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Didn't...um...leave it

Derek and I were chatting in my office today, and in reference to something or other, he said "One down, one to go." And my response was "Another town, one more show." It didn't take long, thanks to the internets, to discover that I was quoting a song from Yes--you remember "Leave It," right? No? Maybe it's because it was popular 22 years ago. At some point in the past couple of days, I must have either heard the song (or something a lot like it) that triggered this lyrical couplet in my head today. But it did so completely without my knowledge. And were it not for those internets, I couldn't for the life of me have told you what song it was from

My first thought was that it was that song from the musical Chess--you know, "One Night in Bangkok" or something like that?

One more note with respect to Yes. The first song on that album you may remember as well: "Owner of a Lonely Heart." I remember the song primarily because you can switch the openings of the two words and it makes almost as much sense: loaner of an only heart. I do this all the time, switching the opening sounds of pairs of words, particularly with people's names and two-word phrases. I'm pretty sure, though, that this is not the fault of Yes.

Anyhow, that was all I'd planned on sharing with you today, but in the process of nosing about, I discovered today that the project begun in last spring's graduate course, continued at CCCC, and composed for C&W Online has recently come out: Weblogs as Deictic Systems: Centripetal, Centrifugal, and Small-World Blogging was just published in the Theory into Practice section of Computers and Composition Online.

So I've got that going for me, too.

Comments

Kudos! Nice to see this.

Cool! Of course, I'll read all of it! :)

Oh! I *so* remember "Leave It"!

I spent an entire summer listening to that Yes album--I was fifteen, and I was trying desperately to get a tan. I got sun poisoning, instead.

Ah, memories.

Congrats on the well-deserved recognition!

Oh, the earworms!

Congratulations on the C&C Online piece.

"Leave it" and "One Night in Bangkok" have extremely similar syllabic patterns in their couplets -- "One down, one to go" is a short syllable, drawn-out long syllable, three short syllables" (the Roman poetry metrical analysis of long and short syllables is more useful here than the English metrical analysis of emphasis, like with spondees & trochees & such); compare to "One town's very like another / When your head's down over your pieces brother" with short, long, several short syllables, and then the three shorts, long, series of shorts in the second half of the couplet matching up quite well to "Another town and one more show" with three shorts and a long. . . You get the idea. And then there are the common words, too, of course. Totally understandable to associate the two. And 90125 was, arguably, the chief progenitor of the unfortunate eighties trend of Big Reverb Drums.

Congrats on the CWO piece, as well.

This post reminds me of the only Yes song I "own" -- the 11-minute rambler, "Heart of the Sunrise," which I encountered via Vince Gallo's Buffalo 66. It's the math-rawkish song that spans time while Billy Brown attempts to kill the not-so-sutbley-named Scott Wood, former kicker of the Buffalo Bills. Great song. Better movie.

dude, I always thought that said "another town, a one man show." That song is the closest thing to "rounds" in all of popular music. AND, 22 years is an exaggeration, right? Right?

I *am* leaving.

End of 1983, ya geezer.

and thanks for pre-empting what was going to be a huge post about the colossal losing streak being perpetrated by a certain women's basketball squad...

oh, and if I could choose a job title, I'm not sure I wouldn't love to be "arguably the chief progenitor of the unfortunate eighties trend of Big Reverb Drums." In fact, if I ever order up fake business cards...

Anyone remember the video for "Owner of a Lonely Heart"? Those snakes, spiders, and crows (or ravens?)? It would show a guy in the shower or something, then the camera would cut away, then cut back, and there would be some scary animal?