Sunday 15 February 2015

Tribute to "A Man Without a Country": Vonnegut

POST #70
PARODY-LYRICS
ORIGINAL SONG: "Imagine" by John Lennon 1971.
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January
2015. 

Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007, was known as a pacifist intellectual, humanist, and accomplished writer; his popular novels including 'Slaughterhouse-Five' according to Wikipedia, "blended satire, gallows-humor and science-fiction".
As a tribute I created a complete list of KVs books within the confines of the tune of "Imagine"; there are some awfully good titles. What could be said that would summarize KV's humanist philosophy better than the compelling lyrics of the original song? And Lennon's title "Imagine" also seemed pretty apt to characterize KVs fiction.

VONNEGUT



(to the tune of "Imagine")

Kurt wrote “Player Piano”,
“Cat’s Cradle”, “Deadeye Dick”,
“Sirens of Titan”,
“Galapagos”, “Slapstick”,
“Canary in a Cathouse”,
“Timequake”, “Palm Sunday”.


Kurt wrote “Breakfast of Champions”,
“’Tween Time and Timbuktu”,
“Fates Worse than Death” and “Happy
Birthday for Wanda June”,
“Welcome to the Monkey House”,
My fave - “Slaughterhouse-five”

We might think he’s atheistic,
Though some titles invoke God *
- Bitter, tender, humanistic,
Traits today we find so odd.

Kurt wrote “Wampeters, etc”,
“God Bless You” – R. and K. *,
“Jailbird”, “Bagombo Snuff Box”,
“Mother Night”, “God’s Handshake”,
“Hocus Pocus”, “Bluebeard”, “A
Man with No Country”.


We might say he's a dreamer
In the limits of this rhyme - 
I hope someday he'll join us,
His spirit "unstuck in time".



* “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”, “God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian”, “Like Shaking Hands with God”. 
Note that a few of the titles were changed slightly to fit the pacing. 

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