Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Zorn

Mark Sullivan (AnonymeInc@webtv.net)
Fri, 21 May 1999 19:19:59 -0400 (EDT) Just a warning to those thinking about buying music by John Zorn, he can
be pretty out there. Naked City (with the Weegee photo on the cover),
in particular, can be pretty harsh and extreme. Now I think this is a
good thing, but not everyone does.

Jason Boog wrote:
<<Zorn supposedly has a tribute to Mickey called "Spillane." I guess it
follows some book, musically, or something.>>

According to the liner notes, this is what Spillane is based on:

"After choosing a subject, in this case the work of Mickey Spillane, I
research it in detail: I read books and articles, look at films, TV
shows, and photo files, listen to related recordings, etc. Then,
drawing upon all of these sources, I write down individual ideas and
images on filing cards. In this piece, each card relates to some aspect
of Spillane's work, his world, his characters, his ideology."

It really is a nice piece of music and, at least for Zorn, very
approachable. The piece also features the voices of Mike Hammer and his
conscience (John Lurie and Robert Quine), as written by Arto Lindsay,
featuring pseudo-Spillanisms such as:

"You kill ten guys one of them is bound to come back. He doesn't know
how dead he is. He runs after you and grabs your gun. You better wake
up."

"The gun bucked back like she did. She didn't have room for any
pockets. There was a party of bullets going on in her shirt."

"There are only so many ways a woman can undress. I thought I'd seen
them all."

Both of these CDs seem to be in print, both are listed by cdnow.

Mark

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