T. Van Zandt/Talking Karate Blues?
Jocelynme
Talking Karate Blues on 1st Albulm. It sounds awfully biggoted to me, am
I missing the point? He's comming to my town next month and I'd like to
see him, but not if this song is a racial slur.
Kim Cooper
(Jocelynme) wrote:
Sure it's racist. If you want to let that keep you from seeing
Townes, then that's your choice to make. He's still an amazing
performer who may not be around all that much longer; he was frail
as anything in Ventura last Fall.
Of course, when he wrote that song TvZ had probably never met an
asian person in his life. Not that he's stopped playing it now
that he's more wordly.
Kim
Walter E Ingram
30 years ago. He's not a racist, but he definitely is a genius.
> Kim
--
Walter Ingram win...@tenet.edu
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra
Leonard Coop
> I need some help. I like Townes VanZandt but I'm a little disturbed by
> Talking Karate Blues on 1st Albulm. It sounds awfully biggoted to me, am
> I missing the point? He's comming to my town next month and I'd like to
> see him, but not if this song is a racial slur.
This is how Townes introduced the song at one of his shows in 1990:
"Talkin Karate Blues is about the most tasteless song I ever wrote
that I still remember. One time I had to play it for the
Japanese Delegation to the UN in New York City. There were about
10 of them with one translating. I would play a verse then they
would translate the line and they would all laugh. They all
thought it was funny so I guess the song was OK with them."
-Remember very little of what Townes says on stage is true (especially
if he says it is true ;=).
My own spin on why he still plays this kind of dumb song after almost
30 years is that it is easy to remember, whereas other, much better
songs go unplayed these days because he doesnt remember how (examples
include None But the Rain, Why Shes Acting this Way, Like a Summer
Thursday, Highway Kind, High, Low and Inbetween, Be Here
to Love me, Columbine, Ill be There in the Morning, Delta Momma Blues,
Turnstyled, Junkpiled, Come Tomorrow, And Little Sundance #2).
Len Coop
Frans Bevers
(Walter E Ingram) wrote:
This song is not about race, it's about karate.
Go see Townes.
Frans Bevers