Subject: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv??? From: GUEST Date: 22 Jun 03 - 05:19 PM Now and again some lyrics will really take be by surprise by their boldness. In Tom Paxton's great song " Jimmy Newman " , a wounded soldier is recovering in a "Mash" type hospital. He may be half dead but the soldier can still notice the attractive nurses and observing one particular nurse he says, " her uniform's tight on her marvellous rear". When I first heard those lyrics, I was taken aback. It was as if the rules for writing lyrics had been expanded - new realities could be explored.
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Joe Offer Date: 22 Jun 03 - 05:26 PM I thought I'd add a bit to the thread title... It's certainly a memorable line - except that you didn't remember it quite right. In the Digital Tradition, you will find that the woman's derierre is described as "marvelous." I'd say Paxton was realistic, not perverse. Would you expect most young GI's to speak more politely about a pretty nurse? -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Noreen Date: 22 Jun 03 - 05:43 PM A man noticing a woman's attractive rear makes him a sex pervert? Golly... what passes for normality in your neck of the woods then, GUEST? |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Amergin Date: 22 Jun 03 - 05:45 PM animal rears....mainly sheep and goats... |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Art Thieme Date: 22 Jun 03 - 05:56 PM The guy/soldier was wounded. Not dead ! Lenny Bruce, in analizing the difference between men and womean when it comes to "love and sex" said, "With women it's more intelectual---touchy feely--dinner and a movie first. With guys it's like the guy goes through brain surgery and in the recovery room makes a play for the nurse." But times have changed----and if one, as Lenny also said, "Gets hot"--and acts on it by being a bit overt---like asking her for a date, that is sexual harrassment and warrents a trip to a lawyer. Art Thieme |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: katlaughing Date: 22 Jun 03 - 06:11 PM I think you should have done more to the title than that, Joe! Esp. since it was done anonymously. What a load of rubbish! How about changing it to "Paxton's marvelous rear?" |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 22 Jun 03 - 06:43 PM jeepers. I think there is a seat in the real world with your name on it Guest. If you have a name, find the seat and take you place. Don |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Ron Olesko Date: 22 Jun 03 - 06:52 PM People - can't you see that this guest was just a troll who knew we were going to get riled up? This is exactly the type of response this cretin is sitting back and enjoying. It is best to just let this one drop. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Rapparee Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:04 PM Men in combat notice things like that. Even when wounded. It's a way to celebrate life. It wasn't called "I&I" for nothing! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:07 PM I&I ? R&R I thought. Don |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Bill D Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:13 PM In my home town, years ago, there was an oldish codger who was hit by a car while crossing the street...he refused to press charges against the driver, as he admitted he was watching a pretty girl and not paying attention to the traffic. Pretty girls have been subjects for song, art..and various other exercises for most of recorded history....Tom Paxton should be different? *grin* |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Raggytash Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:21 PM Noreen, Thanks for your imput, this Guest needs to seriously get a life |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Rapparee Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:45 PM I&I = Intoxication & Intercourse. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Peter T. Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:50 PM And what of that necrophiliac Pete Seeger? ("Soldiers gone to graveyards every one"). Leonard Cohen hitting on schizophrenic women ("And you know that she's half crazy, and that's why you want to be there). The Beatles' foot fetish ("Father Mackenzie, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there", not to mention "Old Brown Shoe").I mean, open your eyes, people! yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: CET Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:52 PM Has nobody figured out that Guest is not a prude, nor does he think Tom Paxton is a pervert? He's simply poking fun at a certain type of folkie who really is a prude. There aren't too many like that on Mudcat, but think of the editors of Rise Up Singing, who bowdlerized the Gordon Lightfoot line "Well, the liquor tasted good, and the women all were fast" to read "Well, the liquor tasted good and the days went by so fast (or something like that)." (Early Morning Rain) Who could really be taken aback by the frankness of "marvellous rear?" The post was just satire, boys and girls. There's nothing wrong with it. Edmund |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Alba Date: 22 Jun 03 - 07:53 PM Is it just me or is the title of this thread in very poor taste? I don't know about you being a prude Guest but you sure come across as having no respect for Tom Paxton. A |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: katlaughing Date: 22 Jun 03 - 08:11 PM That's what I meant, Alba. I agree, it is in poor taste, but that's never stopped the Mudcat before... |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 22 Jun 03 - 08:23 PM I'm the guy who started this thread. I thought I had signed in as Tunesmith. Anyway, the thread title was suppose to be witty or tongue-in cheek, and I'm sorry I used it now as it seems to have deflected attention away from the thrust of my posting i.e. that Tom Paxton's inclusion of the " marvellous rear" reference added a sense of reality to the song that a lesser writer would have never have included - or even thought of. On a personal level, at the time( 30 odd years ago ) I was taken aback by the frankness of the line. And as I said previously it seemed to open doors in my mind as to what could be included in a song. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 22 Jun 03 - 08:33 PM Holy Bat Guano! TUNESMITH!!!
