
It’ll end with a gun
It’ll end with a chorus
Then another one
It’ll end in ten minutes
And too many beers
It might struggle on
To the end of this year
It’ll end with the credits
And a copyright sign
It’ll end with a ticket
That leads to a fine
It’ll end with a trial
An arrest by the cops
It’ll end in a sentence
And then a full stop
It’ll end with a whimper
Or maybe a thud
It’ll end with a headstone
Your name will be mud
It’ll end with a coin
Placed on each eye
It’ll end with all children
Chanting Goodbye
That’s how it’ll end

It’ll end with a chance
Of a sequel for sure
It’ll end with the pitiful
Hope of some more
It’ll end with an inquest
A chance to resign
It’ll end with a word
That is twice underlined
(It’ll end with a word
That is twice underlined)
It’ll end with a cookie
That comes with the check
It’ll end with a chase
And a high-speed wreck
It’ll end when you didn’t
Expect that it would
And once it is gone
It’ll be gone for good
It’ll end with a war
It’ll end all wrong
It’ll end with a new
David Bowie song
It’ll end in tension
It’ll end in tears
And it might struggle on till
The end of this year
That’s how it’ll end

It’ll end with a high sign
End in a flash
It’ll end with the promise
Of bags full of cash
It’ll end with a man
All alone in the snow
Searching for something
That he’ll never know
It’ll end in an instant
Good luck and nice try
It’ll end with a simile
Like a goodbye
It’ll end in ten minutes
And too much wine
It might struggle on
Till the end of all time

Music and lyrics by John Wesley Harding (Plangent Visions Inc., ASCAP)

An edited version of this piece appeared in the 12/7 edition of the TLS.

Prince by Matt Thorne

— Review by Wesley Stace

In the Royal Family of Popular Music, there has been more than one King (Elvis, Michael Jackson, and B.B. to name three) and innumerable Queens, but only one Prince.

Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) has made 33 albums since he burst onto the scene in 1978 playing an infectious hybrid of rock and funk, wearing only a spandex jockstrap beneath his overcoat. In the glory years of His Purple Majesty’s reign, a new hit single seemed to emanate weekly from the Paisley Park palace in his Minneapolitan principate, each accompanied by a video more outrageous than the last, followed by a tour that outdid all. And when he wasn’t recording the hits himself, he would bestow a spare upon Sinead O’Connor or allow one of his many protégées (always female and bizarrely named) to represent him in the charts, rather as when Woody Allen gets someone younger, taller and better-looking to play himself.

Prince’s progress from young pretender – from an ambitious Stevie Wunderkind, Rick James’ and Sly Stone’s heir-apparent –was the product of genius and a natural workaholism. Matt Thorne’s well-researched, exhaustive and exhausting Prince is a portrait of an entertainer to whom the performance at the after show party is as important as the gig itself, who faces a major setback with the instruction “rehearse harder than ever.” This Prince is not so much Machiavellian as machinelike, unable, in his salad days, to stem the flow of work that seemed, counter-intuitively, genuinely inspired. He repeatedly reheated his familiar brew of licentious sexuality (panties, pussy and semen are high on the agenda) and devoted spirituality, always to revolutionary musical effect. The Revolution, his most famous band, may be “one of the most formidable machines popular music has ever seen” but so was their leader. Like many of his peers, his quality control has always been questionable: he threw it all out there.

And then he did throw it all out there (five albums in four years in the mid-nineties) purely to spite his record company. The War with Warner Brothers, the classic standoff between dotty genius and the suits at the label, spelled the end of the fun. Despite the odd award, occasionally memorable song, and eye-catching sales techniques (the July 15^th 2007 edition of The Mail On Sunday arrived with a free CD of Prince’s new album Planet Earth), everything since has seemed watered down and unfocussed, all art subordinated to a spurious independence from a collapsing record industry: foolhardy internet schemes and muddled concept albums hinting at a secret code that “once cracked, revealed very little”. His stranglehold on the charts had been such that it was hard to keep up; now one doesn’t feel the need to bother (but you wouldn’t miss a live show if you were offered a ticket.)

Even Prince’s name is a problem, not least of all for himself. During the Warners argument, he changed it to  , possibly “The Love Symbol”. (The theory at the time was that though Warners owned “Prince”, they might not own music he made under another identity.) Since “The Love Symbol”  wasn’t easily reproducible in newspapers, he became known as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince”, but he had long been a typographer and copyeditor’s nightmare, singlehandedly introducing an unsuspecting world to the then-unknown language of text messaging with his every song title, a “Princebonics” that developed from set-list shorthand: “you” was “U”, “to” was “2”, “I” was often a picture of an eye. Nowadays, the artist is formally known as Prince once more.

Other Prince biographies have tended to home in on their subject with a handy subtitle (Prince: Inside the Masks and Music; Prince: Chaos, Disorder and Revolution; Prince: Imp of the Perverse). Thorne’s use of the solitary monolithic monosyllable PRINCE (purple, sans serif) feels like an ill-advised marketing strategy: the book is most valuable not as the definitive biography but as a fan’s memoir of its subject’s life, more Fever Pitch than Arsenal: History Of a Football Club. 

