the.fugs::nothing
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NetBehaviour] tuli (fwd w/permission - sorry for the carets
<<)
From: Alan Sondheim <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, July 13, 2010 10:28 pm
To: [email protected]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:48:18
From: steve dalachinsky <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Fw: Re: tuli
> steve dalachinsky wrote:
>> "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
>>
>> Tuli Kupferberg, Poet, Songwriter, Anarchist, Jew - Dies at 86
>>
>> Born Norman or in Hebrew, Naphtali on Sept 28, 1923 (one day and
> 22
>> years before me), poet, singer-songwriter, revolutionary,
> publisher,
>> street vendor, historian, mentor, sage, wise man and wise guy,
>> forward-thinking artist, activist, intellectual,pacifist, teacher,
>> dreamer with a desire to contribute his ideas for the construction
> of a
>> better world, boho and dear friend Tuli Kupferberg,who, though
> never
>> really considering himself Beat was anthologized as early as 1959
> in
>> Fred Mcdarrah's The Beat Scene, died on Monday at N.Y. Downtown
> Hospital
>> in Manhattan at the age of 86 after a prolonged battle with Life
> and all
>> its joys and griefs and after suffering two dibilitating strokes.
> In the
>> 1964 at age 40 he went on to become, in own his words, ?the
> world?s
>> oldest rock star? after co-founding the Fugs with poet Ed
> Sanders, and
>> then-member Ken Weaver. They were in my opinion the first
>> poetry/folk-rock band and a definite precursor of punk, bawdy and
>> politically outspoken. Their first lp was produced by the equally
>> legendary Harry Smith on Broadside and later re-issued on ESP
> along with
>> their other lps. His first solo record, No Deposit, No Return was
> also
>> issued by ESP. At the height of their career during the
> psychedelic era
>> the group was signed by the then co-owned Frank Sinatra label
> Reprise who
>> also signed Hendrix among others. When very he young worked as a
> medical
>> librarian.
>>
>>
>> Tuli lived 2 blocks from my apt. We first officially met while
> both of
>> us were hawking our wares on the street though I had known him
> through
>> the music having first seen the Fugs play way back in the '60s in
> various
>> venues such as a loft space on Great Jones street, the Provincetown
>> Theatre, The Astor Place Theater, and once even at a free concert
> in
>> Thompkins Square Park, where, standing behind me to my amazement
> was none
>> other than Charles Mingus. When Tuli and I first conversed some
> time in
>> the mid-70's he was hawking these pamphlets which were I think,
> like
>> $1.29 for one and 99 cents for two, the catch being the more you
> bought
>> the cheaper the became. Though I could be wrong , memory being
> what it is
>>
>>> Hey Tuli help me out here. He was fluent in yiddish. Had a
> passion for
>>>
>> Yiddish theater which he shared with fellow poet and street vendor
> Harry
>> Nudel and though he loved being a Yid was an avid supporter of
> Palestine.
>> Tuli always told me he hated poetry and the scene in general. He
> was
>> never hierarchical and didn't choose his friends on their status
> in the
>> art world but on his ability to share with them his knowledge,
> sharp wit
>> and love. There were the many times we sat together in the park
> sharing a
>> pint of Haagen Daz or a Good Humor bar. He loved ice cream.
> Particularly
>> chocolate.
>>
>>
>> Tuli's great songs included Morning, Morning, Kill For Peace and
> Nothing.
>> On their last cd he wrote the poignantly beautiful " Where is My
>> Wandering Jew Tonight" never forgetting his roots. Another song in
> that
>> vein and of mocking protest was "Backward Jewish Soldiers" a
> para-song
>> based on "Onward Christrian Soldiers." Tuli became something of
>> celebrity when he was mentioned in Allen Ginsberg?s ?Howl? as
> being the
>> one who ?jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge" then walking away
> "unknown and
>> forgotten.? It was actually the Manhattan Bidge but the Brooklyn
> Bridge
>> seemed more romantic. Actually he didn't walk away but was to
> Gouveneur
>> Hospital with a minor spinal fracture.
>>
>> He was published in and published such zines as Birth and Yeah and
> was
>> the first to publish the African - American Beat poet Ted Joans as
> well
>> as over 50 of his own books.
>> He loved to take standard tunes which were called para-songs and
> write
>> his own lyrics to them doing this more and more in his later years
> and
>> while bedridden wrote a series of short pieces he called
> "perverbs"
>> punning on well-known aphorisms and posting them on YouTube. He
> had a
>> long running cable show called Revolting News which in its latter
> stages
>> was filmed and edited by his long time partner Thelma Blitz.
>>
>> Tuli has spent the past 20 or so years selling his cartoons on the
> street
>> ( me spending many of them with him or directly across the street
> selling
>> lps and books) and inspiring many of us to not give up despite the
>> adversities of government, war and $$$$. He embraced his Beatnik
>> lifestyle as a friend once told me I should. He never shrank from
> his
>> commitment to protest injustice. Never gave into the "MAN". Never
> took
>> the straight and narrow path. Always fought corporate interests
> and a
>> greedy, demonic capitalistic value system.
>>
>>
>>
>> Long time drummer for the Fugs Coby Batty told me this story on
> the phone
>> the day Tuli passed that one day while walking in Brooklyn Tuli
> turned
>> and said that he wanted his epitaph to read "What the hell was
> that?" -
>> and as he mentioned in one of his perverbs - "Life is funny, you
> can
>> die." How Jewish can ya get??
>>
>> His is survived by his wife, Sylvia Topp, three children, grand
> kids.
>>
>> On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:54:16 +0000 Joel Lewis <[email protected]>
>> writes:
>>
>>> I knew Pekar before he gained fame as a comic book writer. I
> worked
>>> in a
>>> jazz collectors shop in North Bergen, NJ & he was a legend among
> a
>>> group of
>>> Cleveland jazzbeaus. He would call us up on saturday (our only
> real
>>> sales
>>> day0 & want to speak to my boss, soul jazz producer Bob Porter,
>>> about Gene
>>> Ammons.
>>>
>>> Harvey did a fantastic strip called "Local Poet" which is sadly
> not
>>> in
>>> the "best of" volume that came out when the movie was released.
> It
>>>
>>> perfectly captured a local scene (with even a nod to da levy!) &
> to
>>> the
>>> reality of being a working poet. This was characteristic of the
> best
>>> of his
>>> work -- being able to get inside the nuances of everyday lived
> life
>>> --
>>> another example was "Standing Behind Old Jewish Ladies in the
>>> Supermarket
>>> Line". he was also an acute observer of racial and ethnic
> differnces
>>> in a
>>> working class community. The best of this stuff is found in the
>>> early
>>> issues, before Harvey starts appearing on the old Letterman Late,
>
>>> late show
>>> & becomes a bit of a cult object.
>>>
>>> Hopefully, someone will collect pekar's jazz writings, mostly
>>> reviews and,
>>> in later years, liner notes. They were honest and informed.
> Unlike a
>>> lot of
>>> older fans, he keep up with jazz currents. I interviewed him for
> an
>>> article
>>> at the time of his "Our Cancer Year". He was telling me about his
>
>>> interest
>>> in John Zorn & the then-rising "downtown scene" & added "I'm
> always
>>>
>>> interested in what's going on NOW."
>>>
>>> Joel Lewis
>>>
>>> ==================================
>>> The Poetics List is moderated & does not accept all posts. Check
>>> guidelines & sub/unsub info:
>>> http://epc.buffalo.edu/poetics/welcome.html
>>>
_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
_______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