(Hell yah, I like woman's rears!..Nothing looks like a dame, nothing acts like a dame, nothing thinks like a dame, nothing cooks like a dame....Hammerstein and Rogers had nothing queer....because they wrote lyrics about women's dereire's....you ARE weird! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 22 Jun 03 - 08:40 PM Now listen very carefully!!! I first heard the line I quoted by Tom Paxton 30+ years ago, OK. And back then that line was radical!! - believe me. |
Subject: Tom Paxton is not a sex pervert - Official !!! From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 22 Jun 03 - 09:12 PM It looks as if this thread is winding down - inspite of that fact that nobody really picked up and ran with the main thrust of my original posting. Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear that I don't think that Tom Paxton is a sex pervert. OK. He might take a quick glance at a shapely butt now and again but heck that's normal... p.s. lighten up!!! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Susanne (skw) Date: 22 Jun 03 - 09:21 PM Tunesmith, maybe someone ought to inform you that gargoyle is our resident troll :-). Anyway, if you meant in your first posting what you explained in the 8:23 one it was certainly not easy to understand! Posting and thread title don't seem to fit each other, even be contradictory. Maybe when coining the next witty thread title you ought to remember that this kind of thing can give rise to damaging rumours that you never intended. Certainly my first thought when reading it was: "What has he been caught at?" and I was very relieved to find all he'd been caught at was writing great songs as usual! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Sorcha Date: 22 Jun 03 - 09:34 PM Oh good grief (again) |
Subject: Tom is innocent !!!!! From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 22 Jun 03 - 09:36 PM It shouldn't have been difficult for anyone with an interest in words to figure out my original posting. Do yourselves a favour and read it again - properly, remembering that a) I refer to Jimmy Newman as a great song, and my final sentence is clearly saying that the inclusion of that " marvellous rear" line was a breakthrough in the use of lyrics. Let's face it, I don't think Pete Seeger (great as he is could have come up with that line! ) And , finally( maybe ), I would like to call to my defence one Tom Paxton. It was he who said that one must remember that the writer is creating a song, and the contents of the song may or may not reflect the writers true feelings. It wasn't Tom who was admiring the nurse's rear but a wounded soldier. For all we know Tom might not like butts! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 22 Jun 03 - 09:39 PM gargolye-why,dop,you,write,in,yelloew? its,hard,to,read. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 22 Jun 03 - 10:10 PM John - If you highlight the yellow writing (like you were going to cut and paste it) it will change it into a more readable color, like blue. Bruce |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Amos Date: 22 Jun 03 - 10:13 PM Chin up, Tunesmith -- you've fallen among the hobgoblins and tanglefoot, that's all. A little more practice and you'll be writing as clearly as anyone here!! (Shudder....) Keep pitchin'! A |
Subject: Tom is a great bloke - he once bought me a pint ! From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 22 Jun 03 - 10:34 PM I'm not impressed !! What is it they say about Americans " irony is lost on them!" and, by the sounds of things, lots more besides. Negative, negative, negative !!!! What a bunch of characters in search of some soul. Forget the trivia, concentrate on the essence of the thing!!! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 22 Jun 03 - 10:46 PM Tunesmith, PLease accept my appology for jumping your case. It was unfair of me and rude. In defense, we United Statesians ( I recently learned that Canadians are from North America and thereby deserve to be called Americans too) do appreciate irony. Altho' many of us have our heads so far up each others butts interfering with someone elses life that we miss the irony from time to time. I saw Tom Paxton do Jimmy Newman in 1970 and felt that it was his most powerful song to date . It still brings a lump now as we head towards another war. Now there is some irony for you. Again, I'm sorry, but just the name "Guest" and nothing else raises my ire to a point of not thinking clearly. Don |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,Songster Bob Date: 22 Jun 03 - 10:57 PM Well, how about that line from the sea song about "hating to leave her behind?" Think on that one for a while, eh? Bob |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 22 Jun 03 - 11:13 PM Tunesmith - A couple of months ago, when Joe American was all up in arms over the French refusal to knuckle under to Bush & Blair's war machine, I started a thread in which a "petition" suggested that The Statue of Liberty be given back to the French. Somebody thought I was serious and chewed me a new asshole for being a typical American Francophobe. You're right, irony just doesn't work here. I think a lot of it has to do with alcohol-induced tunnel-vision, but there are some who, cold sober, wouldn't know irony if it jumped up and bit 'em on the ass. Bruce |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 22 Jun 03 - 11:28 PM Sorry, Tunesmith and Mr. Hull,
|
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 22 Jun 03 - 11:31 PM With the censorship and the lack of reliablity....I doubt that Max will continue to front the front much longer.
-Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST Date: 23 Jun 03 - 04:33 AM Thank you Joe. Long overdue...... |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Dave Bryant Date: 23 Jun 03 - 04:49 AM When I came to, after some fairly major stomach surgery, I was full of tubes and drips and drugs. I can still remember noticing a rather well shaped nurse and thinking that it was definitely worth being back in the land of the living. The only problem is that it can be painful having an errection with a catheta in ! |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,KB Date: 23 Jun 03 - 05:52 AM Tunesmith - its a bummer when people read, fail to catch your drift, then jump all over the place calling you a troll &tc. Your original point is an interesting one - and those kind of lyrics can really lift a song. The unexpectedness makes you pay attention, and in that particular instance the line adds a whole lot of character to the people & situation in the song. Its one of those instances where a quick deft sweep of the brush adds a lot to the picture. I was trying to talk about a similar thing the other night - but I was too far down my mum's homemade wine & it was a very late festival night.... - but what I was trying to get at is that some songwriters seem to have the mental freedom to take risks with their writing, and to throw in bits & peices that sometimes don't work all that well - but which are sometimes pure genius. Richard Thompson is a prime example of that type of songwriter. I know what you mean about it opening a door to all manner of possibilities. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,KB, again Date: 23 Jun 03 - 05:54 AM Lal Waterson is the other writer that springs to mind - And it was her song "Anna Dixie" that brought up the conversation the other night. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Sam L Date: 23 Jun 03 - 09:45 AM I don't know that irony doesn't work here, but it's hard to tell--I get and appreciate sly remarks here that I don't necesarily post to acknowledge I appreciated. I've heard many people mention that they get taken in the wrong way, accidentally offend, by e-mail. Tone is tricky to convey when writing conversationally. Anyway, it's an interesting thing to note these breakthrough bits--things that add a little life. There are songs I don't enjoy because they seem essayistic, have no imagery. One of my favorite breakthrough moments in history is a paragraph in Gogol's Dead Souls describing an overgrown garden, and summing up that it was beautiful in the way things are when nature adds the finishing strokes to what people have tried to arrange. It's a fresh and unconventional observation. I also love that in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra they had planned to go out one night and "note the qualities of people"--a perfectly observed, timeless cheap date, fit for kings and queens, and just exactly the sort of thing couples do. People who aren't in love would never think of doing that. I take it that you're talking about that sort of thing, how a true detail lends force and credibility to the whole. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Tam the Bam (Nutter) Date: 23 Jun 03 - 10:00 AM I just some people would just get a life, it's just a bloody song. Tom |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: EBarnacle1 Date: 23 Jun 03 - 11:03 AM As long as we are dissing deconstruction, why not simply note the parallel construction to "The Marvelous Toy" and let it go at that? |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Joe Offer Date: 23 Jun 03 - 12:32 PM I think that sometimes we're too quick to blame the audience for not understanding irony. I think that most of the time, irony fails in the execution. I can't pull it off, so I usually don't try it. This time, it just didn't work. It sounded like just another stupid troll. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: John Hardly Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:25 PM "The Marvelous Toy"? |
Subject: Tom - I bet you're having a good laugh at this lot From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:35 PM Forget irony, forget a tongue-in-cheek thread title, forget the use of a controversial quip so draw attention to a - to me a least - fascinating theme, what really disappoints is the fact that so few people tried to expand upon my original idea. I know now why there are so many boringly, unimaginative songwriters out there. They're too busy looking down at the gutter, to notice the beauty of the sky. