WEDNESDAY

 

 

 

 

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A Thought for Today

No idea is formed without an element of truth.

 

This One Does It For Me!

Ken,

I saw Rod sing Mr Bojangles in Joburg in 1975, I think. It suited him and he sang it with such passion.

I no longer have the LP and wonder if it's recorded on CD anywhere? He also wrote a beautiful poem called "There's a Lion in the Streets of Jo'burg" which I have a written copy of but, again would love a spoken copy to catch the emotion.

Old time fan from my Kingston Trio days.

Regards and love to Rod for giving me so much lifetime pleasure in word and song.

Tony Brown

1975 would be about right, Tony, and you would have seen him at the old Colosseum Theater, if I'm not mistaken.

Sadly neither of the two tracks you mention have yet found their way onto CD. Some time ago I contacted David Marks, who used to head up Stanyan Music in this country, to see if he still had some copies of the "South African Concert Collection" in his warehouse. He didn't so your best way of replacing this album is eBay or posting a request via one of the Message Boards.

I hope you're successful and thanks for writing.

Got a favorite McKuen song, poem or memory? We'd like to hear about it so drop me a line at kenb@mckuen.com and I'll make sure your letter appears right here one Wednesday soon.

 - Ken, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 29

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notable birthdays James Boswell o Fanny Brice o Geraldine Brooks o Hadda Brooks o Richard Dreyfuss o Joely Fisher o Ben Foster o Josef Goebbels o Kate Jackson o Randy Jackson o Bill Mauldin o Melba Moore o Amit Paul o Leon Redbone o Andy Russell (football) o Wynona Ryder o Rufus Sewell o Akim Tamiroff o Jon Vickers
Rod's random thoughts Beauty ought to leave us panting, never breathless.

A pause is just another kind of stop.

The spare moment is the best tool.

THERE'S A LION IN THE
STREETS OF JOHANNESBURG

 There's a lion in the streets of Johannesburg,
                running free.
Head high he slouches.
He pads along the pavement, proud,
untroubled by the traffic
not timid or intimidated by the lesser beasts.
Fenced in by the concrete he threads his way
            delicately
along the color line, confused at times                                      but never condescending,
proud lion of the street and city sidewalk.

You've made your lair - Johannesburg -
like no other place, circled by green hills
even in the winter time.
Two million sophisticated savages
have helped you hue a city, not a town,
from gold dumps and flat fields in only 80 years.

I think sometimes the tourists in the township
            ignore,
or just forget,
that this young city can't be expected
to be everybody's dream at once.
It is enough that for some citizens
                           dreams do come true.

It will take time
and is worth the time
for one day
the lion in the streets of Johannesburg
will lie down with the gentle Springbok.

Even now the lion starts to think
in different ways - to wonder -
and that's a start.

 - from "The Concert Collection", South Africa, 1975
 
© 1970, 1975, 1986, 2002, 2003 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Birthday research by Wade Alexander o Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Coordinated by Melinda Smith o Sound & Fury Dr. Eric Yeager o Webmaster Ken Blackie
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