The Decemberists in August: The day the music died
Jem Baggs (”The Wandering Minstel”), from Punch, 1892. The Gutenberg Project
———————
Tim Brown of Oregon Live has this brief but fascinating report of the Decemberists‘ recent troubles in the great state of Michigan.
The Portland band’s crime? Busking on a street corner. The shock! The horror! The upgrade in the quality of buskers!
Musicians have long resorted to singing for their supper (and, if they manage to get on American Idol, the silver and the dining chairs, too). And the tradition of the wandering minstrel is long and storied: Remember the golden-voiced Alan a Dale, the lovelorn troubadour of Robin Hood’s Merry Men? Of course, considering his known associates, the Sherwood strummer probably would have been not just ticketed but also hanged from the neck if he’d unloosed his lute on the streets of Michigan.
For shame, Decemberists. Know ye not that the keeping of the peace is the primary of American freedoms? Know ye not that the rabble of America must not sit or lie on sidewalks, or assault the uncovered ears of decent burghers with the sweetness of unbidden sound?
Besides, you only pulled in two bucks before you were collared. And in America, the failure to turn a handsome profit is the chiefest of crimes.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
A new Decemberists’ lyric?
We were charged for an act quite deliberate
Of crafting rhymes too hyperliterate
Sentenced for the crime of gross pomposity
The judge ruled our band a twee monstrosity.
August 17th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
… and apparently in New Jersey, Bob Dylan got stopped while he was walking around the neighborhood before a concert, by a 24-year-old cop who wanted to know who he was and what he was doing around there. The 24-year-old cop didn’t recognize his face OR his name, and neither did a second cop, also in his 20s, who came to check out the geezer perpetrator. Perpetrator of what? The story didn’t say — apparently of walking around the neighborhood. Tough times for troubadours. Maybe Bobby D shoulda said he was Bruce Springsteen. Not that Bruce is much younger, as Miss Laura points out, but he IS from New Jersey …
August 24th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Bob, the word I heard about the Dylan detainment was that he’d wandered into the yard of a home for sale and the owner got suspicious. Apparently, when the cops asked for his ID, he replied, “ID? I burned that in 1960!”
August 25th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Hi Sharon, that’s pretty funny, and sounds plausible. Fellow readers, Sharon has insights. She’s from New Jersey.