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,Ron Olesko Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:49 PM Give it a rest Tunesmith... you start a thread with a title that doesn't match the content and then you wonder why we are unimaginative? Please, just because you write something and call it "irony" does not mean that it really is. Doesn't it strike you as ironic that none of us "got" your intent? Maybe the problem is self-absorbed songwriters who think their works are more important and interesting than they really are. I'm not directing that comment at you Tunesmith, but I'm really bored of the singer-songwhiners who blame the audience for lack of interest in their work. Maybe that is why they sound "boring" and "unimaginative". Ron |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 23 Jun 03 - 03:48 PM The fact that an audience dosen't get the point isn't the fault of the audience, EVER! It's a failure of recognizable communication by the communicator. You just can't round up an entire audience of total idiots in one place, especially if they share a common interest like folk music. One or two will be clueless, a few will be jerks, some will be there to drag out some self serving agenda. By and large the greater audience will be an intelligent crowd. And if most of that mix doesn't get the point, the point wasn't get-able. My only complaint with this forum beyond un-named Guests is it is too easy in a print forum to miss someones point. The end result is often times what we are seeing here now in this thread. Still sorry I jumped your case. DonMeixner |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: GUEST,Lyle Date: 23 Jun 03 - 04:03 PM Well, Tunesmith, when I first read your post, I thought you were being a master of satire, and I couldn't figure out why other people saw it otherwise. I guess it's a matter of ones experiences - when I was in the service I NEVER heard one of the troops refer to that part of a woman's anatomy as a "marvelous rear." Now if we can change this to an XXX site for 24 hours, I think I can come up with about 7,583 other things they WOULD have called it!!! Lyle |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Sam L Date: 23 Jun 03 - 07:12 PM Is it really NEVER the fault of an audience that they don't get something? I think sometimes it is their loss. Groups set up in odd ways, and they may have some conventional expectations that cause them to miss a perfectly clear expression of something. I can think of some big examples of this, I think anyone can. It's awkward and unfortunate when things don't come off, but maybe it can be considered apart from whose fault it is. Sometimes it's worth trying anyway. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 23 Jun 03 - 08:00 PM Fred, I have to disagree. All things being equal and assuming the audience, congregation, conference or group is generally of active and average intelligence anything that is said in such a way as to be misunderstood is an insult to the audience. Granted not all such comments are meant to be insulting and are quite accidental. But if that happens all the time and every audience is left going "Huh? Wazzat?" Then who is fool? AND the real message that you want to get across is lost, no matter how good it may be. If we take it upon ourselves to communicate a meaning or a message that requires the group to think a little bit or question their own beliefs then I think we are doing our job as communicators. But to bury it in layers of obscurity is just counter productive and probably has the opposite result from that which was intended. In the case with this thread had I gotten past the name "Guest" I might have read a deeper meaning. My fault for giving no credence to someone who is unwilling to share a name. ( I don't care if it is someones real name or their internet handle, as long as it defines them as an entity. After all some other "Guest" may take a load of undeserved shit only because of the name thing. And that too would be a failure in clear communication.) I stand by my thesis, Communication that can be missunderstood is not communication at all. And I still appologize to Tunesmith. Don |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: Willie-O Date: 23 Jun 03 - 08:58 PM Hey Don, please continue to call yourself an American. Because "United Statesian" sounds unbelievably, um, stupid. Don't know where you heard we in Canada want to be called Americans. We reserve that word to describe citizens of the USA, of whom we see plenty. Like you, we are North Americans, but that's as close as it gets. If we wanted to be Americans, we'd move to the U.S. Our country, like all the other countries on the American continents, does not have the word America in its name. Because "Canada of America" would sound, um, really stupid. However your thoughtfulness is appreciated. Best Willie-O p.s. I bet that nurse had a great ass. |
Subject: RE: Is Tom Paxton a sex perv???/Is Guest a Prude? From: DonMeixner Date: 23 Jun 03 - 09:13 PM Shaped like two halves of a succulent pear perched on top of long tumenescent thighs and tapering to a trim waste. Don |
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