Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Down the Rabbitt Hole



Just let it sink in for a moment.
You're feeling a little bit uncomfortable right now, and that's natural. But consider some revisionist data: Eddie Rabbitt wrote the song “Kentucky Rain," which Elvis Presley took to the moon in 1969's From Elvis to Memphis. (In the Elvis version, make sure to note the Brian Wilson-inspired glockenspeil breakdown.)
Also, Mr. Rabbitt is from Brooklyn.
It's also worth recalling the experimental poetry that Eddie wrote on the back of Sammi Smith's 1976 album Help Me Make It Through the Night. Here's an excerpt, with punctuation liberties and all:

trying to paint a verbal picture of sammi smith
with only a pen, and paper, and words,
is just about as easy as trying to paint a rainbow,
with a piece of charcoal.....
what color is beautiful?
what color is gentle?
how do you color lonely?
and most important.....
what is the color of love?

[It continues this way for a while, until...]

that girl.....
laughing at the worst joke in the world.....
just 'cuz.....it's the worst joke
that girl.....
whose warm, wide eyes say...
"i love you"....."be my friend".....

sammi....i am.....

The record label, MEGA, has dutifully identified the poet as Eddie Rabbitt, well-known songwriter. Give a listen to what inspired Rabbit here.
Anyway, we love a rainy night.
P.S. The image above is from the 45 r.p.m. recording of "The Bed" and "Holding On" from 1968. Very rare apparently.

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