Taylor played a Granfalloon?

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: leprechaun
Date: 20 Dec 02 - 02:27 AM

Well tomorrow afternoon I'm having lunch with Carole King. I'll ask her about the granfalloons. Perhaps it's all foma.

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 02:33 PM

Of all Vonnegut's books, Cat's Cradle seemed to resonate most closely with the 60's counterculture. It was a favorite of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters. The Grateful Dead named their publishing company "Ice Nine Publishing" after the substance Vonnegut conceived in the book. The "Granfalloon" reference on the "Tapestry" credits is probably just an inside joke that King, Taylor, et al thought was hilarious at the time. Even they might not have understood it after the drugs wore off.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 02:02 PM

I thought this was a misprint about someone named Granfalloon who played a Taylor. Everyone knows the Granfalloons play Martins.

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: open mike
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 01:51 PM

and wasn't there some sort of ritual which involved
two poeple touching the soles of their feet together
which was called bokumaru??

and didn't kurt v. have a fire in his house or apt.
in new york a few years back?

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: clueless don
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 01:36 PM

Once, a long time ago, a friend told me that he had seen James Taylor in concert, and that during "Fire and Rain" he (Mr. Taylor, not my friend) sang "look down upon me Bokannon, you gotta help me make a stand ..." (sorry if I misspelled "Bokannon", it's been awhile. Bokannon, as I recall, was a religious figure, or deity, in "Cat's Cradle".) Apparently Mr. Taylor is, or at least was, a Kurt Vonnegut (sp?) fan, so he might well slip a Vonnegut reference like "granfalloon" into his work in one way or another.

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: Amos
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 12:02 PM

If you would see a granfaloon
Remove the skin from a toy balloon....

I dunno, misophist .. is it me? Or is it Memorex? :>)

Now ya got me goin'!!

A

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 11:00 AM

Remove the skin of a toy baloon
And you will witness a granfaloon.

Now you don't see it, now you do.

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 08:02 AM

Well... I thought maybe one of you guys would remember back then.

I tried the Google search too, and there seems to be some active cult-ish (Granfalloonish) stuff still out there - Kurt's always been pretty popular.

The album doesn't seem to have much else on it that would suggest that it was a "joke" listing, but that doesn't prove that it wasn't. I suppose, in that era, it was a word with a nice sound - and with an obscure meaning, so it could have been applied to almost any kind of noisemaker - or it could have the K.V. meaning of "a coherent but meaningless organization," or it could just be some other sort of "foma."

This came up as a result of a debate at a session last week over "that ain't the way James Taylor played it" - with the attendant debate over how much - if any - his way deserved any respect. SWMBO decided to pull out her old 33's and "prove something" to somebody - and ran across this credit.

If somebody knows something, maybe they'll give us an answer, but I've also got to get the Xmas decorations up and I can't find the bulb.

Thanks guys.

John

John

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 07:36 AM

A really big falloon?

My google search led me into several directions but all are related to sci-fi, including a Fanzine under that name. I did find a band that was called Granfalloon out of Canada, but Taylor wasn't in it.

Probably the bandleader thing based on the meaningless collection definition is right.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: smallpiper
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 06:18 AM

A Grandfallon is a proud and meaningless association of human beings! (that is according to Kurt Vonnegut) So perhps it was a joke?

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 05:46 AM

I could see a s.a. "joke" if it was his record, but on this record he's sort of just "one of the band."

"Played" the granfalloon would sort of mean he was the leader of the band, maybe(?) if it was meant as a "commentary." Taylor is listed as "guitar" on four other numbers on the album - so it seems a little strange that "guitar and granfalloon" only appears on the 5th.

There's no date anywhere on the Carole King album, or on the record, but it was probably out at about the same time as a couple of James Taylors that SWMBO has - 1968 and 1969. My Cat's Cradle shows Vonnegut's copyright at 1963 (although the one I snatched off the shelf is a Dell "Forty-Seventh printing 1973").

The problem is that I was a serious student and missed almost all of the sixties - and it seems like those who were "there" don't remember much......

John

Subject: RE: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: open mike
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 04:49 AM

maybe that's what he played: a role, rather than an instrument...

Subject: Taylor played a Granfalloon?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 04:18 AM

The Carole King "Tapestry" album, A & M Records, Hollywood CA - ODE SP 77009 lists James Taylor as playing Acoustic Guitar and Granfalloon on the song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?".

So does anyone have an idea what his Granfalloon was.

I didn't turn up anything with a thread filter or search of our stuff, DT & Knowledge, etc. All Google gets me is a bunch of stuff about Kurt V. (re his "Cat's Cradle" and "Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons.")

John