VV(11): King of the Decky-Dance

[Dave Monroe]

"The song invited parody.  Winsome had even cast his
own autobiography into aaaa rhyme and that
simple-minded combination of three-count them--chord
changes:"  (V., Ch. 8, Sec. ii, p. 220)

Okay, Hotmail just lost this one for me, but, for
once, this narrow Yahoo! column might not be such a
handicap after all.  Will have to return to Mafia, as
well as Otto Mayr, but while this is still in mind ...

First off, the "official" version ...

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/1486/Ballad.html

Now everybody--

"Born in Durham in '23"
Durham, NC, home of the Blue Devils of Duke
University.  1956 - 1923 = 32 or 33 years old,
depending on when Winsome's birthday falls.  

"By a pappy who was an absentee"
Amateur psychoanalysts, start your armchairs (or we
amateur lit'rary critics'll leave you in the dust) ...

"Was took to a lynching at the neighborhood tree"
Again, "an inheritance you lived with" (p. 126) ...

"Whopped him a nigger when he was only three"
A "nonsensical legend" of Winsome's own?  But cf. the
"Injuns" (even if they're the "friends" of v. 7) of v.
2, the "redskins" of v. 5, in the "official" version
...

"Roony, Roony Winsome, king of the decky-dance"
"This sort of arranging and rearranging was Decadence,
but the exhaustion of all possible permutations and
combinations was death" (p. 298).  Here's yr entropy
for you, right here.  Note, though, that despite the
distinct probabilty that the recoded output of the
Outlandish Records stable--"Volkswagens in Hi-Fi, The
Leavenworth Glee Club," Winsome's own ethnomusical
"found" recordings (p. 124)--are not in any way at all
eminently danceable, Winsome's remixing of the word,
"decadence," here, is eminently industry appropriate. 
Deck-y-dance, decks (recording, mixing, playback) and
dances.  But those Volkswagens ... where are they from
again?  Under what regime were they devleoped?  And in
whose aerospace insustries were their engineers now
employed?  Hm ... cf. The Crying of Lot 49's "Sick
Dick and the Volkswagens" (accomodating the expanding
ego of VIHF's frontman? From the space age bachelor
pad music of the 50's to the beat bands of the 60's?),
Gravity's Rainbow's Richard M. (washed up by the
70's?) Zhlubb's "managerial Volkswagen" ...

Lifting the needle, fast forwarding, whatever ...

"He worked him a hustle with his first C.O."
Commanding officer, of course ...

"Got transferred back to a PIO"
Public Information Office, but also Programmed or
Processed Input/Output, as well as Pio, Pius, as in,
e.g., Pope Pius IX, "Hitler's Pope," as a recent
biography perhaps overstates its case ...

"Sat out the war in a fancy chateau"
In Europe, perhaps even after VE Day? "Chateau" ...

"Egging on the troops toward Tokyo"
>From safety, from afar, until VJ Day ...

"He hung up his khakis and his Garand Gun"
Watch your teevee long enogh, The Gap (where? in
what?) will tell you all about khakis.  On the Garand
Gun, a.k.a. the M1 Rifle, see ...

http://shoga.wwa.com/~dvelleux/m1rifle.html

http://www.fulton-armory.com/tea/m1.htm

"But couldn't find a job till '51"
Since being discharged, when, 1945, after VJ day? 
What did he do for six years?  This come up anywhere? 
let me know ...

"Started writing copy for MCA"
Music Corporation of America, i.e., Big Music ...

"A beautiful wife who wants to be free/ So she can
practice her Theory."  Which leads us, after one last,
rousing refrain, back to ...


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