Archetype Cafe (a song lyrics post.)
May. 24th, 2006 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirlThis journal has been a little bare for awhile, for which I apologize. I do intend to change that as soon as I can.
So, because it seems topical and timely... this isn't a song of feminist rage, or at least that's not what it says to me. It's a song of feminist inspiration.
Archetype Cafe
Words and Music ©1997 Talis Kimberley
[Listen to a sample here.]
Lady MacBeth said to Helen of Troy
When they finished the wine they'd been drinking
"I'm all for regicide once in a while, but
Helen, dear, what were you thinking?"
Helen smiled back enigmatically, for she'd
Never much cared what her friends say
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday...
Helen confided to the warrior, Jeanne d'Arc
That the war would have happened without her
And Joan with her visionary eyes all aflame
Had seen killing enough not to doubt her
Circe was conjuring bacon and eggs
To the evident delight of young Sovay
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday...
And Lady Macbeth chaired the meeting and gave
An impassioned plea for us to hear that the maddened and
Murdering witches, hags whores and bitches
Are history twisting the tale
So they'll tell you Medea was jealous, they'll tell you
Boudicca took poison and died and they'll give you a
Line to yourself, or a place on the shelf
If you wedded a better-known male
Rapunzel was braiding the hair of the werewolf
Who always wore scarlet for hunting
Annes Bonney and Boleyn were fencing again
For the prize of a worn baby bunting
Josephine Baker's twelve princesses danced
Isadora kept score with Salome
When the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down Archetype Cafe on Wednesday
And before Lady Mac thanked the speakers
The questions rang out from the floor
We challenged our daughters' perceptions to change
And we challenged our sons' even more
Oh they'll tell you Boudicca took poison, Circe was
Wicked, and Sovay was hung they'll tell you
Evita was idolised, Mary was holy
And poor Juliet was too young
They'll tell you that... Helen was 'pretty' and poor Joan was 'mad'
And Medea was 'jealous', and I was just 'bad'
And the Ladies' Historic Society dines
On the finest of foods and the choicest of wines
And if I knew where Archetype Cafe was now
I'd book us all tables for Wednesday...
So, because it seems topical and timely... this isn't a song of feminist rage, or at least that's not what it says to me. It's a song of feminist inspiration.
Archetype Cafe
Words and Music ©1997 Talis Kimberley
[Listen to a sample here.]
Lady MacBeth said to Helen of Troy
When they finished the wine they'd been drinking
"I'm all for regicide once in a while, but
Helen, dear, what were you thinking?"
Helen smiled back enigmatically, for she'd
Never much cared what her friends say
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday...
Helen confided to the warrior, Jeanne d'Arc
That the war would have happened without her
And Joan with her visionary eyes all aflame
Had seen killing enough not to doubt her
Circe was conjuring bacon and eggs
To the evident delight of young Sovay
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday...
And Lady Macbeth chaired the meeting and gave
An impassioned plea for us to hear that the maddened and
Murdering witches, hags whores and bitches
Are history twisting the tale
So they'll tell you Medea was jealous, they'll tell you
Boudicca took poison and died and they'll give you a
Line to yourself, or a place on the shelf
If you wedded a better-known male
Rapunzel was braiding the hair of the werewolf
Who always wore scarlet for hunting
Annes Bonney and Boleyn were fencing again
For the prize of a worn baby bunting
Josephine Baker's twelve princesses danced
Isadora kept score with Salome
When the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down Archetype Cafe on Wednesday
And before Lady Mac thanked the speakers
The questions rang out from the floor
We challenged our daughters' perceptions to change
And we challenged our sons' even more
Oh they'll tell you Boudicca took poison, Circe was
Wicked, and Sovay was hung they'll tell you
Evita was idolised, Mary was holy
And poor Juliet was too young
They'll tell you that... Helen was 'pretty' and poor Joan was 'mad'
And Medea was 'jealous', and I was just 'bad'
And the Ladies' Historic Society dines
On the finest of foods and the choicest of wines
And if I knew where Archetype Cafe was now
I'd book us all tables for Wednesday...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 01:48 pm (UTC)Neat song. Do you know of a recording?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 03:10 pm (UTC)Reminds me of Natalie Merchant's Ophelia.
Ophelia was a bride of god
a novice Carmelite
in sister cells the cloister bells
tolled on her wedding night
Ophelia was a rebel girl
a blue stocking suffragette
who remedied society
between her cigarettes
Ophelia was a sweetheart
to the nation overnight
curvaceous thighs
vivacious eyes
love was at first sight...
Ophelia was a demigoddess
in pre-war Babylon
so statuesque a silhouette
in black satin evening gowns
Ophelia was the mistress to a
Vegas gambling man
Signora Ophelia Maraschina
Mafia courtesan
Ophelia was a circus queen
the female cannonball
projected through five flaming hoops
to wild and shocked applause...
Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest
a god damned hurricane
your common sense
your best defense
lay wasted and in vain
Ophelia'd know your every woe
and pain you'd ever had
she'd sympathize
and dry your eyes
and help you to forget...
Ophelia's mind went wandering
you'd wonder where she'd gone
through secret doors
down corridors
she'd wander them alone
all alone...
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 03:26 pm (UTC)(You have made it to Wednesday!)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 04:24 pm (UTC)(I have! One more final to go!)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 09:56 am (UTC)So they'll tell you Medea was jealous, they'll tell you
Boudicca took poison and died
Not to mention Sappho - personal peeve. Musical peeve too: Gonoud wrote an opera about her. It should be, like, exactly my sort of thing... except that it's about how she drowns herself because some boy won't love her.