Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant
Hudley Flipside
“Oh don’t lean on me man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket
I’m back on Suffragette City
Oh don’t lean on me man
‘Cause you ain’t got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City.”
Sitting outside like any other day with the cats I did see a bee fly around close to me. Once a bee even flew to the center of my Dionysian Hollyhock tattoo as if looking for pollen.
Today a bee flew softly around me, the sound of a subtle buzz sound alerted me to him.
Bee lands on the top of my coffee cup. Slowly moving down to the bottom of my cup. There only finding a small amount of coffee and honey left at the very bottom. How did bee know?
I got up and went to get my camera to take a picture, but by the time I got back the honey, coffee and bee were gone. Imagine that?
Wonder if little bee comes back tomorrow?
Last night’s dream was extremely uncomfortable, but it led me on a musical journey. Finding “Akashic records,” song wise.
MY DREAM:
I was finally going to Europe with a friend. Everything was packed and I was in the airport with a lot of tickets for all the places I would go to and the many traveling adventures. Yet then it all fell apart.
I lost my tickets and suitcases and found them again. I could not find where my flight was. I thought I heard,
“Harlequin City” level.
I was to catch my flight at 9 PM where my friend was supposed to meet me.
I was confused and only found myself finally bending over as if David Bowie superimposed on a William Blake painting, The Ancient of Days Setting a Compass to The Earth (1794).
I awoke I heard the “Harlequin City” morph into the song “Suffragette City.”
This song’s “Akashic records” lead me on a journey too. I found out who influenced our friendly Harlequin.
Opening up to me a delightful selection of songs which brought a comfortable closure to a bizarre and terrible nightmarish dream.
Often, I read how we all influence each other as Puck from A Midsummer-night’s Dream who mimicked everything around him. We can’t help it.
Here though we see a glimpse into David Bowie’s mimicked song “Suffrogette City.”
According to Doggett, before “Suffragette City”, the only popular song to contain “suffragette” in its title was “Sister Suffragette,” from the 1964 film Mary Poppins.
He argues the film’s song has more to do with women’s liberation than “Suffragette City” does.”Suffragette City” includes the lyric “Ah droogie, don’t crash here”, a direct reference to the Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange (1962); Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation was a major influence on Ziggy Stardust’s cultural grab-bag, dictating both costumes and pre-show music on tour.
The song was written only a few months after the film’s release in 1971.
The famous, “sexually charged” hook “wham bam, thank you, ma’am!” previously appeared as the title of a song on jazz bassist Charles Mingus’s 1961 album Oh Yeah, as well as a 1967 song by the Small Faces.
Bowie also uses the “hey man!” backing vocals in the same style as “white light!” from the Velvet Underground’s 1968 song “White Light/White Heat”, a line from the 1970 song “I Found Out” by John Lennon, a Marc Bolan-esque boogie, “some Flamin’ Groovies speed, some Jerry Lee Lewis swagger”, and a “dose of hard rock theatrics” to finish it out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette_City
“Then, brothers, it came. Oh, bliss, bliss and heaven. I lay all nagoy to the ceiling, my gulliver on my rookers on the pillow, glazzies closed, rot open in bliss, slooshying the sluice of lovely sounds. Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh.”
~ Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author.
Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band’s keyboardist in 1966.
“White Light/White Heat” is a song recorded by the American rock band the Velvet Underground. It was released as a single in late November 1967 with the B-side “Here She Comes Now”. The following year it appeared as the title track on their second studio album of the same name.
“I Found Out” is a song by the English musician John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
Marc Bolan born Mark Feld; (30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer-songwriter and poet. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan strongly influenced artists of many genres, including glam rock, punk, post-punk, new wave, indie rock, Britpop and alternative rock. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of T. Rex.
Flamin’ Groovies is an American rockband that formed in San Francisco in 1965, originally co-led by Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan.[5][6] After the Groovies released three albums, on Epic (Supersnazz) and Kama Sutra (Flamingo and Teenage Head), Loney left the band in 1971. He was replaced as co-leader by Chris Wilson, and the band’s emphasis shifted more toward British Invasionpower pop.
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “The Killer”, he was described as “rock ‘n’ roll’s first great wild man”. A pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
