|
17 Aug 00 - 10:27 PM (#279945) Subject: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: GUEST,maupa@aol.com I've never heard it sung. I know it as a poem, but it's been played on folksy programs. |
|
17 Aug 00 - 11:15 PM (#279991) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: DonMeixner Go to the Lycos search engine and search Biff Rose. You'll amazed at what you'll find there. ....Worms and Germs and rocks and sod were ready at the slightest nod, For quite an inexperienced God to go ito a peeble.... |
|
18 Aug 00 - 12:39 AM (#280055) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: DonMeixner |
|
18 Aug 00 - 02:50 AM (#280092) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: GUEST,Hutzul Just ask your Sister. She knows everything. |
|
23 Dec 09 - 08:06 PM (#2795313) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: GUEST The poem can be heard on YOUTUBE. |
|
23 Dec 09 - 10:25 PM (#2795368) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost - Biff Rose From: GUEST,Don Meixner Written by Joseph Simon Newman, Uncle to Paul. I recite it but I am a lousy typist. I can't find the poem in my files just now but I will post them. A great poem. Don PS My earlier posting has a great mondegrin in it. That is Upheaval not A peeble. |
|
24 Dec 09 - 12:31 AM (#2795403) Subject: Lyr Add: PARADISE ALMOST LOST (J S Newman) From: GUEST,DonMeixner Paradise Almost Lost by Joseph Simon Newman I'll tell about those ancient days ere history penetrates the haze, ere human eyes were there to gaze, when earth was all primeval: worms and germs and rocks and sod were ready at the slightest nod of quite an inexperienced God to go into upheaval. Not even Adam had appeared. sin was nothing to be feared: this was before all men were queered by apple-eating ladies. In fact, in those days, don't forget, the Lord had made no devils yet, and up 'til then had never met a fit recruit for Hades. There was no mammoth, fish, or seal, Fatimas, Pepsodent, or veal, no radio or movie reel, no Buick, bean, or Bendix, no pterodactyl, fudge, or Lux, no Sal Hepatica or ducks, no Nazis, Communists, or Klux, no Man...and no appendix. Well, in that very distant day, in June, July, or August, say, two living specks of matter lay in Egypt or Samoa. Two earless, eyeless, chinless specks, with neither craniums nor necks, nor any sign of soul or sex -- in short, two protozoa. Now organisms of this kind are rather flimsily designed, with neither skin nor bones to bind the parts to one another, so when the larger of these two went rolling into pastures new, she knocked her plasm all askew -- enveloping her brother. Well never mollusk, worm, nor slug, nor animalculus, nor bug had hitherto enjoyed a hug. God wasn't sentimental! He planned no species to reveal the slightest hint of sex appeal! And yet this...hug...appeared too real to call it accidental. Approaching closer to observe God thought he saw a certain verve, a quickening of plasmic nerve unquestionably striking; the sky, the sun, the sea, the land were things the Lord could understand, but here was something quite unplanned, and scarcely to his liking. Judicially he held his ire, deciding he would first inquire what set those little cells afire in ways uncontemplated. But neither had a mouth nor beak, and therefore neither one could speak, all language was the same as Greek -- thus Greek originated. Alas! I forgot to state: God early had invented Fate! It now was definitely late to check the spreading virus. Though both were silent, well, he knew his worst suspicions had come true: it was evident that two were mutually desirous. To be explicit and exact, from that day on the cards were stacked: the germ of love became a fact embedded in their plasm. With lightning flash and thunder roll an angry God demanded toll, and so he dug a hellish hole and thrust them in the chasm. The spawn of life spread far and wide, the species grew and multiplied, for hundreds lived, though thousands died, God wept within his portals, came alligators, birds, and dogs, and elephants, and flies, and frogs, and beetles, barnacles, and hogs, and anthropoids, and mortals. And ever since that fateful day when protozoa found a way to multiply our earthly clay, they've handed us erebus: for though we have discarded gills for Carter's Little Liver Pills, we're far more surfeited with ills than when we were amoebas. Just think of what we might have been without surrealists and gin, and broccoli, and other sin that hurt beyond all measure. But still, I take a certain pride in that ancestral groom and bride, who in some ways, I'm satisfied, made hell on earth a pleasure. |
|
13 Apr 10 - 03:35 PM (#2885765) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: GUEST,gray Thanks for posting that poem. I had memorized it decades ago but forgot some of the lists of words. It's good to have them again. Just one comment. The 13th line from the bottom should read, "... they've handed us a rebus." A rebus is a puzzle. |
|
13 Apr 10 - 04:08 PM (#2885780) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: PoppaGator Biff Rose (like me) plays a monthly one-hour set at the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse in New Orleans. He hasn't been doing it forever ~ years ago, he had a paying gig on Bourbon St. ~ but it's probably been at least a year since he's become a Neutral Ground regular. This month, he'll appear at 10pm on Thursday the 29th (the night before Jazz Fest begins). I really need to check out his act and introduce myself. His cousin Billy Rose was my housemate for one year at college ('68/69), and a friend for several years, so I've known about him for a LONG time. |
|
14 Apr 10 - 01:43 AM (#2886147) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity PoppaGator, We LOVE Biff Rose!!!!! If you see him, ask him if he remembers a girl named Carol, who he was with, when he lived in Venice, California. Biff is an incredibly gifted and understated, under recognized talent!!!!! I'd Love to yak with him! GfS |
|
01 Mar 13 - 04:01 PM (#3485192) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: GUEST,Nick Pitt Thanks for posting the text of the poem. Some corrections: "ere history penetrates the haze"; those "eres" should be "e'ers" -- a contraction of "ever'. "it was evident that two" should be "it was evident the two". The end of the line "God wept within his portals" should be a full top. "they've handed us erebus" should be "they handed us a rebus". (A rebus is a kind of puzzle.) And the penultimate line: "who in some ways, I'm satisfied," should be "who, in some ways unsatisfied,". Otherwise, nice job. |
|
19 Oct 14 - 11:05 AM (#3670484) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: GUEST Nick Pitt, You said ""ere history penetrates the haze"; those "eres" should be "e'ers" -- a contraction of "ever'. I think not. I don't have a published, printed version of the poem in front of me, but 'ere as a contraction of "before" makes more sense than e're as a contraction of "ever". Before history penetrates the haze. Before human eyes were there to gaze. I, too, always thought it was "a rebus". But rebus is a puzzle made of pictures. I just don't see how a picture puzzle fits in to the store. Erebus, however, is the son of the ancient god Chaos. |
|
20 Oct 14 - 07:16 PM (#3670901) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paradise Almost Lost (from Biff Rose) From: Jim Dixon "Ere" is not a contraction for "before"; it is a synonym of "before"; that is, it is not a contraction of anything; it is a perfectly good and complete word all by itself. As such, it does not require an apostrophe. "E'er" requires an apostrophe because it is a contraction of "ever". |