Thorne himself keeps bubbling to the surface (“I’m a good foot taller than most of the celebrities present”) but it is only half way through the book that he reveals himself to be a total Prince nutter (which means he’s previously been exercising considerable restraint) as he attends almost every show of Prince’s 21 Nights In London at the 02 Arena, as many of the after shows as he can manage, and waits up all night for “Lotusflow3r.com” to go live. None of this was purely research. “’Write nice things’,” Prince’s protégée Tamar whispers “as she clutches my hands briefly before disappearing into the darkness.” Though Thorne’s allegiance means he is unlikely to distress her too greatly, his opinions are strong when required (“misogynist crap”, “I’ve always found Private Joy a little creepy”). Prince becomes wearying only when Prince becomes wearying; Thorne, the completist, doesn’t always realize when this is.

Despite Thorne’s insistence on Prince’s uniqueness, Prince often brings fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan (also diminutive and publicity averse) to mind. It is Dylan who can claim to be the greatest nonsense poet of the late twentieth century, but though Dylan has quoted many other writers (often without attribution), he has never to my knowledge quoted Edward Lear. On Prince’s 1987 classic album Sign ‘O’ The Times (the ‘O’ is more accurately represented as a peace sign) the least memorable song is a studio-enhanced live take of It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night, filler at nine minutes. Half way through, Prince yowls “give me the bass one time” and, unexpectedly, Sheila E (recorded down a telephone line) recites, or rather raps in its entirety, Lear’s The Table and The Chair, in 43 seconds: an impressive feat.

If I had taken only this from Prince, I’d have been a happy reader; that Thorne then uses this to illuminate Starfish and Coffee, another Sign ‘O’ The Times song, showcases his book’s best qualities: “Starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam/Butterscotch clouds and a tangerine, a side order of ham /If U set your mind free, baby, maybe U’d understand /Starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam.” Edward Lear as “the proto-rap lyricist”?

The book is full of casual wisdom (“it’s always a mistake to associate the mental and emotional state of the singer… with the cool mind that’s constructed the lyrics”) and though you may find yourself disagreeing that “almost every Prince track, even the bad ones, has something of interest”, it’s Thorne’s investment in his subject matter that makes Prince a charming addition to Princeology.

Yep Roc Records has a challenge for you. After the premiere of “Making Love to Bob Dylan,” where Wes and Janeane Garofalo disagree on the merits of making love to Dylan songs, we wanted to see whose side you were on;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzrhWif_Y6Y&feature=plcp

There are three ways to enter: head to http://nobobdylan.com/submit or http://yesbobdylan.com/submit and “Tumbl” your entry OR Tweet your favorite song to make love to with #nobobdylan or #yesbobdylan hashtag OR Instagram a photo with either hashtag.

The entries that have the most re-tumbls, likes or retweets win. The contest ends Oct. 15, and we’ll announce three winners Oct. 17 for the following prizes: Signed Vinyl: New Deal + John Wesley Harding & The English UK 7″, Private Google Hangout for 3 winners and a guest, New Deal work shirt.

“Making Love to Bob Dylan” will be out Oct. 16 on 12″ vinyl and digital.

with best wishes from all inside the Cabinet

I will be releasing a Double-A side, or possibly Double B-side, single

in a short while.

And here I'd like to exclusively reveal the lyrics to one of those two songs:

"Making Love To Bob Dylan" as played at a couple of recent Cabinets of Wonders.

My best wishes to all, Wes.

Making Love To Bob Dylan

I can make love to The Beach Boys Love You
Do it again to Heroes and Villains
I can have sex
To Joe Tex and Who's Next
But I can't make love to Bob Dylan

I can be me if it's AC/DC
You got Little Feat? Baby, I'm willin'
I'll thrive in the sack
To your Massive Attack
But I can't make love to Bob Dylan
I can’t make love to Bob Dylan

It's partly his voice
It gives me no choice
But to focus on what he is saying
And it's partly the drone
As he goes on and on
With his lay lady lay lady layin'

I can Bang a Gong to Ride A White Swan
I find T Rex sex the most thrillin’
I can bop till I drop
To the 4 Tops and Cornershop
Still I can't make love to Bob Dylan

I’ll lie on my back for Roberta Flack
Being killed by a song is fulfilling
But I can't get it on
With Blonde upon Blonde
Cos I can't make love to Bob Dylan
I can’t make love to Bob Dylan

It's partly his voice
Cos it gives me no choice
But to focus on what he is saying
And it's partly the drone
As he goes on and on
With the tambourine song that he's playin'

If it's from Brazil, maybe Gilberto Gil
That's cool, and I'll chill to some Gillan
But turn off the iPod
When shuffle hits my God
I’m put off my stroke
By the sound of his Folk
No, I can't make love to Bob Dylan