Freaky freaky freaky

[ivybgreenflower]

Seriously freaked out...
Remember Richard Cory from English class?
Well, in listening to a Paul album of mine, someone (I'm thinking Denny Laine... or Jimmy McCulloch... wow was he hot... *ahem*) starts to sing this song... with the line... "I wish I could be Richard Cory" and the line "Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head."
I'll try to find the lyrics.
Hold on a sec.
Well, apparently it's a Paul Simon song, but I have no idea why it's on a Paul McCartney album or why he'd perform it in concert (the album is the album of a concert of his) but here it is. What do you think?
------------------------------------

They say that Richard Cory owns one-half of this whole town,
With political connections to spread his wealth around.
Born into society, a banker's only child
He had everything a man could want, power, grace and style.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
That I wish that I could be
Oh, I wish that I could be
Oh, I wish that I could be Richard Cory.

The papers print his pictures almost everywhere he go,
Richard Cory at the opera, Richard Cory at the show.
And the rumours of his parties and the orgies on his yacht
Oh, he surely must be happy with everything that he's got.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be
Oh, wish that I could be,
Oh, wish that I could be Richard Cory.

He freely gave to charity, he had that common touch,
And they were grateful for his patronage and thanked him very much.
So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read:
"Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head."

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be
Oh, I wish that I could be
Oh, I wish that I could be Richard Cory.

And here's the real poem:


Richard Cory
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.


So now we must wonder:
Did Paul Simon in fact write about this poem? Well, duh.
What secret connections does Paul McCartney have to Paul Simon? Did they meet one day and decide to organize a "Famous Pauls Convention"?
What connection does Paul McCartney/Denny Laine/Jim McCulloch/Joe English/Linda McCartney/Wings have to Richard Cory/Edwin Arlington Robinson?
And... WHY THE HELL CAN'T LITERARY FIGURES LEAVE OFF THEIR MIDDLE NAMES? I mean come on, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Ivy B. Greenflower, W.E.B. Du Bois, etc. have got to be just as great without the extra names. Ralph Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Ivy Greenflower, W. Du Bois... I don't even remember if he was a great literary figure, I just remember he had like 7 initials.

Confirmation:
Art Garfunkel: This is a song that's an adaptation of an Edwin Arlington Robinson poem written some years back called "Richard Cory". thanks goes to http://www.medialab.chalmers.se/guitar/richard.cory.html.

...which doesn't explain why in the name of George Harrison one of Paul's bandmates would perform it.






...Jim McCulloch is still hot anyway. :)
Ivyette @ 11:48 PM

Comments

[living-in-ennui.livejournal.com]

You have way too much time on your hands. I say that because you ponder the strangest things sometimes. But the Richard Cory poem IS awesome.

[ivybgreenflower]

My mother says she wishes I spent as much time on my homework as I do on pondering such things.

I think you'd like the song.
Ivyette