Regarding Christina Aguilera’s “Torture”
Music, we have a taker:
LOONY TUNES
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
Or cause cardiopulmonary
arrest.
It all depends on the listener’s cultural level:
Will certain strains tend to make
him revel
Or will they turn his stomach inside out,
Prepared to spill the secrets he
knows about,
And rather than endure another note,
Make him jump in front of a
torpedo boat?
Hitchcock used it in “Foreign Correspondent,”
Playing music-as-torture
to torment
A captured government biggie so he’d sing;
Believe the music was Benny
Goodman swing?
And in Waco, to drive the Branch Davidians sane
The Feds applied
the ultimate in pain,
Playing endless disks, both fast and slow,
By king of disco Barry
Manilow.
Yes, music has more uses than one’d suppose –
Witness both
Lord Haw-Haw and Tokyo Rose.
href="http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/archives20040401.shtml#76400"
target='new"'>– Leon Freilich
Recent Comments
Jan Herman on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Done. Thanks for the catch.George Butler on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
One more typo to clean up: In the caption under the video link above--to Abbie performing as "Winnie"--her last...william osborne on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Thank you for this, Jan. You are too kind. The "Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne" is hilarious.Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
I disagree, Bill. If your reminiscence about Beckett is any measure, I think you should always write blog comments...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Actually, I wasn’t referring to Gerard’s comment. In fact, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t do the additional scroll...Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Dear Bill -- Now at last the full story! Danke. Merci. I knew you and Beckett had met and...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
One other little thing I forgot. In return for my gift, Beckett wanted to give me tickets to a...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
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Thanks, Bill. It puts more light on things. Less irony.william osborne onAn Epitaph for Our Golden Era
“That’s what I find so wonderful, that not a day goes by, to speak in the old style, hardly a...