Lyr Add: Entering Marion (John Forster)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Haruo
Date: 27 Sep 08 - 04:31 PM

refresh, just for those few who may not have seen it, prompted by the renascence of the "Long Way Home" thread.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: voyager
Date: 26 May 04 - 11:13 AM

Dave Von Ronk covers this tune on the "For All My Friends in Far-Flung Places" CD.
Von Ronk Discography

Irreverant, ironic, and hysterical.

voyager

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 25 May 04 - 06:41 PM

On the subject of John Forster you should try to give a listen to his song FUSION. A great spoof of Paul Simon---but you have to hear him do it on his CD since it is not the lyrics that put it across---rather it is the rhythm and the sound he creates. And he does the voices too.

What a wonderful and witty talent.   His take-off on "fast food" is also good.

In addition he is also a serious composer who has created a wonderful musical that debuted at Kennedy Ctr (DC) about the life of Eleanor Roosevelt---ELEANOR.


Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Blackcatter
Date: 25 May 04 - 10:13 AM

Interesting, considering that a pratt is sort of an asshole.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: GUEST, Hamish
Date: 25 May 04 - 06:41 AM

Sorry, Dave, when you say you "Pass through Pratt's Bottom", does that make you...

...no, maybe not.   ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 25 May 04 - 05:46 AM

I pass through Pratt's Bottom quite frequently !

In fact so will most of the people who go to the Knockholt weekend in a few weeks time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Blackcatter
Date: 25 May 04 - 02:22 AM

One of my favorites too.

I don't think I've ever dated a town, however, so it'd be difficult to personalize the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Haruo
Date: 25 May 04 - 02:20 AM

Thanks for supplying the correct authorial orthography, Joe. I keep writing "Foster" when I mean "Forster".

I had never heard it before last night. It sure walks the fine line between cartography and promiscuity, doesn't it? ;-)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 May 04 - 01:59 AM

Good one, Haruo. This song has been mentioned many times on Mudcat, and I assumed it has already been posted. I couldn't find it, so I guess it hasn't.
Forster has a wicked sense of humor.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Haruo
Date: 25 May 04 - 01:51 AM

Sorry. ;~) ...

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Amergin
Date: 25 May 04 - 01:23 AM

I thought this was going to be about our Marion....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: Haruo
Date: 24 May 04 - 11:47 PM

http://www.com-www.com/JohnForster/enteringmarion-1.mp3 very clearly enunciated MP3.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Entering Marion
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 May 04 - 11:43 PM

Uh oh! :~)

~Susan

Subject: Lyr Add: ENTERING MARION (John Forster)
From: Haruo
Date: 24 May 04 - 10:35 PM

This was on Mad Moskowitz last night. It's apparently by John Forster:
ENTERING MARION
(John Forster)

Every year I drive out to Cape Cod for the last part of June.
Leave the city by ten and you're there in the late afternoon.
On the way there's a village called Marion that you pass through.
The first time I approached it, I'll always remember the sign that came into view.

It said, "Entering Marion." And I thought, "What a fun little sign!"
But the feeling of entering Marion had a kick that was hard to define.
A rapturous rush, a physical flush, chills up and down the spine.
For the few minutes I was in Marion, all Massachusetts was mine.

[spoken] Well, it got to be kind of an annual thing ... the event that would start each vacation off with a bang!

Then one year—who knows why?—I decided to try a new route.
So I got out my map and I traced one I thought was a beaut.
After driving all morning, I came to the top of a hill,
Where a sign stood before me that promised a new kind of thrill.

It said, "Entering Beverly," which was lovely and not overbuilt.
And the pleasure of entering Beverly far outweighed any feelings of guilt.
I could say I'm contrite but it wouldn't be right, for the truth is that later that day,
I found myself entering Sharon. It was there. So was I. We enjoyed it. Hey, what can I say?

By the next year I'd try any route, just for novelty's sake.
I was cursed with a thirst that no single township could slake.
Oh, at the wheel I looked calm but inside I was running amok,
When a sign in the road dead ahead sent me straight into shock:

"Entering Lawrence." My God! I was out of control.
And I'd no sooner finished with Lawrence than Boom! I was entering Lowell.
Then I backtracked and re-entered Lawrence, then Quincy and Norton as well.
Around midnight I pulled into Athol and flopped in a fleabag motel.

I slept fitfully in my clothing
And awoke in a pool of sweat and self-loathing.
Lying there, feeling lower than carrion,
A name came clear as a clarion.
I jumped in my car
And before very far--

I was entering Marion. How totally, wonderfully great!
How grand to be entering Marion after tramping all over the state.
Every sleaze-bucket burb, every tryst by the curb, had really just helped me to find
I'm happiest entering Marion. I guess I'm the Marion kind.
Oh yes, I'm the Marion kind.

Looks like it's © 1988 Limousine Music, from Forster's website
I think it's pretty neat, nearly seamless in its refusal to crack a chuckle (but then I was at a Boy Scout Camporee over the weekend, where we all ate a bunch of brownies)...